Pastoral Academic Care (PAC) 

Pastoral Academic Care (PAC) Focus - Engagement and mindfulness

The Joy of Missing Out

Character Strength:  Curiosity

Parent Well Being: It is the frequency of positive emotions which is the best builder of your wellbeing. A great way to feel positive is when someone does something kind for you, go out of your way to pay it forward to at least three other people. They will probably pay it forward to feel good also. 

Addictions are associated with feeling anxious and experiencing low moods. Many of the addictive behaviours from a decade ago, such as underage drinking, smoking and sexual experimentation have nearly halved, but anxiety and depression have more than doubled. What has occurred is that new more powerful addictions have been created, those being social media and gaming. The other issue is that many parents are attempting to assist their children with these new addictive behaviours, using strategies that aren’t effective for them. It was once said, doing the same things and expecting different results is insanity. Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) has become such a powerful problem because so many young people can’t help themselves and are connected 24/7 to not miss out on what is happening in their peer group. These behaviours often lead to upsetting outcomes. A strategy well worth trying is discussing with students the value of Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO). Essentially, it is about feeling joyful because they choose to not be immersed in the pretend world of social media, where much of what is posted and communicated is about how people would like to be, not how they actually are. JOMO enables students to break the mindless social media addiction through experiencing positive emotions because they are missing out on the fake stuff. 

Acknowledgement: Losada & Fredrickson 

Year 7

Mrs Natalie Mellowship-Brown

Welcome to Term 3! It’s certainly a chilly start to Semester 2, but our Year 7 students have returned to school, ready to learn and excited for what the next 10 weeks have in store.

What’s your definition of success? 

Accomplishment. Achievement. 

Advance. Benefit. Prosperity. Victory. Win.

Our Year 7 Assembly this week saw us celebrating the successes of a number of students achieving Pastoral Academic Care Leader Awards. This is a part of our jobs as teachers that we really enjoy; watching our students be challenged to be the best possible version of themselves. A huge congratulations to those students who have achieved awards this week.

In the coming weeks, we will be completing our Stage 4 Student Led Conferencing. The SLC is a meeting with a student and his or her family / carers and teachers during which the student shares his or her portfolio of work and discusses their progress. The student facilitates the meeting from start to finish. This is a great opportunity for students to boost their confidence surrounding their learning and engagement in their educational journey. Please ensure that you have booked online using the following link https://sobs.com.au/pt/parent.php?schoolid=130. If you have any issues, please contact your child’s PAC teacher for support. 

Mrs Natalie Mellowship-Brown and the Year 7 PAC Team

Year 8

Mrs Kathryn Czinner

Last term we were able to celebrate Founders Day. The day was filled with activities that enabled our students to learn more about our Founders, build College spirit, share our talents in the concert and have some fun with ‘Capture the Flag’ which was an active game where the whole school could participate. It was indeed a great day and a lovely way to finish the term. Throughout the week our Year 8 group planned a huge fundraiser to help support the focus of the Rural Kidney foundation. I congratulate and thank the group for bringing in donations and contributing to the running and planning of the events. I was most impressed with our students' willingness to help out.

Term 3 has started on the run. We as always work on setting goals and working on ensuring our classrooms are calm, productive places of learning. Each student is reminded of classroom expectations of what it means to be a learner. Please ask the questions from home - Are you well organised and fully prepared for your learning? Are you showing respect to your peers and teachers? This sounds ideal. As educators we know it does not always happen. Working as a team in supporting the learning process is our goal.

Our students have been working hard to build their portfolios for the Student-Led Conferencing. Parents are asked to make a booking time to Zoom their PAC teachers via the SOBS system. A hard copy note has been sent home with a detailed description of the booking system. The SLC will give our students a great opportunity to articulate learning. As a PAC team, we are looking forward to our conversations with families. Students will be given a refresher on how to use Zoom meetings so that the process can go smoothly. As always teachers can also be emailed to discuss or talk over the phone about student progress.

Special thanks to our students for donating to the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal. After a slow start, the baskets were overflowing. 

Mrs Kathryn Czinner (on behalf of the Year 8 PAC team)

Year 9

Mr James Russell

It’s amazing to stop and think that half of the year has passed already. As I reflect on the first half of the year, so many positive things have occurred as students have worked hard to progress their learning and to further grow and develop personal and social skills. So many students from the Year 9 Group strive for excellence every day and they are to be commended for their efforts so far in 2021. 

While looking back, it would be amiss of me to not mention Year 9’s contribution to Founders Day at the end of last term. Our students were heavily involved in all aspects of the day from the Mass, to the concert to the intense battles of Capture the Flag in the afternoon. In particular, the amazing talents of many students were clearly on show as they performed beautifully during a number of items in the concert. Well done to all.

