Moama Anglican Grammar Newsletter

From the Deputy Principal

Behind the Scenes at MAG

Welcome to Term 4! We are very blessed that we have been able to have all our students back face to face to start the term and we are very optimistic that they are here to stay for the rest of the year. We look forward to being able to work around current restrictions to have events that all the Moama Anglican Grammar community can be involved in, ideally face-to-face and if not, virtually. Our send-off Assembly for our Year 12’s is one such event that happened this afternoon. We hope the families enjoyed the Live Stream and the photos included in this Newsletter. 

 

Meanwhile, as always, there are many other activities and processes going on behind the scenes in order for our school to function effectively. Making sure we have relevant written Policies and Procedures is one example. Policies must be in place to help us establish rules and procedures in order to have our school running as smoothly as possible and to ensure everyone is connected. Schools are highly complex and create standards of quality for learning and safety, as well as expectations and accountability. Policies also form a very important part of keeping our students, staff and family’s wellbeing at the forefront of everything we do.

 

To this end, throughout the year we run professional development sessions for staff regarding specific policies and include links to some of these on our website and in the Newsletter. Last week all staff participated in a “Supporting LGBTQIA+ Students” professional development session run by our Social Workers and the link to the relevant policy and resources is included below. 

 

From our “What does it mean to be an Anglican School” framework, “Welcoming ALL – Anglican Schools seek to tell the story of Jesus while also ensuring the stories of others are welcomed, heard, explored and respected” is one of the key guiding statements. To this end, we embrace diversity and support all students to feel safe to learn and flourish at our school. Reverend Tim Bowles spoke to this particular policy as part of our professional development session with staff last week. Below is the recording of Rev Tim’s words:

 

We have two obligations to support all students at school, including our LGBTQIA+ students; a legal obligation under the Education Act 1990 and the Commonwealth Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and a community obligation in line with our core values of compassion, respect and integrity.

 

That we have and have had students who identify as LGBTQIA+ attending our school is nothing new. What is new is that we have developed policies and resources, including the recent staff professional development session, to act on our legal and community obligations to better support students, staff and parents/guardians who identify as gender diverse compared to maybe what has been our social norms in the past. In consultation with other Independent Schools, AIS and Law Sense, we have been working on a LGBTQIA+ and Transgender Policy and resources since last year to be able to present to staff (via professional learning/policies sessions after school) and parents/guardians (via this Newsletter).

 

Our policy regarding supporting LGBTQIA+ students, staff and families is available in the following link:

 

https://moamagrammar.policyconnect.com.au/module/223/page/f44c5b18-dd4a-4ddc-8fcb-eca0f7ff6a06.md 

 

The Association of Independent Schools (AIS) advise that the following two resource links below have some good information to forward on to parents and guardians: 

If you have any questions or queries about the above policy and/or information please do not hesitate to contact myself, Carmel Spry or one of our Social Workers here at school.

 

Mrs Kathleen Kemp

Deputy Principal