Wellbeing at Oxley
We enjoyed welcoming the first of our external workshops in the Wellbeing space last week with Dave Smith from ySafe presenting to all students from Years 5-9. While each presentation was curated for age and stage, he covered topics including safe online behaviours, the role of influencers and influences online, use of AI (and the challenges of AI companions), responsible use of technology, screen time, the impact and meaning of the Government ban on Social Media for young people under 16 and how to look out for yourself and others in a digital world. Dave also presented to all Oxley teaching staff about challenges and opportunities in the digital space and how to keep our young people safe. We then hosted an online webinar for parents presented by Lou from ySafe to help with understanding the digital space, and setting boundaries for young people and their devices. We thank everyone who took the time to attend and hope it was an educational experience for you. For anyone who missed this, you are able to access our safety hub (https://oxley.onlinesafetyhub.com.au/) which is hosted by ySafe and has a plethora of information if you are looking for advice about programmes or guidance around any aspect of the digital world.
On 3 April, we look forward to hosting Daniel Merza who will be holding ‘Beat Bullying’ workshops with students from Years 5- 9, as well as a workshop for our student leaders (this will include SRC, Peer Support Leaders and Year 12 Leaders) as we look to educate students around bullying issues, empower them to be upstanders and to continue building a positive student community.
Throughout the year we will see more speakers including Brent Sanders who speaks with Year 9 – 12 students in an age- and stage- appropriate way around the law and consent. The workshops are designed for students to understand legal definitions, strategies for looking after themselves and each other as well as reporting systems that are in place.
On December 1 Paul Dillon will be coming to speak with Years 9 – 12 regarding risk taking, vaping, alcohol and drugs. He presents information in line with the PDHPE syllabus, highlighting potential harms and impacts, protective factors and keeping yourself and others safe.
I highly encourage parents to also look at his information page for parents https://darta.net.au/education-and-training/school-communities/information-for-parents/ which involves some podcasts and blog posts about how to have difficult conversations on these topics with your young people and, in other cases, may give you as parents more up to date information about the issues young people are facing. There are excellent blog posts https://doingdrugs-darta.blogspot.com/ around how to artfully manage young people who want independence in their social lives but also still need some degree of monitoring from you while their frontal cortex is developing. They really need you if they are sure they don’t!
For those in search of other resources ReachOut.com has a wonderful parent portal https://parents.au.reachout.com/ with resources around all aspects of young peoples’ lives (mental health, ADHD, bullying, social media, friendships to name a few) with not only articles of interest but also practical advice about how to have conversations on difficult topics as well as information on support services you can access.
As always while there are many resources listed above, we are always here to help and support students and families in our community. If you have questions, concerns or just need some reassurances, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Mentor, Head of House, School Psychologist or myself as needed. The more we work together to gain positive outcomes for our young people, the greater success we will have.
Kind regards
Ms Genevieve Whiteley
Director of Students 7-12