Newsletter Term 3, Week 7 28 Aug 2020

With increased usage comes greater risks to our girls doing schooling online. Worldwide, cybercrime experts report that there has been an increase in opportunities presented by the COVID-19 lockdown for young people to be exploited. At Strathcona, we are lucky enough to have our expert in digital safety and learning - Ms Michelle Dennis, oversee our students’ digital learning. Under her guidance, Strathcona has continued to adapt and enhance these complex programs to create opportunities for the girls to learn how they can use the internet safely on all devices during online learning periods. To complement this program, Michelle has created a webinar specifically for parents on how to establish and encourage safe and meaningful online practices for their daughters which focuses on awareness and prevention. Please take the time to watch this important and very relevant presentation with your daughters, and do not hesitate to contact the school for further advice.

The eSafety Commissioner is hosting webinars in September, on the eSafety's parent guide to popular apps. It is being held online on the following dates:

• Tuesday 8 September 12.30pm
• Wednesday 9 September 7.30pm
• Thursday 10 September 12.30pm

You will need to register for these webinar here https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/9112156844257168398

 *https://globalinitiative.net/keeping-children-safe-online-during-lockdown/

Mrs Lucinda Thom, Head of Students - Pastoral and Wellbeing

This has been a very different year for us to focus on the mission of Service and Social Justice, but there have been opportunities that have been taken up, and in many ways, the service has been more personal and meaningful.

The Year 7 girls have been sewing Quilts for Kids. This is a not for profit organisation that gives blankets to refugee families new to Australia.

Many girls in the Middle School started writing letters to the residents of Inala Aged Care during the first lockdown and the residents and the girls have continued this letter writing to each other.

At Year 9 the girls are continuing with their Duke of Edinburgh service, Baking for their neighbours, and continuing with their SOUL SISTERS program, a developing wellbeing program with the Year 4 girls.

Last year Tay Creggan students generously volunteered with the Rotary Club of Canterbury to pack meal kits to be used in disaster relief. This project is called FORaMEAL. Because of COVID and changes in government, Rotary were not able to despatch the last shipment that the girls packed of FORaMEALto the Phillipines. However, a new need has arisen closer to home.

In Melbourne, many refugee families are experiencing food shortages due to reduced employment opportunities in these times of restrictions. Through agencies such as Victorian Multicultural Commission and Refugees Communities Association, they have established a network to arrange deliveries of FORaMEAL to families in need. Deliveries have already begun and you may see publicity surrounding this project soon. So, the efforts of Year 9, 2019 students have found their way to assisting refugee families here and now.

Hopefully, the girls will be able to continue to support Servants Community Housing in Hawthorn with the cooking of slices when we return to campus.

A group of girls in Year 10 are the first Strathcona participants in the Youth In Philanthropy - the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation. Our Year 10 committee has been given the opportunity to select three charities from a list of pre-approved organisations working within the impact area that they have selected.  The committee will then consider applications from these three charities and conduct on-line site visits to learn more about their work. With the assistance of the coordinator and coach, the committee will undertake research and analysis of the grant applications before approving the grant.

The senior girls have also been supporting the THOR Dobolobo project by hand sewing sanitary items for women in New Guinea.

Whilst not able to visit the School of St Jude in Tanzania this year as planned, monies already raised by the girls and staff, will be forwarded to the school.

A whole school approach for Service and Social Justice is well underway and will be implemented in 2021 and Service tours are planned that will broaden our students world view. Service-learning opportunities will also be an experience of these tours and will be directed by the elders of the area we visit.

Participation in Service and Social Justice allows our students to develop values such as integrity, empathy, responsibility and respect; values that resonate with our School’s values  of social inclusion and cohesion for all, and our mission of increasing life opportunities for disadvantaged members of our community. Such experiences also provide opportunities to problem solve, research, collaborate and learn decision making skills that benefit others.

