The Boarding Buzz

From the Heads of Boarding

Brené Brown, is an author, psychologist and public speaker and provides many words of wisdom. This week I have been thinking about her insights into building connections. She states, “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” Boarding is all about building connections, between students, staff, families and the broader school. This term we have sought to continue developing a culture where students feel seen, heard and valued and are free to be their own creative selves. Sometimes, building those connections takes training and can require moments of reflection and revision. However, we are excited by all the connections which have been forming throughout our boarding community this term. 

 

We are a quarter of the way through the year already and enjoying the diversity of experiences the year has offered. The sharing of the position has meant we are able to concentrate on our middle and senior boarders and their individual needs in a more targeted way. We would like to share some things with you that we feel have made a difference in our first term:

  • Changes to the Recreation program to try and encourage all our boarders to attend more regularly.
  • Working on developing our student leadership team to enable improved leadership among our boarders.
  • Changes to prep and bringing in new tutors to assist more students; this includes our program of Seniors tutoring Middle School students.
  • Providing opportunities for our families to connect and build relationships.
  • Introducing whole of boarding dinners on a Sunday night to increase connections between houses.
  • Checking and reviewing our boarding security systems for safety and consistency across all houses.
  • Updating the Boarding Parent Information Pages on MyGSG. This is a continuing process as we seek to make a more usable document.

Wellness

You will notice, with the help of Ms Sheryl Moncur, that we have added a Wellness page to the Boarding Buzz. As you would all be aware, mental health is an area of concern for teens and we want to ensure we are offering our students simple ways to keep mentally healthy. This week we have assisted all students adding the Smiling Mind and ReachOut app to their phones or iPads. We will continue to meet with Sheryl and develop proactive mental health programs to ensure our students have a strong variety of tools to keep healthy minds.  

Boarding Parent Gathering

We apologise for not being able to attend the first boarding parents catch up. The feedback was great and it sounds like everyone enjoyed the time together. We are keen for feedback as to the best timing to hold the next event. We know Term Two is busy with seeding. Let us know when you think we should host these events. Is Friday or Saturday night better? Should we host another in Term Three?  Please provide feedback to Mrs Di Franzinelli.

Boarding Parent Forum

The first Boarding Parent Forum for the year will be held on Friday 7 May at 2.00pm in Michaelmas House. All parents are welcome and we look forward to seeing you all there. Please forward agenda items  and RSVP to Mrs Dianne Franzinelli. 

New Staff Member

Next term, we welcome Mr Levi Cosh to be the In-Residence Supervisor (IRS) in Eclipse House. Levi is from Carnarvon and his parents are banana farmers. He graduated as a GSG boarder in 2019 and is looking forward to returning to work with Mr Brenton Rice in his former boarding house. 

 

Levi enjoys football and hopes to continue with his university education in the future.  

REACH Leave Hosts

A reminder that to add Leave Hosts for your child you either need to contact Mrs Dianne Franzinelli our Boarding Administration Officer, your Head of Boarding House or complete the REACH Leave Hosts form here. 

ANZAC Long Weekend

If you haven’t already filled in the form to let us know if your child will be in boarding for the ANZAC day long weekend please let us know. You can find the link to the form here.

Boarding Bank

A reminder to all boarders to bring some gold coins back to boarding at the commencement of Term Two for dress ups and purchases of yummy treats on fundraising days.  We suggest approximately $10.00 in gold coins. 

 

To help our boarders keep their money safe (mostly from spending it at the Plaza), we will offer a Boarding Bank commencing next term.  This is aimed at Middle School aged boarders mainly, but Senior boarders can use the the bank also.  Boarders can give their coins to Mrs Franzinelli or to the Head of Boarding House clearly labelled with their name for the Boarding Bank. 

Cybersafety

The internet and the mobile phone can be valuable and useful additions to our lives, however, for the developing teenage mind the mobile phone, with all its capacity, can offer dangerous temptations for young people. Over the last few weeks, we have become aware of apps some students have been downloading to their phones that can be destructive for young people. The range of apps that students have access to is a quickly changing landscape and a difficult one to remain up to date with. Consequently, we wanted to inform you of some of the apps that have been highlighted as problematic for young people. 

 

Each of these apps has documented warnings available online and we recommend that extreme caution is used if accessing them. Yubo, Snapchat, Omegle, Kik, Whisper and RoastMe. VPN apps which are used to avoid the school’s filtering services are not to be used and are in contravention of the Acceptable Use of ICT policy. The ABC provided an article outlining concerns with a number of these apps which you might like to read here. 

 

Our school is currently engaging with FamilyZone and they are providing us with a ‘cybersafety hub’ here. 

 

Parents can sign-up to the FamilyZone service, then contact the IT Department and we can onboard them or they can contact support@familyzone.com for direct help. Parents can then install the agent on their child’s mobile phone to monitor the things they are accessing.

 

While we provide filtering to school laptops connected to our WiFi, if a device is connected to a hotspot, or a phone is using cellular/mobile data it can’t be tracked. Using these family zones is an incredibly useful feature to helping boarding parents ensure a child’s mobile device is safe. 

What We See, Say, Do Online

We found this very useful resource online recently from the ThinkUKnow website. 

 

You can find a link to an activity here. Please find a direct quote from the website below:

 

"Technology plays an important role in how young people maintain their friendships and communicate with those closest to them.

 

Technology is no different to anything else a young person encounters. They will make mistakes, and we need to be able to support them through this and arm them with the right information, and empower them to make the right choices.

 

The internet is an amazing thing. It is almost the one stop shop for everything. It is a supermarket, it is a university, it is a doctor, it is an entertainment hub.

 

Ultrasound pics, baby pics, first day of school pics – Parents today have encouraged the use of technology and placed their child right in the middle of it all before they can even crawl in some instances.

 

Through research and discussions, parents have told us they want to know what their children are seeing and doing online. We’ve developed advice on what children SEE, SAY and DO online. It is an easy way to remember what your children may encounter online, and the potential challenges they may face.."

 

We appreciate constructive feedback and open communication lines, please contact us to discuss any matters that are relevant to you or your child/ren.

 

Mrs Tara Ball | Head of Middle Boarding

Ms Vanessa Bromhead | Head of Senior Boarding