Dean of Students | Mr Damien Fall

Friday of this week is recognised as the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.  At Tuesday’s College Assembly, we spent some time outlining the important role every Terracian has in building positive relationships.  The theme of this federal government supported initiative this year is ‘Imagine a world without bullying’ and we have encouraged students to imagine a Terrace without bullying, then go about making it a reality.  The accepted definition for bullying is:

Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).

It is important to point out that single incidents of conflict, while considered serious and undesirable, are not considered to be bullying.  Some national statistics about bullying that are of interest include:

• 27% (one in four) of all Year 4 to Year 9 Australian students report being bullied every few weeks or more often
• Approximately one in five young school students report experiencing online bullying in any one year
• 32% of Year 5s and 29% of Year 8s report frequent school bullying
• In 87% of bullying interactions, peers are present as onlookers and play a central role in the bullying process
• 84% of students who were bullied online were also bullied in person

From this data, it is clear that this is an important topic; it’s no surprise that it is on the national agenda.  I recommend to parents the ‘Bullying No Way!’ website that has a number of useful resources, including advice for parents.  There is a link to the website below:

https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/NationalDay

The site is an excellent point of reference for information about bullying.  At our assembly, we also reminded students of the ‘Bullying Concerns’ button on the College website.  This allows students to make an anonymous report of their concerns.  Any reports are always followed up appropriately and in keeping with our mantra that ‘bystanders hold the key’ to solving issues of bullying, we strongly encourage students to speak out against unjust acts.  This is the link to the website page:  Bullying Concerns

At last Saturday’s Head of the River, we saw an enormous crowd supporting the rowers with great enthusiasm.  This continued the trend of term 1, in which our co-curricular participants were fortunate to enjoy fabulous support from their peers.  With exams commencing next week, I would expect that the number of supporters will fall away for the final rounds of sport as students turn their focus to giving their best academically.  It is critically important that exam preparation becomes the primary point of focus over the remaining days of this term. 
 
Finally, this Monday 19 March is St Joseph’s Day.  We will commence Monday with a liturgy and all students are expected to be in attendance.  This includes students from Years 11 and 12, whose exam block commences after the liturgy.  Even if a student does not have an exam on the day, he is expected to be in attendance to celebrate the Feast Day of our Patron Saint.  All the best to our students as exams commence.