June 27, 2024 • 18 mins
Former Young Citizen of the Year, Meg Southcombe has lived the challenges of loving someone with mental illness, and it's that experience that drives this 20-year-old to advocate for the wellbeing of Upper Hunter kids.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why my heart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Someone told me that I wouldn't be successful. I couldn't
have it all. You can. If people want me to
be that person they think of when they go can
I do this? Just think of me, Think of Meke
southcam and think well, if she can do it, twenty
year old from Musclebrook who played sport, how a social life,
work two jobs and did the HC. Bloody hell, everyone
else can do it.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Gooday, I'm Garren KATRUPI when you sit down with twenty
year old Meg Southcambe, you absolutely know the future of
the Upper Hunter is in good hands. This young lady
is Musclebrook born and bred, and it's shaped too to
who she is today as a trainee teacher.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh life growing up in Musclebrook. I would never trade
it for the world. A true local. So my grandparents
were born here, my mum and dad and my brother
and I and it's just that really nice feeling that
you know everyone when you're out and about in down
the street at school. I was just out at Bengala
and I near nearly everyone, So it's really nice and
(01:00):
I think it taught me a lot of skills, a
lot of communications skills, a lot of people skills, and
it taught me how to connect with others, because when
you're in Muscbrook, it's what you're doing all the time,
You're connecting with people you know. And it made it
so easy to go to UNI and go to somewhere
completely new. And I just knew I had the skill
set to connect with others. So growing up with Musselebrook,
I would never ever change it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Meg Southcombe has already amassed some impressive achievements in her
short twenty years school Captain It's and Joey's in Aberdeen,
Musclebrook Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year in twenty
twenty two, recipient of the National Council of Women Dame
Marie Basheer Peace Award for her work on International Women's Day,
Mental Health and Homelessners Advocation and ambassador for the well
(01:44):
being charity Where There's a Will. And it was in
twenty eighteen when as a teenager, Meg's family was touched
by the difficulties of loving someone with a mental health issue.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My time at Joey's, I think I just have to
say I knew I was going there from the start
and Dad did give me the option of what school,
but something just drew me to Saint Joseph High School, Aberdeen,
and I had to actually be interviewed to go to
that school because I wasn't from a feeder school. And
I distinctly remember with John Tobin, who I'm still in
contact with this day. He was my first ever high
school principal saying welcome to Joey's and I was like,
(02:17):
I've got to make the most of this. No one
knew me there because we're from Musselbrookshire, not the Upper
hunter Shire. I had no younger siblings, there, no real
affiliation with the school itself, so I just thought I've
got to make a name for myself here from the
ground up. I did find it quite hard at the
start because obviously everyone was forming their friendship groups and
I was this outsider coming in and I had times
(02:40):
and I went I just don't know how I'll go.
But I just thought, with every little bit of challenge
that comes my way, I just had to use my
resilience to bounce back and keep going. So I buckled in.
I applied for every leadership position I could get, any
extracurricular activity I could do, and I did them. And
I always tried my best. That was one thing Mum
and Dad are always told me until about twenty eighteen
(03:02):
when my dad was diagnosed with clinical depression and this
meant he was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Newcastle.
So twenty eighteen was very different to now, and I
think it's hard for people to think about what things
were like back then, but I know what it was like.
Mental health was a stigmatized topic that wasn't spoken about.
