Assistant Principal's Report Week 4
Good afternoon Parents and Carers,
Cyber Safety
Mother Teresa School prides itself on working in partnership with parents in the development of our children. The old adage that it takes a village to raise a child is something that our school has built its foundations on.
At the Community Council meeting this week a discussion was had concerning the misuse of technology via social media and messaging. As most of these messages have been sent by students outside of school hours, the discussion of who’s responsible for dealing with these behaviours is definitely a grey area. The short answer in my opinion relates back to the original notion that it is the responsibility of both parents and the school to work together in educating our students in the importance of using technology wisely.
In the case of inappropriate use taking place it is deemed primarily the responsibility of parents if the issue occurs outside of school hours and, while it is important to inform the school when these issues arise, we encourage parents to deal with behaviours at home.
As a rule when I speak to students about inappropriate use of their device I offer them two pieces of advice.
Firstly I speak to them about the detrimental effect that their digital footprint could have on their future. In a world where employers can easily access additional information about a prospective employee through their social media presence, it is essential that our students, no matter what age, recognise that their online behaviour now, can affect their future. This is easier said than done due to the fact that it is difficult to put an old head on young shoulders.
The second is a rule of thumb which ensures that our children “think before they post”. I suggest to them that before they hit send to think whether their grandparents would approve of the content they have posted? Because of the bond between grandchildren and their grandparents, I feel that this resonates with their moral compass and hopefully prevents them from posting something they might later regret.
Please take the time to speak to your children about using technology in a responsible manner.
Year 6 Camp
Our Year 6 students return from Camp Cooba today following three days of fun-filled adventure and activities. From all reports the children have been fine representatives of our school and have met all challenges presented.
There were moments throughout the year when school camps seemed unlikely, so for our leadership group to have this culminating experience together has been a bonus, putting some normality into a year that has provided so much uncertainty at times.
We thank our Year 6 teachers, Miss Ceccato, Mrs Shelley, Mrs Travers, Mr Roweth and Mr Hughes for accompanying the students on camp.
Maths Problem
Congratulations to Lacey Press from Kinder Rose who won the maths challenge last week. The week 4 problem is below.
2 Eggs Maths Problem - Tricky
Izzy found a strange sum written on a piece of paper:
Each letter represents a different digit, so P might be 1, for example.
Can you work out what the sum really is?
Hint: If you look at just the ones column and the tens column, you’ll see: GG + GG = GE. Adding GGs together gives two different letters. There must be a 1 being carried!
Assistant Principal