Director of STEM and E-Learning  Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

The past few weeks have been rather busy at Mordialloc College! We have had Parent Teacher Interviews, a number of excursions including Year 9s going rock climbing and Year 11 Biology students venturing to Werribee Zoo, and sporting success with our Senior Boys Hockey team achieving third in the state. Our Year 10s have also been flexing their entrepreneurial spirit, pitching their business ideas as part of the My Future My Pathway program.

Thank you to all the staff involved in organising, promoting and running these events for our students.

Young people and technology

Over the past few months, there has been much public debate about online harms to young people from social media and inappropriate content like gambling and pornography. At the same time, we have noticed an increase in the misuse of technology at school, including gaming in class, and accessing inappropriate content such as social media.

While the discussion continues at a societal level, we have continued to monitor and refine our approaches to reduce exposure to these online harms at school. Staff supervision of student technology use is a key part of our strategy - we also use technical tools to filter and monitor student internet access whilst on-site; however these tools will always have limitations.

We also firmly believe that it is important to build young people’s literacies and skills in these areas, rather than just relying on restricting access - a strategy supported by many experts and young people themselves. At Mordialloc College, we incorporate this into our curriculum in our Home Group and My Mentor programs at various times throughout the year.

Families also have a significant role to play in supporting our young people in building these capabilities, both in having appropriate boundaries in place for technology use outside of school, and encouraging and supporting students to develop their capabilities. Some resources that may help include the CyberSafety Series in our SchoolTV resource for parents, and the eSafety Commissioner’s eSafetyparents resources, as well as the resources mentioned in this article and of course the College.

Working together, we can help our young people develop healthy relationships with technology.

Phones at school

At Mordialloc College, as at all Victorian government schools, student mobile phones are banned during school hours. Students can securely store their mobile phones in their lockers during school hours, but if they are spotted using a mobile phone, it will be confiscated. This also extends to the use of mobile hotspotting, which is prohibited by our College Acceptable Use Agreement.

To support us, we ask that you go through the school office if there is an urgent need to get in touch with your student.

Simon Belluzzo

Director of STEM and E-Learning