Empowering Students - Understanding Cyber Safety

Whether you have a faith or not, you can’t help but agree with the words of John 13:35. “A new commandment I give to you: Love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another”.

It probably comes as no surprise that a lot of social media bullying happens after school hours but ends up coming into the school grounds, sometimes creating disagreements or even fights. No school is exempt from this modern day technology grinch that comes into our homes and schools.

So what can parents and schools do to do support our children with using social media appropriately; where it can be a great way to catch up or even compliment others on what they have achieved?

I encourage you as parents to openly discuss with your child what cyberbullying is as well as how to protect from the dangers involved in using social media. Our children need to be able to protect themselves as we can’t always be there to do it for them. Cyberbullying is classed as using technology to harass, threaten, embarrass or target another person. The effects can lead to anxiety, depression and in some cases, suicide. Teach your child the importance of not replying to messages, deleting apps that are inappropriate as well as content that is not useful to building strong relationships.

Signs and symptoms of young people experiencing cyberbullying can include:

• Being upset emotionally after using technology.

• A change in usual mood.

• Mood swings.

• Not wanting to go to school.

• Appearing nervous – especially when texts or IM messages come in.

• Being quick to anger.

• Appearing to hide things from adults.

• Being teary for no reason.

• Dropping grades.

• A lack of communication to their loved ones.

If you see any of these signs, have a discussion with your child and offer them support, letting them know you are there for them.

School will often see a change in your child as well. Working together creates a safer environment at school for your child as our teachers will be able to support them better.

Below is a list of ideas to help you on your journey:

• Monitor the use of devices.

• Have your child leave devices on the kitchen table at night – or a charging area.

• Be part of your child’s social media pages so you can monitor what they are experiencing.

• Make up a device contract with your child.

• Turn off the internet at night.

• Check content – if there are negative messages – block the person.

• Educate your child on how to use social media appropriately.

• Be open with your child – don’t judge them but help them understand how to succeed with social media.

• Check your child’s history to see if they are staying safe.

Ed Moroni — Secondary Coordinator

Equation for Motivation

Motivation is one of those words that can be readily thrown around.

We hear people talk about ‘Monday motivation’ because that is often seen as a tough day to get going. We hear about motivation for fitness or our lack thereof. We hear about motivation to eat well and live well. If you’re like me, you’ve found yourself searching for motivational quotes to give a boost in the right direction and inspire you to keep going. This idea of motivation is so prevalent in our world and so relevant to us as humans. We need it to keep us going through the ins and outs of life.

Margett and Woolfolk, in their text Psychological Education, describe motivation as an internal state that awakens, guides and sustains behaviour (Margetts and Woolfolk, 2019).

Motivation can be viewed through several theories, but one that truly stands out to me is the social cognitive theory of expectancy and value. It describes motivation as two forces coming together that create productivity. Force number one, is that the person believes they have the capabilities of achieving a certain goal, and force number two is that they place value on the goal. If either of these forces are missing, then there is no motivation (Margetts and Woolfolk, 2019). The questions we ask ourselves subconsciously are ‘If I try hard enough, can I succeed? And ‘If I succeed, is the outcome rewarding and of value to me?’. For example, if I believe I have a good chance of making the team in soccer and if making the team is important to me, then my motivation will be strong. If either force is missing, then my motivation will be zero.

So, if this is a formula for motivation and therefore productivity and success, then how can we help our young people enter this space?

Here are some of my ideas:

1. Find out what they value

2. Help them set realistic achievable goals

3. Encourage them and make it known you believe in them.

Here are some of my favourite motivational quotes:

• “Believe you can and you’re halfway there” — Theodore Roosevelt

• “The key to success is to focus on goals, not obstacles” — Unknown

• “Its going to be hard, but hard does not mean impossible.” — Unknown

And finally;

“…but with God, all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:26

Without motivation, the ability to move forward and progress is hindered, so I would encourage you to find your source of motivation and focus on the two forces required in order to be your best and achieve all you can.

Francis Pascal — Acting Primary Coordinator

Planning for the Future

We are planning for the future. Every level of leadership in our school and broader CST organisation are looking at the physical and educational needs that will be required from 2022 onwards.

