The past week offers us a timely reminder that even in this era of increased Child Safe awareness, there are still predatory adults who seek to take advantage of our young, as well as systems and cultures that can, in turn, fail to protect.
We are taking the opportunity to review our College’s Childsafe processes and procedures, to test for any weaknesses or tolerances in our systems and broader Childsafe culture that do not meet our moral, legal or community responsibilities.
I welcome feedback on areas where you believe our child-safe systems could be tightened or redeveloped, and more particularly, about aspects of our school culture that may put our students’ safety at risk (culture can be harder to observe and articulate, but as we have seen, is the foundation of a robust and trustworthy child-safe environment).
I will report back to you in future newsletters about our progress, any perceived child-safe vulnerabilities, and the measures we have put in place to mitigate them.
It is also timely to once again initiate a conversation with your children (of all ages) on their right to safety and protection, and to ensure they are familiar with the people and agencies they can go to for help.
Our College website has a significant list of resources (under ‘Student Safety and Wellbeing’) and in the coming weeks, all students will once again participate in their twice-yearly workshop about how to help safeguard their own rights and those of their friends.
What we’ve learnt from the mobile phone changes (and how parents might take advantage of it!)…
I think parents will be gratified to know that the changes to our mobile phone practices have been implemented with very little negative response from students.
Many have expressed thanks that we found a way to honour the student’s capacity to learn to use them more positively and that we negotiated something of a ‘half-way’ position from the‘all-or-nothing’ approach of some other schools.
With a couple of minor exceptions, students have been extremely cooperative in handing in their phones each lesson, and do not seem to be suffering any undue anxiety for their efforts. The lack of headphones around the College during the day has similarly been well accepted by students, and whilst completely anecdotal, the ‘vibe’ on the yard seems livelier and ‘other’ focussed.
I would encourage parents to take our learnings from this and consider having a nuanced conversation with your children about their mobile phone use outside of school.
Now could be exactly the time to seize the day and introduce a discussion about some new shared values and even negotiated rules/understandings about how phones and other devices are used in your home(both for adults and kids!).
I think we all appreciate that there is no more precious gift than that of our time and attention to each other...and our students have shown that they know this just as deeply as we adults do.
You may have seen our advertising in recent weeks, confirming that we will be adding an additional stream at Yr 7 in 2021.
Currently we have 8 streams (classes) at all year levels, except Year 8, which has nine classes (this was the 2012 ‘baby bonus’ bubble in the population!). With the significant growth in our region, Catholic Education Melbourne have approved and encouraged the growth of our student population, and we have been preparing for this for a number of years (adjusting pastoral structures, building projects etc.).
You would also be aware from previous communications that CEM has adjusted our ‘priority enrolment parishes’in acknowledgement of the growth coming from Wallan and Beveridge (and the addition of the much needed of Our Lady of the Way primary school). Over the closing months of 2019 and throughout the summer, we received enquiries from an additional 10 families.
Interest in MyMAP has grown that number again from families within our surrounding towns, so we have determined that the time is right to make the formal move to nine classes at each year level.
With the population growth in our local area, and the reality that the nearest Catholic secondary school to the south is in Craigieburn, we expect ongoing growth for the foreseeable future.
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