From the Leadership Team

Parent Information Nights 

Thank you to the families who came along to our Reception - Year 2 Parent Information Night sessions last night. We look forward to seeing our Year 3-6 families this evening. See details below.  

2026 Class Carers

We are looking for parents/caregivers who would like to be a Class Carer for 2026. Thank you to those wonderful people who have already reached out to volunteer! Ideally, we would love at least two Class Carers per class. 

A Class Carer is someone who supports their child’s classroom teacher, along with the other Class Carers, to care for the class and families. They help to connect with families in their class and support celebrations or challenging times that may arise during the school year for families. They may choose to organise social events. Popular examples include a stay and play afternoon on the big park for your child’s class or year level. Class Carers communicate these events on Seesaw, through our team, and we are here to help if you would like to be involved. If you are interested in being a Class Carer this year, or wish to find out further information, please email jrobinson@stpaulba.sa.edu.au   

Class Carers 2026 

School Volunteers 

We are excited to welcome back our volunteers this year and would love to invite any new or interested volunteers to become a registered volunteer with us here at school. If you wish to be a registered volunteer at St Paul Lutheran, you can speak with someone in our admin team and a pack can be emailed or sent home with your child. All registered volunteers require a valid WWCC clearance and need to complete the Valuing Safe Communities and RRHAN training. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Bec Mattner rmattner@stpaulba.sa.edu.au    

ROBLOX 

If you attended your child’s Parent Information Night yesterday, you will have heard some information about Roblox and if you attend tonight, you will also hear some information. I am sharing some further details about this game in the information below. 

Warning: This section contains information that may cause some distress and concern for readers. 

In the past twenty four hours, it has been reported that the Federal Communications Minister has called Roblox to an urgent meeting “in the wake of reports that children are being groomed by predators and exposed to sexually explicit material on the popular online gaming platform.” You can read more about this in articles such as the one below:  

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-10/commonwealth-roblox-reports-of-child-grooming/106323242 

It is clear that, as much as ever, this is a game that is unsafe for children and we encourage all families to consider not permitting their child to play Roblox.  

Below is some information that was shared in Inspire last year around Roblox and its risks of Roblox. 

Roblox is a very popular game that can be played on iPads, computers and various gaming consoles.  

As a school, and as a parent myself, I have grave concerns around the safety of this game for our children and have tried to summarise my concerns below in case it is of benefit to you as members of our school community.  

The thing is, Roblox isn't a game itself. It is a platform that contains games created by other users. 

These games are called 'experiences' and have names like 'Bed Wars', 'Grow a garden’ etc.  

One of the reasons Roblox is popular is that other Roblox users can create games which has led to a wide variety of games on the platform. This is, however, also one of the most significant risks of Roblox. As anyone can make a game or 'experience' for Roblox, there is less moderation of these for appropriateness or safety. The creators of games set the maturity level of these games themselves, which can mean that inappropriate content is accessed by younger children.  There have been a number of complaints raised with the ACCC and similar bodies overseas of young children, including younger than 10 years old, being exposed to sexualised content, pornography, violent and offensive content despite having age settings in place. 

Another popular element of Roblox is the chat function. Depending on how you have set up the Roblox account, this feature may be set to on and may need to be restricted manually by users or parents. Children enjoy this feature because it lets them talk to their friends whilst gaming. However, it also opens up opportunities for communication with other users, including adults, regardless of the user settings. While Roblox claim they have adjusted these settings, the eSafety Commissioner and Communications Minister have concerns that this is not always the case. There are a number of articles online that reference users' experiences and the findings of ongoing investigations into the platform that are graphic and include examples of grooming and the sharing of adult and inappropriate content via the Roblox chat function.  

There are also significant concerns around the use of microtransactions and the use of gambling-like tactics that can lead to children experiencing addiction when playing this game (and others). 

Gaming has a number of benefits and can be a wonderful experience for our children. Your choices in your home are your own, however, I felt it was important to pass the above information on so that you are able to make decisions around your child's online experience with all the available information. I have 4 children aged 11 to 3 and none of them are able to play Roblox due to these concerns. However, I also know as a parent how challenging that decision is, especially when children's friends are all playing the same game and chatting in the evening whilst on the game. It is hard as a child to understand parents' decisions and it is hard to make a choice that could lead to your child feeling more isolated.  

For your family, allowing your child to play Roblox may be the right choice. I would encourage you, if this is the right choice for your family, to have an open conversation with your child about online safety, online communication and also to look at some of the articles online, such as https://cybersafetyproject.com/a-parents-guide-to-roblox/ for advice about how to set some restrictions in place so that your child is protected as much as possible. 

Thank you for all that you do for your child at home and for your support of our actions at school. 

If you have any questions about your child's learning and social connection, please speak with your child's classroom teacher initially but also know that our Nest team is available if you have further queries. If you would like to speak to me about online safety or Roblox, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at gbuxton@stpaulba.sa.edu.au.