Assistant Principal's Report

Attendance

Maintaining attendance at school

We have recently noticed an increase in students leaving school early, arriving late, or missing school due to other commitments. Maintaining regular attendance through to the end of the school year is very important.

We understand that staggered finishes for Year 11 and 12 may lead younger students to believe their school year has also ended. However, we ask for parents’ support in ensuring students attend school every day and resist requests to stay home because their friends are doing so. 

If you have any questions, please contact:

• Josh Davies – Year 7 & 8 Student Engagement Leader
• Jenny Farrington – Year 9 & 10 Student Engagement Leader

How to support your child under 16 with the new social media age restrictions

From 10 December 2025, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 will require social media platforms to:

· prevent children and young people under 16 from having a social media account

· deactivate or freeze existing accounts held by people under 16.

Delaying access to social media protects the health and wellbeing of young people and gives them extra time to build real world connections and digital literacy skills.

The responsibility will be on the social media platforms, not parents, carers, children or schools, to implement these new restrictions.

Most popular social media platforms will be age restricted. These include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit and YouTube.

Messaging services and online games, as well as apps and platforms that support health and education, can still be used.

Social Media Restrictions

How to help under 16s prepare for the change

Parents and carers play an important role in supporting their children to be safe online.

To help get under 16s ready for the social media minimum age requirements, you can go to the eSafety website to learn more about the social media age restrictions and find tips on how to talk about social media age restrictions with young people.

What the change means for our school

At our school, most age-restricted social media platforms are blocked for student use on the school network. Our school allows student access to YouTube in a logged-out state. However, this access is restricted so mature content cannot be viewed.

To keep up to date about the new social media age restrictions, visit https://www.esafety.gov.au/ and subscribe to their newsletter.