5-8 Community News

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

 

We are very fortunate that we now have the ability to look at attending camps over the next month or so.  Our Years 5 and 6 students are off to camp next week. We wish them all the best in Ballarat!

 

Thank you for making the time to book a TA interview. These conversations are really important as we look to continue to develop our relationships with our families. Evidence suggests when there is a positive relationship between home and school, our students will receive and experience positive interactions and opportunities.

 

Having our children attend TA on time is ever so important. TA commences at 8.50am and concludes at 9.10am.  TA enables students to feel a sense of inclusion amongst their community which will foster opportunities for them to further develop long-lasting relationships with their peers and teachers. 

 

Again, throughout the past fortnight, there continues to be a strong focus on having our students label their emotions. When our children are in the green zone they are able to make appropriate choices. However, when in the red we need to continue to work with our students by providing them with necessary support. We need your help here to support us with some of these strategies which will build consistent and familiar tools to manage at home and at school.  

 

Please consistently check in with your children about their use of their technology and personal devices. At the moment, apps such as SnapChat, Instagram, and Discord are posing some challenges at home which are then being brought into the school grounds. If you feel your child is being bullied online, please report it to your child's TA and to the eSafety Commissioner. These two websites provide instructions about how to report online abuse.

 https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide 

https://submit.esafety.gov.au/Produce/wizard/ca3acccd-07bf-4a12-9c0e-f93e50a46ab6?portal=1

 

Here are some strategies you might like to use.

Mr. Poppa's top tips for creating safer spaces for young people online:

  • As trusted adults, let’s moderate, safeguard, and support young people online at all times. This looks like setting up a learning space where you can monitor the children's phone/iPad screen.
  • Discuss what is appropriate to share online and what isn't. Making Tik Toks directed at one person or taking photos of others and then posting online without their permission is considered bullying and is against the Law: Imaged Based Abuse
  • Refer to our school-wide SOLE matrices as a means for supporting your children.
  • Ensure that children have boundaries around the use of their technology. Any phone and/or device should be supported with boundaries in place, particularly if students are using these devices in their bedrooms.  Create, set and agree to some expectations about the whereabouts of these devices. As parents, it’s okay to ask those questions and to check in with your children about their personal device use. 

This slideshow can help support any of the troubles you may have: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tRqyXTglZq3-nqCo06SlRHy7p7lfMCMb-s54xy9Gvn4/edit#slide=id.gcdfaed6094_0_20

 

Just in case you had forgotten, once students are on the school grounds, legally they are not allowed to leave the school environment as they are in our care.

 

SOLE Focus

 

Anthony Poppa and Corey Carver

5-8 Community Leaders