Year 7-12 Pastoral Care

Wellbeing and academic resilience

Academic resilience is defined as the ability to effectively deal with setbacks, stress or pressure in the academic setting. Much has been researched, concluded and communicated around general resilience or life resilience over the last few years but less so on academic resilience. Nonetheless, the research that exists has found that the ability to ‘bounce back’ after academic disappointments, concerns or pressure is a signifier of academic success at school and beyond.

Last week our Year 9 and 10 students participated in their first mentor meeting as part of the Stage 5 academic mentoring program. Each student in Year 9 and 10 will meet with their academic mentor three times this year to discuss not only their goals and intentions but also to reflect on their assessment block performances, to prepare for subject selection and to build capacity with planning and organising their time. This is the second year of our Stage 5 mentoring program and in 2026 we hope to include the MYStrengths approach in the program for Year 10 who completed this program last year and Year 9 who will complete this in 2026. 

How can parents assist with eSafety for their children?

Following on from the College participation the eSafety Commission’s Safer Internet Day, the information and parent information sessions outlined below (shared with us by the eSafety Commission) aim to provide parents with skills and knowledge to ensure that your home and your child are internet safe and ready no matter what age they are.  

eSafety has reported on the initial stage of the social media delay for students under 16 years of age:

We know families are continuing to adjust to the Social Media Minimum Age changes introduced on 10 December 2025, which means many social media platforms must prevent Australians under 16 from having accounts. 

Early results are encouraging. eSafety’s initial monitoring shows major platforms restricted or removed access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children under 16 in the first half of December. Implementing fair and accurate age check processes will take time. If your under 16 still has access to social media accounts, you don’t have to wait for the platforms to act. You can:

• have a conversation with your child about the age restrictions, explaining they’re designed to help protect people their age 
• explore the FAQs, such as ‘How can I help my child prepare for losing social media accounts?’
• delete the apps with your child.

We also know that many of our children are users of the online game RoBlox. The eSafety Commission has provided important warnings and information parents should be aware of if their child uses this platform.  You can find this HERE.

eSafety has also created a wonderful resource called the gaming toolkit – a collection of easy‑to‑use resources designed to help you encourage your child to have these positive experiences, while helping to protect them from risks and exposure to harmful content.

Please take some time to access the government’s eSafety commission website for a range of very practical and up to date assistance for parents and their children. 

Melanie van der Meer
Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care