How dare you bring it up with your neighbors when
(03:23):
you're having a chat or at the dinner table. So
we actually kept at a secret. My dad was seeking medical help,
and I would lie to my friends so distinctly remember
saying at school I'm going to Newcastle for a family lunch. No,
I was going down to visit my dad. So coming
from Musselbrook, going to a school which allowed me to
try my best and put my hand up for everything,
(03:45):
and then having a supportive family. And the good thing
is with my dad, we supported him and he's actually
come through his mental health challenges. I mean everyone struggles
with mental health and I'm sure things still happen today
for him. And then also being in a community that
is so supported I went, I can do more with this,
and I want to help other people because I just
(04:05):
know how lucky and fortunate I am, but I know
other people aren't. And if all I can do is
help someone, then I think that's my job done. So
that's where it's kind of led me to. Now.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Did you have any experience through maybe friends with mental
health issues prior to your dad's diagnosis, or were you
pretty much starting from ground zero.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I was starting from ground zero, and I think that's
what was petrifying the most. But I would say in
hindsight it was quite good because now that we've gotten
older and my friends have started to have their own
mental health issues or challenges that they face, I know
what to do and it's not even there's this indirect
and direct impact of mental health, and I actually find
(04:48):
it's kind of the indirect people that aren't the primary
cares of that person that cop it a lot, and
I know how to go. Well, you need to start
also doing things for you. You need to start looking
after yourself what you enjoy. It's really important to remember
sometimes if you are feeling low or having issues with
mental well being, what.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Sort of support did you get through school? None?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
At the time because I didn't tell anyone, So I
from year nine, I didn't tell anyone until year twelve.
So the reason in the year twelve I told people
was I wrote an independent research project on the impact
of mental health on a family's well being, and I
met with the Governor General, Margaret Beasley of New South Wales,
(05:32):
and I kind of mentioned it to her among the
other things we talked about. We talked about schools and
funny enough, talked about boys like she's a normal person,
and netball and someone said, or just mention this article
you've written, and she actually read it. So then I
got a letter back that she'd read it and she'd
used the information and the statistics, and I went, oh, okay,
this is cool. So of course all the local journal
(05:52):
journals were like, we want to write a piece, but
who's the who's the article written on, like the research?
Who's this green family? And I said, We've got to
do it. We've got to do it for our community.
So people know that if someone like me or you
or mum or will look like they have their life
together and it's really not, maybe they will seek support
and there it is again, we can help people. So
(06:14):
we did it, We shared it, and that's where everyone knows.
And now I am more supported than ever.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
After successfully negotiating the challenges of high school, Meg was
motivated by three key things that led her to head
off to UNI down in Newcastle.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
My family story, I love what where will do? And
I love sport. I'm avid netball player, and I haven't
got a snapda cl or stress fracture. But I put
them all together and I went, yes, a high school teacher.
And I went through school obviously achieving a fair few achievements,
and I had a few things under my belt, and
(06:50):
I thought, oh, I want to be a lawyer or
I want to be a doctor, because this is what
people like me are told to do. I didn't want
to do any of that, but I let those stereotypes
absolutely feed me in the direction that I was like,
I need to do something that is going to be
a top paying job and I'm going to be well
looked after in my area of expertise. And I went, will,
(07:11):
this is my brother. I was talking to, who I
think was maybe fifteen at the time. I think I
want to be a school teacher. He meant, yeah, We've
just been waiting for you to say that because everyone
else knows and sees it in you, and from there
on it was a notebrain. I'd just stuck to it
and I love it and I can make a difference.
I have kids come into my room every day from
so many different backgrounds, wealthy not wealthy, sporty not sporty,
(07:35):
and it's my job to look after them or like
teach them, not even teach them something, have them engage
with me for the day, and I go. If I
can do that, then I've achieved what I set out
to do. The pay bracket does not worry me. Yes,
I'd love to see more, but I'm not doing it
for that. And no, I'm not doing it for the holidays.
I'm doing it because I want to make a difference.
And by making a difference, we're starting with the young people,
(07:56):
which is really important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And your specialties in physical education, what role does exercise
play in mental health? Like, is there evidence to show
that a mental health will be better if we do
exercise regularly, participate in sport, or just go for a
(08:19):
walk after dinner.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, one hundred percent. That is we all know. That's
just like that's common sense that exercise, sleeping well and
maintaining a healthy diet as well as healthy relationships can
increase our mental health as well, so it's actually statistically
proven that they're linked. And now, really excitingly, I've started
in a research assistant role with Hunting New England Health.
