Deputy Principal (Kelly Anderson)
Vaping
This week I wanted to highlight the biggest behaviour issue currently challenging us in our school – vaping. We have had incidences of students entering classrooms and other spaces that should be locked without teachers present, and vaping. Please be vigilant and lock your classrooms and office spaces when you are not there.
What we know about vaping:
They are not like cigarettes – they come in a range of flavours that are more attractive to young people – sweet, lolly-type flavours.
They are popular – we are seeing loads of kids trying vaping, after years of cigarettes finally becoming a thing of the past!
They are vaping at school – many of you would be hearing about the vaping that is occurring at school. Please be as vigilant as you can and report incidents of vaping to Student Services.
How we are responding as an organisation:
Government Level
- the Minister for Education has set down a directive that all schools must be working to minimise the vaping issue - schools have been provided with a Vaping Toolkit.
- all schools are required to report all incidents of vaping to DOE.
School Level - The Principal is liaising with Regional Office and local police to try to shut down the suppliers within Bunbury.
- The School Nurse is providing education sessions to students who are caught vaping.
- The school is suspending students caught vaping, as it is a prohibited substance.
- The Student Services staff are reporting every single instance of vaping to the DOE – this is a massive increase in their workload
For your information: If you are interested in reading more about vaping, I have attached an article. It is a couple of years old, now, but covers all the main points.
Teacher Wellbeing - free PL session
A free webinar on Teacher Self-Care is being delivered by Tom Brunzell at 9.30am (AEST) on 7 September 2022. Tom is the Director of Education at Berry Street Education Model. You will need to have Zoom on your device.
The session looks at how the impact of Vicarious Trauma and Secondary Traumatic Stress can lead to Vicarious Post-Traumatic Growth. The webinar is interactive and participants will:
- Discover new research on teacher and staff wellbeing that you can share with your school
- Learn strategies to bolster staff resilience and self-care
- Explore recommendations for sustaining trauma-informed education strategies across your school
Click on the link provided to register.