The results of the Endeavour Foundations surveys that are being completed at the moment will sow directly into our planning.

An exciting part of planning is seeing ideas come to fruition. We’re moving into the newly developed Primary classrooms! The three classrooms we have completely modernised provide a bright, colourful and dynamic environment for our students to learn in. As you know, our infant classrooms have been used since earlier in the year.

We will be starting the renovation of two Secondary classrooms on 31 May. There is still more for us to do. The exciting thing is, we will over the next few years improve and build more classrooms.

“Christians are really the ultimate transformers. This new life a believer has, sees us changed. ”

Renovations are essential for us to maintain quality learning environments that transform old learning areas into spaces that meet or exceed the needs of a modern learning community.

Renovation is a powerful idea in the Bible. John Chapter 3 is where Jesus is talking to one of the rulers, Nicodemus. As a response to a statement by Nicodemus, Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Nicodemus is naturally confused by this transformational statement. Jesus goes onto talk about the inner transformation that needs to take place in a person’s life when they become a Christian.

Christians are really the ultimate transformers. This new life a believer has, sees us changed. The process Jesus describes in this account uses the phrase ‘You must be born again.’ This is what happened to our classrooms. They were old and tried and have been changed and have little resemblance to their former selves.

I realise there are limitations with my analogy. However, where the Holy Spirit changes us on the inside for others to see, so our classrooms have been changed dramatically on the inside, too.

Twenty First Century educational requirements require us to look at our learning spaces and plan for the future. Our staff have been providing quality education in limiting workplaces. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the future. No pressure! The Federal Government funding and CST budgeting have set our year Kinder to Year 6 programs up for a prosperous future.

Scott Winkler — Principal

The Power of Curiosity

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled”

— Plutarch

For me, curiosity is becoming somewhat of a superpower word. I don’t admit to understanding what it fully means yet, but it has been a word that I have spent quite a bit of time pondering.

Pondering how it can have a positive impact on our students. It was placed back on my radar earlier this week whilst I was listening to a podcast on ‘advice’.

Advice is something that we all believe we are very good at giving. It is something that we have been trained to do all our lives and we freely give it because we generally care about the person who has sought the advice. However, being an advice giver can be problematic. Giving advice can be viewed through the following three lenses.

The first lens is where we do not know what the ‘real’ challenge is that the other person is trying to solve. We therefore give advice that doesn’t actually help the person who asked.

The second lens is that the advice we are giving isn’t actually that good. Our advice can be biased depending on our own experiences, our history. The person we are giving advice to won’t necessarily be living the same current reality we did.

The third lens is, the impact our advice has on the other person. There will be times when we may know completely what the problem is and we may have a fabulous ‘solution’ to solve the problem. However, our giving advice to others, could easily be viewed through an invisible statement that, “I am better than you”. By constantly giving advice, you could be perceived as trying to one up yourself against the other person.

Ideally, in a perfect world, we would try and empower the other person seeking assistance, be that, a student, a colleague, a spouse, our neighbour and most importantly, our children. We need to encourage them to figure out what the real problem is. I am sure that you would agree, we want to build competence and confidence in those we interact with daily. But unfortunately, advice giving is seductive, we will often trade the short-term feel good moment of giving advice over the opportunity to allow people to be curious in a situation. We can step back, to enable the other person to develop longer term skills that will assist them in becoming the best versions of themselves.

“Value and Reward curiosity. If you want a plant to grow, you feed it. Curiosity is the same.”

The act of curiosity can also be viewed as an act of vulnerability. It is a space where we are exposing ourselves to possible criticism or attack. Allowing people to be curious enables them to stay in a place of ambiguity for a little bit longer, in a space where they aren’t entirely sure what’s happening. It’s a space where you don’t know if you are being helpful, valuable or even important. You are handing over power to someone else. In this place, you put your ego aside, you are enabling the other person to be in the spotlight, to take control, to take ownership.

