By Mrs Liisa Hammond, Principal

Gospel

Mark 1:40-45

In the Gospel this week, Mark tells the story of a man with leprosy approaching Jesus, asking to be healed. Jesus, moved by compassion, touches the man and heals him. The healed man is overcome with gratitude; however, Jesus clearly tells him to go and show himself to the priest but not to speak to anyone about how Jesus healed him. Unfortunately, the man disobeys Jesus and spreads the news of his healing. This leads to Jesus having to seclude himself from the crowds of people who flock to see him.

This Gospel holds great relevance to our Assumption College community. The Healed Man was someone on the margins of society; whilst Jesus asked him not to say anything about his experience, he was so overjoyed he spread the story far and wide – so much so that it had a negative impact on Jesus.

There are so many times when we see breakdowns in peer relationships resulting from breaking trust due to the spreading of gossip or rumours. Often, unintentionally, these actions cause harm to individuals and disrupt our core business of learning. By reflecting on this Gospel, our community members have the opportunity to learn the importance of being cautious and respectful with their words. Often, our young people do not intend to cause harm or are overwhelmed by the negative impact of their actions. This is an important learning curve, and there is no evidence that the Healed Man intended to cause harm to Jesus; however, he is still responsible for the impact that his words caused. We speak to our young people about taking responsibility for their words and actions, taking responsibility for spreading generosity, compassion, wisdom, and justice.

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday – the start of our Lenten Journey

In Week 4, we had the opportunity to come together twice as a College. First was the inaugural Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race. It was a celebration and a moment of merriment that saw our Houses compete against each other in a relay of mixed-year levels, flipping pancakes, tying on aprons, running, cheering, and laughing. Congratulations to Donovan House, whose champion team demonstrated the power of grit, support, and determination.

The joy and merriment of Tuesday was juxtaposed against the earnestness and solemnity of Ash Wednesday. With reverence and respect, we had our Pastoral Care teachers place the sign of the cross on the foreheads of their students, symbolising the repentance and reflection of the start of the Lenten time.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Jo Winlaw for her inspiring and reflective guidance of these gatherings. Jo has encouraged us to make a ruckus – to find opportunities to dance and find joy in the simple act of celebrating time together. It is with sadness that I have accepted Mrs Winlaw’s resignation. Whilst Mrs Winlaw was meant to be with us for the entire year, she will be leaving us before the end of this term due to unexpected family circumstances. We have advertised for another Acting Assistant Principal – Mission and Identity, and I will keep you informed of our efforts in this area.

School Student Protection Contacts

Every staff member at Assumption College is committed to safeguarding every one of our students. School Student Protection Contacts are designated senior College staff who have received specialist training annually, so they are best placed to respond to queries from students, parents/guardians, staff or volunteers about concerns for a student’s safety or wellbeing.

Assumption College’s School Student Protection Contacts are:

Mrs Liisa Hammond – Principal

Mrs Anna Hardy – Deputy Principal

Mrs Julie Collins – Assistant Principal – Pastoral and Wellbeing

Mrs Julie Gillespie – College Counsellor

Mr Brett Armstrong – College Counsellor

Mr Matt Bruton – Curriculum Leader PE and ITD.

Anti-Bullying Policy

At the beginning of every year, it is important to remind our community of our expectations, policies, and our procedures. One of the core policies we have, is our Behaviour Sanctions Policy – this can be found on our College website. As this document is quite lengthy, I have decided to provide the extract regarding our anti-bullying policy.

If you have any questions, concerns or insights into any or all of our policies and procedures, I invite you to join our Parents and Friends Committee, or please be empowered to make time to come and discuss your views with me.

Bullying (inclusive of cyberbullying)

Bullying in any of its forms has no place at Assumption College. All members of our school community should be able to enjoy a safe and supportive environment free from fear or harassment. Bullying in any form is totally unacceptable. Research shows that bullying occurs in all schools; however, this can be reduced with a whole-school approach, including an active anti-bullying procedure.

Bullying is defined at Assumption College as the misuse of power, position and privilege. It is done to intimidate, coerce, engender fear or control There are three main parameters of bullying:

• It is repeated (prolonged over time).
• It involves an imbalance of power.
• It may be verbal, physical, social or psychological.

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 or hidden.

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Some conflicts between adolescents are a normal part of growing up and are to be expected. Single incidents and conflicts or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not considered bullying, even though they may be upsetting and need to be resolved.

There is no place for bullying in any school. Those who are bullied and those who bully are at risk for behavioural, emotional and academic problems. These outcomes directly contradict our school community’s goals and efforts to support all students.

Bullying behaviours that will not be tolerated include name-calling, taunting, mocking, making offensive comments, kicking, hitting, pushing, taking belongings, inappropriate text messaging, sending offensive or degrading images by phone or internet, producing offensive graffiti, gossiping, excluding people from groups and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours.

Bullying behaviour includes:

Physical: hitting, kicking, punching, pushing, tripping, spitting or throwing objects. Hiding, damaging or destroying property belonging to someone else. Making someone give money, food or other property against their will.

Non-Physical: threatening any of the above. Name-calling, using offensive language, making comments the other person finds offensive. Ridiculing or teasing in a nasty way. Putting others down, spreading rumours (via internet, chat rooms or word of mouth). Making faces or rude gestures and sending offensive SMS messages. Ignoring or Excluding (this is not a definitive list).

Bullying may be related to:

• Race, religion or culture
• Disability
• Appearance or health conditions
• Sexual orientation
• Sexist or sexual language
• Children acting as carers, or
• Children in care

Cyberbullying is defined as ‘the aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of conduct, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.

    Our school is committed to promoting responsible and proactive use of social media sites.

    No student will face disciplinary action for simply having an account on a social media site.

    It is unacceptable for students to bully, harass or victimise another person, whether within the College’s grounds or while online.

Cyber – Bullying

Online bullying is bullying carried out through the internet or mobile devices. Online bullying is also sometimes called cyberbullying.

It can happen to anyone, anytime and can leave you feeling unsafe and distressed. Online bullying can be offensive and upsetting. 

Online bullying can include:

• Sending insulting or threatening messages
• Posting unkind messages or inappropriate images on social networking sites
• Excluding others from online chats or other communication
• Inappropriate image tagging/editing
• Sharing someone’s personal or embarrassing information online
• Creating hate sites or starting social exclusion campaigns or social networking sites
• Sharing unflattering or private messages, including naked or sexual images
• Assuming the identity of another person online and representing them in a negative manner or manner that may damage their relationship with others
• Repeatedly, and for no strategic reason, attacking players in online gaming

For it to be called bullying, inappropriate actions online must be between people who have ongoing contact and be part of a pattern of repeated behaviours (online or offline). Single incidents or random inappropriate actions are not bullying.

The best response to cyberbullying is to be proactive and preventative. To be proactive, students can:

• Guard contact information
• Take a stand against cyberbullying.
• Speak out whenever they see someone being mean to another person online.

Cyber-Bullying action for students  

If you are being harassed online, take the following actions immediately: 

• Tell a teacher, your parents or someone you trust/ report the issue.
• Leave the area or stop the activity
• Block the sender’s messages
• Never reply to harassing messages
• Keep a record. Save any harassing messages and record the time and date that you received them 

The processes involved in formal procedures intend to achieve the following: 

• To protect the rights of the students, staff and learning community.
• To help find ways to negotiate with the student a plan for change to acceptable patterns of behaviour.
• To keep the parents/caregivers of the student informed and, if possible, engage them in the negotiations to secure a change to acceptable patterns of behaviour by the student.

May our Mother Mary grant her blessings upon our College Community.