Last week I had the privilege of attended the NSW Anti Bullying Roundtable hosted by NSW Education Minister Hon. Sarah Mitchell. The two hour forum was both informative and confronting. The focus being on prevention and early intervention to protect and strengthen the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

 It is a collective responsibility of all key stakeholders – NSW Education, NSW Police, NSW Health, Digital industries, e-Safety Commission, Parent Councils, individual students, parents and communities.

The Australian e-Safety Commissioner | Julie Inman Grant spoke about the role of the e-Safety Commission. We are planning to invite her to the Term 3 State Council Meeting to share the important role the commission can play on keeping our students safe online.

The discussions and suggested actions discussed during this forum will be explored and revisited in the next state forum Education Minister Mitchell hosts.

This is a critical area to ensure the mental health and wellbeing of the children and young people of NSW is addressed at home and at school.

Members of the DOVES Student Council were an integral part of the forum. The five students in attendance were impressive. They had strong thoughts, recommendations, and actions forward.

Emma Mason – mother of Tilly Rosewarne showed the most remarkable courage in sharing their family’s story. Emma had a clear message of the actions required in order to change things for children and young people being bullied. Emma had recommendations for Education, Health, Law Enforcement and Legislation. Tilly’s story was on 60minutes on Sunday night.