This week, the School welcomed founder and director of inyourskin®, Dr Tessa Opie, to speak with parents and students.
Dr Opie spoke with Year 11 and 12 parents about the sexual health and behaviour of adolescents, the impact of the media, and the benefits of comprehensive, positive sexual consent education.
Consent education is an important part of the Ethics curriculum at Girls Grammar and is integrated in many aspects of School life. This includes learning about personal identity and self-awareness, healthy relationships—based on respect and empathy, personal boundaries, communication, cultural values and attitudes, ethics, and the law.
Dr Opie also spoke with Year 11 and 12 girls the following day about values such as respect; thinking critically about actions, expectations and communication; and thinking critically about the influence of the media and pornography on relationships and sexual experiences.
The School is committed to keeping our community safer online. In recognition of Safer Internet Day, on Tuesday 7 February, it is timely to remind parents of the resources available to them if they would like to know more about their child’s use of technology.
The eSafety website has a number of helpful parent resources, including webinars and advice about parental controls.
Additionally, Principal, Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh, sat down with renowned psychologist and best-selling author, Dr Lisa Damour, for our Illumine podcast, to discuss how to navigate important conversations with your daughter. The two-part episode can be accessed below.
Ms Melinda Egan
Dean of Students
Further resources:
Dr Opie presenting to parents
Part 1 with Dr Lisa Damour: Navigating important conversations with your daughter
Parenting adolescents can be a challenging time, and the difficult conversations that parents need to have today are markedly different from those of even ten years ago. Mobile phones, social media and a global pandemic may well have changed these conversations with our daughters, but they remain vitally important no matter how uncomfortable they might make us as parents.
Host Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh, Principal of Brisbane Girls Grammar School, discusses how to navigate and approach a variety of complex topics with your daughter, with psychologist and best-selling New York Times columnist and author, Dr Lisa Damour. In Part 1 of their conversation they discuss conflict in friendships and ‘cancel-culture’, and why most adolescents tell some untruths to their parents and why this is perfectly normal.
Part 2 with Dr Lisa Damour: Navigating important conversations with your daughter
In Part 2 of their discussion, psychologist and best-selling author, Dr Lisa Damour, and Principal of Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Ms Jacinda Euler Welsh, explore how to navigate through negative online behaviours, discuss why adolescents can have such powerful emotions, and reminisce and reflect on how parenting teens, although hard at times, can be such a joyous and connected time for families.
