Grammar News

Deputy Principals

LANCE RYAN

Deputy Principal -

Teaching & Learning

 

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;” implores Henry V, in Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Although originally referring to the Siege of Harfleur (1415), I cannot but think of the phrase as it appeals to us in this modern and most challenging of circumstances. 

 

Over the past year our students, parents, teachers and school have been repeatedly entered into COVID-19 lockdowns, adapting to new ways of learning, teaching and achieving remarkable gains. In these most strenuous of circumstances, our educational community has rallied and planned to bring forth a leading, proactive, and engaging remote learning environment. Our seamless transition to and from this space in a matter of hours is a credit to our students, parents and teachers, and is the envy of many schools.

 

Of course, this is not easy, particularly for our young people. With the novelty of being taught via remote learning having well and truly worn off, the desire to engage with the learning process can take a battering. It is easier to disconnect academically and mentally within the remote learning environment. It is easy to lose drive and purpose when we are not connected as were normally are. Our students feel this deeply no matter what age or stage of learning.

 

As leaders of learning, whether parents or teachers, we must take heart in our future and should strive to be a sign of hope. Guiding our students to a place where they see and know what they are doing in their studies and learning, makes a significant difference to not only their academic outcomes but to their overall sense of achievement and resilience.

 

With Henry V‘s great call, so too, we call on the young people within Oakleigh Grammar and our community to “let us try one more time”, let us continue fighting the good fight, in this strange time, knowing that the success of our students is the success of us all.

 

 

PETER DICKINSON

Deputy Principal - Operations

 

Child Safety – Everyone’s Responsibility

 

As part of our duty of care, we all have an obligation to do the best we can to keep children safe from harm and abuse. All Victorian organisations that provide services or facilities for children, including schools, are now required by law to implement mandatory minimum Child Safe Standards to protect children from harm.

 

The principles behind these seven Child Safe Standards aim to promote the safety of children, prevent child abuse and ensure organisations have effective processes in place to respond to and report all allegations of child abuse. The Child Safe Standards seek to work by embedding child safety in everyday thinking and practice, providing a minimum standard of child safety across all organisations, and highlighting that we all have a role to keep children safe from abuse.

 

The seven standards include:

  • Standard 1: Governance and Leadership – allowing child safety to be a focus of leaders within their organisation
  • Standard 2: a clear commitment to child safety – through documenting how an organisation will meet its duty of care and responsibilities
  • Standard 3: code of conduct – establishing clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children
  • Standard 4: human resource practice – implementing practices that reduce the risk of child abuse occurring
  • Standard 5: responding and reporting – ensuring all staff and volunteers understand their role and responsibilities in keeping children safe
  • Standard 6: risk management and mitigation – to reduce the likelihood of harm, organisations must think about and define the risks
  • Standard 7: empowering children – recognising that children have a right to be heard, and have their concerns and ideas taken seriously.

 

Part of our responsibilities to Child Safety is informing our community of these Child Safe Standards and our Child Safe Policy. We stress our unwavering commitment to ensure that in all that we do, the protection of our student’s safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance.

 

It is essential that we also ensure our students, in age-appropriate ways, are regularly reminded about the avenues that are available to them should they ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable about a situation they find themselves, or someone else, in. 

 

In recent weeks, as one small step, we asked our Years 3 – 12 students to share with us how safe they felt at school by providing a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 being recorded if they felt safe at school.  From almost 400 respondents, the average was 4.3.  Whilst this rating was very pleasing, we also sought to ask the students which were the situations or areas of the school where they may have felt less safe. The information they provided was most valuable and we will be responding to their feedback and following up with individual concerns. 

 

As a school, we believe strongly in seeking our students’ participation in this important area as when children have opportunities to participate and feel their contributions are valued, they are more likely to speak up when harmed or feeling unsafe.

 

For further information, Oakleigh Grammar’s Child Safe Policy is located on the website. It is reviewed annually.