Last week was a full one with our Year 7 camp, Senior Leadership Camp and the Pool Party/Swimming Carnival all happening. It's been great to see students interacting and having fun at school.

It's been a huge relief not to have to wear masks at school, but staff and students are encouraged to keep taking protective measures such as social distancing, using hand sanitiser and wearing masks when appropriate. There is currently a gastoenteritis outbreak in Melbourne, and masks protect against viruses such as this as well as Covid.

Current Affairs and Student Responses

Last week we held an evacuation drill with part of the school. We had a number of tearful students who panicked and thought that Russia had invaded the school. Although this may sound fanciful, it highlighted to us that our young people are hearing a lot of frightening and, at times, incomprehensible information about current events including the pandemic, floods and other natural disasters, and the invasion of Ukraine. As adults we can find this difficult to process; imagine how scary it can be for young people.

Beyond Blue has some fantastic resources about how to speak about these issues with young people, and I am putting the link here for your convenience.

Grief, trauma and critical incidents - Be You

Excursion Consent

The College has a policy of requiring consent for excursions and activities to be given three days prior to the event.

We have a lot of regulatory and legal requirements we must fulfil before taking students out of the school, including but not limited to ensuring rolls are correct and that full and informed written consent has been given for every student, that we have all medical conditions recorded, that the appropriate first aid kits are taken on the excursion, that teachers in charge have emergency contact numbers, that students with Behaviour Support Plans or Safety Plans are flagged and their plans accessible, that third party providers have the correct numbers to cater for and charge for. Teachers need the three days' notice to ensure that all of these requirements are met and data is accurate.

If parents send their children on events where full consent has not been received according to this time frame, the child will be sent home at the parents' cost. We are not legally able to accept duty of care for a child on an excursion where consent has not been given.

Please do not contact the office or teacher in charge to plead your case. Once we make an exception, we give a message that the policy is only applied sometimes. Obviously, if we have made an error, or there are exceptional circumstances, we may be able to facilitate the child attending the excursion. Only a principal class member can approve this.

Communicating with our staff

I feel very disappointed that I have to include this in the Bulletin, as by far the majority of our community members communicate with the College in an appropriate and respectful manner. However we have had a small number of parents in recent days who have been verbally abusive and threatening towards staff. This is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. No one deserves to be abused at work.

Strong and sustainable relationships are built on a foundation of respectful communication. At times when we feel overwhelmed, anxious, angry or worried about those most precious to us, our method and/or tone of communication can be detrimental to achieving the desired outcome or maintaining a positive relationship.

One of the challenges of electronic communication in particular, is that we can be tempted to compose an email in response to an upsetting event while feeling quite emotional and send it off late at night before taking the time to ensure its content is both respectful and appropriate.

All teachers and parents at St Helena work hard in order to ensure respectful and effective communication remains the cornerstone of our strong, dignified and caring school community. As we begin to emerge from two years of lockdowns, restrictions and constant uncertainty we remind all of the following protocols of respectful communication and ask all staff, students and parents to continue to work in partnership as we support and nurture our students.

Below are several helpful reminders to promote respectful, effective communication:

* If you are concerned about an issue or incident, contact your child’s classroom teacher to arrange a time to communicate your concern. Remember, we want to investigate, address and resolve issues that may occur within the school - we need your help to do so effectively.

* Avoid the temptation to compose long emails when you are overwhelmed with emotion or anxiety. Often, in the heat of the moment, emotion can take over and result in an email being composed and sent late at night which contains assumptions, disrespectful or upsetting phrasing.

* If there is an incident or issue that is of concern to you, we want to know, and want to address the concern with you. We suggest if there is an issue you wish to discuss when feeling upset or emotional you could simply use the template below to ensure your concerns are communicated in a respectful and appropriate manner:

Dear XXXXXXX

I hope that you are well. My son/daughter has come home today and spoken of an incident that occurred on the yard/in the classroom. My son/ daughter told me that ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I would greatly appreciate your assistance in clarifying what may have happened. If you could please contact me at your earliest convenience it would be much appreciated.

Kind regards, ……………………………..

* To promote staff wellbeing, we ask that you do not expect out of hours replies. We have a 2 business day response time. If staff have not responded within this time frame, contact me directly at AskLeadership@sthelena.vic.edu.au and I will follow up for you.

Teachers need to have time to recharge and rest in order to provide the best education and support for the students during the day. We thank you for your understanding in this matter.

* Staff will endeavour to respond to your concerns as soon as possible and continue to work in close partnership with families to best protect, support and nurture all students.

I have included our Complaints Policy here for your reference. We won't always get things right, but we ask that you provide your feedback constructively and work with us to resolve any issues.

Holiday and school camps

From the Principal

Term 1 Week 6 · 02 Mar 2022

In this issue