On Monday 12th September, Year 7 students were privileged to listen to Caitlin Bassett, Goal Shooter for West Coast Fever, the Australian Diamonds Netball Team and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Gold Medallist, who was visiting the School in her role as a Telstra Ambassador for Cyber safety.
Telstra were represented by Hannah Wells and the licensee of Telstra Joondalup, Rina Bharbra. Caitlin, who recognises both the positive and negative effects of social media, discussed cyber bullying, developing self-confidence, balancing screen time, explaining to students about ‘digital footprints’ and how to protect personal information, reminding students that all their social media applications need to be set to the highest privacy settings.
The informative and engaging session drew on some personal experiences from Caitlin and she was happy to sign autographs and pose for photos and ‘selfies’.
We would like to thank Caitlin and Telstra for the opportunity that this provided for our Year 7 students.
Here is what some of the students had to say about the talk:
“Caitlin Basset is my idol, so for me to experience her talking to us about the importance of keeping ourselves and our private information, private and safe really made me understand her as a mentor than just a sports player. She talked to us about the ways in which we should improve profiles for our social media accounts to make them safe for our own sakes and she also talked to us about the ways we could report cyber bulling. I enjoyed the speech and I have taken everything she has said into account, even the part when she said we should not be on our electronics when we are supposed to be asleep! Also, having that sense of ‘power’, meaning that you can talk to someone about the problems you face during cyber bulling. Overall, I have learnt a lot in cyber bulling, keeping private information private and keeping your social life enjoyable, but also being able to keep yourself safe.”
Written by Grace Foster (Year 7)
“Caitlin Basset talked to us about cyber safety and cyber bullying. This talk was very informative because most people did not know some of this information and what they could potentially be doing to others. We learnt that you should never post or share personal information an example of this is your phone number, address, school and full name. We also learnt that sometimes you may do things that you think is harmless but another person can take it in a completely different way. For example, you could like a picture of a person that someone posted but the person in that photo could not appreciate it. We also learnt that sometimes the cyber bullies only do it because they are jealous, they have nothing better to do; they could not know they are doing it or they could be doing it because they are angry or upset. You could set yourself or your family some technology rules so that you aren’t on their phone or iPad/ computer/ tablet too much. The cyber bullying and cyber safety talk with Catlin Bassett taught everyone in Year 7 how to be cyber safe and not to bully people online.”
Written by Georgia Taylor (Year 7)