To all parents and carers

The safety and wellbeing of our students in the highest priority for Foxwell State Secondary College community. I write seeking the support of our school community in helping us address some recent concerns, which have come to our attention. These concerns relate to the on-line behaviours of some of our young people, which have the potential to impact on their safety and wellbeing, both at school and at home.

Over the last week, we have been speaking with our students, as a whole cohort, regarding our concerns in an attempt to educate them in being responsible digital citizens who demonstrate respect and integrity.

We have been working through a number of incidents this week and have been directly communicating with families to resolve conflicts and to address unacceptable behaviours that have arisen. We appreciate the support we have received and the team approach we have built to support our young people to make better choices regarding their on-line behaviour.

As a community we acknowledge that technology plays a vital role in how young people maintain their friendships and communicate with those closest to them.

We know that young people are quick to take up the latest developments in technology and are often the first to know when something new comes along, whether it be new apps, websites or social media platforms. Once our young people become aware, they are prone to experiment with and experience these new developments. Our young people have access to the internet on many technological devices such as, but not limited to, their iPads, smartphones and gaming consoles.

Technology is no different to anything else a young person encounters. They will make mistakes, and we need to be able to support them through these experiences, arm them with the right information, and empower them to make the right choices.

While our young people are on-line, they might see content that is not age appropriate or be exposed to new concepts. This is particularly the case when our young people fail to access age-appropriate content. Some content being accessed may be illegal and inappropriate.  We are aware of cases of this within our community. It is important to prevent young people from accessing inappropriate material because it may be psychologically harmful.

It is important that we reinforce with our young people that illegal activities conducted online can be traced by police and the students may be held criminally responsible for their actions.

There are ways to reduce exposure to inappropriate content and the harm it may cause. Safe searching tips and parental controls may be useful. Please discuss safe internet use and talk to your child about what they should do if something upsets them online.

We need to help young people understand how to search safely, interact safely and where they can go to report prohibited content or seek support for inappropriate content they may come across.

Some tips, for parents/guardians, that may be helpful in keeping our young people safe include:

• keeping computers and devices in a central room of the house so adults can easily see what the young person is doing on-line;
• knowing all passwords for your child’s device and regularly checking what they are searching, sending or receiving. Ensure that you have established rules around retaining the search history;
• knowing where and when your child might have access to the internet (friend’s house, school or at home) and ensuring that this access is supervised;
• knowing who your child is talking to online;
• staying up-to-date and informed about the apps and sites your child may access;
• enacting parental controls and filters;
• ensuring that your child is not accessing sites that are illegal for their age, eg TikTok (13+), SnapChat (13+), Facebook (13+), Facebook Messenger (13+), Omeagle (18+), pornography (18+).

Educating our young people is important and focussing on the following elements in conversations with them may help to safeguard from potential on-line risks:

• using the most secure privacy setting for online accounts;
• knowing what information should never be shared online;
• only having people they know and trust as online friends or contacts;
• before they download and install an app, checking which features of the device (such as the GPS function) the app wants permission to access.

An area of recent concern for us is social media, apps, chat and messaging. Although these are excellent ways for young people to communicate online; they can also be perilous as students often engage with people they do not know or engage inappropriately with people they do know. On-line grooming and stalking are some of the things that can occur on these services, and parents and carers of young people need to be aware of this possibility. An open on-line environment such as a public chatroom means that anyone can participate in a conversation. One such app which has most recently come to our attention is Omeagle (an over-18 adult chat group).

Our young people are using direct messaging, instant messaging and chatrooms regularly. These forums can become the platform for grooming, cyber-bulling, threats of violence and sharing of inappropriate images and videos. It is important for our young people to remember that anything that is posted on-line can become permanent; can be copied and re-posted with or without the owner's knowledge and /or consent. Once something goes online, there is very little chance of deleting it completely. Many young people don’t realise that what they post online could impact their reputation in the future.

We all have a responsibility in maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our young people. As a school, we will act to investigate on-line behaviours of students which negatively impact the good order and management of the school. This is when the on-line conduct, threats or intimidation or abuse have created or are likely to create a risk within the school environment. We will also investigate behaviours which originate from the school premises during school hours. For some matters, we will involve the Queensland Police Service or other external agencies to assist. For matters occurring outside of school hours that do not have the potential to impact on the good order and management of the school or risk, or pose a threat to students or staff, we will not become involved, as this is a matter for parents to directly manage. Parents are able to involve agencies such as Queensland Police Service or make a report to the eSafety commissioner, https://www.esafety.gov.au/ if appropriate.

