Australian Education Awards

I’d like to congratulate our Junior School Art teacher, Danielle Searles, who has just been shortlisted as one of Australia’s top educators in the Australian Education Awards. We are all very proud of Danielle and the wonderful work she has done for our school since joining us. Read more about Danielle’s achievement here.

Learning Beyond the Classroom

Over the past fortnight, our students have experienced a range of important lessons which have been held beyond the classroom. At Casey Grammar we understand the importance of co-curricular experiences. Much time and effort goes into providing these lessons to our students.

Through these events students learn more about leadership, responsibility, cooperation, teamwork, independence, resilience and empathy. The students learn how to win and how to lose. They experience how to be a contributing member of a team or of a community. They have character building experiences which provide vital life skills.

These events don’t just happen. There are many, many hours of work completed behind the scenes for these activities to go ahead. On top of their teaching commitments, staff organise these events by completing risk assessments and implementing risk management strategies for each activity, completing logistics, communicating the details to all stakeholders, preparing the students and finally, giving up their own time (often out of hours) to supervise and teach their students beyond the classroom.

I am grateful to the teachers who have worked so hard to ensure our students have these wonderful experiences. Here is a list of activities held beyond the classroom over the last fortnight:

Year 9 (five day) city experience

Year 4 city camp

Year 5 camp

SS cross country carnival

SS SIS public speaking competition

SS Debating Association of Victoria (DAV) interschool debating

Unit 3 drama ensemble performances

SS play rehearsals for Puffs

SS House Athletics carnival

JS Assembly presentation by Foundation L

SS SIS weekly sports,

Year 6 sport

Excursions to provide hands-on experiential learning were conducted for the following classes: Unit 3 Health and Human Development, Unit 3 Media Studies, Unit 3 Outdoor Ed, Year 3 radio excursion, VCE drama excursion, Unit 3 Economics, Unit 3 Business Management and Unit 3 Visual Communication and Design.

I also extend my gratitude to the team of teachers who have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure our wellbeing dog Buddy has been successfully incorporated into the school.

I am also extremely grateful for the service provided to the school by the Parents and Friends Committee. They are always on hand at school events providing support to our students and the wider community. This week they have organised the Mother’s Day stall for Junior School students and held a very successful Mother’s Day morning tea.

Thank you to everyone who has gone above and beyond to provide these wonderful experiences.

Fiona Williams

Principal

Cyber Safety Project

It is such a shame that the words ‘social media’ are nearly always accompanied by stories of anti-social language, and attitudes in the media and generally, in public discourse. I believe there are several reasons for this. Firstly, our media environment (both mainstream/legacy media, and social media itself) is largely funded by ‘clicks’ and other signs of engagement which, in turn, is driven by conflict and outrage. This will naturally give prominence to such stories. Secondly, humans have evolved to have a negativity bias, which is assumed to have originally been an adaptive evolutionary function to keep us safe, and so we are likely to notice worrying stories to a greater extent than wholesome ones, even if they were equally numerous. The reason I described this situation as a shame is that social media can be lots of fun, and often is, but we rarely hear about pro-social use of social media even though it probably happens thousands of times every day.

Of course, there are dangers in navigating the online world and this is a very difficult area in which to help young people. As mentioned in the last newsletter, we have partnered with Cyber Safety Project to share with you the latest digital habits of young people. We will explore social media and gaming, and give you the resources, tools and skills to be able to help your child to manage their own digital safety and prepare for their future. We encourage families to consider attending this free parent seminar on Monday 3 June. To book your attendance please click here.

Dr Robert Jacob

Deputy Principal and Head of Wellbeing