Leaders of Student Wellbeing

The second half f the year has begun and our students have received their halftime ‘pep talk’ from their coaches (reports) and are now primed for an improved second half performance. Apologies, but being a PDHPE teacher, I’m always finding myself using sporting analogies with our Year 8’s to try and link school/life lessons to their own personal experiences. That being said, we can view this year as the game we are playing and how no matter what has occurred in the ‘first’ period, it can be learnt from, developed, enhanced, or changed to improve our ‘next’ period of play.

Personal, academic and spiritual development are all a lifelong journey, and even more so for our young people. To improve our second half, we need some reflection on our past performances (good and bad) and to think about what we can do to improve. This will see us potentially triumph in our future endeavors but if not, at least put us in a better place to handle them. So let's get out there and put some points on the board.

Apps, websites, games and social media are all rapidly creating new and exciting opportunities for our young people. In our roles as Leaders of Student Wellbeing for our year groups, we are often having discussions with parents with concerns about what their children are exposed to and whether the applications are safe or not. 

The eSafety Guide allows parents, carers and families to learn about the latest games, apps and social media platforms, including how to protect your information and report harmful content. (The guide is for information purposes only and inclusion does not imply eSafety endorses a service or platform.)

It’s a great start to look into your child's online habits which enables families to have more knowledge to discuss some of the things that are being used that are new, or may not be familiar. For example:

What is Threads?
Threads is a microblogging platform similar to Twitter that is developed by Meta. The app allows you to post messages of up to 500 characters and include links, photos and videos up to five minutes long.

What is ChatGPT and GPT-4?
ChatGPT and GPT-4 are artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots or large language models built by OpenAI, which allow people to interact in a conversational way. 

What is Twitch?
Twitch is an online streaming platform and social network where you can watch or broadcast live streams and pre-recorded videos, and chat with other users.