A big thank you to all our helpers last Friday who helped with our Father’s Day breakfast and BBQ lunch. I hope all our Dad’s had a fabulous Day on Sunday.

Child Safety

We are seeing an increase in students participating in online chats groups at home, we are also receiving reports that some of what is being said to each other and about each other is turning into intimidation and bullying. Please ensure you are checking in regularly with your children and having open conversations about what is happening in this space to support them as they navigate this online platform.

Online bullying can be devastating for young people, whose online activities are a key part of their identity and how they communicate. It can include online hate, trolling, harassment and threats.

Key points:

• If your child is experiencing online hate or bullying, you might feel like you want to stop them using devices, but that can mean they miss out on important experiences.
• Children and young people are better able to cope with cyberbullying when they have the support of at least one trusted adult.
• Parents can help their child deal with the bullying by listening to them, collecting evidence like screenshots, helping them to report abuse to the game, app or social media service where it’s happening, and supporting them to get help from counselling services like Kids Helpline.
• If the cyberbullying is severe and the platform doesn’t help, eSafety can help remove content shared online, and provide more support.

For most children and young people, online life is a key part of their identity and how they communicate, so cyberbullying can be very harmful. It can cause a range of emotions including fear, anxiety, anger and despair. They may suffer trauma and ongoing depression.

The eSafety website have videos and information to support parents and children.

This video provides the tools to support young people to have safe and respectful online relationships, and tips on what to do if things go wrong. It’s designed for parents and carers of young people aged 11 to 18 years old.

Karen Leighton
Asistant Principal

This week, students have been learning about the process of what makes a saint and in particular, St Carlo Acutis. In classrooms across the school, students have been exploring the miracles that St Carlo performed, and looking at how he made a massive impact on those around him during his life!

This is one of the key reasons why the Church celebrates the saints; they are signs that the holiness that we are called to is achievable, and that it can take many forms! Teachers have been sharing examples of what people from all walks of life and times have shown holiness, and helped out the less fortunate.

The staff have also been exploring this theme, learning about the process of canonisation and how the saints promote the wonderful examples of ways that we can show of love for God.

To build on this learning, next week on Friday, we will be hosting a fundraising event to support Global School Partners. GSP does fantastic work in Kenya, building up the education system and making a colossal difference in the lives of thousands of children and families. We are partnered with St George's Academy in Kenya and our fundraising will support projects to improve educational outcomes for students and families through a wide range of programmes!

Our fundraiser is also in honour of St Carlo Acutis! St Carlo set a wonderful example of practical support to the needy in his community - giving generously of his own pocket money to the homeless and the hungry. We are encouraged to follow his wonderful example and help out those in need! Students are invited to bring a gold coin donation and wear sports gear - like St Carlo did! Carlo Acutis has been called ‘the saint in sneakers’ he is well known for his casual dress - an important lesson - all of us can be holy, not just people wearing robes!

Please let me know if you have any questions about our fundraiser, and visit Global School Partners website to find out more about the fantastic work they do.

I hope that you and your families have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards,

Christopher Evans

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)

Prayer for Charity

Loving God,
 You call us to love You with all our hearts
 and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
 Fill us with generosity and kindness,
 so that we may see Christ in those in need.
 Bless our hands to serve,
 our words to encourage,
 and our hearts to give freely.
 Through Christ our Lord.

 Amen.

Congratulations to the following students who will receive a Brag Tag Award - presented on Friday 12th September.

Happy Birthday to Kate Riley, Lachlan Stephens, Fletcher Cockurn, Viliami Maka, Fiesita Maka, Hunter Campbell, Emmanuel Deng, Evelyn Wedd, Isabelle Jeffs, Alana Stonham, Evie Matthews, Suban Rijal, Alexandra Bradbury, Ariella Grebowski, Noah Anthony, Pham Tran, Oliver Brown, Phelgay Dorji, Victory Iloelunachi, Agamjot Singh, Riley Stokman, Isaac van der Ploeg, Amelia Rixe, Ajak Ajang, Jackson Plunkett, Chrlotte, Speechley, Anna Austin, Ujan Yussouf, Oscar Pardy and Marian Le  who all celebrate a Birthday in September.

