Keeping Students Safe After the Bell

As members of Staff at St Vincent’s College, we understand our duty of care as educators in nurturing our students’ overall well-being and character development – but how do we ensure that these lessons get carried through when they leave the school grounds at the end of the day?

It’s a challenge that has prompted the Eastern Suburbs School Leaders for Youth to organise After the Bell; the forum aims to create a dialogue and share resources between local area schools and parents and guardians on the social issues affecting our young adults.  The ultimate goal is to help them make good decisions and adopt responsible behaviour – and stay safe after school hours.

Waverley College (131 Birrell St, Waverley) will host the upcoming forum on Wednesday, 3 April 2019 from 7pm.  Tickets are $10pp and can be purchased by clicking here. 

The panel includes Elizabeth Brooks (Deputy Principal Pastoral Care, St Vincent’s College), Dr Tamara Lang (Head of Strategy and Counselling, Kambala), Snr Constable Yasmin London (Community Engagement Liaison Officer, Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command), Ian Godby (Deputy Principal, Rose Bay Secondary College), Rob Weiss (Head of Junior Wellbeing, Moriah College), and Deborah Clancy (educational professional).

The group will present different scenarios and possible strategies for coping with them, e.g. an inexplicable drop in academic performance, sudden changes in behaviour, suspected exposure to alcohol or drugs at parties, or other social gatherings entrusted to others’ supervision.

Parents are no strangers to these types of situations and often struggle to find the balance between giving their teenagers their ‘space’ and taking a heavy-handed approach at the risk of pushing them away.

Our schools have a shared commitment in keeping our young people safe, and this is giving parents and carers a useful networking resource, so we hope you can join the forum.