With so much outstanding work going on around school it is perfect timing that we have Student Led Conferencing (SLC) fast approaching during Week 4, Tuesday 3rd to Thursday 5th of August. These Conferences are focused on our Year 9’s sharing examples of their learning that they are proud of, while also identifying aspects of their learning where they want to improve. As a Pastoral Team, the Yr 9 PAC Teachers have made it our goal that all students will do an SLC. We believe in the process so strongly that even if parents are unable to be a part of this we as teachers will still provide opportunities for students to lead a conference with teachers that they feel comfortable with. We are asking that all parents and guardians please support our students by trying to book a time for a conference with your child. Further details of the SLC’s will be published through Compass.

It really is fantastic to be back for Term 3 and we look forward to another wonderful term for Year 9 at O’Connor.

Mr James Russell and the Yr 9 PAC Team.

Year 10

Ms Amanda Bell and Mr Frank Patricks

Welcome back to term 3!

Perhaps the biggest term for our year 10 2021 cohort, as we move towards looking at our course preferences, Student Led Conferencing and pushing ourselves to step up and work hard in our learning journey as we get closer to our senior studies. 

We had a large number of parents/guardians join us this past Monday evening for our Course Preference Information evening, held via Zoom. We thank you for your participation in this event and support of your students as we move through this process. Students were given access to their first round course preference survey on Wednesday morning. We encourage you and your students to discuss their interests and abilities so they are making informed decisions, remembering that there will be multiple opportunities to select their preferences as we work through the process of trying to put our Year 11 subjects on lines for 2022.

We are also quickly approaching our Student Led Conferencing which will occur on the Tuesday (3/8), Wednesday (4/8) and Thursday (5/8)  evenings of Week 4. As a group we have been working hard during our morning PAC and PAC periods, doing self reflection and practising leading our learning conversations. We really look forward to having the opportunity to watch our students confidently discuss their learning journey to date. Keep an eye on your Compass alerts for information about when booking for these will open.

Ms Amanda Bell / Mr Frank Patricks (on behalf of the Year 10 PAC team)

Year 11

Mrs Vicki Channon

Welcome back to the last term of Year 11 studies!!!!! Wow, the year has certainly flown by. My question to our students is how are you going to spend this last important term in regards to their learning?? 

At this week’s combined assembly I spoke about resilience and mindset. The picture and quote from Tigger is a mantra we could all learn a lesson from. Sometimes the wheels fall off and things do not go our way, but how well we react to these situations can make a world of difference to the outcome.

The important thing for our students to remember is that we are all unique, we all learn in different ways, but all teachers (and for that matter parents and carers) ask is that they do the best that they can. I used Ash Barty and Dylan Alcott to model the idea that a growth mindset can help with outlook and performance in more than just the sporting arena.

We have looked at the Jobjump website. This is an excellent resource. Here is the link. https://www.jobjump.com.au/

A huge thank you to those students who contributed to the Vinnies Winter Appeal. I encourage our students to perhaps dig a little deeper when it comes to service to others. There are many ways in which we can demonstrate this here at school.

We are starting to talk about exam preparation as a focus for the whole year group. This week’s PAC period on Friday will be in the library learning centre. We will have a panel of Year 12 students joining us. They will be answering some questions in regards to study strategies, ways to gain balance with work/school/study/friends, major projects, things that they would have done differently etc. Should be valuable for all of us. Let’s make this the best term ever Year 12. Be kind to each other.

Mrs Vicki Channon (on behalf of the entire Year 11 PAC team)

Year 12

Mr Mark Fulloon

Welcome back Year 12 to another busy term and the last term before we go into the HSC exams. Before this though, students will have trial HSC exams to help prepare for the HSC.

Over the last couple weeks, it has been great to see students completing projects and submitting work ready for marking and continuing to pursue academic endeavours. 

The last week of Term 2 which Year 12 named ‘Founders Week,’ students ran a range of fundraisers to support their chosen charity for this year; The Rural Kidney Health Clinic. This started as a student-run breakfast club bbq a couple of mornings a week in term 2 and then for the college Founders Day. It was amazing to see students organising all the different year groups and events for this worthy cause and I thank all students in all year groups for their contributions. I also would like to acknowledge the work of PAC teachers and Year Leaders for their input, the school community came together for this worthwhile cause. Year 12 have raised an impressive $4388 for The Rural Kidney Health Clinic, well done to all involved.

‘Now’ Year 12 have an important individual focus on what they need to do to be successful going forward into final examinations and work submissions, and we will continue to support our students in this process. 

Keep working hard Year 12 as it is ‘Now’ your time to shine.

Mr Mark Fulloon (on behalf of the entire Year 12 PAC team)