In closing, here are two links that you may like to watch as a family and support:

The first is for the Daffodil Day Appeal - which is today. www.daffodilday.com.au

Here's a link to Strathcona’s fundraising page, or you may like to donate directly. 

The second is for a Baptist School in Beirut. This was brought to my attention by the mother-in-law of a staff member who felt so very moved when she saw the devastation. Please consider how you might respond. We are in a ‘declared state of disaster’, but these people have lost everything.

https://mebo.org/helpbeirut/There is a YouTube clip on this site that does contain some graphic scenes following the aftermath of the explosion.

Mrs Jenni Farmilo, Deputy Principal

Minister for Education James Merlino introduced child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg for a webinar on Tuesday 25 August – and following high demand, a second will be held, Tuesday 15 September – aimed at providing parents and carers with practical skills, knowledge and strategies for managing the lockdown period and remote learning.

The webinars will focus on strategies and tools to help families manage their wellbeing, including establishing a supportive parental role and dealing with uncertainty and disappointment. Families will have an opportunity to ask Dr Carr-Gregg questions.

The Government has also partnered with Raising Children Network and funded a 10-episode podcast called ‘Raising Learners’ featuring parenting experts from organisations including the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Career Education Association Victoria and eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant.

Raising Learners will provide parents with practical advice, tips and ideas for supporting children’s health, wellbeing and engagement at school. Topics will include connecting with your child’s school community, how to best support your child’s learning, what to expect for VCE and VCAL students and how to keep your child safe online.

These themes were drawn from common parent questions received by the Department’s coronavirus hotline and Parentline. The first three episodes will be launched on 1 September, the remaining episodes will be available throughout Term 3 and 4. Raising Learners will be available via Raising Children Network and podcast apps.

Following an unprecedented response with more than 12,000 registrations, a second webinar will now be held on Tuesday 15 September at 7.30pm.

Places are still available for Managing the Coronacoaster – Tips for building resilient families webinar on Tuesday 15 September at 7.30pm. For more information and to register, visit: eventbrite.com

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/online-wellbeing-support-families

Congratulations to the Year 9 team who won their debate on the issue of ‘Banning private gun ownership’ by one close point! To Strathcona 1 in Year 11, congratulations for the four point win on their most recent secret topic debate, and to Anjelica Dimitriou for her recognition as best speaker.

While Year 12 debates are beginning to become more challenging, the Year 12 debaters are very proud to be mentoring the junior division of Year 7 and 8 students. With four teams of junior debaters mentored by students with years of debating experience, we wish them all the best on their first debate of the year next Monday.

As their season begins, the senior debate season ends, with only one debate left for those in Years 9-12 and we wish them well!

Harshitha Bharaneedharan, Debating Captain

In this week's edition, you will find the following information on:

• Dates to Diarise in Term 3
• Five Australian Universities Ranked in World's Top 50
• News from RMIT University
  • RMIT Pathways Guaranteed
  • New Bachelor of Business Innovation and Enterprise
• What is Land Surveying?
• Difference between osteopaths, physiotherapists, and chiropractors?
• News from Monash University
  • Business at Monash means Choice and Flexibility
  • Diploma Courses offered at Monash
• Snapshot of Chisholm Institute in 2020
• Graphic, Interior & Visual Design Degrees in Victoria in 2020
• Performance Degrees in Victoria in 2020

Please click here for this week's Career News. To visit the the Careers page or view previous versions of Careers News click here.

If your children are looking for a new book to read they can choose from thousands of ebooks in our digital library, which is always open for borrowing.

Our Wheelers Books eplatform brings ebooks to students wherever they are.

