A message from the Principal

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and rested after what was a challenging Term with COVID19 still impacting the day-to-day running of the school. I want to thank all in the KHS community for your support last term as we have continued to deal with the pandemic daily.

In Term 2 we will be implementing two initiatives into the school that we envisage will have a positive impact on both your child’s wellbeing and their educational experience at KHS.

The first initiative is that KHS will become a STYMIE school. Stymie empowers young people to ask for help when they need support, or if they are seeing or experiencing harm. Stymie provides online reporting for schools.

Stymie’s purpose is to support psychological safety by empowering young people with the self-belief that they can #saysomething on behalf of themselves or as a bystander for someone else. Of every 30 young people in Australia seven will be dealing with a mental health issue, yet only two will reach out for support. Stymie works with you to give the young people you are working with, the power to say something or ask for help. These statistics have undoubtedly become even more concerning as we enter our 3rd year of the pandemic.

The second initiative is that KHS will become a YONDR school. Yondr is an application that uses a simple, easy-to-use case to store a phone and opens with an unlocking base. When students arrive at school, they will put their phones in a Yondr case, which will then be locked.

We recognise the value of mobile phones, but at school, their use is a source of distraction, anti-social behaviour and conflict. KHS is committed to providing a secure and successful learning environment for all students.

We will be holding parent information sessions around both initiatives early next term. The first session for parents will be for Stymie and will take place on Thursday 12 May from 5.30pm, so please place this date into your calendar.

KHS has just taken delivery of a brand new 24-seater bus to enable all students to get out and about. Please keep an eye out for it in the community.

Simon McKinney

Executive Principal