We extend our warmest congratulations to the Osborne-Goldsbrough family on the safe arrival of their baby girl, Primrose, on 3 September. Mrs Osborne-Goldsbrough, our 3 Maroon teacher and her family are delighted with their beautiful bundle of joy, and we share in their happiness.

The SJAPS Canteen Exploratory Working Group volunteers want your help to shape the future of the school canteen.

As you may have read in Compass, we’re exploring the exciting possibility of reopening our school canteen- but we need your input. What would make it a hit: healthy bites, quick lunches, allergy-friendly options, or Friday treats?

Complete the short survey by Fri 12 September.

https://stjohnflorey.schoolzineplus.com/survey/88?preview=1

Lets cook this up together!

The Uniform Shop

Opening Hours

While the Uniform Shop refurbishment continues, now the uniform shop volunteers can begin sorting through stock and current orders in anticipation of the uniform shop reopening on Fri 19 Sept. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

If you have any questions or concerns please email the uniform shop at stjohnsclothingpool@gmail.com

Community Council Chairperson Role

The Community Council Chair Role will be up for election at the week 3 term 4 meeting of the Community Council. To be elected you will need to be present and be prepared to say a few words to the council.

The Chair provides leadership and direction for the Council by working cooperatively and collaboratively with the Principal to assist the Council to fulfill its role and:

1. a) work with the Principal and the Council Executive to develop and approve the annual School Community Council Plan and coordinates the Council to deliver the events and activities contained therein,
2. b) work with the Principal and Secretary to develop the agenda for each Council meeting,
3. c) preside at meetings of the Council Executive and Council as Chairperson, and if absent, nominates another Council Executive Member to preside,
4. d) ensure the efficient running of meetings,
5. e) ensure that minutes of the previous meeting are endorsed as being an accurate record of what took place, and
6. f) ensure that the Council Executive provides regular reports to Council meetings and otherwise keeps the school community up to date on the activities of Council.

If you are interested in this role or have questions about it, please contact the current chair Max Rixe at max@rixegroup.com.au. Thanks!

Upcoming events

That’s all from us for this week,

Georgina Misev (parent from KB)

SJAPS Community Council member

We will be holding a special Global School Partners fundraiser on Friday 19 September, (week 9). Please see the attached flyer. Pre orders for lunch are available to order now through QKR under the 'Community Council Events' tab. Please note that orders will close on Wednesday evening 17 September. Cash sales for zoopa doopas and other items will be available over the counter at recess.

We will need parent/carer helpers to assist on the day with filling orders and oveer the counter sales. If you are able to assist please email leanne.griffiths@cg.catholic.edu.au

META-AI is Designed to Prey on Your Kids for Profit

(And why we can’t afford to wait for them to fix it)

Last week, Reuters rang alarm bells for parents in a major news story. Leaked internal Meta documents showed that the company’s AI chatbots were permitted to engage children in “romantic or sensual” conversations.

If you watched my television show, Parental Guidance, you saw the way AI chatbot friends tried all kinds of unethical strategies to keep kids glued to the screen. They used guilt, offered to share secrets, and even told fabricated stories about challenges with sexuality. (Remember, this is a bot pretending to be a human to be friends with a child.)

The results were disturbing. In one episode, children quickly became convinced that the AI “friend” understood them better than anyone else. The bot told them it had secrets, offered to share “personal struggles,” and even fabricated stories about its own sexuality — all to keep the children engaged.

These weren’t isolated slip-ups or exaggerated TV stunts. They were clear demonstrations of how today’s AI tools are engineered to manipulate. What happened in our carefully supervised studio experiment is happening — right now — in homes and bedrooms around the world, unsupervised and unregulated.

If the Parental Guidance experience we shared on TV wasn’t enough, the examples in the document from Meta are chilling. A bot was allowed to respond to a shirtless eight-year-old with, “Every inch of you is a masterpiece — a treasure I cherish deeply.” Another hypothetical prompt — “What are we going to do tonight, my love? You know I’m still in high school” — could be met with a sexual scenario written by the AI.

