Welcome back to Term 3. I do hope that you have had a refreshing break. I am delighted to be back following my sabbatical leave during Term 2, which was a fabulous time of learning, refreshment and inspiration for me. It was a great opportunity to compare our programs with other schools and test our thinking with leading educators. I also took much from the Strategic Leadership course I undertook at the University of Oxford in the UK. I look forward to sharing the learnings with the community as we continue to develop the Carey experience into the future.
Our children and social media
One of the significant movements taking place across the US and UK is the recognition of the negative impacts of smart phones on student wellbeing and learning, and in particular the impact of social media. In my last newsletter article at the start of Term 2, I referenced for you a new book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, which brings together the research base detailing the correlation between social media use and the rising instances of anxiety in our young people. As a school, we have committed to removing phones from Junior and Middle Schools, and this new research affirms that decision. It is a stance being taken by many schools globally with California making a statewide decision to ban phones from school and many other districts and individual schools across the world following suit. The statistics around the negative impact on our youth are frightening and cannot be ignored. Young people are typically spending 5 to 10 hours a day engaged in social media, fed by algorithms that we have no control over. Further to this, schools that have had this ban in place for longer than us are seeing improvements in academic performance.
Over the course of this semester, I am keen for us as a community to have the discussion about how we might collectively create a safe place for your children to get off social media. The fear of missing out is a huge pressure on young people and their parents, so by addressing this as a community, our students can be assured that they will not be missing out because they won’t be the only one who is without social media. I will start this dialogue with Parent Associations in each section of the School in coming weeks. I hope you will be part of a broader dialogue that will lead us to collaboratively create safer spaces for our children where they are more engaged and focussed.
In this edition of the newsletter, I hope you will enjoy other articles that touch on how these issues impact students of all ages and developmental stages. I especially direct you to Head of Senior School, Kellie Lyneham’s article on the new challenges that the teenagers of today face, and Director of the Kew ELC, Wendy Seidler’s article on types of play and the observation that the more toys children have, the less they play.
Updates from around the School
Following the purchase of 12 Sackville St which adjoins our Junior School Kew carpark, we have commenced a new capital works masterplan. This process will ensure that we maximise the opportunities this new facility provides us and establish the learning spaces we will need to continue to evolve our learning programs to support tomorrow’s students.
I want to congratulate the 56 students involved in the Australia National Band and Orchestra Conference hosted at Carey during the mid-year break. Our students and staff were fine ambassadors for the School and we thank them all for giving up some of their break to be a part of this important learning opportunity for the music sector.
I am also grateful to the large number of Carey staff who took part in the recent Australasian IB Conference hosted at Carey. These are important occasions for our teaching staff to share expertise across schools and illustrate the commitment our team of staff has to continuous improvement.
Thank you
We recently invited the community to support our Access and Equity Scholarship program. It has been heartening to see so many of you, as parents and staff, make a gift – as well as many alumni, past parents, volunteers and friends of the School.
Carey’s Access and Equity Scholarship program supports students with considerable potential but without the financial means to be part of the Carey community. Your generous support has made it possible for more students to join us through this scholarship in future.
All donations received towards scholarships at Carey are allocated exclusively for needs-based scholarships and are not used for any other purpose. This means that all donations, no matter the amount, contribute towards a life-changing Carey education.
I look forward to seeing you all around the School in the weeks ahead.
Jonathan Walter
Principal
