Kay Bradley 

Friday 18 March 2022 is the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA).  This week we will be learning about and discussing Bullying.

Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, celebrates 12 years of action, connecting schools and communities to find workable solutions to prevent bullying.

The theme for 2022 is Kindness Culture. By building a Kindness Culture together, we can promote inclusion, respect and community belonging, for all students in schools across Australia.

At New Farm State School, we use the agreed national definition for Australian schools which describes bullying as:

• ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm;
• involving an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening;
• happening in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).
• Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records);
• having immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:

• mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
• not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
• one-off acts of meanness or spite
• isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.

Second Step – Social Emotional Learning Program

Our School focus this week is Trying Your best.  The explicit lessons for each year level will look slightly different.  Ask your child about their Second Step lesson, detailed below, and practice the skills at home.

Active Travel School Project

We are excited to announce that New Farm State School is now a part of The Active School Travel (AST) program.  This council run program offers Brisbane primary schools a suite of free resources, tools and incentives to enable students, parents, carers and teachers to leave the car at home and actively travel to school. It’s all about creating healthier, more active students and families, increasing road safety awareness, safer streets and continuing to tackle traffic congestion.

The award-winning three-year program promotes road safety and sustainable and healthy travel options such as walking, riding, scootering, carpooling and public transport.

We had a visit from the Active School characters today and will be having our first Active School Travel Day on Thursday the 24^th of March.