It has been a big start to the year for the Middle Years. New students to the College in each year level, some new teachers taking on some of our elective classes and we welcome a whole new cohort of Year 5s into the fold.

In the first week, we were lucky to have our Adopt-a-Cop present to all students about cyber-safety and creating good habits online. It was wonderful to see the students interacting so well with Lindsay and the questions came thick and fast at the end of each session.

Just a reminder for parents as we settle back into the rhythm of school that we all need to help students establish safe habits in a digital world. Children are extremely trusting when it comes to online contact and this can easily create unsafe situations, over-sharing and privacy issues. In protecting your child online, please review the tips below:

• Start having a conversation about privacy.
  • It is important that cyber safety education begins early. Hence the reason we are having all students in the Middle Years engaging with sessions in this space. Discuss with your child the reasons for age-appropriate content, the need for age restrictions, and explain the risks in an age-appropriate way.
• Encourage children to think before they share.
  • Children will often feel pressure to share their thoughts, feelings, and images online. Often this occurs through game platforms, and it is not just restricted to social media. Most students are becoming aware of the term digital footprint. Encourage them to seek advice if they ever feel unsure about whether they should share something online. They can always turn the device off without responding.
• Update privacy settings.
  • Children should know about privacy settings and who can access their personal information online. Applications that share the current location of users are dangerous and children should not activate these elements of their social media platforms. As children update applications, the privacy settings can often reset so it is important that students check their settings to maintain appropriate levels of privacy.
• Read through the privacy policies with your child.
  • Most students are not aware of who owns the information they post online. Many are students naïve in this area. Don’t just click Agree – check the fine print.
• Manage Passwords.
  • Strong and secure passwords are essential in maintaining privacy. Students will often not enable passwords on their personal devices or will share passwords with others. Simply using your birthday is not ideal, especially if people know this information. Passwords should never be shared online.
• Encourage respectful behaviour online.
  • When online, students should conduct themselves in the same way as the would in real life. Cyber issues still have real world consequences. If you wouldn’t share it or say it in real life … don’t do it online.
• What do I do if something goes wrong?
  • Following the tips will help minimise the issue. But if something does go wrong it is important that children speak with a trusted adult. Together you can seek solutions, such as, blocking users or deleting apps, or even contacting the office of the eSafety Commissioner for more extreme matters.

When it comes to being safe online, remember that prevention is better than cure.

Headspace 

All Middle Years students have now set up a Headspace account. This platform provides a wonderful bank of resources for parents and students for dealing with all matters relating to mental fitness. I encourage parents to speak to their child about the website, and even peruse some of the materials on their so that we can all start talking about issues that are negatively impacting our young people. We are also hosting a parent and carer session later this month with a representative from Headspace – I encourage all parents and carers to come along and engage in the conversations on this evening.

Extracurricular Activities

Gettings involved in extra-curricular activities is a great way to make friends and feel part of the College community.  The College has a lot of extra-curricular activities coming up. Mr Lincoln has placed sign up sheets outside his office. I encourage all students to walk past and check out what is on offer. We also have a musical this year. Whilst your child may not wish to be cast, perhaps they would like to help out behind stage and form part of the backstage crew. Miss Creeley would be the best contact for matters involving the Culture domain at the College.

Assessment and Drafting

Why students should take drafting more seriously.

Drafting is an important part of the writing process, however, I often hear students say “Well, it’s only the draft … that’ll do”. This is a dangerous mindset for students to possess.

Rarely does the first plan for anything end up being the best plan moving forward. Consequently, this may be the reason why some students feel like the draft of an assignment is of little value to the end product – how wrong hey are! Taking the drafting process seriously allows students to put their ideas on paper so they can rethink and rewrite them. By doing this they will be able to ask themselves whether the ideas they are presenting seem logical, whether their argument is clear, and where additional information and evidence is required.

Drafting is critical in terms of thinking the topic through; in fact, there are all sorts of questions students can ask themselves once they have written an initial draft. A draft also gives them something to show their teachers and to get vital feedback on.

Writing is a process that is made up of many steps. This process has been summarised in the diagram below. For some tasks, students will need to re-visit each step serval times as they refine their ideas and enhance the quality of their written work.

Before students start their work
The first step in writing is to get some ideas down without attempting to structure or order them. This process is often called free-writing. At this point students should not attempt to edit but rather keep the ideas flowing. Brainstorming and creating concept maps are examples of simply getting some ideas out of the brain and down onto paper.

Organising Ideas
Once the ideas are down, now it is time to evaluate those ideas and to decide which ones would be best to use moving forward. Students should always double check the assessment at this point to remain aligned with the task at hand. Box plans are one structured way of organising ideas that are commonly used in the Middle Years. I encourage students to continue this process until it becomes second nature.

The First Draft
At this point, students need to follow their plan and write the first edition of their work. It is important to focus on the main idea and ensure that these are highlighted to the reader in a clear and succinct way. This step should focus on ensuring that the writing flows and that the necessary evidence is supplied to support the student’s argument. The editing does not happen at this stage.

Reviewing
Feedback is vital. It is great to have another person’s perspective on your work … especially if that person is the one who will eventually mark the assessment item. Student’s should not fear feedback form their teachers. It’s gold!

Editing
All too often, students re-submit their draft without taking on-board any of the feedback from the teacher. There is no logic in that decision. Instead, it is one of sheer laziness. Just imagine if inventers never considered feedback or modified/edited their inventions. Remember the first version of the motor car, aeroplane and mobile phone?

How can parents help?
Parents have an important role to play in the development of their child’s work. Encourage them to see the draft as a vital step on the journey to success. Do not accept that an incomplete draft is satisfactory. Do not let them think that “near enough is good enough” and ask them to read their work out load. If you cannot understand it, or they cannot even read it smoothly, then there is a great chance that it needs to be adjusted. Due dates are also deadlines.

As controversial as this next point may seem, if you want more evidence that an edited version of a written piece of work is better than the original, then consider Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower and Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah. They were both superior to that of the originals composed by Bob Dylan and the great Lenny Cohen respectively.  

Craig Cullen

Assistant Principal Middle Years