Whole School Happenings....

Bimbadeen Values

Congratulations to the following children for winning an award for displaying examples of the values at Bimbadeen:

• Resilience  -  Max H  (1/2D)  -  for bouncing back after falling over
• Compassion  -  Jayden W  (1/2D)  -  for helping a classmate find a book
• Integrity  -  Lara H  (3/4C)  -  for integrity with her work
• Compassion  -  Natalie C  (5SB)  - for offering to help her teacher

Past-Student Recognition Gallery

We are very proud of our past-students and like to publicly acknowledge their successes.  Unfortunately, in Primary Schools, we do not often hear about the significant achievements of our past-students.  We have proudly displayed the photos of students who have played AFL football at the highest level as their achievements are quite well known.  Achievements in other fields of endeavour are not often as public.  In our new school we would like to extend our display of successful past-students.  As an educational institution it is appropriate that we acknowledge past-students who have pursued their studies right through to Phd level. We would love to hear about them, where they studied and what their area of research was.  There may also be other past students who have achieved to a very high level and deserve our recognition, for example, represented Australia at their chosen sport or achieved national recognition in the arts.  We would like to acknowledge them as well.  If you know of anyone who fits these categories please let us know.  We may not have been responsible for their success as they have done all of that themselves, however we did teach them to read and that is significant and something we can be proud of.

Cyber Safety News -‘The Momo Challenge’

Dear Parents/Guardians,

You may have heard about the current viral trend on social media, the Momo Challenge. We would like to share some information with our whole school community that has been put out by The Office of the eSafety Commisioner and from a recent informative article by Andy Robertson on the website- https://www.internetmatters.org/. We hope that it helps to inform and empower you to best support your child if they have encountered ‘The Momo Challenge’.

What is it?

The Momo Challenge is the latest in a series of chain-letter viral stories. It involves a disturbing image that represents the Momo character. The image comes from Midori Hayashi, a Japanese doll artist not associated with the game. It is concerning when young people have been exposed to any content that scares them or plays on their emotions, like those reported via the Momo Challenge. Unfortunately, the Momo Challenge is not the first, nor will it be the last, harmful online ‘challenge’ or phenomenon to target our children.

Our research shows 81% of parents hand their child an internet-connected device by the age of 4, so active parental engagement and oversight of a child’s online activities is critical from the start, to help ensure they are prepared for what they may encounter. As young people often do not have the maturity or judgement to cope with confronting content online, it’s important to guide and instil critical reasoning skills, so they are aware that not everything they see or receive online is real. We encourage parents to co-view, co-play, ask questions about the games and apps they are using, and let them know you are there to support them if they are upset or uncomfortable about anything they see online.

Tips to help limit your child’s exposure to harmful content online:

• Engage in your child’s online activities – Ask them what apps, sites and games they’re using and make sure they’re age-appropriate

• Use parental controls on devices to help limit what your child is exposed to.

• Let them know not everything they see online is real or true. 

• Help them report and block upsetting content they see on social media sites or apps. 

• Let them know they can come to you about anything upsetting they see online and to contact Kids Helpline if they need further support.

• If your child learns about the Momo Challenge, reassure them that they are safe and do not have to participate in the ‘challenge’. 

•On YouTube, select restricted mode so that children cannot access content flagged by the YouTube community as potentially sensitive.

•In Minecraft, you would only see the Momo Challenge Character if your child is using mods and custom games, which are not available on the console version of the game. In Roblox, selecting the restricted setting for your child’s accounts ensures they can only access games that have been checked for appropriateness.

We encourage parents to visit www.esafety.gov.au/iparent for more information and advice on keeping your child safe online.

By Miss Cook