Welcome back for another week. This week we have stopped for a minute’s silence for Remembrance Day. Our Junior Primary classes did an activity in class, and our Primary students all attended a Remembrance Day Service.

SRC Market Day Stall

Coming up in Week 7 is the inaugural SRC Market Day Stall, being held on Friday 26th of November. To date we have 15 small student led businesses who will be selling a dizzying array of remarkable goods, ranging from lantern jars, cards, bookmarks, slime, sewn merchandise, handicrafts, plants and second-hand goods. Prices are ranged from 50c to $10. Everyone in the school is welcome to come along from 1pm-1.30pm to buy from the Market Day Stalls.

Colour Explosion Fun Run

Also coming up is our whole school Colour Explosion Fun Run. It is certainly shaping up to be an exciting family orientated school event. As we are expecting a large volume of people, please be especially aware of our COVID19 management processes. We will have additional QR codes for sign in all around the school site and Fairbanks Drive Reserve (where the fun run will be held), and manual sign in facilities will be made readily available for those who prefer to sign in manually. We will be having a team of COVID Marshals who will be able to help you. We have designated a picnic eating area in which everyone will be able to sit comfortably while consuming their BYO or onsite purchased food and beverages. Remember to bring a picnic rug or folding chairs if you decide to stay for a meal with your immediate family. We are very excited about this event and look forward to the colour explosion!

Cyber Safety

Our Junior Primary staff have recently been involved in a Digital Technologies Project, and part of the content of the course was around raising awareness of the importance of cyber safety for younger children.

According to raisingchildren.net.au which is an Australian parenting website, there are four main types of risks for children when accessing the internet; Content, Contact, Conduct and Contract risks. They describe these as;

Content risks
For school-age children these risks include things that they might find upsetting, disgusting or otherwise uncomfortable, if they come across them accidentally. This might include sexual content in games, pornography, images of cruelty to animals, and real or simulated violence.

Contact risks
These risks include children coming into contact with people they don’t know or with adults posing as children online. For example, a child might be persuaded to share personal information with strangers, provide contact details after clicking on pop-up messages, or meet in person with someone they’ve met online.

Conduct risks
These risks include children acting in ways that might hurt others, or being the victim of this kind of behaviour. For example, a child might destroy a game that a friend or sibling has created. Another conduct risk is accidentally making in-app purchases.

Contract risks
These risks include children signing up to unfair contracts, terms or conditions that they aren’t aware of or don’t understand. For example, children might click a button that allows a business to send them inappropriate marketing messages or collect their personal or family data. Or children might use a toy, app or device with weak internet security, which leaves them open to identity theft or fraud. https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/play-media-technology/online-safety/internet-safety-6-8-years

With our children accessing the internet, it is important to develop our children’s digital resilience. Digital resilience enables our children to manage the risks associated with using the internet and having skills to deal with concerning experiences, and giving them all the tools to be able to respond positively and proactively when they encounter online risks.

To build digital resilience, parents and caregivers can talk about the online content and listening to their child’s opinion and views about the content. They can also go online with their child, and by doing so are being a good role model. Teaching children explicitly about being careful on line is vital, and teaching young children to never reveal personal information while online is critical. Careful conversations and role modelling will also teach your child to avoid online purchases and about appropriate, kind behaviour while online.

The eSafety Commisioner (https://www.esafety.gov.au/kids) is a great site to help navigate parents in how they can support their children.

Please do not hesitate to discuss any of your questions or concerns around eSafety with your child’s teacher.

I wish you a fabulous week ahead!

God bless you,

Deb Clifford