It is hard to believe that we have arrived at the end of Week 4 and so much has occurred and been achieved already. Firstly, congratulations to Alison Parsons and her team for a successful and enjoyable Swimming Carnival. We scored an absolute cracker of a day and it was great to watch our students compete respectfully and with determination. Well done to our House Captains who have also put in a mountain of work to lead their respective houses with PRIDE. Our students continued to showcase these attributes at the Lower North Swimming Carnival on Monday with another stellar performance to finish second overall and take home first place with the Improvement Shield.

Congratulations to all students who have been elected to represent their peers on the 2024 BHS Student Council. It is a great honour to be the voice of your peers with student agency a powerful tool in shaping a school environment. I look forward to our student leaders being inducted on Friday 1^st March at our Student Leaders Induction Ceremony at 9:00am in the Gym.

In our last addition of the newsletter, we ran a parent competition to find a hidden phrase within my report. Thank you to everyone who messaged or commented with the correct phrase BHS PRIDE. Congratulations to the following parents/caregivers who have won a $15 school canteen voucher. Your canteen vouchers are waiting for you in the front office!

1. Jess Medley
2. Holly Hannaford
3. Erica Shepard
4. Casey Taylor

Don’t forget that Monday 26^th February is our first Student Free Day of the year.

Governing Council AGM

On Tuesday night we held our annual Governing Council AGM for 2024. I would like to thank the parents who attended this meeting, especially those who have nominated for, or have continued on Governing Council. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our outgoing Governing Council members who have made significant contributions to Balaklava High School. Thank you to both Ben Marshman who has be an active member on Governing Council for many years and most recently served as Chairperson and Kimberly Brownlie who has filled the role of Secretary.  We thank both Ben and Kimberly for their service to our school community.

The following people have accepted roles on this year’s Governing Council:

I thank the new Governing Council for taking this important opportunity to be more involved in your child’s education and for supporting the school community. I look forward to a productive year and what we can achieve together.

We have one vacancy on Governing Council that can be filled by a parent or a community member. If you are interested in joining us, please contact the school.  There are two meetings per term and it is a genuine way to have a say in your child’s schooling and gain more information about how and why things occur.

At the AGM I presented the draft version of the 2023 Annual Report which outlines the achievements of our last academic year and perspective details.  If you would like a copy of this report, please contact the school and we can organise for a hard copy to be sent home or you can access it via our website.

School Bus Service

The school buses are an important service to ensure our students have access to Balaklava High School and most importantly, their education. This bus service is an extension of our school; therefore, it is expected that students showcase positive, safe and respectful behaviours at all times. This includes students wearing their seatbelts and not consuming food and drinks while on the school bus. Please note that water is permitted.

Unfortunately, some of our bus drivers have been subject to disrespectful behaviours over the first four weeks and are constantly cleaning up litter and damage that our students have caused. Myself and other leaders will be travelling on the school bus runs over the coming weeks to ensure positive, safe and respectful behaviours are prioritised with our students.

Mobile Phones and Personal Devices

As parents, we make the active decision to allow our children to possess a mobile phone for communication, entertainment and to access a vast range of information by connecting to a powerful and often dangerous online world. Therefore, as parents who make these decisions to grant access to such devices, we must also take an active role in educating our children on how to use these powerful tools ethically and responsibly! While schools play a role in teaching students about the online world and appropriate behaviours, the primary responsibility lies with us as parents.

Unfortunately, schools have been faced with an ever-increasing impact on the safety and good order of our sites due to the challenges mobile phones pose. Balaklava High School has had a Mobile Phone Policy since 2020, however, in 2023, our policy was altered to align with the state government’s ban on the use of mobile phones in high schools. This means that personal devices, such as mobiles phones are ‘off and away’ between the start and end of each school day (8:30am-3:15pm), and while they are attending school activities off-site, such as camps and excursions.

As we head into Week 5, BHS will be cracking down on the use of mobile phones and personal devices. ‘Off and away’ means that they are not visible and away in a student’s bag. Mobile phones should not be kept in a student’s pocket. When students enter the school ground in the morning, mobile phones and personal devices must be ‘off and away’. Once the school bell has sounded for the end of the day at 3:15pm, student may access their mobile phone to check any communication.

This also means that students are unable to make purchases from the canteen using their mobile phone. Students are required to either use a bank card, cash or pre-order their lunch using the QKR app (see the link below). As of next week (Week 5), the canteen will not be accepting payment through mobile phones because students will of course have these devices ‘off and away.’

Senior students wanting to listen to music in study are able to access Spotify through their laptops (students can set up a free account to do this) and we ask that they have headphones with cords to connect to their laptops.  Air Pods should also not be used at all in the school and smart watches are only to be used for telling the time.

Smartphone addiction, sometimes colloquially known as “nomophobia” (fear of being without a mobile phone), is often fuelled by an internet overuse problem or internet addiction disorder. After all, it's rarely the phone or tablet itself that creates the compulsion, but rather the games, apps, and online worlds it connects us to. Smartphone addiction can encompass a variety of impulse-control problems, including:

• Virtual relationships
• Information overload
• Cybersex addiction.
• Online compulsions

If you are concerned about your child’s use of their mobile phone, I encourage you to read the following information about Smartphone and Internet Addiction.

Smartphone and Internet Addiction - HelpGuide.org

Derek Friedrichs

Principal