Year 5

Growth and Development Programme

I am going to share the point of view from the boys on the Growth and Development Programme (GDP) and how it has taught us as well as myself. The following article contains boy changes and stages throughout puberty, personal boundaries, and reflecting throughout the lesson. I believe some of you have experienced it. Puberty at some point will happen in everybody's life, but what is puberty actually? According to www.kidshealth.org, puberty is a process of physical and mental changes, when you transition from childhood to adulthood.

The Growth and Development Programme (GDP) is there to prepare us with the knowledge of puberty so we are ready both mentally and physically. We were informed to bring a "Puberty Kit" for the further sessions throughout the workshop. The kit consists of a mask, hand sanitizer, tooth brush, body wash, facial wash, deodorant, shaving cream, and shaver. At first, we watched a video and were asked to observe, listen, then analyze what the video was about. The video showed there are different puberty changes that we might experience, so that we will be aware of it. We even did a quiz on that to make sure that we really get the information correctly. Moving forward, we were asked to take out their “Puberty Kit”, the guest speakers explained what the items are for and why we need it while going through puberty. These items are very useful because as we are going through puberty we will grow more hair in some areas and we will experience body odor. Therefore, it is also important to keep in mind what items are in the “Puberty Kit”. There are items that you need to find that suit you and work for you, like facial wash, body wash, deodorant, shaving cream, and shaver. In the next session we were given scenarios and there are colors we use to label in each scenario. Red means not acceptable, yellow means keep a distance, and green means tolerated and/or acceptable. The scenarios helped us to know our self-boundaries and what we can and cannot tolerate. I personally find that this is important to learn, especially because everybody has different self-boundaries and it is important to know what your self-boundaries are and for other people to learn to respect that.

The main point of this programme is to prepare us both mentally and physically as we are going through puberty. I also get to understand more about self-boundaries and respect everybody’s self-boundaries

Are You Ready for Puberty?

What is puberty? Puberty is a change that happens to us when we grow up. In Year 5, we got to learn everything we need to know about it and what we need. Also, they taught us about the environment, whether it is safe or not, and what we should do to go through the Growth and Development Programme. There were three sessions in total and we are going to share the knowledge we got from the girls’ side.

In session 1, we learned about puberty, what it means, how and why we experience it. For example, how the changes will affect us, how we grow more hair in some areas, become more sensitive, and more. We also were able to share our experiences, and one thing that we learned is that everyone’s puberty doesn’t come at the same time. Everyone is different, and everyone has their own pace

During session 2, we learned about how to handle our period and more on other puberty changes. We also played a game on what to do when you’re in puberty—playing a game on what to do when you’re in puberty is helpful, so you get to know what you need to do when you are in puberty. We prepared a “Puberty kit” like: pads, red-colored water, and underwear to learn how to handle our period.

Lastly, in session 3, we learned about sexual harassment and what to do when you’re getting sexually harassed. Sexual harassment is when someone touches our private spots, such as our breast, mouth, and other private spots. We did quizzes, games, and scenarios about protecting ourselves when someone goes over our personal boundaries. We also learned to set our own personal boundaries and to know when someone is passing our boundaries.

In conclusion, we learned four important things: what puberty means, why we experience it, what are the changes, and how to handle it. We also learned to know our personal boundaries and how to set boundaries. This knowledge is really important and useful as we are going through puberty. So are you ready to face puberty? We hope the knowledge we shared helps you!