Teaching & Learning

Keeping our kids safe online: A partnership with families

You may have heard about upcoming government changes in the law regarding social media accounts for children under the age of 16, which will take effect on 10 December 2025.

We are committed to understanding these new changes and working with you to ensure our students have a safe and positive digital life.

Why are these changes happening?

The new rules are all about protecting our under-16s. Many social media platforms have inbuilt design features that can:

• encourage too much screen time (like non-stop notifications or content that disappears)
• expose children to upsetting, inappropriate or difficult content through their feeds.

Experts have linked these features to problems for young people, including increased stress, less sleep, and trouble concentrating.

What is the goal?

These changes give us all a chance to help our children by:

• learning about the positive aspects of being online and the things they need to be careful of
• building their digital, social, and emotional skills so they can navigate the online world confidently and safely
• knowing where to seek help if they see or experience anything that worries them.

Are you ready to partner with us?

While social media platforms have the main responsibility to enforce the age restriction, we all play a part in teaching our children to be safe online.

The best strategies are:

• Clear communication – talking openly with your child about their online activities
• Effective teaching – helping them understand online safety rules
• Positive modelling – showing what responsible and kind online behaviour looks like
• Mindful timing – holding off purchasing your child a smart phone. 

Quick facts about the upcoming changes

We will continue to update you as more guidance is provided. In the meantime, we encourage every family to subscribe to the eSafety Commissioner alerts so you can remain informed about the legislation change and ongoing digital trends.

Let’s work together to help our children become safe, skilled and responsible digital citizens, who can navigate the online world with confidence and care.

Swimming is part of our learning!!

It is our swimming week this week at St Joseph's. Swimming and water safety is included in the Health and Physical Education curriculum from Foundation to Year 6. This is not only a fun time of year for students, but also a time to learn important self-awareness and management skills that support them in building organisation and resilience skills. 

The Health and Physical Education curriculum includes four focus areas with specific reference to swimming and water safety which are highlighted throughout our swimming program:

• Fundamental movement skills (FMS) — Develop foundation movement and skills to enable students to participate in a range of physical activities. For example, floating and moving the body through water.
• Safety (S) — Practise behaviours and skills to keep themselves and others safe in and around water. For example, sun safety, use of protective equipment and first aid.
• Lifelong physical activities (LPA) — Understand that swimming can enhance lifelong health-related fitness and wellbeing.
• Challenge and adventure activities (CA) — Participate in challenging swimming activities in a range of contexts. For example, triathlon, diving, water polo.

During this week it is important that students are all encouraged to participate and that their belongings are all clearly labelled so they can stay organised. To ensure students stay focused during their lessons and to help them to build their independence we ask that parents do not attend their child's lesson. We look forward to a great swimming week and thank you all for your support.