Curiosity is something we want to encourage in our students. In a long-term study, Gottfried, A. E., Fleming, J., & Gottfried, A., W. (2001) concluded that student motivation in core academics peaked at age 9 and diminished as they grew older. As an educator, that is a sobering quote. However, not all research paints a bleak picture. In another study, Susan Engel (2015) placed a “curiosity box” at the back of her classroom. This box contained eighteen drawers containing novelty items. Not surprisingly, she found that some students would investigate the drawers more often than others, this was to be expected. Similar boxes were then placed in other classrooms throughout the school. What was interesting in her findings was that curiosity varied by classroom. Engel observed this more closely and what she found was that the students who were in a classroom where the teacher smiled and talked in an encouraging manner, they were more likely to be curious and eagerly explore the drawers. Sadly though, for students in classes where the teacher was reserved and task oriented often had their curiosity quashed.

Below are five examples of how we all can encourage and promote curiosity at home as well as at school:

• Value and Reward curiosity. If you want a plant to grow, you feed it. Curiosity is the same

• Teach young people how to ask quality questions

• Focus on questions, not answers

• Let children lead. It’s difficult to be curious if the learning is passive

• Encourage children to tinker

One last thought: above anything else, we need to continually reflect on what we do to make sure we aren’t stifling curiosity by applying rigid procedures that restrict creativity. Take the time to encourage curiosity and independent thinking and see where it leads – we want our young people to become better problem solvers and critical thinkers, two of the most important twenty first century learning skills necessary for present and future careers.

Drew Roberts — Deputy Principal

We’re in This Together

I have some favourite memories from my children’s early years. Lots of them seem to involve books.

My daughter Catherine used to wake from her afternoon nap in a very crabby mood. The only way I could gently bring her back into the day was to sit alone with her with a pile of books and read her happy. It was very time consuming, there were lots of other industrious things I needed to do, like cooking, washing, writing, chatting to friends or family. Catherine required my undivided attention. Only me alone with a pile of books would do. At the time it was such a hassle, such a ‘time-waster.’ Now, looking back, it is a treasured memory.

“Time spent with our children supporting their educational journey is time well spent.”

My son Jacob struggled with reading in his early years. I remember teachers, Mrs Gayle Goninon in Year 1 particularly, working hard with him to help him through. I remember reading with him many books including Captain Underpants, and slowly watching and supporting him in his reading journey. Around Year 2 he discovered Brian Jacques and the Mossflower series. We both read and discussed every single one and waited excitedly as they were written and released. They still sit on my bookcase, a treasured memory. On a side note, Jake has a Bachelor and Masters degree and works in Tertiary education publications. Proving that early struggles, with intervention by parents and teachers, can be turned on their head.

Time spent with our children supporting their educational journey is time well spent. Time that will never be regretted and sadly, time that passes all too briefly.

“Our school’s history is one of parental involvement... one based on a Christian worldview that equipped their children for life in an ever-changing world.”

At Emmanuel we have been engaging in ‘Visible Learning’ for the past few years. This approach to teaching is grounded in research conducted and analysed by Professor John Hattie. He studied a huge amount of data and looked at what factors had the best outcome on student’s learning. ‘The Visible Learning research synthesises findings from 1,400 meta-analyses of 80,000 studies involving 300 million students, into what works best in education.’ These factors were given a numerical value, and anything over 0.4 was considered to have an acceleration effect on student learning. Interestingly: Early years intervention scored 0.44, Positive home dynamics 0.52 and Parental Involvement scored 0.5. You, as parents/guardians, have an accelerative affect on your child’s learning just by spending time chatting with them about it, reading with them, coming and seeing us about them, ultimately just by being involved in their education.

Our school’s history is one of parental involvement. We were, uniquely, 42 years ago created by parents who wanted a Christian education for their children. One based on a Christian worldview that equipped their children for life in an ever-changing world.

This term there are opportunities for you to be involved in your child’s education. In June we have our Midyear reports and Parent-teacher night, which we would love you all to come to and sit and chat together about your child’s learning journey. Please know that you are always welcome to come chat with us anytime.

Most importantly, I hope you all get to make some treasured memories with your children. Reading, checking work, cooking, shopping, playing, exercising, dancing… the list is endless, of ways you can positively impact your child’s learning journey.

Annie Joy — Acting Head of Teaching and Learning