Principal's Log

This week, reports have surfaced of a website containing indecent pictures of young women from different schools. It is a timely reminder for all students and their families about the importance of maintaining safe habits on the internet. As part of the cybersafety program at the College, we remind students that it is important they do not publish too much personal information online, including details of their age, their school and their suburb. It is important to remember that once information or photos are online they can easily become public through friends sharing with others. The consequences of sharing inappropriate material of any kind online can be very harmful. We will be reinforcing this message to our Middle and Senior College students in the coming days and will be encouraging them to be proactive in keeping each other safe. We also encourage parents to have these conversations at home. Where the College becomes aware of inappropriate material being posted, these matters are reported to relevant authorities as per the College’s Social Media and Child Safety policies. Where students or parents have concerns they are encouraged to make contact with the College, the police directly or via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Early reporting of poor choices being made can assist in keeping young people safe. I encourage all members of our community to be proactive in this area.

This week Prep to Year 5 students have celebrated National Science Week with a focus on Drones, Droids and Robots. Throughout the week, students have participated in a variety of activities including a lunchtime screening of Wall-E, quiz days, special coding and robotics lessons with Year 7 students and our Year 2 classes also made 60 Solar Buddy lights that will be on display at OCEANfest tomorrow. We thank Mrs Lu Pollard for her organisation of these activities.

We congratulate those students who received awards in the recent International Competition and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Science Competition and commend all students who performed at their best in the competition. Middle and Senior College students were presented with Distinction certificates at assembly earlier this week. We thank Miss Rebecca Ross and her team for their enthusiasm in growing young people’s science understanding.

Families are encouraged to take note of advice contained later in this newsletter regarding closure of the P-2 Car Park from 3.30pm on Thursday and all day Friday 19^th August in preparation for OCEANfest. Changes to traffic, pickup and parking will also occur on an ongoing basis over the next six months as we fit out a commercial kitchen, a new Science laboratory and extend the Early Learning Centre. Further details of this are also included later in the newsletter. All drivers and pedestrians are asked to be very mindful of the potential for builder’s trucks to be moving through the grounds.

Our kayaking team is competing at the State Marathon Kayaking Championships this weekend at the Gold Coast. We wish them all the best for this competition. We thank Mrs Colleen Beattie, Mrs Natalie Campbell and Mrs Rae Hall for their assistance and Mr Gary Graves for his coaching and coordination of the kayaking program.

We look forward to an entertaining and relaxing evening together at OCEANfest.

Dr Bronwyn Dolling, Principal