(08:41):
So now what I've done is I've got my passion
for teaching and education. I've taken that a little bit,
you know, a little bit more of a step forward,
and I'm doing my own research at university and now
I've actually in a job where I am doing that
as well. So basically my job at Hunting New England
Health is they've just got a five million dollar grand
and they're looking at creating preventative strategies for chronic health
(09:05):
diseases and putting them into schools. So yes, of course
that includes physical activity programs, healthy canteens, all things that
are really crucial to make a school a better and
healthy place. Don't get me wrong. We can get kids
who are going to get eighty percent and ninety percent
and really good math in English grades. And this is
my number one argument. I'll always say to people that's fantastic.
(09:29):
They'll get a really good job. And I'm really happy
for them. But at the end of the day, if
you have all these skill sets but you don't know
how to look after your health, you will die by
the time you're thirty, really blunt, very put forward, or
you will get some chronic disease. But that's the truth
if we don't start teaching kids now, at a young age,
how to look after their health. Because this is what
(09:49):
I can say. I can say I was lucky enough
to go home to a parents who told me how
much fruit and veg to eat, water, to drink, sleep
to get Some kids don't get that, and I've had
conversations with parents who go, oh but my kids, and
I said, take a step back. And this is where
coming from the mining, hard working community, I can go.
I know that everyone up here isn't getting millions of
(10:11):
dollars like the people in Sydney who I talk to
at conferences. I like people in a working community. That's
how I've been brought up, hard working. I go, you
need to step back and think about people who don't
have millions of dollars to send their kids to sporting academies.
You need to think about people who are just normal
day to day people like me. That's all. I am
just an average, average twenty year old. That's my job
(10:34):
is to them when they're in my classroom, go okay,
this is how much for inved you got to eat?
And now we're going to go and do exercise for
so many minutes a day at school. And that is
where my absolute passion lies. I think the government needs
to see that, and I think educating kids and I
the government know this, then they're not silly. I think
sometimes they choose to ignore it. That education can answer
(10:54):
a lot of our problems.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
After the break makes Southcombe's passion to be the cattle
for change in attitudes to mental health and how she
believes well being starts in the playground. This is iHeart
upper Hunter. I heart upper Hunter. I heart upper Hunter.
Thanks for listening. I'm Darren KATRUPI continuing our conversation with
(11:20):
twenty year old Meg Southcombe, raised in Musselbrook and now
training as a pe teacher. She's a strong advocate for
seeking positive ways to identify and treat mental illness like anxiety,
especially in young people, and Meg firmly believes high school
students face too much pressure to achieve these days.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Let kids be kids, they'll figure it. Out talking to
two HSC students today, like, you know, how's the prep
going for the HSC. I don't know what they thought.
I was going to say, some huge, big tree hardist,
and I went, who cares? No one cares about the
HSC once you're done, I said, No one at university
once has asked me what my atar was. Atars are
(12:00):
important because they're the quickest route into UNI. But if
you actually care about what you do, you'll do the
open foundations. You'll make it work. They're not the b
all and end all. I'm going to have so many
kids come through my classrooms who don't want to go
to UNI. You know what, I'm going to say, good
for you, because if everyone else wanted to go to UNI,
and we had no one to work as a hairdresser,
or no one to do radio and go to TAFE,
(12:20):
or we had no one to work in coal ones
and have trades, the world wouldn't go around. So I
don't think we need to be pushing everyone to be
getting you know, these amazing atars. I'll say it on air.
I think I got like seventy five, which people put
so much pressure on me to get eighty to ninety
and I'll never forget it. I'm just went. I'm stoated
with that, and at the end of the day, I'm happy.
(12:41):
It was my best. I know I put my best
into that number and I walked away went. I'm doing
a degree. I love, I enjoy it well as far
as I'm concerned. That feels like I never work a
day in my life.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Meg Is Jessica minced a honor's program embedded within her
bachelor's degree, focusing her study on the participation of sport
as a key tool to prevent and promote well being
in students.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I definitely think for my thesis next year, I really
want to hone in on that connection of physical activity
and mental health students well being outcomes. But it's really funny.
Once again, it's literally proven and it has been researched
and researched by so many people at the University of Newcastle.
