It is with great pride and pleasure that we have watched our Year 12 students wrap up their years of study at MSJ. The final days were a great celebration where the cohort of Year 12s worked together with the House leaders to review key highlights over the past 6 years as we shared a breakfast together, a student-led assembly organised by the student leaders with great speeches from the House leaders and Ms Dishon. The students enjoyed a chance to say farewell to the rest of the school community as they moved through the corridors of the school dressed in a version of school uniform that is likely to be unseen again. The day ended with a colour run activity where the House leaders and students had fun with the colour dust as witnessed by many students that came out to have a look. Somehow the students scrubbed up and participated in their graduation mass and ceremony. This is a chance for all of us to be proud of each and every student and family with their personal challenges and stories as they stood proudly as a member of their House Group on stage. Next many had to focus on their VCE exams as a lead up to life after school. As they say it takes a village to raise a child. Thanks to all staff and families for your work ensuring this cohort graduated with such success.
There are many opportunities for students to take up leadership roles across the school. Recently we have sought students in Years 9 for a Peer Support Leader role where they work with our Year 7 cohort across the year. We have also reached out to our Year 10 students to be part of a Supportive Friends group that takes the lead in ensuring our new students in Years 8-12 have someone they can reach out to and also students that may need some additional support. This group also leads activities like R U OK? Day and provide lunchtime catch up sessions for students.
Sexual Health Victoria e-Safety Pilot Program (Year 7 & 8)
We have been working closely with SHV as we supported the roll out of an e-Safety ‘socialising online’ program. The materials included safety online, grooming, sexting and sharing images online.
The commitment for us as a school was to provide:
90 minute classroom sessions delivered by SHV
60 minute whole school PD delivered by SHV
60 minute leadership PD delivered by SHV
A 90 minute parent/carer information session led by Cherie Meurant.
Thanks to the parents/carers that came along and engaged in the parent session.
The importance of being engaged with your child’s technology use and having regular conversations should not be underestimated. Whilst we are aware social media provides many positive outcomes, it can also provide negative experiences that can be challenging to keep abreast of. Whilst we do significant work in this space we encourage parents and carers to be active in this space. The e-Safety commissioner website is a great place to start. Please have a look at the information available by connecting on the link and our work with the e-Safety Commissioner in supporting students and families has been very successful. e-Safety
The student's digital footprint should be carefully monitored at home.
Youth mental health service ReachOut has unveiled a new brand identity, supported by a multi-channel awareness campaign. The rebrand represents a complete overhaul of ReachOut’s visual identity, to ensure that it reflects both the lives of young people across Australia, and the breadth of the mental health support that the service provides. There is information for parents including community forums and 1:1 free coaching service. I encourage you to investigate and see how these resources may support you as a parent/carer.
Attendance at school is essential for success. We know at times a range of things can interfere with school attendance but when we work together with families we are in a better position to provide support. This requires vulnerability, risk, empathy and transparency to allow a plan to be established. Parents can check their child’s attendance through PAM. It is hoped that all students can maintain a 90% attendance rate to make the most of every learning opportunity.
According to the ‘everyday counts’ policy, being away from school for 1 day a fortnight equates to missing 1.5 years across 13 years of schooling.
Please find below a summary of the sixth Child Safe Standard, which came into effect from July 1, 2022, and a summary of our action plan for this standard.
Child Safe Standard 6: Suitable staff and volunteers
Schools must ensure that people working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice
Selecting suitable people to work with children is vital to protecting children
Good recruitment practices:
At MSJ we are working towards the implementation of Standard 6, by:
In depth induction of staff, contractors, casuals and direct contact volunteers.
Ongoing child safety training for all staff, contractors, casuals and direct contact volunteers.
In 2023, we are hoping that a small group of parents may be willing to join us on two important working parties.
The first one being a child safe committee where we can provide guidance to those who are interested.
The second committee is working with a small Respectful Relationships core group. Significant work has been done in this space and it is exciting looking at some possible future directions. Should either of these committees be something that interests you please e mail Stacey Bourke (sbourke@msj.vic.edu.au).
Stacey Bourke - Deputy Principal Wellbeing
