Social Media
From time to time, the issue of social media misuse by students outside of school can spill over, as it did this past week, to impact students at school. From a school perspective, we feel genuinely frustrated when this occurs for a number of reasons.
Firstly, nearly all social media services require users to be at least 13 years of age to access and use their services including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. There are many good reasons why children younger than 13 should not use social media but the most important is that they have not developed the necessary maturity needed to interact with others on these platforms. Social media always has the potential for negative or abusive interactions which can harm children and affect their judgement and personal growth.
Secondly, if parents are going to allow their children access to these services despite the recommendations, then it is incumbent upon families to carefully oversee and monitor their child’s use. School staff often feel aggrieved when we are required to waste time investigating issues which occur outside the sensible recommendations for use, and which start online after school hours and in many instances lack parental supervision.
We will always endeavour to assist families where social media issues spill over into school where it is appropriate to do so, but we would also strongly advise parents to avoid problems altogether and respect well-established guidelines for accessing social media. If you choose to allow your child access to a social media service, then please do your homework about settings, monitor their use regularly and teach them how to behave online responsibly.
Parent assistance required
There are a couple of things that teachers have noticed in the playground this past week which we seek the assistance of parents and carers to address.
Firstly, there is an increase in the number of students arriving at school in the morning before 8:30am, some as early as 8:00am. Students are not permitted to arrive at school until after 8:30am when teacher supervision begins. If you need to drop your child off before 8:30am then you should contact one of the two OSHC services that service our school and make arrangements for your child to attend OSHC.
The second thing we have noticed is an increase in the number of students arriving at school in the morning with bags of lollies, large bottles of soft or energy drinks and a variety of other unhealthy snacks. Not only are these items of poor nutritional value, but they do not set the children up for a successful day of sustained concentration and learning. In some instances, it may be that children are visiting the service station across the road on the way to school without parents’ knowledge. Where relevant, can we ask parents and carers to please review what your children are doing of a morning – making sure they do not arrive before 8:30am and that they are not acting outside your wishes with respect to before school snacks. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
OSHC bookings 2022
I had my first meeting last Tuesday with our school’s new on-site OSHC provider, Elermore Vale OSHC. The Elermore Vale team are really keen to meet our students and families and share with them information about the services they will be providing.
They are excited to have been chosen to deliver OOSH services at Lambton Public School in 2022 and will operate Before, After School & Vacation Care and start at 6.30 am.
Families wishing to enquire about enrolments with Elermore Vale OOSH for 2022 are asked to email their name, their children's names and their preferred contact numbers to lambton@lakemacnewyoosh.com.au.
In the first week of December, they will commence sending out enrolment packs and entering enrolments onto the Child Care Subsidy software, ready to commence on Day 1, Term 1, 2022.
2022 School Captain nominees
Finally today, it is my privilege to share with our school community the names of the Year 5 students who have been nominated by their peers and teachers to stand for the role of School Captain in 2022. Congratulations to: Zayden Brown, Finn Smith, Lucas Stojanovski, Emmett Bartlett, Harvey Rogers, Meg Rayner, Ava Prigg, Lucinda Shaw, HyoEun Yang and Lola Cunningham. Each of them are now busy preparing speeches to deliver to the rest of the school next Friday where they will aim to introduce themselves and encourage others to vote for them. Regardless of the outcome, we are delighted for each of them and wish them every success with the next stage of the elections.
Have a great week
David Holland
