Dear Parents/Carers,

Parent/Teacher Interviews Week 9

The School Online Booking System is open for parents/carers to make a booking for a parent/teacher interview. The link can be found on the school website and in the Schoolzine App under Links. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to your child's teacher. Sharing information at this time of year can make all the difference in working with the teacher and your child toward improvement and success in Term 4. These interviews can take place face-to-face, via phone or Zoom to maximise every parent/carer's chance of attending. If you have booked a time and would like it to be via phone call or Zoom, please alert your child's teacher.

Some questions might be?

• What is my child struggling with or in what area are they doing very well? 
• What can I do at home to help my child with schoolwork?
• What can you tell me about my child's behaviour and concentration in class? 
• How is my child getting along with other students?

These conversations can set you up for open, positive and productive communication for the remainder of the school year, so it is very helpful to attend in whatever way you can. 

Snapchat, Social Media and Web Use

Local families have been contacted by the Child Protection Investigation Unit (Qld Police Service) in the last few days in regard to an individual who has been contacting children on Snapchat. This individual has sent images and met up with some of the children with dire consequences that will last a lifetime for some of these children and their families. Click to view news report

At school we regularly see, hear about or have to take action about the following: 

1. Children using Snapchat/TikTok at home that don't have a private account and are friends with other users they don't know. Images they post are open for public viewing with school uniforms and other such markers which may allow their location to be identified at home or school. 
   
   
2. Students may not hand in their phones and smart-watches to the office before school and message external parties to the school from their phone, smart-watch or from an IPad in the classroom. The school watches what happens on classroom IPads carefully and applies the necessary consequences. However, if students don't hand in their phones, smart-watches and message their parents/carers from school or vice-versa, there is no control over what external parties they message or message them whilst they are school. The office phone number is the safest point of contact between home and school between when they are dropped off to school and when the bell rings at 3pm.
   
   
3. Children sometimes have devices that have data or use wireless networks that don't have child-safe filters. Some children are accessing inappropriate content. They cannot access these sites at school due to Education Department filters and our IPad programs do not allow students to have devices that have their own internal data for that reason. As we know, phones are mobile computers so these inappropriate sites are easily accessed from phones, if there are no safety measures installed on the phone or network it is using.
   
   

Parents/Carers can feel offended when we have to contact them about these matters because they see it as a home issue. However, often times this use at home can impact the emotional and physical safety of other children at school. Schools and other organisations working with children by law are required to act when these things are brought to their attention.

Though this individual is now in custody, there are thousands more just like him on platforms attempting to make contact with children. Families in our community have been effected by this individual. I will certainly spend time again this weekend making sure all my ducks in a row in regard to ensure my teenagers at home are kept safe. It is hard for parents to stay on top of these things as it is an ever-changing environment. 

Have a good week,

Kathy

Cybersafety

I do implore parents to do some reading around cybersafety if you are not already familiar with best practice.  These links provide important reading as a way of maximising your child’s safety online.

• https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/big-issues/online-pornography
• https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/hard-to-have-conversations
• https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/taming-technology

Social-Emotional Learning

Stand up for yourself

Over this next fortnight, we will be having conversations with students about how to stand up for themselves.  This situation usually involves an aggressor who may, or may not, be aware of how they are impacting someone.  Using conflict resolution skills, we hope to teach the children how to respond assertively, rather than aggressively or passively.

Bridge Strategy

Be the Change around bullying behaviour.

We will be having conversations around the fact that we are all different, and the need to respect or tolerate difference.  This should be reciprocated. 

As part of this,  recognising that children are at different stages of development - physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually - is often why conflict can occur. 

Conflict will also occur because of the environment that school brings – a large number of young people at different stages of development interacting in an environment which is a mix of highly structured and closely supervised (classroom) and less structured and supervised (playground).  

What is important, is knowing the difference between conflict and bullying.  We  will continue to talk with the students about the difference between these concepts and ask members of our community to be conscious of not generalising negative behaviour as ‘bullying’. 

Active School Travel

We will be meeting with a team from Brisbane City Council next week to start conversations around a plan for safe travel to and from school.  While you have been patient with the procedures we introduced during the COVID interruption, we hope to implement more long term initiatives to keep our children safe whilst also being helpful to families.  The drop off zones at the front of the school have become a staple but I expect there will be other ideas coming out of this meeting.

NAPLAN ONLINE UPDATE

Many Queensland state schools are currently undertaking training activities in preparation for NAPLAN Online. To help schools prepare for NAPLAN Online, our school will participate in a School Readiness Test (SRT) on Wednesday 1st September 2021. 

The SRT is a familiarisation activity to help confirm each school's technical, student and staff readiness, and will help our school prepare for a transition to NAPLAN Online for 2022.  It is not an assessment of student ability and there will be no reporting of student test results. 

Letters to parents about this process for our Year 2 and Year 4 students were distributed via School Zine during Week 6 of Term 3.  The content of these letters for parents can be found in the links below.

We ask that all Year 2 and Year 4 parents take the time to read through these at your next opportunity.

Other resources that may assist parents in YEAR 4 with managing their own child's device regarding NAPLAN Online preparation include the following documents.

Book Week & Book Fair

What a fabulous week we have had celebrating books and reading. Thursday's Book Week Dress Up and Dance Party was the highlight of the term! The costumes, creativity and love of books (and dancing!) lit up the top oval. Click here to view photos and videos of this event. Additionally, the Book Fair has made tremendous sales and we are almost out of stock! Thank you to the families who have made purchases. We know it was tricky this year not being able to come on site and having to pay online. However, this one week of Book Fair sales helps us provide books for all students to loan all year round. Your support is greatly appreciated. Well done to all students, families and staff for helping us to celebrate the importance of books and reading this week.

Yr 4-6 Excellence in Science Awardees

Yr P-3 Excellence in Science Awardees

Prep – Yr 3 LIFE Awardees