Clyde North Campus News

Year 12 Celebrate Graduation

I want to congratulate the Year 12 students for the positive and respectful way they conducted themselves in the lead up to and including the graduation events. We can all agree that the House and Graduation Assemblies, the Mass and the Valedictory dinner were wonderful. A special thank you to staff, students, and parents for being flexible and agile one last time as we had to relocate the graduation assembly from the new Theatre to the Piazza on the morning of the graduation. 

Year 7 & 8 Wellbeing Incursion

We were very pleased to provide this incursion on the critical topic of Bullying and the impact on mental health for young people.  The Hurting Game tells the story of two relatable characters Maddie and Tom and how they navigate the highs and lows of friendships, life’s challenges and making meaningful connections. The premise for ‘Maddie’ is one familiar to all young people, getting caught up with group spread rumours and then alienation from the group. Tom’s character, succumbs to peer pressure, deliberately failing subjects and harassing other students. Videos of him indulging in anti-social behaviour are posted online, putting his digital reputation at risk. 

The Hurting Game is developed in consultation with mental health professional and designed to complement our own pastoral and wellbeing programs. The company, Brainstorm Production is endorsed by the eSafety commission as a Trusted eSafety Provider, using evidence based research in the development of the program

Vaping: Let’s be clear: Vaping is harmful.

Vaping is not permitted by anyone at the College and we fully support and follow the Victorian Law relating to smoking and vaping in school environments (which is included below).

We know through the media and research that vaping has become an incredibly addictive habit for both adults but more concerning our young people. 

Schools can and do provide educational support for young people to understand the harmful effects of vaping, but this must be combined with the support of parents. Students are bringing vapes to school, purchasing them either illegally online (as they are not eighteen) or buying them from one another, again illegally. 

A further trend that is developing is what is called ‘Stealth Vaping’, which means vaping in secret, or in a manner that avoids detection. This maybe why young people use the toilets to vape. Are they trying to hide and or show off in front of their peers? It has become increasing frustrating that students who are vaping at school are acting in a manner that is completely against our ROCKS.

Two questions for all parents; Would you find a vape in your child’s school bag and would you know if your child is vaping? 

Whilst we do not want to be searching our young people’s bags, where does the responsibility lie, who is checking what the young person is bringing to school. This is a critical conversation all parents must have with their child. 

What young people are not understanding is that:

• They are being conned and manipulated through advertising, packaging, and the affordability of vapes by the big companies.
• They are buying a harmful product. 
• They cannot be sure of what is really in the vape, the labelling does not list all ingredients including chemicals.
• It is an addictive habit.

Lastly our young people need to stop using the excuse it relaxes me or decreases my stress, these are the old smoking excuses that we know are just not valid. We work very hard to embed within the pastoral program strategies to manage stress and anxiety, such as mindfulness techniques including the use of appropriate apps on their phones. 

As a school we are educating students about the harmful use of vaping and we have been very clear as to the consequences for vaping on school grounds, building, events etc. You will soon be receiving correspondence from the College outlining the full consequences for students vaping or being in the company of others vaping. 

It is my hope that in partnership, staff and parents can shift the thinking of our young people away from being manipulated into using harmful products and toward sensible and informed choices. Please join me in this campaign. 

• Ingredients in liquids are often not mentioned, despite being carcinogenic, featuring chemicals used in pesticides and disinfectants or even illegally including nicotine
• Vaping activates motivation and rewards within the brain and can easily stimulate addiction formation. If nicotine is present – which it often is – this likelihood increases drastically.

A person must not smoke cigarettes including e-cigarettes (regardless of whether they contain nicotine) within school premises and within 4 metres of any pedestrian access to school premises. Smoking in these places is a fineable offence.

The smoking and vaping ban applies to:

• anyone present on school premises during and outside of school hours including students, teachers, contractors, parents or carers or the wider community, such as sporting groups
• all activities that take place on school premises including pre-schools, kindergartens, outside school hours care, cultural, sporting, or recreational activities and school fetes.

Smoking and vaping are also not permitted during school events and excursions held off school premises.

Wishing you a safe and productive week.

Julie Banda

Deputy Principal - Head of Clyde North Campus