Good afternoon everyone,

As we enter the second part of the term, the work of our pastoral teams continue each week to support the learning and wellbeing of all students. An overview of the various initiatives that occurred earlier today and are listed below.

Year 7 - Respectful relationships with a focus on gender based issues.

Year 8 - College expectations, relationships and Covid update.

Year 9 - Commenced their “Introduction to Careers” program, with a focus on Employability and registering Tax File Numbers.

Year 10 - A mix of personal organisation, assessment task preparation, garden beautification and personal wellbeing.

Year 11 - Preparation for Preliminary Examinations.

Year 12 - Final HSC Trial Examinations.

A big thanks to Year 10 students who have been working hard over the past few weeks to reinvigorate one of the College’s gardens as part of their morning pastoral activities.

As mentioned two weeks ago in this section, the issue relating to students contacting carers before informing members of staff when they are ill is still causing some problems for our Front Office staff. Please be reminded that students are to inform their Classroom Teacher, Year Coordinator or Student Services if they are feeling unwell before making any contact with carers. No student will be denied the right of contacting a loved one when they are sick. There are structures in place to ensure that the College is supporting them and it is important that the appropriate processes of communication with home, attendance at sick bay and signing out at the Office are followed.

The world of technology and social media is an ever changing landscape, with students having innumerable options regarding games, apps and social networking platforms and new platforms entering the market on a regular basis. One site that has recently been released is called Omegle, which is a free social media site that allows people to communicate with people anonymously. We strongly advise students and carers to be cautious of using this site without doing appropriate cyber research and checking in detail the terms and conditions of use.  For information regarding this site, as well as the wider range of applications, please access the following link https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide.

Mr Simon Huntly

Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Coordinator