KLA News 

This fortnight we hear from the CAPA, English, PDHPE, Science and TAS Key Learning Areas (KLA's). 

CAPA 

Ms Melita Roache

Music 

Year 10 have been studying a unit on World Music. Last week students presented their performance projects, playing pieces of music from around the world. We were entertained by Spanish Guitar (Liam), Clarinet Polka (Corin), Italian National Anthem (Holly) and American Country (Patrick). 

New England Sings

Our O’Connor Vocal Ensemble have been rehearsing weekly in preparation for New England Sings in October.  We are lucky to have Max Buckland multitasking in rehearsals, singing and accompanying the ensemble. If you weren’t lucky enough to get a ticket for this performance, you can still go on the waiting list for any more released tickets, or buy tickets to watch the event live streamed here: www.trybooking.com/CBWYY.

Max Buckland

Last saturday Max Buckland performed a piano recital in preparation for his up and coming LMusA exam later this month. Max is currently studying accelerated yr 11 Music and is a competent performer. He will also be accompanying Chiyo Brown (PLC student) for her HSC Music exam next week. We wish him well for his performance exam.

Visual Arts

The Year 9 Visual Arts Elective students created a stamp which will be pressed into their their ceramic boxes. These stamps have initials or an image on their base which acts as a signature for their artworks. They are adding colour through glaze.

OUT OF THE BOX: Seth Dwyer created this artist impression of the box he is creating for the Out of the Box unit. The concept is inspired by the game “Terraria”.

The Year 10 Visual Arts Elective students created an artwork based on Strange Happenings. A selection of paint and drawing techniques were used in their creation. 

Sophie Ridley “For thalassophobics”

Lilly Croft “Crisp Trepidation”

Drama

Year 10 Drama have been busy learning about the 1960’s the past couple of weeks in conjunction with our play “The One Day of The Year” by Alan Seymour. Their most recent task was performing a scene from the play which required them to stage, costume and learn the piece to perform for the class. The students performed very well and were proud of their efforts. 

English

Ms Lauren Donnelly 

2022 Book Week ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’

This year, the English staff facilitated a celebration of Book Week with our O'Connor students. Offering opportunities to engage with Indigenous stories, riddles, scavenger hunts and Battle of the Books Competition. It was fantastic to see the students engaging with literature outside of the classroom and supporting one another in the competition. 

Stage 4 Book Club 

Stage 4 Book Club have been meeting for a month now and have started to review the texts that they have been reading. Remember that Stage 4 Book Club is on Thursday Break B on the Week 1 timetable. 

Book Club Review by Rachael Ward (Year 7)

Science

Mr Daniel Fittler

Year 11 have been preparing for their exams this week and were busy refreshing their Chemistry notes in Mr Powers' Chemistry class on Tuesday. Past paper practice questions have also been useful.

Year 10 Science

Students in Mr Fittler's science class found out how surface area affects the action of copper sulfate on steel this week. The steel wool versus nail created a lot of heat!

PDHPE

PDHPE: 

OCC PDHPE BINGO - Step-tember 2022

Rules of the Game

• Throughout September for National Health and Physical Activity month the PDHPE Department is running PDHPE BINGO! You need to complete each of the listed BINGO activities each day: PDHPE BINGO (please make your own copy of this Bingo Card). 
• For each activity you complete you need to provide photo/video evidence of you completing the activity and insert this proof into the calendar next to the activity description - think of it like your bingo dauber.
• Entries close on the 30th of September. You need to submit your completed entry via email to Mrs Clydsdale at:  cclydsdale@arm.catholic.edu.au 
• Winner/s will be announced in Week 1, Term 4
• Winner/s will receive: house points, a teachers commendation award, social media recognition and a $50 Intersport Voucher!!
• Let’s get moving in Step-tember!!!
• Remember it is important to stay active everyday in a variety of ways!
• GOODLUCK!

RED ROVER: Years 7 and 10 keeping fit on the oval on Monday.

PDHPE Subject Selections

Subject selections are underway for our students in Year 10 moving into Year 11 next year and also for our Year 8 students moving into Year 9 electives in 2023. Below is a link to the PDHPE Departments google sites for both Stage 5 and Stage 6 where you can find more information about each of the PDHPE electives on offer. 

Stage 5 PDHPE Electives: 

https://sites.google.com/arm.catholic.edu.au/pdhpedepartment/home 

Stage 6 PDHPE Electives:

https://sites.google.com/arm.catholic.edu.au/pdhpe-department/home 

CAPTURE THE FLAG: Frisbee and Footy! Year 10 keeping up their fitness. 

TAS

Agriculture News

Mrs Janet Price

Hunter Scrivener in Year 8 has qualified for the Sydney Royal Easter Show 2023 during the young Paraders competition in Tamworth last weekend. Congratulations Hunter!  It is a very difficult to qualify for this event - well done!

Food Technology

Mrs Anne Healey

Year 10 Food Tech students have been honing their cake decorating skills as part of the Food for Special Occasions unit of work. We have been studying reasons for celebrating such as social, cultural, historical and religious reasons. 

Of course it’s all about the cake and this will be the main event in Week 10 when each student will decorate a special occasion cake to suit a particular event. Students have experienced a gradual development of skills; starting from crafting fondant roses, applying fondant and royal icing to a small small wedding cake, using a Royal icing flooding and feathering technique to biscuits and today we experimented with a variety of piping tips and butter icing. Watch this space in 2 weeks for the final cakes. 

Year 11 Engineering Studies

Mr Jon Hawthorne

Year 11 Engineering Studies have recently been looking at hydraulic machines and human prosthetics as part of their biomedical engineering unit.  The students built various hydraulic machines and tested them using syringes to replicate hydraulic pumps. They were also challenged to design and construct working model of prosthetic hands that were capable of catching a simple object.