Wellbeing

EREA Child Safeguarding Conference

Last week saw the gathering of leaders from across Australian EREA schools for the annual Child Safeguarding Conference in Melbourne. Mr Stephenson (Director of Junior School) and I were fortunate to be able to attend, spending two days listening to keynote speakers providing valuable feedback on a range of topics relating to the implications of adolescent use of social media.

Delegates had the opportunity to hear student representatives from a Melbourne based EREA school explain their perspective of social media use in contemporary society, emphasising the benefits of early education of the potential issues when using social media platforms, having parents/carers who were engaged in monitoring and supporting their presence on them, and the need for students to surround themselves with supportive friends on these platforms.

Mr Robert Fitzgerald reflected on the findings of the Royal Commission and the impact it had on framing the principles of the EREA Child Safeguarding Standards, especially in relation to developing initiatives that promoted and engaged school communities to build ‘safe’ school cultures.

A representative from Youth Law Australia, outlined the complexities of legal issues for young people across Australia pertaining to social media platforms while one of the founders of ‘ySafe’, Yasmin London, spoke to the concerns that young people are raising about safety in the online world, especially in relation to image-based abuse. The role of the eSafety Commission as a valuable resource for both students and parents/carers who have concerns was emphasised. Below are some valuable resources for parents/carers and students:

The growing concern relating to pornography addiction among young people was explored through a presentation on recent research data. The synthesis of data has led to the thesis that compares repeated viewing of pornography to a ‘drug’ addiction. One of the most notable pieces of data indicated that up to 69% of boys had viewed pornography by the age of 13; 63% having viewed it on their computer while 33% on their phones.

Finally, delegates were shown a presentation on the issue of educating students on developing and maintaining respectful relationships in the online environment. Assisting students’ social and emotional learning was emphasised.

Recording of Students' Absences

As we enter into Week 4, a friendly reminder for parents/carers to check on the TASS Parent Portal that there are no outstanding ‘unexplained’ absences for Term 3. If there are absences listed on TASS as requiring acknowledgement and explanation, please attend to them at your earliest convenience. Our IT Department has been working with TASS to allow for absences from earlier in the year to be accessed and updated. We are hopeful that this change will become operational in the near future.

Thank you to those parents and carers who have responded to requests from their son’s homeroom teacher to provide details of absences in Term 2. Our dedicated staff in Student Services are now working their way through the explanations and amending student attendance records.

Robert Simpson

Director of Wellbeing

What Matters to Young People

On Thursday 28 July, we were selected to represent St Patrick’s College at a Youth Advisory Forum held by the Strathfield Member for Parliament, Mr Jason Yat-Sen Li, at the Australian Catholic University. Mr Yat-Sen Li explained that as soon as he got into office, his priority was to connect with the youth in his electorate and understand what really mattered to them; and how he could play a role in understanding these matters. Thus, the Youth Advisory Board was formed with schools from all over the Strathfield electorate, attending to be a voice for their respective schools.

The day comprised of three sessions; a get-to-know-you session, a group session where we brainstormed the issues that affected students and young adults, and a final presentation from Mr Yat-Sen Li on possible initiatives to implement, where groups were also given the chance to come up with their own initiatives to implement.

The second session of the day was by far the most eventful as groups discussed and informed their audiences of what they believed were the key issues to be addressed. After a long and interesting discussion amongst the groups, the top five key issues that were proposed were: issues surrounding First Nations Australians, access to community services, ‘Respect’ in its many forms - relationships, behaviour etc., mental and physical health and climate change. As you can probably assume by the breadth of these topics, there was a lot to unpack, resulting in Mr Yat-Sen Li proposing we have another forum focusing on a singular issue to further discuss and brainstorm initiatives.

Overall, the day was thoroughly enjoyable and insightful for the both of us (and Mr Yat-Sen Li!) as we learnt about the issues, we as a youth community cared about most and shared ideas on how we could help solve them. Hopefully, we will be able to share more in-depth discussions when we return after the second session to keep the community updated. We thank Dr Lavorato and Ms Santiago for providing us with this amazing opportunity; and we are grateful to Mr Yat-Sen Li and his team for organising a thoughtful event.

Shivaal Maharaj Daniel De Pasquale

Year 11 Year 10