Earlier this week, our Year 9 Middle School Leaders had the exciting opportunity to participate in the yLead Altitude Day—an inspiring leadership conference designed to ignite potential and lay a strong foundation for personal growth.

Surrounded by like-minded peers from schools across Perth, our boys were encouraged to step outside their comfort zones, discover their unique strengths, and reflect on the kind of leaders they aspire to become. The day centred around key themes such as self-awareness, confidence, and positive influence.

Through interactive sessions, dynamic guest speakers, and collaborative challenges, the students were prompted to explore their values, embrace their individuality, and consider how they can contribute meaningfully to both Aquinas and the wider community.

It was a day filled with energy, insight, and inspiration—an experience that made a lasting impression on all who attended.

Mr Weston
Director of Character Education and Leadership

What The Boys Said About The Day

It was a good fun day, where we got to work with the leaders of other schools and learn about leadership, how to show it and we also learned about mental health. We learned how to pass on leadership to the rest of our school and improve our own leadership as well. We had 2 guest speakers, one was someone from the Push-Up Challenge who told us about the challenge and how to have good mental health. He said that going to the gym and working onyour physical health is the same way to think about mental health.

In the Push-Up Challenge each push-up represents someone who died from suicide in Australia in 2023. The second talk was from Tara who helps people and especially elderly people with her dog called Loki who she rescued. Tara loved animals and helping people and thought why not do both. Tara told us about her story because she had bad mental health problems and even tried to take her life. It is proven that having interactions with a happy dog like Loki can improve your outlook on life and your mental health. There were various activities to get involved in and meet new people from other schools. It was a fun day out and we learned many things to improve our mental health and show everyday leadership.

By Joshua Cassisi

Today, we took part in our Year 9 Leadership Day excursion to yLeads Altitude Day. I learned a lot about character building and developing relationships not just within Aquinas, but with students from other schools as well. I really enjoyed the experience, as it taught me valuable leadership skills that I can use throughout my time at Aquinas and beyond. These lessons will stay with me for the rest of my life. Thank you to Mr Weston for organising such a great day.

By Zak Mollica

The 2025 Altitude Day was a fun and valuable experience, full of useful experiences, and important life lessons. I learnt today how important it is to show leadership. Through our actions, we must make sure that we show leadership, whether it be through helping others, showing courage and going against the crowd, to truly express ourselves. I also learnt how important it is to look after and value our mental health, the same was we value our physical health. Our mental health is very important and allows us to live our best lives. The Altitude Day is an important day full of valuable information, that allows all the young leaders to flourish to their full potential and be the best version of themselves they can be.

By Luke Sullivan

The altitude day was a great day in my opinion. I learnt a lot and met new people with the same interests in sport such as soccer and volleyball with one of them playing the same position as me in volleyball which is setter. I enjoyed the activities that we had did and found the Altitude Day best buddies thing to be quite a fun thing. Matt Moroney was one of the guest speakers to talk about the push up challenge and it’s relation to mental health. The goal for push ups is 3,214 to represent the amount of suicide deaths that happened in 2023 and to lower the amount. Another guest speaker was Tara lord and her dog Loki. Tara talked about herself and how she had her own mental struggles. Tara liked animals and ended up getting her dog Loki and used the dog as mental support for others.

By Evan Kent

The Altitude Day excursion was great! I loved how we got to learn what it really means to be a leader, and how we can become a great one. The guest speakers were inspirational in how they gave their personal story on why what they were doing was important to them. YLeadwere fun with how they got us to do activities and meet new people. This definitely taught memore about how I can help lead in my community and make a difference in others life.

By Owen Hales

I think the Altitude Day Leadership Conference taught us many ways to be a leader. It taught us that to make a difference, we don't have to change, we have to use our normal self to change other things. It taught us ways to deal with mental health problems, and how to help people deal with mental health problems. It was good in the way that it was interactive andencouraged us to mingle with and meet other students from across Petth. Overall, it was a pretty good experience, thank you Mr Weston for giving us the opportunity to go.

By Mitchell Hyde