Student Wellbeing 

The end of term and the middle of the year has raced up. Country Week will see many staff and students away for Week 10, so the positive culture reward will be held in Week 9. This event will be a bonfire in a farm paddock with warm drinks, food, games, and a photographer. It’s an opportunity for students to unwind and enjoy a night off prep. To be eligible, students need to have zero demerit points for the past few weeks, with some exceptions made for students with one or two demerit points that were not associated with disrespect or damage.

The Year 11s are also getting close to their Northwest Tour. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to experience the enormity of WA and participate in some fun and informative activities to expand their horizons. To Broome and back, is of course a long way in a bus and safety is a consideration everywhere they go. I urge Year 11 students to practice and demonstrate their excellent travelling abilities in Class/Trades/Farm/Residential/Country Week by being respectful, following instructions, and watching out for others. 

The new frontier of phones with excellent cameras, recorders and a plethora of social media platforms to publish the information, can have great benefits and present some considerable changes. Maintaining people’s privacy and not recording or publishing without permission is an important safeguard in this space. 

Where consent to record and publish is absent and also where deception is being used to obtain information and/or pictures and videos, students quickly expose themselves to violating the Student Code of Conduct and legal implications. Once something is published to the web, the control over how the information is used and distributed is lost. 

The shame and humiliation that some students experience when private information is exposed can seriously harm their wellbeing and safety. 

I urge you all to have open and frank conversations with your students, to ensure respect is being maintained at all times. The phone and internet are after all, also a great opportunity to learn new things and grow, share wonderful moments, publish ideas to the world and generally be a force for good. Stay safe.

Paul Lock

Wellbeing Coordinator