If a child is engaged in physical activity, their learning
(13:27):
outcomes and achievement outcomes in their academic side of school
will be higher as well. So with that said, we
know that physical activity leads to somewhat higher grades. Amusing
quotation marks there, but better performance than what you would do.
Tell me. Then why does the government think at that
time of year eleven and twelve, when mental health, stress
(13:48):
anxiety are and it's heightened for students, they take sport
off kids in year eleven and twelve. So in year
eleven and twelve it's only encouraged one hundred and fifty
minutes of exercise to school within the department, So that's
a department thing, but the Catholic schools can also take
it on board, so it's up to the principle to
actually pick whether they adopt that into their school. I
(14:10):
did not have sport in year eleven and twelve, neither
did a lot of my friends. So not only now
are we losing the physical activity, we're losing the social
interaction with peers as well. And where is the play
and the fun? So you go to school to work
absolutely like a dog for hours and get no fun?
Are we letting kids be kids? And are we actually
(14:32):
letting them have a heightened sense of well being? And
are we going to see you improvement in their grades
if we're taking physical activity away from them. We've just
sat here and spoke how important it is, but yet
it's not mandatory in year eleven and twelve for senior
students to do sport. So that's my passion now, and
that's what I want to embed. And I think if
you can make change in that, which who knows it
(14:54):
probably will never happen in my time or I probably
will never get there. But my thing is if we
make that change, those kids then go home to families
and they little spongebrains that pick it all up. We'll
go home and go, oh, we did sport today, or
maybe I should go and walk the dog. That is
what a ripple effective change looks like. But for some reason,
when kids get to your time, we go you got
to study hard for that atar, which mind you, I
(15:16):
got seventy five. I'm okay, but I was one of them.
I stopped sport. I stopped playing netball in year twelve
until my second year of UNI. Why because someone told
me that I wouldn't be successful. I couldn't have it
all you can And I'll be the person if people
want me to be that person they think of when
they go can I do this? Just think of me,
think of make south game and think well, if she
(15:38):
can do it. A twenty year old from Musselbrook who
played sport, had a social life, worked two jobs, and
did the HC. Bloody hell, everyone else can do it.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Really, the impression I get of year eleven, Year twelve
is it's almost torture for two years where you just
sat at a desk non stop. I can't see how
that can be good for anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
No, and so different. My degree is obviously not as
heavy as other people's degree. I'm not doing medicine or
I'm not doing engineering, but I've talked to people who
do those degrees. It's a lot more hands on the
doctors and people in medicine are in the hospitals. Yes
there's exams. Yes you've got to study hard. Yes I
have exams, but I also do pracks where if I can't,
(16:21):
you know, put my best mark forward in an exam,
I can prove how good of a teacher I am
in practical which is real life scenario stuff, HC is
and memory tests. At the end of the day, that's
what I did, That's how I got I got one
good mark in PA. That's all I wanted. And I
remembered the syllabus.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
When you finish your degree, will you come back and
teach here locally?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I already do with all my pracs. So I
did my last pracket Musclebrokuie absolutely loved it. I am
hoping for my next one. I'd love to venture to
Scone and then for my internship. I'm not sure where
I'll go, but even if I am in Newcastle, this
is what I always say to people. I'm back here
to be so engaged with what weathers it will do.
I see so many students and it's so nice. But
(17:06):
Musclebrook's home. And I said that to one of my
mates in Newcastle because when people ask me where am
I from, instead of I should answer Newcastle. Now I'll
always say Musterbrook because musclebrooks where my support network is
and where my roots are and I will never ever
forget that. And this is for the people here in Musclebrook.
This is why I do what I do and speaker.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's hard not to get swept along by the huge
amount of energy that Met carries in her determination to
help others and force change to pathways that are riddled
with protocols and the word no. At twenty Meg is
a force to be reckoned with, and the best bit
of all, she's not planning on leaving the Upper Hunter
behind anytime soon. Thanks for joining us so on. I
(17:49):
heart Upper Hunter, proudly supported by the new South Walest government.
