| School Garden Thank-you and a Message about Bullying |
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Dear Staff, Parents and Caregivers, We are so lucky to live on the Sunshine Coast where there are so many people willing to go “above and beyond” for the sake of our kids, our community and our environment. We must recognize the overwhelming generosity of our local community in assisting with our new food garden here at school. Firstly our thanks goes to Ian Witten at Kawana Hardware for a generous donation of a load of garden soil delivered here on Saturday. Ian is happy to support our school garden in the coming year with resources to maintain and build on an already successful project. Secondly, our chappy, Antony Pulford, organised a group of volunteer youths who help in the community, to come here on Saturday to move the soil into the garden and to help clean up the litter from our forest area. Anne Kennedy and Penny Kohler have worked to prepare the new garden beds and will be pleased to hear that one of our parents, Mrs. Korac-Stevens has donated two trays of seedlings to plant into those new beds. The Zoom Nursery and Floriana should be thanked wholeheartedly for their kindness and support. Steve Estella coordinated the delivery of the soil and seedlings on our behalf and continues to lead the way on our journey to increase our sustainability focus here in the Mountain Creek School Community. A big thank you to you all! An important message for parents and carers about bullying issues I am sure you were saddened as I was to learn of the tragic death of a student at a school in northern New South Wales. In this time of heightened awareness of violence in schools, I would like to reassure all parents and carers that our school takes a tough stance on bullying. We do not tolerate any form of violence or harassment at Mountain Creek State School. As Principal, it is my number one priority that every student feels safe at our school. I have reminded all students that bullying behaviour is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at this school. I ask that parents and carers take some time this week to speak with their children about bullying and to remind them of the importance of treating others with fairness, dignity and respect. Regardless of our efforts I know there are times where even in a supportive school like ours, students will act inappropriately in this regard. The main message to get through is that students who are being harassed or bullied need to tell a member of staff immediately. Some students might not want to do that openly in front of their peers. Please reassure them that unless we know what is going on, we can’t help them, and that we can follow up in a confidential way which doesn’t embarrasses them in front of their friends. It is important that students caught up in ongoing friendship battles ACT not REACT. While anyone being bullied needs to act assertively, we need to remind students that reacting with physical aggression will only land them with a consequence of detention or even suspension, which they might find hard to understand. Our school community has a number of programs to combat bullying and harassment, including: • Anti-bullying programs |