Principal's Reflection - 21 August

ParentConnect Feedback

On Monday 10 August, the School held a ParentConnect session to gather feedback from parents and carers on two important and rapidly changing issues: media consent, including the use of images of students, and artificial intelligence. Thank you to everyone who attended. Your thoughts and ideas play an essential role in providing the School with feedback for consideration as we navigate these emerging issues. For the benefit of all families, I want to share a brief summary of takeaways from the session.

In regard to media consent, the parent body is reasonably divided. Everyone understands the need to protect children from harm, and some parents would prefer a complete ban on the public publishing of recognisable images of students. However, other parents absolutely want to see their children promoted by the School in a public manner. At the ParentConnect session, we discussed issues with approaches at either end of this spectrum, and everywhere in between. For example, some parents wish to say “No” to digital media in public places (Facebook, newsletters, online articles, etc.) but want to see their children in member-only places like Seesaw and the internal parent Facebook groups. Currently, the School does not differentiate between these, because to the School, the risk is the same: a digitally published image in any environment can be copied and misused.

While this will be an area that continues to evolve, the School is well positioned by the actions we have already taken. Our next step is to engage our student body broadly and gather their thoughts on this topic. Student voice and agency are really important at St Luke’s, and since this is all about protecting children, it is proper for students to be part of the conversation in a comprehensive way. Once we have student input, we intend to re-engage with parents and carers broadly, but in a targeted manner. 

Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s mind, and rightly so. The School is undertaking several projects to stay on top of this issue, both educationally and from a safety perspective. To briefly summarise what attendees communicated at the ParentConnect session, as well as in discussions I’ve had throughout the year, there are two main points on people’s minds. Parents, carers and teachers are worried about AI but also believe it needs to be adopted. We don’t seem to be worried about a Terminator-like takeover by intelligent machines, but rather that AI will rob our children of appropriate and necessary intellectual development. Simultaneously, we are concerned about the future job market and that if our children are not AI-equipped, they may be at a disadvantage.

St Luke’s has two steering committees working on this issue; one broadly concerned with risk and safety, and the other with educational and developmental outcomes. While this is a challenging issue, I look forward to sharing the outcomes of our efforts with you. 

Community Fair Thank You

I want to thank our entire community for an amazing Community Fair. It was such a fun day, and while I would have liked a little less wind, the weather was perfect for a fair. It was great to see so many Old Saints back in the School and enjoying the day. For the record, our current students won the Netball while the Old Saints completed an amazing comeback to take home the OzTag trophy. I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the event as much as I did. 

The Community Fair is a huge undertaking and would not be possible without the dedication and support of our staff and volunteers. Thank you to all those who had a hand in planning, leading, organising and working together on the day to provide this opportunity for our community. 

Thank you for your ongoing support of our School.

Mr Matthew Hughes

Principal