I'm Darren KATRUBI. See you next night. I heart Upper Hunter.
Why my heart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Someone told me that I wouldn't be successful. I couldn't
have it all. You can. If people want me to
be that person they think of when they go can
I do this? Just think of me, Think of Meke
southcam and think well, if she can do it, twenty
year old from Musclebrook who played sport, how a social life,
work two jobs and did the HC. Bloody hell, everyone
else can do it.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Gooday, I'm Garren KATRUPI when you sit down with twenty
year old Meg Southcambe, you absolutely know the future of
the Upper Hunter is in good hands. This young lady
is Musclebrook born and bred, and it's shaped too to
who she is today as a trainee teacher.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh life growing up in Musclebrook. I would never trade
it for the world. A true local. So my grandparents
were born here, my mum and dad and my brother
and I and it's just that really nice feeling that
you know everyone when you're out and about in down
the street at school. I was just out at Bengala
and I near nearly everyone, So it's really nice and
(01:00):
I think it taught me a lot of skills, a
lot of communications skills, a lot of people skills, and
it taught me how to connect with others, because when
you're in Muscbrook, it's what you're doing all the time,
You're connecting with people you know. And it made it
so easy to go to UNI and go to somewhere
completely new. And I just knew I had the skill
set to connect with others. So growing up with Musselebrook,
I would never ever change it.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Meg Southcombe has already amassed some impressive achievements in her
short twenty years school Captain It's and Joey's in Aberdeen,
Musclebrook Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year in twenty
twenty two, recipient of the National Council of Women Dame
Marie Basheer Peace Award for her work on International Women's Day,
Mental Health and Homelessners Advocation and ambassador for the well
(01:44):
being charity Where There's a Will. And it was in
twenty eighteen when as a teenager, Meg's family was touched
by the difficulties of loving someone with a mental health issue.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My time at Joey's, I think I just have to
say I knew I was going there from the start
and Dad did give me the option of what school,
but something just drew me to Saint Joseph High School, Aberdeen,
and I had to actually be interviewed to go to
that school because I wasn't from a feeder school. And
I distinctly remember with John Tobin, who I'm still in
contact with this day. He was my first ever high
school principal saying welcome to Joey's and I was like,
(02:17):
I've got to make the most of this. No one
knew me there because we're from Musselbrookshire, not the Upper
hunter Shire. I had no younger siblings, there, no real
affiliation with the school itself, so I just thought I've
got to make a name for myself here from the
ground up. I did find it quite hard at the
start because obviously everyone was forming their friendship groups and
I was this outsider coming in and I had times
(02:40):
and I went I just don't know how I'll go.
But I just thought, with every little bit of challenge
that comes my way, I just had to use my
resilience to bounce back and keep going. So I buckled in.
I applied for every leadership position I could get, any
extracurricular activity I could do, and I did them. And
I always tried my best. That was one thing Mum
and Dad are always told me until about twenty eighteen
(03:02):
when my dad was diagnosed with clinical depression and this
meant he was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Newcastle.
So twenty eighteen was very different to now, and I
think it's hard for people to think about what things
were like back then, but I know what it was like.
Mental health was a stigmatized topic that wasn't spoken about.
How dare you bring it up with your neighbors when
(03:23):
you're having a chat or at the dinner table. So
we actually kept at a secret. My dad was seeking medical help,
and I would lie to my friends so distinctly remember
saying at school I'm going to Newcastle for a family lunch. No,
I was going down to visit my dad. So coming
from Musselbrook, going to a school which allowed me to
try my best and put my hand up for everything,
(03:45):
and then having a supportive family. And the good thing
is with my dad, we supported him and he's actually
come through his mental health challenges. I mean everyone struggles
with mental health and I'm sure things still happen today
for him. And then also being in a community that
is so supported I went, I can do more with this,
and I want to help other people because I just
(04:05):
know how lucky and fortunate I am, but I know
other people aren't. And if all I can do is
help someone, then I think that's my job done. So
that's where it's kind of led me to. Now.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Did you have any experience through maybe friends with mental
health issues prior to your dad's diagnosis, or were you
pretty much starting from ground zero.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I was starting from ground zero, and I think that's
what was petrifying the most. But I would say in
hindsight it was quite good because now that we've gotten
older and my friends have started to have their own
mental health issues or challenges that they face, I know
what to do and it's not even there's this indirect
and direct impact of mental health, and I actually find
(04:48):
it's kind of the indirect people that aren't the primary
cares of that person that cop it a lot, and
I know how to go. Well, you need to start
also doing things for you. You need to start looking
after yourself what you enjoy. It's really important to remember
sometimes if you are feeling low or having issues with
mental well being, what.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Sort of support did you get through school? None?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
At the time because I didn't tell anyone, So I
from year nine, I didn't tell anyone until year twelve.
