Community Council 2024

Following our first Council Executive Meeting we are pleased to introduce the members of our Community Council for 2024:

• Michael Kelly - Chair
• Stephanie Dickson - Secretary
• Leah Makin - Council Member
• Skye Keatinge - Council Member
• Megan Hansford - Council Member
• Keren Baker - Kindergarten Council Member
• Fr. Anthony Riosa - Parish Priest
• Luke Donnelly - Principal
• Nicole Mikkonen - Assistant Principal/Staff Member
• Reuban West - Staff Member

The council spent most of the meeting familiarising ourselves with the school Strategic and Annual Improvement Plans, unpacking the Community Council Sharepoint Site and articulating hopes and aspirations for the council. Our council will present a summary of the meeting in next week's newsletter. 

A component of the new charter is that an Open Council Meeting be held towards the end of each term. This is an opportunity for the council to hear from our Parent Contacts on the improvements in parent engagement and to discuss other school matters. All members of the community will be welcome to join the first Open Council Meeting on Tuesday April 2 from 6:00pm - 7:30pm. 

Student Safety - Current Near Misses Occurring

We would ask all parents to be vigilant when moving throughout the school grounds, particularly when driving through our car park. There have been several near misses where children have entered the car park without parental supervision. The safety of our students is of the utmost importance so we need to work as a community to establish high expectations of car park safety and maintain these at all times.  

We would ask that parents adhere to the following expectations:

• Cars enter the car park and follow the designated arrows, parking within the designated lines.
• The signposted speed limit is the maximum speed cars are to travel at any time.
• Parents escort their children to the path of a morning.
• Parents escort their children across the car park at the end of the day. 

We are also aware of delivery drivers parking in inappropriate areas and will be working to ensure this stops. Finally, we would ask that families not use the car park for commuting to and from work. The addition of cars within the car park increases the risk to student safety during the morning and afternoon drop off and pick up time when the car park is congested. We would ask you to find alternative transport solutions if you have been leaving your car in the car park to commute to work. 

In addition to the car park safety concerns, we have also been notified of students walking or riding in an unsafe manner. If your child walks or rides to school please ensure they are aware of the safest route and have practised being vigilant when crossing roads independently.

If notice any further concerns with the safety of our students in the car park, local community or in any other area, we would encourage you to contact the school. 

Social Supports for our Students

In the coming days, Nicole Mikkonen and I will be working with our Years 3 - 6 students to identify types of aggression within their social conflicts and provide them with strategies for being an upstander who can resolve conflict and/or seek the support of our staff. This program is driven by the Ophelia Project which was developed in the USA and the work of Robert Periera, an Australian educational consultant who specialises in bullying.  

The three forms of aggression are - verbal aggression (name calling, unkind words etc.), physical aggression (hitting, kicking etc.) and relational aggression (body language, speaking behind people's back, coercing others etc.). By giving these behaviours a name, we can then set our students up with the ability to identify them within social conflict, act on them as an upstander and seek support from staff. This is the third year that the program has been implemented in the upper primary years and we have seen much success in identifying social conflicts sooner, having students stand up for their peers and having students who have shown these behaviours take responsibility for what has occurred and reduce the problems from re-occurring. 

Our Kindergarten - Year 2 students will not be exposed to the forms of aggression, rather they will list some of the behaviours that can occur when problems arise and learn the strategies involved in being an upstander.

Social conflict is a developmentally appropriate part of growing social skills and we work hard as a school to support our students in identifying problems and learning how to reduce them. If you have any concerns regarding your child's interactions at school please use our Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Policy as a guide and make contact with your child's teacher.