Newsletter - Friday 7 June 2024

Principal's Message

It never fails to inspire me when I hear the voices of students echoing outside my door. Their potential is unique, and it is imperative that we provide them with every opportunity to thrive and excel. One such avenue we are proud to be exploring, in partnership with parents, is community mentoring.

Through mentorship, students gain access to real-world perspectives, career insights, and invaluable networking opportunities. They learn to set goals, overcome obstacles, and cultivate essential life skills that will serve them well beyond their academic years. Moreover, mentorship fosters a sense of belonging and community, instilling in our students a deeper appreciation for collaboration, empathy, and mutual respect.

Over the past two weeks a core group of parents and staff have been developing a framework to enhance the mentoring opportunities for our student both within the school and beyond.

If you are interested in contributing to the wholistic development of our students through mentoring, I invite you to a Parent Focus Group on Monday evening 17 June at 7pm. Together, we can empower our students to reach their full potential and become confident, compassionate leaders of tomorrow.

As you read through the updates on various events and student accomplishments in this newsletter, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the dedicated staff and supportive parents who invest in shaping the lives of our students. Your commitment and guidance are invaluable in fostering a thriving learning environment.

Mrs Julia Heise - Principal

Chaplain's Message

Community & Worship

Greetings from the Chaplaincy Team at Wahroonga!

This will be the second year that our Chaplaincy Team has supported the Year 11 students as they travel to the Vatuvonu School, Fiji, for their outreach project. Fundraising is a vital part of the preparation for the trip so as to purchase building materials for the school maintenance project. A pizza fundraiser, at the recent Home and School Movie Night, provided a perfect opportunity for Year 11 students to raise some funds. Families enjoyed hot woodfired pizza whilst watching 'Migration' on the big screen in the Fox Valley Community Centre. It was a fun night for both the Year 11 students and the families who attended. We’re so grateful to the Home and School team for organising an incredible event and providing the Year 11 students an opportunity to fundraise for their outreach trip.

Combining with other sister Adventist schools from Sydney at the Dayspring Church, Castle Hill, for a Day of Worship where the students enjoyed music and a chapel service led by Pastor Leighton Heise who challenged the students to not let the world define their identity, but rather, allow to God to lead. The day long program included a worship concert where each school contributed a special item with our school orchestra performing, “Goodness of God”, conducted by Mrs Kristina Vuceski, Head of Music.

Looking to the future, our Chaplaincy team have much to be excited about. In Week 9 our Year 6 cohort will take the leadership reins for the annual Primary School Week of Worship with drama, music and activities they have planned. In a few weeks Year 10 students will travel to Tasmania for the inaugural StormCo Trip (StormCo stands for ‘Service to Others Really Matters’). Students will have the lived experience of serving a community as individuals and a team, a valuable experience for any student.

As a Chaplaincy Team we thank you for your continued support & prayers. Blessings to all of our school community and we look forward to seeing you at the The Wired program tonight at Fox Valley Community Centre between 7pm and 8.30pm.

Pr Nick Kross - Head Chaplain on behalf of the Chaplaincy Team

Wellbeing

Digital Wellbeing

We all know that our digital wellbeing is important. Ours is a new generation built on the power of digital technology. Helping them to navigate this safely is something we are committed to, and we would like to share some tips with you from esafety.gov.au.

Promote respectful communication

Encourage your child to use the same positive manners and behaviour they would use offline, understanding that others may have different cultures, backgrounds or points of view. If it is not OK to say or do something face to face, it is not OK online. Remind them to avoid responding to negative messages and to tell you or another trusted adult if they receive them. Tell them it is OK to report others who are not being nice. Emphasise the positives. For example, ‘I know what a kind and respectful person you are, and it makes me so proud to see you acting the same way when you're online. You are such a great friend — I can see how much everyone looks up to you at school.’

Encourage empathy

Help your child to imagine being in someone else’s shoes, so they can relate to diverse opinions and understand what might make people behave in different ways. For example, you might say something like: ‘I noticed that Sam seemed a bit sad when she came over yesterday. Have you noticed anything? What do you think is wrong? Would that make you sad? What can we do to help?’

Teach them to question

Encourage your child to think critically about what they see online. Teach them to ask questions so they can identify content or messages that may be misleading or exploitative. Talk to them about ‘fake news’, or false information that is designed to look like a trustworthy news report, and how quickly it can spread on social media. Teach them to fact check news sources and do their own independent searches on issues, so they can see the variety of opinions on a particular issue and make up their own mind.

Remind them to be careful when making new friends online as people may not be who they say they are. We are increasingly seeing ‘Finstas’ (fake Instagram accounts) and other impersonation accounts. It is important to question whether what they are seeing online from their friends is real or not. If it seems out of character, it could be from a fake account. Alert your child to the dangers of meeting someone in person that they have been talking to online. Advise them to never arrange to meet an online friend unless a trusted adult is with them, and it is during the day in a public space. Alert your child to the dangers of meeting someone in person that they have been talking to online. Advise them to never arrange to meet an online friend unless a trusted adult is with them, and it is during the day in a public space. Refer to our advice on avoiding grooming and unwanted contact.

Encourage safe and responsible behaviour

Work on achieving a healthy balance in your child’s online and offline activities and set boundaries for digital device use in your home. Find out how in screen time. Remind your child of the importance of safeguarding personal information that can be used to identify or locate them. Explain why they should be suspicious of unsolicited messages and emails and avoid clicking on pop-up ads on websites. Some pop-ups that seem safe can lead to inappropriate sites or ask for personal or financial information. Find out more in parental controls.

Help them configure the strongest privacy settings on all the social media apps and sites they use. It is best that only their circle of friends can view their information, tag them in a photo or share posts. And get them to check their settings regularly as updates can sometimes change them back to the default. Read more about privacy settings in The eSafety Guide. Ensure your child uses strong passwords on devices and accounts, and explain the importance of not sharing passwords, even with friends. See identity theft for advice on setting strong passwords. Find more advice in privacy and your child.

Help them build resilience

Keep your cool if your child experiences a negative experience online. Remember, the choices they make as they navigate difficult situations can help them learn. Our 2017 ‘State of Play’ research shows round six in ten young people were able to identify some positive impacts from a negative online experience. Remind your child that they can screen who they accept as online ‘friends’. Make sure they know how to block and report users or pages on the sites they use.

If they have a negative online experience, find out how they are feeling about it, offer support and encourage them to keep things in perspective at the same time. For example, you might say: ‘What that person has done is not OK. They must be feeling pretty bad about themselves to treat you like this. How are you feeling? Let's block them to stop their messages coming through.’ Build your child’s confidence and encourage positive ways of thinking — looking on the bright side, thinking rationally, understanding that difficult times are a part of life but there is help and support available.

The best place to get help and advice about digital wellbeing for your children is esafety.gov.au. You can also report online abuse of any kind on the website. It is important that you do this and encourage your children to.

Mrs Jenny Sharkie - Wellbeing Advocate

Upcoming Events

Calendar of Upcoming School Events

You can access the list of upcoming School events via the link below. The School Calendar is also available under the Parent Information tab on the School website.

Term Dates for 2024

Please click on the link below to view the school term dates and public holiday information for 2024.

Whole School News

Volunteers Needed for Exam Support

Cammerata Strings

The Camerata Strings group competed in the Sydney Eisteddfod in the Premier Division for school string orchestras performing the pieces Molly on the Shore by Percy Grainger and Mozart's Divertimento no. 3. Ably conducted and prepared by parent mentor Mrs Jameson, the students were thrilled to be able to take part in this honourable competition. The sense of satisfaction in practising for the performance was as valuable as the performance itself.