BPP University Law School will also offer courses on "mindfulness on the go" and "managing your sleep" from the end of the month.

The private university, which has branches in London, Bristol, Cambridge, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, prides itself on creating graduates who are "career ready".

It says that students leave the university "not just armed with academic theory, but also the context, skills and behaviours you need to succeed".

Jo-Anne Pugh, director of programme design and development at BPP Law School, said the new courses are part of a series of initiatives to boost wellbeing and mental health services at the university.

It follows research published earlier this year by the junior lawyers division of the Law Society, which showed that stress and mental health issues among young lawyers were on the rise. Continue reading

Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) president James Heath speaking for thousands of students across the city, said OUSA wanted to encourage students to drink alcohol in licenced venues. Continue reading

Year 9 students at St Francis Xavier College in Berwick were gathered in the school hall on March 24 and were told they couldn't leave until the page was removed.

A handful of students refused to rip out the requested page. They tore out another page instead.

Principal Vincent Feeney said students were asked to remove the page because it referred to issues that would be better handled in religious education classes.

He said the school had no concerns about the content that referred to sexuality.

But they were concerned about questions which referred to having sex for the first time.

"Young people do become sexually active in our society before marriage," Mr Feeney said.

"But we have an obligation to talk about relationships in terms of our values context, which is a Catholic context.

"We mediate this within an understanding about where young people are. If we had our time again we would do things differently."

On one side of the page in question, students whether they believed in sex before marriage and what tips they would give a friend who was thinking of losing their virginity.

It also asked students when they thought it was appropriate to start having sex.

It included a photo of two men hugging and smiling, and listed different sexual preferences including heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality.

"While categories help in discussing sexual identity, research suggests that sexuality occurs on a continuum and can be fluid for many people," the textbook said.

It also posed a number of questions about sexual relationships including "how much physical contact will I have?", "will I have sexual intercourse?" and "will I use protection?".

The content was created by publisher MacMillan as part of it service which lets teachers make customised workbooks.

It included links to a mental health website which provided information about "losing your V plates".

Sources

• The Age
• Image: Samluce.com

I'd come to Santa Barbara six months ago from Wellington on a student exchange.

I was really excited to become immersed in the Californian lifestyle.

I wanted to go surfing, to drink Californian wine, and have fun at the "Number Two Party School" in the United States.

That night my flatmate and I were going to stay at home to drink wine and watch a movie. My other flatmate was going to go to a party. Everyone else had gone home for the weekend.

On our way to the liquor store my roommate and I reached the street where the shooting had started minutes before.

"Did you hear that?" Asked a man in his early 20s, visibly shaken.

We hadn't, but we saw the police lights. Curiosity took a hold and we walked towards them.

We stopped an older man standing in the road in a work uniform to ask what had happened.

"There's been a shooting," he said.

More gun shots followed his reply.

Yet, it was as if my conscious didn't want to accept that reality.

Not grasping the severity of the situation, we continued to walk down the street towards the liquor store. Walking the exact path he'd driven.

The idea of gun violence had been a foreign concept to me. It's something I'd only seen in the movies or on the television news. Continue reading.

Hannah Merritt is a Massey University communications student on an exchange at the University of California Santa Barbara. She lives near the scene of the mass shooting that claimed seven lives on Friday.

Source: The Wireless

Image: Facebook

The irony was lost on my friend.

The only funny thing he'd picked up on was that I could believe in God.

I get it. As a leftie, organic pasta, and free-the-gay-whale type, people tend to think I'm atheist.

At a stretch, I'm middle class enough to be a casual Buddhist who found enlightenment in Les Mills' Yoga room.

But in general, I get given the atheist sticker.

In reality, I like going to churches to sit in stained glass sunlit silence.

I have been christened, confirmed, and can recite the liturgy from page one to page eight of the service guide.

I grew up in a Christian house.

Well. What I mean is that my Mum's endless capacity to help others, combined with a firm belief in God, meant she was a significant figure in the local church.

And my Dad knew better than to stand in her way.

So my brother and I went to Sunday school and church weekly, until we were old enough to ask awkward questions. Continue reading.

Verity Johnson is a writer passionate about giving young people a voice. Educated in England and New Zealand, her work has been published in The New Zealand Herald, The Otago Daily Times, and Mizz magazine.

Source: TheWireless

Image: Verity Johnson

"So, Ms. Stapleton Smith," she began rather brashly, "I have a few questions that the guidance counsellor told me I should come to see you about."

My eyes widened with nervous anticipation. She took a long deep breath in and said:

"Is Jesus Christ really the Son of God? How can he be the Father and the Son at the same time? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is Satan really the fallen angel? How did he get to be like that?

"Are we born as good people or as evil people? Would I be here if it wasn't for Jesus? Would God forgive the Devil if the Devil asked for forgiveness? Is Jesus going to come back to earth? When?

"Why do we need churches if Jesus wasn't a priest? Also, this whole Adam and Eve thing - explain that."

I sat there utterly perplexed. Continue reading.

Meg Stapleton Smith is Director of Campus Ministry and a Theology teacher at Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She graduated from Boston College in 2013 with a B.A. in Theology.

Source: Daily Theology

Image: Santa Clara University

Waikato Principals' Association chair and Marian Catholic School principal John Coulam said primary school students were not immune from being stood down for serious offences.

"Some five-year-old children come to school with deep-set problems that could be a result of being affected by drugs, alcohol," he said.

"They come to school and they haven't quite been socialised, they don't know boundaries and they can be extremely disruptive."

He knew of rare cases when primary students had been stood down for sexual misconduct.

Continue reading