Cranbourne Campus News
Where do I go for help?
At the beginning of each year, and especially for new families, it is important to get a reminder of where you go as questions arise from either you, as the caregiver, or your young person.
St Peter's College is structured around a vertical House system whereby each student has their own Learning Advisor and House Leader. These adults are the ones who in the vast majority of cases follow the young person through their six years at St Peters. The Learning Advisor and House Leader have your young person's pastoral and learning needs at heart and the care of your child at St Peters rests within their positional role.
Parent related questions are best directed to your child's Learning Advisor (LA) and House Leader (HL). The LA and HL are the people in our school who would best know your young person, seeing them at the beginning of every school day at Tutor Group. The HL and LA are also best placed to redirect your questions to the members of school leadership, counseling, or learning area coaches as required following your conversations with them. Notwithstanding that, if parents have more sensitive or legal information/questions that they would like to share or get advice on, queries can be directed to the Head of Campus, as Julia Banda and I are the designated ChildSafety Officers on each of our respective campuses.
*Of course, where your child's classroom teacher has made contact with you about your child's learning in a given subject
Homework for carers… confirm with your young person tonight who their Learning Advisor and House Leader are and ensure that you make contact with one of those experts when you need clarity or have questions that are causing you concern.
Student related Questions
Unsurprisingly, the Learning Advisor and House Leader are also the first port of call for young people when they need their questions answered. This works especially well with the smaller, day to day, stuff that crops up and if unchecked can cause unnecessary worry.
Childsafety
On occasions, our young people have troubles and experiences that are deeply personal; sometimes related to child safety, or relationships and sometimes related to risk taking behaviour they have been engaged with or that of their friends. Rarely are these topics or scenarios ones that the young people want to share with you at home or with their teachers at school. Very often these issues relate to personal, family and friend situations that occur outside of school and cause the young person great tension, leading to confusion and sometimes, anxiety.
This is where our College Counselors can be the experts on campus who you can be confident will lend an ear to our young people in a confidential and safe way. Our counselors offer support and advice, and that empathetic ear, and when required, they seek the counsel of agencies like Child Protection, ChildFirst/Orange Door and Headspace among a group of outside professional providers.
All teachers and counselors have a legal requirement to report suspected childabuse to Child Protection in line with the Child Safe Mandatory reporting obligations. Furthermore it is important to understand that in these cases, the school is not able to investigate allegations or invoke consequences but instead do all we can to make the school a safe place for all parties involved.
Mr Jeremy Wright
Deputy Principal - Head of Cranbourne Campus