Clyde North Campus News

Too critical incursions were held this week for years 8 and 10 on Vaping and Social violence respectively. I say critical because we need to ensure as a school, we play a significant role in educating young people to be safe in all aspects of their lives. Young people are bombarded with a plethora of persuasive messaging from multiple sources including social media, advertising and peers which can in fact harm the development of positive health and wellbeing. The two incursions this week focused on social violence and vaping.

In 2023 we introduced our year 10 students to the Be Wise Foundation, which was formed following the tragic death from one punch of a young man, Pat Cronin. The foundation seeks to educate our young people that Violence in Never Ok. Last year’s seminar was an incredibly powerful and thought-provoking interactive presentation where students heard real and relatable stories about social violence and explored topics that include:

Anger and Aggression
Choices and consequences
Strategies to defuse conflict

Pat’s story is a compelling illustration of the worst possible outcome of social violence and the hope is that through his story we teach and support our young people to make wise choices.

This year we continued the conversation by presenting to the same students, now year 11 the second presentation in the series entitled Rethinking Anger: Violence and Prevention Strategies.

In this follow up session students were given the opportunity to delve deeper into the trigger of social conflict and learn vital strategies, examining:

Scale of conflict
Physiological responses to threats
Strategies to avoid violence

The presentation was captivating with many students reflecting that they felt they now had a better understanding of how simply changing our thoughts can in fact change our actions. Our intention is clear, we want our young people to be empowered to promote non-violent communication and peaceful conflict resolution in all aspects of their life.

Critical to this end was the teaching in the presentation of the “THINK PAT” strategy which can be used whenever a young person needs to defuse conflict to avoid violence. I invite all parents/guardians to engage in a conversation with their year 11 young person on the topic of the Be Wise presentation as a strategy to open critical dialogue about making wise and safe choices.

Based on the positive feedback from staff and students who engaged with the Blurred Minds presentation on Vaping deception last year, we felt it critical to support this year’s cohort of year 8 students. A recent national survey of Australians aged between 15 – 30 years found that almost half reported being either current users (14%) or having used e-cigarettes in the past (30%). Primary schools are also now reporting issues with their young students vaping at school. At first glance we are troubled by the percentage of young people vaping, but we also put it into context by not allowing the narrative to be that everyone vapes because this narrative among young people has the potential to be a self-fulling prophecy as young people believe it is ok to vape because ‘everyone’ is doing it. What we need to do is have honest and transparent conversations based on facts with our young people about the harm they are doing to themselves by vaping, smoking, and taking illicit drugs.

The approach of the Blurred Minds Academy, is not to lecture young people not to vape, rather the truth about the harm of the chemicals involved and the manipulation by large profit driven companies through clever advertising. It is a very different approach and based on feedback we have received from our students last year and this year it has proved to be an effective and engaging approach.

The workshop is Vaping deception and presents strategies used by big tobacco companies as well as laws surrounding vaping and tobacco:

The origin and evolution of the vape industry
Uncover big tobacco tactics and persuasion strategies
How influencer marketing is used by vaping brands

Students were particularly surprised to see how what they thought were cute and entertaining commercials, it was only rewatching the commercials under the guidance of the Blurred Minds presenter that the intention of the company to manipulate young people to take up vaping, smoking and alcohol became clear.

I invite you to talk with your son/daughter about the workshop as a way of raising awareness of the harm associated with vaping and encouraging them to have confidence to make wise and safe choices.

Year 7 Camp

Lots of happy and excited year 7s as they headed off for camp. They have been looking forward to camp for weeks. It will be a great experience and opportunity to forge new friendships and to build positive relationships with each other as well as meet the teachers in a different context from the usual classroom. My sincere thanks to Mr Brannan and the team of teachers who give of their time so generously.

I wish you all a safe and productive week, and that with gratitude, optimism is sustainable.

Mrs Julie Banda

Head of Clyde North Campus