APA News

Dear Parents

The Diocese of Toowoomba Catholic Schools take student protection very seriously and have mandated practices that ensure that our schools meet not only our legal obligations, but our moral obligations in protecting students.  We have four student protection contacts within our school who complete extra training on a yearly basis to ensure they understand how to respond to students in crisis.  Our four student protection contacts are myself, Deb Hawkins (Prep teacher), Anne Woodcroft-Brown ( School Counsellor), and Sam Hannant.

A message that we constantly remind students, is the importance of using their voice to speak up when something doesn’t feel right.  Whether that is because of something happening at home, something happening with their peers or other students, or even if something is happening with a teacher that makes them feel uncomfortable. We also help students identify who are the ‘safe’ people they can speak to about their feelings.  We encourage students to speak up to any trusted adult in the school community, however it is important that they know they can access these specific staff members at any time should they have worries, queries or concerns.  Parents too are encouraged to always speak with their child’s classroom teacher, a member of the leadership team or a student protection contact if they are aware of issues that students may be having at school or in the home environment. If we don’t know about issues, we can’t do anything to help! Student protection is everybody’s business!

 Last week myself and the student protection contacts within our school attended the Toowoomba Catholic School Student Protection Symposium The keynote speaker at the symposium was Susan McLean, Australia’s’ foremost expert in cyber safety. She was the first Victorian Police officer appointed to a position involving cyber safety and young people and her career in this field grew exponentially along with the growth of the cyber world.  Susan’s session was very sobering as both an educator and a parent. She relayed numerous concerning statistics that although you may think may only relate to teenage children and high school settings, revealed the increasingly downward trajectory of similar problems into the primary school years.  Susan had some advice for parents after working in this field for 27 years:

• No primary school student needs a smart phone – there are ‘dumb’ phone options that can send texts and make phone calls if you need them to have one for a sense of security.
• Social Media access to sites like Tik Tok, Snapchat and Instagram have an age restriction currently of 13. Legislation will come into play at the end of 2025 which will make the new age restriction 16.  If a primary school student is using these sites – they are doing so underage and opening themselves up to a world they are not cognitively ready to navigate and expose them to the many potential risks.
• Devices should NEVER be used in bedrooms or bathrooms (behind closed doors).
• Parents need to know what their child/ren are doing online. It is showing due diligence to be aware of who they are interacting with and how they are interacting.

As Child protection is everybody’s business, we all have a role to play.  As a school we teach cybersafety via our health curriculum as well as relevant components from the Daniel Morcombe Curriculum in age-appropriate ways.  For more resources and information please visit the following link to find a wealth of resources.

Parents | eSafety Commissioner 

Save the date – Mother’s Day Movie Night

On Thursday the 8^th of May the school will be celebrating the wonderful mothers within our community with a ‘movie night’.  Starting at 5.30pm mothers and children will be invited to come along and spend a fun night together.  We will have food vans available for purchasing something to eat and a movie on the big screen.

Congratulations

Congratulations to all the students who were recognised at the end of term awards assembly for exemplifying through their everday actions the values of SSPS.  Teachers also highlighted students who had shown progress towards indivdual goals in their learning.  I know that the culture of SSPS is doing well when fellow students are excited to hear the names of their peers called out and celebrate for them!

Happy Easter