Principal's Remarks
What a great week for a concert! Our Year 5, 6 and 7 students and teachers have been rehearsing flat out for weeks now and tomorrow night will be the presentation of their play, “A Not So Terrible Parable,” a fresh take on the classic Bible Story, the Good Samaritan. If you would like to book a free seat, please log on to your PPN Flexischools account and do so. It is going to be great!
Other things that have happened around school this week include the demolishing of 130 Nelson Road (the house on the corner of Wright Road and Nelson Road). This marks the beginning of the construction of a connecting road that will enter in through our current church car park entry, provide a pick up and drop off zone and then exit on to Wright Road. More information will come, but this is an exciting development for us, allowing parents to drop off and pick up children without having to battle the constraints of the back car park. There will be some very inconvenient restrictions placed around the back carpark next term as realigning and resurfacing work occurs there, but I will let you know more about this as we make alternative plans and the time gets closer.
I am also including an article you might find helpful on cyberbullying – one of the challenges facing our young people in this age of social media. There are some practical hints on how to help our kids in this article, but speaking from a pre-social media person’s perspective, one of the most helpful things I have done is to create an account of my own and seen how privacy settings, chat components and sharing works in an app. It has given me some insight into how it all works.
“Cyberbullying of children and teenagers is one of the greatest fears facing parents today. The thought of their child being subjected to heinous words, threats to their physical safety, as well as their social and emotional wellbeing, is something no parent wants their child to experience.
Most of the bullying behaviours we now see are happening from behind a keyboard, playing out in social media feeds and gaming chat rooms. It is little wonder parents feel overwhelmed and out of their depth, especially when for most, online is an environment that is relatively unfamiliar.
So what can we do to help our kids avoid these types of behaviours, as well as give them the skills to deal with cyberbullying behaviours should they be exposed?
Remind them of all of the things they have control over: While it may not feel like it, we have a lot of control over what happens online. We can determine who we talk to, what we ignore, what we share, how we comment, who we follow, who we block or hide from our feeds. All of that, helps us determine who is allowed to play a role in our online experiences and ultimately what behaviours we accept on our feeds
Give your child time away from the screens: Everyone needs a break from screens. We want to encourage regular times when a child doesn’t need to be tethered to their device. Building a wider community away from the screens helps a child or teen build their sense of self worth. Keeping devices away from the dinner table also gives them a break from being socially switched on and allows the to connect with family without a device. Removing devices at night helps their active brains to switch off, and prepare for sleep.
Role play possible responses: Discuss with your child whether they should respond to bullying or nasty online comments, If they do, then consider how they could respond. Consider the statements or types of people they ignore, block or report.
Regularly check the privacy settings: Every app, game and social network has a settings button that enables you to determine how positive an experience your child can have on that platform and how much control they have. Visit these settings regularly to look at the options available.
While nothing is guaranteed particularly when it comes to the online world, we can certainly be taking steps to help our kids. We can give them skills, encourage positive behaviours and thinking that allow them to minimise their exposure to the bullying behaviours of others.
If your child is being cyberbullied you can also access the reporting tool at esafety.gov.au
Have a great week with your kids,
Mark B