We started the term off wearing masks and ended our first week removing our facial masks. It was great to see the young ladies smiling again and enjoying the freedom of coming to school mask free. However, if your daughter still wants to wear a mask or has been classified as close contact, she has to wear a mask. Our cohorts are now allowed to mix, so the young ladies in our care had to opportunity to join their colleagues in big groups instead of just their Homeroom and enjoyed their first face to face House Assembly for 2022.
Term Two has seen all the clubs we offer at the college starts again. Clubs run either before or after school and at lunchtime. We encourage the young people in our care to go to the club if they need some extra assistance with their work, assessments, or to complete their homework.
It is great that we can now have face to face guest speakers coming to speak to the students. We were very fortunate to have Paul Litherland talk to the girls and parents about the importance of staying safe while online. He talked to the students about things they should do to keep safe while online and how he could locate information on 176 students 86 of these students. He was able to see their videos, and 4 of them he could see were filmed in the toilet blocks at the college. This is one of the reasons we have a mobile phone policy which states that students need to lock their phones in their locker or keep them at home.
Paul spoke at the parent’s session about the six stages of grooming.
The stages go from targeting a victim – gaining trust-fulfilling a need- isolating the victim to reaching their ultimate goal of maintaining control of their victim.
Paul provided information on who can help if you need to report something.
Paul also provided tips on setting up your modem/router with parental controls.
Having Paul come and speak to the students leads perfectly to the next article on SchoolTv, “Managing Screen Time.”
SchoolTv
“Parents have an important part to play in role modelling a positive approach to using screens and assisting young people in navigating the content they watch.”
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg
Many parents have reported excessive screen time as the number one health concern affecting kids, especially now in the hyperconnected world we live in. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that there should be no screen time for children under two, less than an hour a day for children aged from two to five, and less than two hours for five to seventeen-year-olds. However, experts have disputed these guidelines, and families often ignore them. Parents must play an important role in modelling a positive approach to using screens and assisting children in navigating the content they access.
More information about this is located on the latest SchoolTv report, which is located Here.
It was fantastic seeing the young ladies being able to participate in the Secondary Athletics Carnival with a trial structure that according to the young ladies was really good.
That night the year 12 young ladies had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day with their mums. The evening was full of laughter, especially during the ‘take a Selfie’ with mum and daughter, where photos were sent using Snap Chat Filters.
Fiona Hepi
Head of Secondary
