Throughout the first two weeks in this role, I have had numerous parent phone calls, face to face family meetings and have attended a Family Information night at the College and will attend another one this week.

The first night was led by our Principal, Steven Mifsud, where parents and carers had an opportunity to discuss the current Teacher Advisor (TA) structure and what it may look like moving forward. It was run as an open discussion forum, where they expressed their thoughts and provided valuable feedback regarding their experiences and expectations for the TA program. It was wonderful to hear from such invested and passionate parents and carers, whose feedback will inform decisions as we review the program to ensure the teacher-student relationship is one of continual growth and mutual investment, which leads to a greater sense of connection and identity to the College.

The second parent night, which I will attend this Wednesday, is the Family Partnerships Program “Finding the words” presentation, which will be led by our Counselling Team and guest presenter Jesse Parks, the Community Engagement Leader from Headspace Ballarat. The night will focus on teen Mental Health and Suicide prevention.

Some key take aways from the night will include.

• The need to normalise mental health conversations.
• The need to foster safe and respectful conversations about suicide that neither trivialise nor taboo the topic.
• How to recognise and respond to distress.
• How to start a conversation with your child.
• How and where to access supports such as Ballarat Community Health, Headspace, BADAC and Grampians Health Services.
• The need for Mental Health and Wellbeing to be embedded into the curriculum across all year levels.

The amount of care and investment that not only the families of our community have naturally for their student/s but that of the future direction of the College, be it structural or curriculum wise is really evident and encouraging. Family involvement in a student’s education leads to a number of benefits, which positively impacts academic results, social-emotional returns and overall growth from a general wellbeing perspective.

We as a college understand that you are the primary educators of your student and we thank you for entrusting us with them. In continuing to strengthen the relationship between home and school, I would encourage all families to re-iterate what boundaries exist and make this clear to your student. By reinforcing the College’s expectations around behaviour and the like we, together, are strengthening the relationship and teaching your student life skills. I look forward to continuing to build on the existing relationships that already exist between home and school with all families, as we progress throughout 2025 and beyond.