Leadership Passport

Check out our latest graduate from Level 1 of the Leadership Passport:

We have also had some new students volunteer to become part of this system. Annabelle Debney (Year 7) and Abi Ryan (Year 7) also have chosen to take the brave step of putting their hands up to improve their leadership skills. Well done!

If your child would like to begin their leadership development journey, encourage them to chat to myself or one of the other Assistant Principals at school.

Thinking about road safety at Easter has prompted my thinking about other dangers that lay lurking nearby, particularly over the holiday period and much closer to home. These are the dangers associated with online activity. While technology can provide us with entertainment, forms of education, and degrees of connection with others, excessive use over the holidays can pose several risks to individuals, especially our vulnerable children. Here are just some of the more obvious dangers:

Isolation from Family and Friends	Spending too much time on a device can lead to isolation from family members and friends. Excessive screen time prevents any meaningful interactions and bonding opportunities. This holiday period, try to make some memories with your children by going somewhere or doing something together that is not technology based.
Mental Health Concerns	Excessive technology use has been linked to many mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and decreased self-esteem. The data suggests that this is heightened in children and adolescents. Isolation feeds depression as well. Real-life connection is one way of trying to combat the negativities associated with over-use of technology. Poor habits around technology use also impacts sleep patterns making it difficult for children to sleep well. Poor sleep habits can also feed mental health issues.
Risk of cybersecurity threats	The holiday period is well advertised across the country. It is also a well-known fact that there is a spike of internet and device use at this time. In fact, research indicates that during the school holidays, Australia children (aged between 9-10) spend 39% more time using screens than during the school time.  Online predators know this too. While online, your children are potential targets. While many believe cyberbullying to be the biggest threat to their children (data suggests that around 1 in 5 children have experienced some form of cyberbullying), online grooming is a recognized threat that the Australia Federal Police and various governmental agencies are working hard to combat. Unfortunately, the reports of online grooming and child exploitation have increased in recent years.   For more information about the threat of online predators, please read the section below.
Loss of creativity and imagination	Excessive reliance on technology for entertainment can hinder the development of creativity and imagination in our young people. Instead of engaging in imaginative play or creative activities, individuals often passively consume content via screens. This decrease in creativity can impact academic performance, especially for problem-solving tasks,  when back at school.

 

Queensland Police Service – Who’s chatting to your kids? / Think U Know?

In terms of social internet use, children are some of the most prolific users, but also some of the most naïve. This combination unfortunately results in increasing numbers of school-aged students finding themselves caught up in dangerous online situations. It is scary to think, but up to 70% of all new sexual exploitation content online is actually victim-produced.

Online gaming has increased dramatically in recent years. Parents must be aware that modern devices, including many gaming consoles, provide online chat capability enabling anyone (including predators) to communicate with your children.  Task Force Argos, a branch of the Queensland Police Service, was established in 1997 to investigate child exploitation and abuse. As technology advanced, the task force began to focus more of their energy into child exploitation across the internet. They have identified potential threats to children in online chat rooms and online games that have chat functionality, such as Roblox, where sexual predators were grooming children by playing the games and pretending to be kids.  

From their investigations, once a friendship has been established, the predator suggests that the conversation move to another online chat platform or social media site. Once communication moves to other platforms, the grooming can intensify. The Task Force Argos  advice for parents is to investigate what communication functionality are on children’s devices and to limit interaction with strangers online. Talk to your children about who are their friends online as the reality is, if they have never met the person in-person, they need to consider them a potential threat.

Combined research published by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, Our Watch, Bravehearts, The Carly Ryan Foundation, and more highlight some alarming statistics about internet use and teenagers here in Australia. Please carefully review the information below:

For more information regarding safeguarding your child online, please check out the following links:

Child Safety Handbook

This publication is compiled, produced and distributed by the QLD Police Legacy with forewords by the Commissioner of Police, Premier & Minister for Police. In keeping with the focus of caring for children and families, QLD Police Legacy are producing the ‘Child Safety Handbook’ as a much needed and vital resource guide for children, parents and teachers. It will be distributed to Year 6 students this coming week.

The goal of the campaign is to reach family homes and parents, raising awareness of child safety issues: from child-proofing the home and traffic safety, to how to respond to strangers, bullying at school and drug and alcohol abuse. In addition, each area handbook contains emergency phone numbers, specific to the local area, for children to use if they are home alone, feel threatened, hurt themselves or are in danger etc.

For more information, check out this site: https://www.childsafetyhandbook.com.au/

In a time-poor world, the best gift you can give your child is to spend quality time with them. They may not be able to articulate it well, but kids don’t really want things, not deep down, instead they want time with you. At the end of a person’s life, people often say I never really had the time to …. or I wish we had more time to … Spending quality time with your children when they are young is a great way of shifting from those regretful statements into a far more positive Remember the time we …. (followed by laughter or feelings of joy).  

By now many of the students are counting down the days until the holiday break. They are excited in telling me where they are going for Easter or who they will be spending the break with. For some, many kilometres will be covered across that two-week period, for others not so much. Whatever end of that spectrum you find yourself and your family at, I wish you a safe and happy holiday period. Easter traditionally has high volumes of vehicles on our roads and the incidents of accidents spikes. If you are travelling, please be safe out there on the roads.

Students – Big ideas

On Tuesday, a small group of Middle Years worked with a consultative team organised by the Western Downs Regional Council looking at upgrading the Diplock Park area here in Dalby. 63 students in the Middle Years submitted their ideas for this space and then small group from the photos worked closely with the consultants to share their thoughts on how to make this space better for the young people in our community into the future. Well done students.

Craig Cullen

Assistant Principal Middle Years