Assistant Principal's 

Report

2026 Parent/Carer Opinion Survey

WE WANT OUR PARENTS / CARERS TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK! 

Our school is conducting the annual Parent / Carer Opinion Survey offered by the Department of Education and is seeking your feedback. The survey is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behavior, and student engagement. The survey is optional, but we encourage and appreciate your participation.

Our school will use the survey results to assist in identifying areas for improvement and professional development needs in the school, to target school planning and improvement strategies. 

The Parent / Carer Opinion Survey will be open online from Monday 17 August to Friday 18 September 2026.

All families are invited to participate in the survey. 

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. 

The online survey will be available in English and 10 other languages including Arabic, Greek, Hakha Chin, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Resources are also available in additional languages to assist parents / carers who speak a language other than English at home. Please reach out to your child’s teacher, or the school directly for survey guides in your language.Below is the link, school pin and required names to complete survey.

https://research.orima.com/parent

264971

School Name: Wedderburn College

Campus Name: Wedderburn College

Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones: It’s Time to Put Them Away or Leave Them at Home

At Wedderburn College, our position on mobile phones is simple:

Students do not need their phones during the school day.

This is not about taking something away from students. It is about giving them something back — their attention, their friendships, their physical activity, their learning and a genuine break from the online world.

School is not social media

Recess and lunchtime are not opportunities to sit in groups staring at screens.

They are opportunities to talk, play, laugh, negotiate, resolve disagreements and build friendships.

We want students looking at each other — not their phones.

Social media also brings a range of issues into our schoolyard. Arguments, rumours, screenshots, group chats, exclusion and cyberbullying can quickly move from a phone into the classroom and playground.

Something that happens online can have very real consequences at school.

Parents and Carers — we need your support

We ask parents and carers to please stop messaging their children during the school day.

If you need to contact your child, contact the front office.

If your child is upset about something that has happened at school, please don't immediately respond with messages, phone calls or instructions about what they should do.

Contact us. Let us investigate. Let us help.

Getting involved through your child's phone can quickly turn a small disagreement between students into a much bigger issue involving multiple students and families.

Please don't fight your child's battles through a mobile phone.

Give them the opportunity to learn how to resolve problems with the support of the adults at school.

When a phone is confiscated

If a student breaches the College's mobile phone expectations, their phone may be confiscated. Handed to the front office to be collected by a Parent or Carer.

This is not an emergency.

The College will look after the phone and return it through the appropriate process.

Parents contacting the College demanding the immediate return of a confiscated phone does not help their child. In fact, it can send the opposite message:

"If I make enough noise, an adult will fix my problem."

We want to teach something different:

My choices have consequences.I can accept a consequence.I can make a better choice next time.

That is resilience. That is responsibility.

Parents and Carers have a role too

The College cannot be expected to police every Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, group chat or private message.

Social media is ultimately a shared responsibility between young people and their families.

Know what apps your child uses.

Know who they communicate with.

Know what is happening in their group chats.

And don't ignore inappropriate online behaviour because it happened "outside school".

If it affects our students or our school community, we will respond appropriately.

Let's give our students a break from their phones.

Let them be bored.

Let them talk.

Let them play.

Let them make mistakes.

Let them solve problems.

Let them be kids.

Put the phone away.Look up.Talk to someone.Be present.

At Wedderburn College, we want our students connected to each other — not constantly connected to technology

Thanks 

Mr Lockhart