This week you will have received an email regarding refining our traffic arrangements for the start and end of the school day in an effort to increase safety. I would ask that you give this information your due attention. We prize safety as the foundational value of our community. Our purpose is to have a greater buffer zone between normal practice every day, as well as busy days, to diminish the risk profile for students and parents in this area. The parking on Happy Hat Day, for instance, was quite an adventure.
While this initiative aims to achieve the physical safety of our students, we are also very aware of the vital role of relational, emotional and psychological safety.
One of my educational heroes, John Holt, observed that ‘the scared fighter is often the best fighter; but the scared learner is never the best learner.’ There is a very direct link between the context in which students live and work and how they perform academically. We are moving the examination and assessment season for most year levels. Many folk are going to experience a new level of stress about new contexts; our Year 7 students may experience a new assessment regime, and our students experiencing VCE certainly will.
Rest assured that we are surrounding the students in our care with all manner of support, advice and instruction. For example, our Year 7 and 8 students received a presentation on mental health on Thursday morning. This talk was presented by the Student Welfare Officers from both campuses and was overseen my Mr Tepace and attended by many teachers. This had the aim of making mental health easy to talk about by increasing its currency in the school community and establishing some common language.
I would ask that you be watchful of your children in these coming weeks and communicate any changes in their routine that is inexplicable or curious to our teachers and coordinators. It is imperative in this time that we remain vigilant for all matters of safety and wellbeing.