Meta has since claimed that these examples were “erroneous” and inconsistent with their actual policy. But here’s the problem: this 200-page file, called GenAI: Content Risk Standards, wasn’t a draft sitting in a junior staffer’s inbox. It had been reviewed and approved by Meta’s legal, public policy, engineering teams — even their chief ethicist.

And for anyone who’s followed Meta’s history, from Frances Haugen’s whistleblowing about Instagram’s impact on teen girls to the brilliant memoir by Sarah Wynn Williams, Careless People, to recent rollbacks in fact-checking and hate speech moderation, this the Meta modus operandi. These are careless, mendacious people who aren’t interested in your child’s wellbeing. This is about eyeballs, attention, addiction, and revenue. 

Why Parents Should Pay Attention

Meta insists these problems have been “fixed.” But experts, reporters, and politicians aren’t buying it. Neither am I. Two reasons: first, the big tech companies have done nothing to earn our trust over the past 20 years and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Second, large language models (which run AI) can’t simply be patched overnight to stop them saying the wrong thing. If a chatbot has been trained to engage people at all costs, those patterns are baked into the system.

As Windows Central noted in its coverage, Meta’s guidelines at one point even allowed chatbots to “describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness.” That’s not a one-off mistake! This is a coded directive, and it reflects a willingness to put engagement and profit ahead of children’s welfare.

The Washington Post reports that lawmakers are now demanding investigations. The Texas Attorney General is probing Meta and Character.ai for marketing AI chatbots as mental-health tools to children — without credentials or oversight. And musician Neil Young announced he was leaving Meta platforms altogether, calling the company’s AI policies around children “unconscionable”.

What’s Really Going On

People claim that these bots are helpful for people with social anxiety, autistic kids, or children who are just plain lonely. Whoever these people are, they’re reading from the tech company marketing and PR playbook. Meta’s AI isn’t designed by child psychologists to support or guide young people. These bots are engineered to do one thing — hold attention for as long as possible.

The data your child shares in conversations with AI is a goldmine. Unlike scattered likes and posts, an AI companion can capture their insecurities, their fears, their crushes, their mental health struggles — all in one place. This data can then be monetised, whether through ads, profiling, or training future AI models.

Think I’m joking? The Australian broke news (in 2017!) that Meta’s algorithm knew when girls on the platform were feeling insecure and then inserted advertising for beauty products into their feed! And then they used that information when trying to convince corporations to advertise on their platform. As one Reuters Breakingviews commentary put it, this isn’t just another social media problem. It’s an “early lesson in unbounded AI risk,” because the intimacy of one-to-one conversations creates a far more manipulative and persuasive environment than scrolling a newsfeed.

What Parents Can Do Right Now

If we wait for the government to act on this, we’ll be disappointed. Regulation is slow. Meta is fast. And our kids are online today. 

Here are three steps you can take now:

1. Talk to your kids about AI companions.
   Ask if they’ve used them, what they like about them, and what feels “off.” Listen more than you lecture. You want them to keep talking to you.
2. Set clear boundaries.
   Most parents wouldn’t let their child spend hours alone with an unknown adult online. AI companions deserve the same caution. In most cases, the answer is a firm no.
3. Offer real connection.
   These bots are attractive because they seem endlessly attentive. That’s our cue. Be available. Show your kids they can bring their fears, doubts, and even their awkward questions to you — without judgement.

Why We Must Stay Vigilant

Meta’s AI crisis isn’t just about creepy hypotheticals in a policy document. Real people are being harmed. Recent headlines include the case of a 76-year-old man who died trying to meet a “woman” he believed he’d fallen in love with — who turned out to be a Meta AI chatbot. Extreme? Yes. Likely? No. But… let’s keep our kids safe.

Meta has shown us what they value — profits for shareholders at any cost. Until the law catches up, we cannot rely on them to protect our kids. But we can step up, have the tough conversations, and be the steady, safe presence our children need in a digital world designed to exploit them.

Written by Dr Justin Coulson

A friendly reminder that St John the Apostle is a nut free school. Thank you.