ERC Updates

From the Director of Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

Discipline levels review process update

Student voice and agency play a critical role in helping young people to feel connected to their community and allows young people to feel valued and recognise the importance of their role in decision making at the College. Student voice encourages critical and creative thinking, it promotes the development of leadership skills and fosters collaboration, coming up with suggestions and solutions that benefit the whole community.

This week Mr Gough and I conducted two focus groups for students in Years 7- 10 in relation to the existing Discipline Levels, providing an opportunity for students to collaborate together and contribute to a school wide policy that directly impacts on them and their peers. Each focus group provided some valuable feedback into the current system and were extremely insightful about what they would like to see change as part of the review.

Their ideas were practical, inclusive, just and balanced. This feedback alongside that of the staff and the parent body will provide key direction for the review of this process. Congratulations to those students who participated in the first round of focus groups. The feedback collected from these groups together with the feedback from parents and staff will provide the foundation and direction for the revision of this College process.

Thank you to those parents who have also volunteered to provide feedback, it is greatly appreciated. If you would still like to provide feedback please contact me via email at jhughes@erc.nsw.edu.au and I will be in touch.

Senior SRC Student Leadership Process update

On Tuesday 2 August voting opened for the positions on the Senior Student Leadership Team for 2022/2023 for staff and students. It is fantastic to see the high number of both staff and students that have taken up the invitation to participate in the voting process. The next stage of the process will involve interviews to be held on Monday 15 August. Students who have nominated themselves and are successful in progressing to the next stage of the selection process will be advised next week.

Child Safeguarding

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to attend the EREA Safeguarding Conference in Melbourne. The theme of the conference was Every Child Counts: The Social Dilemma

Throughout the course of the conference we had the opportunity to hear from a variety of speakers including a senior lawyer from Youth Law Australia, a legal service offering advice and support to young people across Australia. Kate presented a range of data including data pertaining to the legal issues in the online environment.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the importance of having open and honest conversations with your son about the posting, sending and receiving of images. The Office of the eSafety commissioner provides some extremely valuable information and support in relation to such matters, including consent for sharing photos and videos It is important for both young people and their parents to be aware that sexting can be a crime under Australian national law if it contains child abuse material – this includes photos, videos and text descriptions if it shows a person under the age of 18 engaging in sexual activity or poses. It is important for young people and their parents to be aware that it is a crime to send, share, have or receive sexual images involving young people, even if they took and sent the images themselves.

Youth Law Australia provides confidential legal advice, information and assistance to young people or their parents/guardians under the age of 18 free of charge via the phone, email or website. Their contact details can be found here. Kate reminded us that many young people who commit an offence online do so unknowingly. It is crucial that should this be the case they know where to go to seek expert advice. This week’s Parenting Ideas article by Kiera Pendergast provides some valuable insights on Sextortion on Instagram – a valuable read for every parent.

Finally, throughout August and September the Office of the eSafety Commissioner is offering free webinars for parents on

Popular Apps
This webinar will run in August and educate parents about Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube providing tips for parents about how to keep young people safe online.

Tuesday 16 August, 7.30pm – 8.30pm

Thursday 25 August, 12.30pm – 1.30pm

Online Sexual harassment and image based abuse
This webinar is designed for parents of 13-18 year old’s and highlights the difference between sexual harassment and image based abuse, how to report it and where to get support. It will be offered twice in September.

Monday 5 September, 12.30pm -1.30pm

Wednesday 7 September, 7.30- 8.30pm

Mrs Hughes
Director of Pastoral Care & Wellbeing