Principal's Report

The Cyber Safety Project 

We were excited to again welcome The Cyber Safety Project to Brentwood Secondary college, on Tuesday 20th of May for presentations to students in years 7-10. 

The Cyber Safety Project empowers young people with the essential skills and knowledge to manage their digital safety and wellbeing. Each student session is one hour in length and is led by a specialist educator who delivers engaging, high quality and age-appropriate content. 

At Brentwood we strongly value the safe use of technology. At Brentwood we understand that technology is integral to the way students learn and interact, and therefore we feel teaching young people how to make their online practices safe is crucial. The Cyber Safety Project and ongoing education of digital behaviour in all classes helps us continue to foster an inclusive, safe environment within our school community.  

As part of our involvement with the Cyber Safety Project, students completed a digital habits survey. Some interesting findings you might find worthy of discussion around the dinner table include: 

• The majority of students use connected technology for more than 2 hours daily outside of learning time, with 37% reporting over 4 hours usage. 
• 53% of students have witnessed negative online behaviour. 
• 6% of students reported feeling cyberbullied in the past 12 months. 
• 44% of students check social media 10+ times per day, whilst 15% of students check 30+ times per day. 
• 67% of students report that their social media accounts are set to ‘private’. 

Peter Rhodes

Associate Principal (Positive Climate for Learning)