YEAR 8 CAMPUS NEWS

Our Term 3 theme of Resilience, is a concept that is consistently popping into my mind. 2020 has been a year like no other, yet the ability of our Mercy campus students to continue to get up and keep moving in what can only be described as challenging circumstances has been pleasing to see.  Hopefully, we are back in the physical classroom very early in Term 4 and can finish off the year with a sense of normality as we begin the transition process from Year 8 to Year 9.   One of the biggest achievements of this term was to complete 2021 subject selections via remote learning and in my discussions with students and parents, it was easy to see the excitement that awaits this cohort as they start to exhibit greater levels of choice and purpose over their own educational path.

One of the areas of concern during this remote learning period has been student attendance.  The majority of students are attending most of their classes, however, there has been a definite increase in students who are missing the odd lesson.  To assist teachers and administration staff in following up attendance, could parents/guardians please inform student office if your child will be absent due to an appointment, power outage or issues with your internet connection.  We have found that there are a number of students who were deliberately missing sessions due to their own choice, and this has been followed up as we have become aware of the issue.

Another concern during this time of remote learning, has been student mobile phone use and their activities on social media.  During a normal school day, students would be expected to have their mobile phones in their lockers from the start of the day until 3:20pm. There are obvious barriers to implementing this at home, however it would be appreciated if students and their families could attempt to stay as close to college policy surrounding social media use as possible.  I have been made aware of a few concerning pages and posts that have popped up on various social media sites in the last couple of weeks and have sent a subsequent reminder to all Year 8 students about their personal responsibility when using social media.  The main message I have attempted to pass on to students, is if you cannot be certain who is on the other end of your social media platform, the safest thing for you to do is report, block and ignore the account.  I have been very pleased to hear that a number of students have already been doing this and also alerting me to any concerns they have.  

My final message for this month is asking students and parents to start preparing for our return to the Mercy campus following the October holidays.  I know that all the staff at the college are very excited to welcome everyone back and look forward to finishing this very different year in the strongest manner possible.

Mr Marcus Parker

Head of Mercy Campus