From the Principal
Patrick Green
Day for Daniel
Today students and staff wore red to support the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. As a school community it is important to support such days to help educate our students and promote to our school and the wider community the importance of staying safe in physical and online environments. The foundation also supports young victims of crime and thus provides an opportunity for us to contribute to the important work of the foundation. If you would like to know more about the foundation or make a further contribution you can do so via the Daniel Morcombe Foundation website.
Students will learn age appropriate messages about staying safe through the school’s focus on this day. OLHC has a Child Safety Team that includes Deputy Principal Mark Pinkerton, Learning Diversity and Student Wellbeing Leader Lindy Chaplin-Holmes, Religious Education Leader Kathy Toomey and myself. We have, and will continue to promote to children that they should inform a member of this team or any staff member should they feel unsafe whether at school, home or in the community. Thank you for supporting us to promote this day and support the foundation.
Please also visit the Wellbeing page of this newsletter for more information.
We take child safety very seriously at OLHC and continually review practices to ensure standards are maintained. Each year all staff are required to complete industry related accreditation and ongoing training. Our current Review process ensures our policies and procedures for Child Protection and Child Safe Standards (PROTECT) are current and valid. The list of standards and further information on Child Safe protocols can be accessed by clicking on the list below.
Child Safe Standards
Child Safe Standard 1: Strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety
Child Safe Standard 2: A child safety policy or a statement of commitment to child safety
Child Safe Standard 3: A child Safety Code of Conduct
Child Safe Standard 5: Procedures for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
Child Safe Standard 6: Strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse
Child Safe Standard 7: Strategies to promote child participation and empowerment
Squid Games
Keeping up with children's digital lives is complicated and what happens out of school hours often ends up being a teachable moment at school. While some parents allow viewing of content such as Squid Games, often for older children, many younger children come across it accidentally. Either way, it is possible peer playground education about such content can happen.
As part of our Child Safe Standards outlined above, it is important for us to be proactive and provide preventative education to students about such games. We don't lead children to any of the content, but we do teach them about what is and isn't appropriate viewing, and how to seek help if they need to. Our eSafety measures also help support this important learning about online safety. Here you will find an article with some ideas that can help protect our children and some conversation starters for parents to help educate them about how to manage when confronted with inappropriate content. I hope you find it helpful.
Welcome Back!
We are excited and looking forward to having all our students back together as a whole school community from Wednesday next week. The School Operations Guide which outlines all the COVID safe protocols has been updated to provide us with guidance on a range of school related practices and procedures. Please be assured that our school applies all the relevant suggested health advice to suit our local circumstances and that students and staff are regularly educated and reminded about appropriate measures that need to be followed.
MACSSIS (Family Survey)
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the annual MACS School Improvement Survey. At time of publication we had a 45% response rate! Today is the last day to complete the survey, so there is still time if you would like to contribute. I am grateful for such a strong response from our parent community.
School Closure Day Reminder
Monday is an allocated school closure day for students and Tuesday is the Melbourne Cup public holiday. The break for students comes at a good time as we bring remote learning to a close and prepare for all students returning to school. I wish all our students a safe and happy long weekend. I hope all families are able to have some time to enjoy being with friends and relatives, especially now restrictions have eased.
Warm regards
Patrick Green
REMINDER MONDAY NOVEMBER 1St
PUPIL FREE DAY
THANK YOU to the Patel Family for delivering Pizzas for staff lunch today from Crust Pizza, they were delicious, then for dessert a delivery from the Bordignon Family a box of crispy creams. Greatly appreciated.
Please refer to our School google calendar for events throughout the year.
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