Paige, a St Francis College student, was a close runner-up in Member for Murray's Helen Dalton's nomination for the NSW Youth Parliament for 2021.

She was just edged out by Marian Catholic College's Victoria McLeod.

The NSW Youth Parliament is an annual program for students in years 10 to 12, where selected applicants spend a week in NSW Parliament debating law changes.

Each (senior) Member of Parliament gets to nominate one student from their electorate to be the Youth MP.

Six laws developed by the Youth Parliament have actually been enacted into NSW law, including the recent Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.

"I invited all students across my electorate to apply via social media, asking them to answer a question on how they'd improve their school or the education system," Mrs Dalton said

"Interestingly, all applicants were young women. So we might see a changing of the guard in Parliament in the years ahead.

"I received some fabulous, high quality response.

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"Mental health was a dominant theme, with students calling out for counselling and support services in schools and presenting some great ideas to address the issues."

Mrs Dalton said Victoria was chose as her nominee after wrote an impassioned plea on tackling rural disadvantage.

However, she said Paige was a close second.

"(Paige) advocated peer monitoring schemes as a mean of tacking mental health problems in schools," Mrs Dalton said

"I also got a wonderful response from Moama Grammar's Ruby Hehir, who wrote an hilarious critique of the rigid uniform and appearance rules at private schools."

Victoria will attend the Youth Parliament program in Sydney in July.

Mrs Dalton said she welcomed the opportunity to help students with career, work experience and development opportunities, encouraging them to contact her office for details via email at murray@parliament.nsw.gov.au.

I WOULD like to improve the way in which mental health issues are being addressed as teen suicide is the highest contributor of death for my age group.

I would introduce a peer mentoring scheme in which multiple students are partnered with a counsellor/psychologist.

I know this to be effective in most cases as my school just finished a wellbeing week in which I participated in an idea like this.

We focused on "being your own friend" and it appeared to be highly effective to talk and learn about this subject with the guidance and support of a friend and counsellor.

The informal approach allows for a more comfortable setting, though this is not to say that formal approaches would stop.

This is simply another alternative for those who would prefer it.

Another idea would be to have better access to mental health services, especially in public schools.

I talked to my school's psychologist about his experience in the public school sector and he explained the limited services and times provided to students.

I believe better funding is needed as students that are not in the right mindset will not learn efficiently.

I would also introduce an electorate wide initiative in which older students who are looking to gain volunteering hours for university applications would be encouraged in tutoring younger students during lunch or perhaps after school hours if teachers are willing to stay behind and supervise.

I believe this will allow each student to gain both knowledge and experience and help those who are looking into applying for early entry schemes.

It is a proven study that teaching others is a brilliant way to memorise and learn concepts, so this idea would further the knowledge of both students.

This will foster the school community spirit allowing for a happier environment.

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