Mrs Mandy McAuliffe, Library Technician

This year, the entrepreneurial journey for our Year 9 creators has been incredibly authentic. In addition to creating their business, they have had to make objective decisions about how their product can reach a consumer, about whether their product can compete in an open, online marketplace and they have had to be certain that their product achieves consumer standards. This should not be underestimated nor the learning undervalued. For several groups, whose products have not reached market stage yet, it has been an incredibly frustrating experience. These moments also provide valuable teaching moments. We now invite the school community to visit our Envision Marketplace, browse our products and make some purchases if you like what you see. Credit must be given to both Ms Liesl Woods who has undertaken much of the Envision online planning and Mr Tim Churchward who has assisted us in numerous ways to deliver an online marketplace.

https://envision.melbourne/

Password: taycreggan

In our second Wellbeing session this week, all Year 9 students have viewed a Nutrition and Body Image interview conducted by our School Psychologist Kerri Rhodes with Fiona Sutherland, who describes herself as a Non-Diet Dietitian, Body-inclusive health practitioner and Yoga Teacher from Melbourne. Fiona's business, the Mindful Dietitian, promotes mindful eating and self-compassion and advocates non-diet strategies to achieve a healthy lifestyle. She reinforced many important messages, including the need to establish sensible routines for eating, and encouraging the girls to re-assess their responses to social media with regards to eating, and what is 'normal'. 

On a daily basis, I am reminded of our Year 9's strength, as well as their fragility and I am grateful for the support of Year 9 staff and families as we continue together.

Best wishes,

Mrs Karyn Murray, Head of Tay Creggan

On Wednesday morning, to mark Science Week, the Year 9 girls were lucky to have the chance to meet Mandy Robertson from the Dolphin Research Institute (DRI) on the Mornington Peninsula. Mandy, who is originally from the UK, spent several years in medical research and then as a science teacher. After she finished teaching, she moved to the Mornington Peninsula where her passion for the outdoors grew. She started small at first, working at a clean water foundation and then eventually landed at the Dolphin Research Institute in 2011 where her incredible work began.

The DRI is a not-for-profit organisation that has over 25 years of dolphin research. The DRI are concerned with pollution control, catchment management, public education, and of course the dolphins and whales in Victoria. There are approximately 120 bottlenose dolphins and 40 common dolphins resident in Port Phillip Bay. They recognise each dolphin through fin identification, computer databases, and surveys. Additionally, there is a migrating population of humpback and southern right whales that come into the bay. The organisation is also concerned with the pollution and climate change in Victoria and develops wildlife regulations to protect these wonderful creatures.

Overall, the Year 9’s thoroughly enjoyed Mandy’s presentation and became more aware of the resident marine mammals in Victoria and the amazing work the DRI do to protect our marine wildlife. Many thanks to Head of Science, Mr Hamilton and our Science teacher, Mrs Cash for organising the web-talk.

Tamanna Bharaneedharan, Year 9 student

Our Year 6 girls begin their transition program next week. This program is designed to prepare the girls for their journey to Year 7 and coordinating the program is Ms Liesl Woods who is the Year 7 Coordinator in 2021. Liesl has worked at Strathcona for 10 years in a variety of roles including: Head of Outdoor Education, Acting Head of Physical Education, Year 9 Envision program coordinator, Duke of Ed Coordinator and a coach of various sports within the PE department. She is passionate about the health and wellbeing of our students and has rich experience in developing programs around team-building and leadership. She is looking forward to meeting and working with the 2021 Year 7’s to help them enjoy and flourish in their first year in Senior School.

I hope you can enjoy some sunshine this weekend.

Ms Lisa Miller, Head of Junior School

One of the issues confronting parents may be the amount of screen time their daughters are exposed to and possibly are insisting they need.

Earlier in the year, Andrew Fuller, Clinical Psychologist, presented to Strathcona parents and he has prepared some further information addressing how parents can approach the issue of screen time. This article presents some information about why young people are drawn to screen based activities, common parent traps in managing associated limits on use, and some suggested approaches.

Ms Kerri Rhodes, Senior School Psychologist

Here is a sample of the podcast. To listen to the full podcast, download Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts and search Girls Unstoppable.