This year I imagine our children have been exposed to more media/social media than ever before and recently there have been some very disturbing content on social media platforms that some of your children may be accessing. Young people can respond differently to highly distressing events. Some will seek immediate assistance from their parents, carers or teachers, while others may be less inclined to do so. It is important for young people to know that there is no ‘right’ way to respond to upsetting or disturbing online events. Young people also need to know that they are not alone, and help is available from trusted adults, friends and professional support services. Parents and carers can help their children through a distressing experience by providing a safe space where they can talk about their feelings. It is also important for parents and carers to encourage positive connections with friends and extended family through other activities and interests away from the online world. We strongly recommend the following tips to help limit young people’s exposure to harmful content online:
- Engage in your child’s online activities – ask what apps, sites and games they’re using and make sure they’re age appropriate
- Use parental controls on devices to help limit what your child is exposed to. We recommend Family Zone https://www.familyzone.com/anz/families which provides an easy to use program for all ages of children where you can be advised on what apps/sites/games are suitable for your child’s age
- Help your child report and block upsetting content they see on social media sites or apps
- Let your child know they can come to you about anything upsetting they see online.
We recently invited Road Safe WA to view our afternoon Kiss and Drive procedures for advice on how to further reduce congestion and double parking on Attwood Way when waiting to collect children. The feedback was they could not believe how smoothly the process ran and that we were able to clear all 180 children from site within twelve minutes. They said it was a credit to our families how they conducted themselves and followed the procedures put in place by the school. They said they had not seen such a calm and safe situation in any other school setting. Thank you so much to all families for your patience, grace and courtesy when using our Kiss and Drive facility. Many staff have also commented to me that the drop off in the morning is the most enjoyable part of the day as it is wonderful to see the children and families with big smiles for the start of the day.
You may also have noticed that we have implemented a new pick up point for fifteen families. Thank you to the Pastor of the Anglican Church on the corner of Attwood Way and Emma St for allowing these families to enter/exit Attwood Way from the western end and park in the Church carpark before 3pm where our staff then walk their children to the carpark. This has now alleviated the double parking need in Attwood Way. Please ensure if you are still one of the few cars in the queue from the northern end of Attwood Way, that you wait in single file and leave a gap at Roscoe Turn, to allow traffic to flow in both directions on both streets.
I look forward to seeing all families for our year 12 graduation at the End of Term School Meeting this Friday at 2.00pm and would like to thank Community Spirit for once again setting up Pizza in the Park (“Blue” Park, Flinders Lane) following this event.
Vanessa Aikins – Principal