Simon Gipson
Simon Gipson, of Perth, Western Australia, has worked in education as a teacher, administrator and consultant in Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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We wanted to create something the kids wanted to wear and look really smart in.
This is not an objection to the Salvation Army or the work that it's doing.
It's a violation of the rights of a child. It's assault.
There's an attitude or a view that the money parents pay in school fees should go to the core business of teaching and learning, and any money that doesn't go there is somehow less-than-appropriate spending. The same attitude doesn't come into play when you go to the supermarket - you just accept that some money will go to advertising... We just want to keep our name there in people's minds.
The proliferation of electronic gadgets doesn't necessarily increase the opportunities for learning, it simply increases the opportunity to present information in a variety of ways. We must be careful not to be seduced by the gadgets at the cost of losing sight of the interpersonal.
St Michael's Grammar School in St Kilda employed corporal punishment until about six years ago, when principal Simon Gipson took over as head and denounced it as 'abhorrent'.
We have a database of excluded sites, regularly updated and the students cannot access them. Secondly, we can dump logs of who visited which sites. If there appears to be a problem, our pastoral care staff discuss it with students and parents. There's nothing more embarrassing for kids than a session like that... Curiosity about sexual behaviour is an age-old aspect of adolescence. But the internet has changed the scene radically. Parents must be involved and be aware of what their kids are doing.
In contrast... St Michael's grew out of a girls' school, with few donations from former pupils. This means current parents must finance new projects through fundraising and increased fees.
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