The JSS recently conducted the Year 8 into Year 9 Information Evening. It was very pleasing to see the Performing Arts Centre almost full with students, parents, carers and guardians, eager to understand the process of selecting subjects for Year 9. The second purpose for the evening was to present some information regarding online behaviour of youth around the world. The amount of screen time as well as the impacts on mental health, sleep and general wellbeing is of concern to educators and the broader community. Whilst there are clear benefits to living in a hyper-connected world, it is important that the broader implications are also understand as some of this is quite obviously negative. A summary of the upcoming introduction of age restrictions for social media was also discussed. All of our Junior School students will have their accounts blocked on significant platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Discord. Whilst we will remain concerned with supporting our students where problems arise with their social media use, it will be in the context that the use of such sites is actually against the law.
The Junior School students recently enjoyed a performance of ‘The Flipside’ from Brainstorm Productions. This incursion dealt with some of the issues raised in the Year 8 Parent Information Evening, and in particular the way in which student produced content, made for entertainment and then posted to social media, can in fact have a life of its own. This content can end up in places where the content creator has no control. This can have severe unforeseen impacts, and the loose threads of such content are almost impossible to track down. The production was a cautionary tale and also modelled the sort of behaviour we would expect from our students in the event of such social media content. Our message to students is that what you put online is there forever, and if you don’t want your grandmother to read it, don’t post it.
Finally, we wish all our students and families the very best for the September holidays. The weather is finally warming up and is inviting us all to get outside a bit more and enjoy the sunshine.
Mr Craig Moore – Junior Sub School Leader