End of Year Program

The 2020 ‘End of Year Program’ will begin on Friday 4 December with a CARE Carnival in the afternoon and will continue an alternative educational program until Wednesday 9 December. All assessment will be finalised by Friday 27 November with catch ups and feedback in the following week.

Year 9 Dinner Dance cancelled

Due to COVID restrictions this annual event has been cancelled. We are looking to plan an end of year celebration at school for Year 9 students to mark their finishing up in the Junior Secondary School.

Contact Details update

Parent/Caregivers are required to update contact details for our OneSchool student profiles including:

• change of address, phone, email, emergency contacts
• medical updates
• Court Custody orders

Attendance

The PBC attendance target is 92%. Congratulations to our Junior Secondary students:

Year 7 - 91.8%      Year 8 - 89.6%     Year 9 – 87.3%

All student attendance is monitored daily and parents/caregivers will receive attendance letters for any child that has had 5 or more unexplained absences. An unacceptable attendance record may lead to disciplinary actions as per the Parent Compulsory Schooling Obligation – Failure to attend 178(2) of the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006.

Holidays

What should I do if our family is going on a holiday in school time?
Regular school attendance will mean that your child has a better chance in life. Your child will achieve better when they go to school all day, every school day.  You are encouraged not to schedule holidays during school time. If your family circumstances dictate that your student must attend a holiday is during school time, please let the Attendance Officer know the absence dates at least 2 weeks prior to the holiday.  Email the details to absences@pbc-shs.eq.edu.au .

Social Media

Parents and caregivers play an important role in helping children to develop digital intelligence — the social, emotional and practical skills needed to successfully navigate the digital world.

Is your child spending too much time online? On average young people in Australia make use of 5 different social media services. That can add up to a lot of time spent online or checking their phone. Social media services also send notifications all the time, which are designed to bring your child back online and using the service.

E-safety Tips

• Turn off notifications for your social media apps
• Monitor or limit your phone use
• When you do check your child’s phone
• https://www.esafety.gov.au/report/cyberbullying

We thank parent/caregivers for your support in Year 7 and 8 students not using a mobile phone before school, in class or during lunch breaks.

Student tips for protecting your digital identity

Google yourself

Google yourself and see what comes up. Put your name in quotations and add the city you live. For example, ‘Tom Smith’ + Sydney. Check things out from the perspective of a potential employer and ask yourself, ‘do I want these things to remain public?’

Check your privacy settings

If you find a few random photos or posts that are publicly available and you didn’t think they were, it’s a good time to change your privacy settings. Check out the eSafety Guide to find out more about the privacy settings for particular social media platforms and how to change them.

Say no to posts or photos

You may have heard the saying ‘if it isn’t on social media it didn’t happen’ but we know that this is not true. Opt out of photos or ignore tag requests if you want to protect your digital reputation.

Get posts/photos/videos taken down

If the posts are from someone else and you’re tagged in them — try to un-tag yourself or ask the person who posted them to take them down.

Think before you post, like or follow something

Make sure that the pages, groups, photos, tweets or videos you like, follow subscribe to or comment on, are true reflections of you and actually things you want to be associated with. Remember, a potential employer may not know that you’ve liked a page or uploaded a photo as a joke or understand its wider context.

As the saying goes, if in doubt, don’t post it!

Staying Connected

Visit the PBC website www.pbc-shs.eq.edu.au for:

• Fortnightly Parent Newsletters
• Term 4 Assessment Calendar
• Staff emails (check teacher codes on your child’s timetable) then staff email list support parentsupport@pbc-shs.eq.edu.au
• Join PBC Facebook@PalmBeachCurrumbinStateHigh, PBC Instagram @pbcshs and PBC Alliance www.pbc-alliance.com