So the reason in the year twelve I told people
was I wrote an independent research project on the impact
of mental health on a family's well being, and I
met with the Governor General, Margaret Beasley of New South Wales,
(05:32):
and I kind of mentioned it to her among the
other things we talked about. We talked about schools and
funny enough, talked about boys like she's a normal person,
and netball and someone said, or just mention this article
you've written, and she actually read it. So then I
got a letter back that she'd read it and she'd
used the information and the statistics, and I went, oh, okay,
this is cool. So of course all the local journal
(05:52):
journals were like, we want to write a piece, but
who's the who's the article written on, like the research?
Who's this green family? And I said, We've got to
do it. We've got to do it for our community.
So people know that if someone like me or you
or mum or will look like they have their life
together and it's really not, maybe they will seek support
and there it is again, we can help people. So
(06:14):
we did it, We shared it, and that's where everyone knows.
And now I am more supported than ever.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
After successfully negotiating the challenges of high school, Meg was
motivated by three key things that led her to head
off to UNI down in Newcastle.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
My family story, I love what where will do? And
I love sport. I'm avid netball player, and I haven't
got a snapda cl or stress fracture. But I put
them all together and I went, yes, a high school teacher.
And I went through school obviously achieving a fair few achievements,
and I had a few things under my belt, and
(06:50):
I thought, oh, I want to be a lawyer or
I want to be a doctor, because this is what
people like me are told to do. I didn't want
to do any of that, but I let those stereotypes
absolutely feed me in the direction that I was like,
I need to do something that is going to be
a top paying job and I'm going to be well
looked after in my area of expertise. And I went, will,
(07:11):
this is my brother. I was talking to, who I
think was maybe fifteen at the time. I think I
want to be a school teacher. He meant, yeah, We've
just been waiting for you to say that because everyone
else knows and sees it in you, and from there
on it was a notebrain. I'd just stuck to it
and I love it and I can make a difference.
I have kids come into my room every day from
so many different backgrounds, wealthy not wealthy, sporty not sporty,
(07:35):
and it's my job to look after them or like
teach them, not even teach them something, have them engage
with me for the day, and I go. If I
can do that, then I've achieved what I set out
to do. The pay bracket does not worry me. Yes,
I'd love to see more, but I'm not doing it
for that. And no, I'm not doing it for the holidays.
I'm doing it because I want to make a difference.
And by making a difference, we're starting with the young people,
(07:56):
which is really important.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
And your specialties in physical education, what role does exercise
play in mental health? Like, is there evidence to show
that a mental health will be better if we do
exercise regularly, participate in sport, or just go for a
(08:19):
walk after dinner.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah, one hundred percent. That is we all know. That's
just like that's common sense that exercise, sleeping well and
maintaining a healthy diet as well as healthy relationships can
increase our mental health as well, so it's actually statistically
proven that they're linked. And now, really excitingly, I've started
in a research assistant role with Hunting New England Health.
