From the P&F Association
Mid Term 1 update
We are midway through Term 1 and the P&F Community continues to buzz with activity.
The first P&F General Meeting for 2023 was held on 13 February. It was great seeing a large number of parents attending the session, interacting, and hearing about what’s planned for 2023. We also like to thank Luiz Ramalho (Director of Sport and Co-curricular Activities) for presenting his vision for sports and activities at the College.
The interaction continues with many Year Group parent catch-ups being planned. Invitations to the catch-ups have been sent from your year parent representatives via the P&F WhatsApp and from the school via email. We encourage all parents to attend as this is a wonderful opportunity to meet other parents and reconnect with friends.
If you don’t have access to your P&F WhatsApp Year Group, please reach out to your parent year representatives or complete the online form to ‘Join Groups’ on Veritas Online.
Other activities
- We were excited to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 with a Dinner on 8 March at Le Montage.
- The P&F will be assisting the College with the Discovery Tours on 10 March – showcasing College for future parents and students
Joseph Gittani
P&F President
Mother’s Day Volunteers needed
The P&F will be organising the annual Mother’s Day stall on Tuesday 9 May 2023. The stall allows students from Mary Bailey House, Primary Years and Gioia House the opportunity to purchase gifts for their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, carers and/or any special mother figure in their lives.
We are looking for volunteers to help with Mother’s Day gift wrapping. This will take place in the Del Monte Hall from 8:30am to 1:00pm, Tuesday 28 March. This is a great opportunity to mingle with other carers in our community whilst wrapping gifts for the stall. Morning tea and lunch will be provided so if you can spare an hour, two hours or the whole day we would love to see you! We cannot run these events for the students without the highly valued support of our community. If you are able to volunteer in any way please fill out the below Google form by Friday 24 March.
For any queries please contact Houda Taouk – 0406 711 664.
We thank you for your support – volunteer here.
Marie Gebrael, Houda Taouk and Meaghan Aldridge-Chow
The Mother’s Day stall committee 2023
Equality and Equity… For All
Parent education from Deb Brodowski
Wednesday 8 March is International Women’s Day. It’s a global day that focuses on the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, and other social issues surrounding women.
The theme for International Women’s Day for 2023 is ‘Embrace Equity’. This is such an important message for our young people, not only for International Women’s Day, but also as a community; of Santa Sabina, of Dominican values, for all.
Embracing equity is a means of creating a world where this is equality for all. Why is this important for our young people? Equity recognises that some people are less fortunate and are not in the same ‘starting position’ as others; this could be because of historical and social disadvantages some groups face. Helping create equity can be a wonderful stepping stone for creating equality in our community.
How do we foster equity with our young people? A key skill we can help foster is to acknowledge and address our unconscious biases.
Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that we form at an unconscious level. It is not in our control, as it happens automatically. It is usually triggered by our brain making a quick judgment on someone. We all have certain unconscious beliefs about different kinds of people and groups that they belong to. This is because our brain needs to process so much information so quickly; it tries to form short cuts.
Unconscious biases can be unhelpful as they can exclude others, unfairly judge others, and therefore do harm to others. By helping address our unconscious biases with our young people at a young age, we can help create a more equitable world. One well-researched way we can do this is through the SELF-model of addressing unconscious biases:
Slow: Help your young person down their thinking especially when making important decisions. Being put under pressure or feeling anxious leads us to make quick and sometimes regrettable decisions.
Empathise: Teach your young person to empathise with others. Talk a proverbial walk in their shoes. How are they likely to be feeling?
Learn: With your young person, learn about different cultures. Learn about different traditions, norms and values of other cultures. Be curious rather than judgemental. This can help prevents making cultural faux pas.
Find evidence: Support your young person in finding evidence against stereotypes. Support them in being curious around breaking down stereotypes and being inclusive.
