In recent weeks, we have seen incidences of online behaviour by a few senior school students that is not in keeping with our school values and character. An increasing number of students are using social media as a tool to emotionally harm others, threaten violence and defame members of the school community, both students and staff. Encouragingly, we are also seeing some of our students take a stand for our school and its character and call out this unwanted behaviour. We are asking our parents to please do the same.

Please discuss with your children the importance of good online etiquette. Three simple ideas are:

1. If it’s not appropriate offline, then it’s not appropriate online.
2. Content posted needs to meet the THINK test: Is the post True? Helpful? Inspiring? Necessary? Kind?
3. Think twice before hitting send, share or post!

We also strongly recommend that you take an interest in what your children are doing online. This includes asking about why they like certain apps or sites, who is in their network, and what content are they consuming or publishing online?

We do remind parents that inappropriate use of private ICT equipment/devices and internet, social networking sites (such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat) out of school hours are not the school’s responsibility. That said, if the implications of such personal use/activity compromises or impacts student and/or staff safety, wellbeing and work at school, then school management reserves the right to intervene with possible disciplinary actions.

There are a few great resources available to parents to help in the sphere of social media and contemporary culture. AXIS offer insights from a Christian perspective, while the Parenting Place and Common Sense Media also provide practical suggestions for navigating the online space.