(08:41):
So now what I've done is I've got my passion
for teaching and education. I've taken that a little bit,
you know, a little bit more of a step forward,
and I'm doing my own research at university and now
I've actually in a job where I am doing that
as well. So basically my job at Hunting New England
Health is they've just got a five million dollar grand
and they're looking at creating preventative strategies for chronic health
(09:05):
diseases and putting them into schools. So yes, of course
that includes physical activity programs, healthy canteens, all things that
are really crucial to make a school a better and
healthy place. Don't get me wrong. We can get kids
who are going to get eighty percent and ninety percent
and really good math in English grades. And this is
my number one argument. I'll always say to people that's fantastic.
(09:29):
They'll get a really good job. And I'm really happy
for them. But at the end of the day, if
you have all these skill sets but you don't know
how to look after your health, you will die by
the time you're thirty, really blunt, very put forward, or
you will get some chronic disease. But that's the truth
if we don't start teaching kids now, at a young age,
how to look after their health. Because this is what
(09:49):
I can say. I can say I was lucky enough
to go home to a parents who told me how
much fruit and veg to eat, water, to drink, sleep
to get Some kids don't get that, and I've had
conversations with parents who go, oh but my kids, and
I said, take a step back. And this is where
coming from the mining, hard working community, I can go.
I know that everyone up here isn't getting millions of
(10:11):
dollars like the people in Sydney who I talk to
at conferences. I like people in a working community. That's
how I've been brought up, hard working. I go, you
need to step back and think about people who don't
have millions of dollars to send their kids to sporting academies.
You need to think about people who are just normal
day to day people like me. That's all. I am
just an average, average twenty year old. That's my job
(10:34):
is to them when they're in my classroom, go okay,
this is how much for inved you got to eat?
And now we're going to go and do exercise for
so many minutes a day at school. And that is
where my absolute passion lies. I think the government needs
to see that, and I think educating kids and I
the government know this, then they're not silly. I think
sometimes they choose to ignore it. That education can answer
(10:54):
a lot of our problems.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
After the break makes Southcombe's passion to be the cattle
for change in attitudes to mental health and how she
believes well being starts in the playground. This is iHeart
upper Hunter. I heart upper Hunter. I heart upper Hunter.
Thanks for listening. I'm Darren KATRUPI continuing our conversation with
(11:20):
twenty year old Meg Southcombe, raised in Musselbrook and now
training as a pe teacher. She's a strong advocate for
seeking positive ways to identify and treat mental illness like anxiety,
especially in young people, and Meg firmly believes high school
students face too much pressure to achieve these days.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Let kids be kids, they'll figure it. Out talking to
two HSC students today, like, you know, how's the prep
going for the HSC. I don't know what they thought.
I was going to say, some huge, big tree hardist,
and I went, who cares? No one cares about the
HSC once you're done, I said, No one at university
once has asked me what my atar was. Atars are
(12:00):
important because they're the quickest route into UNI. But if
you actually care about what you do, you'll do the
open foundations. You'll make it work. They're not the b
all and end all. I'm going to have so many
kids come through my classrooms who don't want to go
to UNI. You know what, I'm going to say, good
for you, because if everyone else wanted to go to UNI,
and we had no one to work as a hairdresser,
or no one to do radio and go to TAFE,
(12:20):
or we had no one to work in coal ones
and have trades, the world wouldn't go around. So I
don't think we need to be pushing everyone to be
getting you know, these amazing atars. I'll say it on air.
I think I got like seventy five, which people put
so much pressure on me to get eighty to ninety
and I'll never forget it. I'm just went. I'm stoated
with that, and at the end of the day, I'm happy.
(12:41):
It was my best. I know I put my best
into that number and I walked away went. I'm doing
a degree. I love, I enjoy it well as far
as I'm concerned. That feels like I never work a
day in my life.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Meg Is Jessica minced a honor's program embedded within her
bachelor's degree, focusing her study on the participation of sport
as a key tool to prevent and promote well being
in students.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I definitely think for my thesis next year, I really
want to hone in on that connection of physical activity
and mental health students well being outcomes. But it's really funny.
Once again, it's literally proven and it has been researched
and researched by so many people at the University of Newcastle.
