From the Deputy Principal of Students

ICT Safety and Support

This week at our Parent Information evening I spoke to families about social media use. It was lovely to have so many of our families attend all the sessions. One of the key points that was shared was the vital need for collaborative work between families and the school. 

In moments of tension, there is often a correlation with precipitating communication or events on social media between the students. It is very important that families are monitoring and supporting their children in ensuring they are engaged in safe and respectful interactions on social media. This can mean active monitoring and household agreements on appropriate use and which carriers are safe to use.

The College provides rich and age-appropriate pastoral lessons and incursions to our students on maintaining safety and respect online, from ySafe, Paul Litherland Surf Online Safely and Cyber Safety Solutions - however it's success also relies on parents who actively moniter what is happening on personal devices. To assist with this, I would direct you to a few resources I mentioned during the presentations:

eSafety Commissioner: Online safety | eSafety Commissioner

ySafe: Home - Mazenod College (WA) - Hub (onlinesafetyhub.com.au)

ySafe provides student and parent presentations to our community and this resource is an information hub to support online safety and the messages from that presentation.

eSafety Commissioner is a key government portfolio tasked with keeping Australians safer online. This site provides guidance on many aspects on online safety, ranging from issues around pornography and bullying, through to negotiating suitable screentime agreements in the household. It is also a key location for reporting issues and abuse, as well as reporting to the WA Police, with very easy to use reporting portals.

Mazenod College also offers free parental monitoring and control software from the provider Qustodio. This is a new provider that will replace Family Zone, for those parents who are already using this service. Communication on how to set this up will be coming from our ICT department shortly.

Student Leadership

Next week, Mazenod College is hosting the De Mazenod Family Network Student Leadership Conference. This three day event sees students join together from St Eugene College, Mazenod Victoria and Iona College to delve into a leadership development program with a focus on OMI traditions of service.

It is also a timely moment to highlight the upcoming student leadership opportunities at the College. The Heads of Year are beginning to speak to their cohorts about nominating for badged leadership positions. These will focus on our new structure whereby we categorize our initiatives into portfolios of Wellbeing, Faith & Charism, Sustainability, Community and House. Community has a media and outreach focus. Students will be badged as leaders of these portfolios, alongside Form Representatives in the junior years. 

This focus is designed to encourage consistently in leadership focuses across the years so that the leaders in all years may form together to work effectively towards outcomes for each portfolio. I would encourage all students with an interest in leadership to make a nomination even if the prospect may feel challenging or it is the first time they have considered it.

I would also draw the community attention to the Hands of Eugene program, Young Vinnies and the Sustainability group as opportunities to form together alongside the leadership portfolios to provide valuable support to some of the fundamental Christian service we pride ourselves on at Mazenod.

Save the Date – Strengths Based-Parenting 

We have invited Visible Wellbeing to provide our parents a valuable opportunity again this year. They will be presenting a free Strengths-Based Parenting seminar in Week 5, Tuesday 28 February. This will be an evening online session. This complements our wellbeing support strategy, a strengths based approach in our pastoral programs. It seeks to acknowledge the validity of a range of feelings when facing challenges with a focus on identifying intrinsic strengths that can be built and drawn on to meet the many challenges we face in life.

Please save the date. I would encourage our new families to especially consider attending this session that provides insight into one of the many strategies that can be used to support wellbeing.

Michael Anderson

Deputy Principal of Students