Can I urge you to take the online safety and wellbeing of your children seriously. We have been informed that this issue is of serious concern to the Queensland Police and is affecting all schools across the Gold Coast and broader area. The main age group of concern at present is children between 10 – 13 years of age. As you are aware, I take risks to our students seriously and do not ever wish to sweep issues under the carpet. We are responding with proactive and reactive strategies to this serious risk to the young people in our communities, and we ask you to assist us by being vigilant.

If you are seeking more information, an excellent source (and the source used to inform advice in this email) is the Australian Federal Police website https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/index.php/

Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact us. 

Kind regards

Kym Amor

Uniform Reminder: Hats

It is a school expectation that students wear a hat whenever they are outside their classroom which includes traveling to and from school, regardless of whether they are in the shade or in the open. The College hat forms an integral part of our College dress code. The formal wide brimmed hat is worn with the formal uniform, the house coloured bucket hat, with the sports uniform and the cap, with the Sporting Minds, uniform.

If students present to school without a hat and without a note of parent explanation, they will, as per the Foxwell Dress Code Policy, complete a 20-minute detention and will also need to remain in the shade for the duration of time outside of class.

If your child has lost their hat, please encourage them to check lost property in the office, to check their class and search home, if the search is not successful, please make arrangement to purchase another.

For further details of our Dress Code, please see attached PDF.

We appreciate your support in maintaining our College’s high expectations.

URGENT REMINDER: Upcoming ICAS Testing

What is ICAS?

ICAS Assessments are online assessments, designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. The assessments provide students an opportunity to have their achievements recognised

The assessments are based on the curricula for the relevant year. Students are asked to demonstrate a deeper, integrated, and thorough level of learning.

To ensure an engaging and beneficial experience for all students, new ICAS assessments are developed annually for each subject in every year level.

What are the benefits of participating in ICAS testing?

• Provide objective ranking of performance
• Encourage students to attain greater academic success
• Require students to think beyond the classroom
• Recognise student success through medals and certificates

When will ICAS testing occur?

Students participating in the listed Excellence Program, will participate in ICAS testing and the cost will be deducted from the program fees.

Who can participate?

At Foxwell SSC, students in the Excellence Programs of G-STEM, Creative Voices and Advanced Learner Program [ALP] are expected to participate in ICAS testing, as above. The cost of a single test for these students is accounted for within the Excellence Program fee structure, no additional payment required. In order to access this, payments for Programs of Excellence must be up to date. Should parents of Excellence Program students wish their child to participate in more than one test, it will be at their own expense. Please contact our Head of Department, Teaching and Learning – Danielle Goddaer dgodd2@eq.edu.au no later than Monday 17th August to make arrangements.

Should students outside the Excellence Programs wish to participate in ICAS testing, the cost is $15.95 /test.

Due to delayed processing time to open our school ICAS account, parents wishing their child to complete ICAS testing and whom are not in our Programs of Excellence, must contact our Head of Department, Teaching and Learning – Danielle Goddaer dgodd2@eq.edu.au no later than Monday 17th August to make arrangements.

We look forward to seeing just how well our students excel in this international competition.

At Foxwell State Secondary College we use the SharePoint application to communicate the Assessment and Learning Calendar with parents, carers and students. This has now been updated to reflect due dates for drafts and final assessments for this term.

Through SharePoint, the Assessment and Learning Calendar can be:

1. Downloaded as a printable version (schedule or calendar view)
2. Synced with personal native calendars
3. Checked regularly in real time.

When we refer to a native calendar, we are referencing any electronic calendar tool or applications used by an individual for the purpose of scheduling. For example, a native calendar may be Outlook, Apple Mail or Google Calendar.

SharePoint can be accessed as a webpage, or as a downloaded application. Parents, carers and students use student’s school email address to log in and access their notices. This is also known as a student’s school MIS ID. The following video provides instructions on how to sign in to SharePoint.

WIN Time continues across the term in The Learning Hub each morning and afternoon. If you think your child would benefit from extra one-on-one or small-group support with his/her learning, please encourage him/her to take advantage of this opportunity. Our teaching staff are happy to be guided by what your child needs or seeks in attending these sessions - a unique opportunity for students as they work towards their learning goals for the term. A reminder as to the session times and staff available:

As we move into the next phase of learning, which often includes preparing for assessment, students may be feeling overwhelmed or in need of some extra time with one of our teaching staff. If you are not sure if your child would benefit from accessing WIN Time, please contact the relevant class teacher. If your child has identified WIN Time as a possible strategy in working towards achieving learning goals when completing his/her Plan for Personal Accomplishment, a reminder to attend might be helpful.