If a child is engaged in physical activity, their learning
(13:27):
outcomes and achievement outcomes in their academic side of school
will be higher as well. So with that said, we
know that physical activity leads to somewhat higher grades. Amusing
quotation marks there, but better performance than what you would do.
Tell me. Then why does the government think at that
time of year eleven and twelve, when mental health, stress
(13:48):
anxiety are and it's heightened for students, they take sport
off kids in year eleven and twelve. So in year
eleven and twelve it's only encouraged one hundred and fifty
minutes of exercise to school within the department, So that's
a department thing, but the Catholic schools can also take
it on board, so it's up to the principle to
actually pick whether they adopt that into their school. I
(14:10):
did not have sport in year eleven and twelve, neither
did a lot of my friends. So not only now
are we losing the physical activity, we're losing the social
interaction with peers as well. And where is the play
and the fun? So you go to school to work
absolutely like a dog for hours and get no fun?
Are we letting kids be kids? And are we actually
(14:32):
letting them have a heightened sense of well being? And
are we going to see you improvement in their grades
if we're taking physical activity away from them. We've just
sat here and spoke how important it is, but yet
it's not mandatory in year eleven and twelve for senior
students to do sport. So that's my passion now, and
that's what I want to embed. And I think if
you can make change in that, which who knows it
(14:54):
probably will never happen in my time or I probably
will never get there. But my thing is if we
make that change, those kids then go home to families
and they little spongebrains that pick it all up. We'll
go home and go, oh, we did sport today, or
maybe I should go and walk the dog. That is
what a ripple effective change looks like. But for some reason,
when kids get to your time, we go you got
to study hard for that atar, which mind you, I
(15:16):
got seventy five. I'm okay, but I was one of them.
I stopped sport. I stopped playing netball in year twelve
until my second year of UNI. Why because someone told
me that I wouldn't be successful. I couldn't have it
all you can And I'll be the person if people
want me to be that person they think of when
they go can I do this? Just think of me,
think of make south game and think well, if she
(15:38):
can do it. A twenty year old from Musselbrook who
played sport, had a social life, worked two jobs, and
did the HC. Bloody hell, everyone else can do it.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Really, the impression I get of year eleven, Year twelve
is it's almost torture for two years where you just
sat at a desk non stop. I can't see how
that can be good for anyone.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
No, and so different. My degree is obviously not as
heavy as other people's degree. I'm not doing medicine or
I'm not doing engineering, but I've talked to people who
do those degrees. It's a lot more hands on the
doctors and people in medicine are in the hospitals. Yes
there's exams. Yes you've got to study hard. Yes I
have exams, but I also do pracks where if I can't,
(16:21):
you know, put my best mark forward in an exam,
I can prove how good of a teacher I am
in practical which is real life scenario stuff, HC is
and memory tests. At the end of the day, that's
what I did, That's how I got I got one
good mark in PA. That's all I wanted. And I
remembered the syllabus.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
When you finish your degree, will you come back and
teach here locally?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Well, I already do with all my pracs. So I
did my last pracket Musclebrokuie absolutely loved it. I am
hoping for my next one. I'd love to venture to
Scone and then for my internship. I'm not sure where
I'll go, but even if I am in Newcastle, this
is what I always say to people. I'm back here
to be so engaged with what weathers it will do.
I see so many students and it's so nice. But
(17:06):
Musclebrook's home. And I said that to one of my
mates in Newcastle because when people ask me where am
I from, instead of I should answer Newcastle. Now I'll
always say Musterbrook because musclebrooks where my support network is
and where my roots are and I will never ever
forget that. And this is for the people here in Musclebrook.
This is why I do what I do and speaker.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
It's hard not to get swept along by the huge
amount of energy that Met carries in her determination to
help others and force change to pathways that are riddled
with protocols and the word no. At twenty Meg is
a force to be reckoned with, and the best bit
of all, she's not planning on leaving the Upper Hunter
behind anytime soon. Thanks for joining us so on. I
(17:49):
heart Upper Hunter, proudly supported by the new South Walest government.
I'm Darren KATRUBI. See you next night. I heart Upper Hunter.
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