Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Term 4, another great term of learning ahead. I hope you had some time as a family to connect over the holidays and that all students have returned to school ready to learn. Our Year 12s have begun their HSC exams and are progressing well. Please keep them in your prayers during this time.

Annual Improvement Plan 2021

We have begun work on developing our 2021 Annual Improvement Plan. We have as a staff constantly been using our 2020 plan to set targets and identify strategies to improve our learning community at O’Connor.

As a community we are continually asking the following questions in relation to meeting the goals of our Annual Improvement Plan

How are we going?
How do we know?
What are we going to do next?

By using learning data, staff, student and parent survey results, anecdotal data and observations, we can answer these questions meaningfully and seek to identify the areas for celebration and for improvement. It is this process that will inform our 2021 Annual Improvement Plan.

Year 11

Our Year 11 students have begun their HSC studies and it is an important time to set in place solid study programs that will help when the demands of HSC assessments start. Students should be studying every night (and I don’t mean just doing the odd bit of set work). A good resource for studying is called HSC Hub by atomi https://getatomi.com/. This program consists of short videos on specific syllabus points for many subjects. This program is a great way for students to prepare and revise for lessons. Other resources students can access are Education Perfect and Studiosity, an online tutoring service funded by UNE.

Many of our students now have study periods. During these times students are expected to stay at school and study in a designated area, most commonly the library. We have found that staying at school for study periods means that students are much more engaged in the learning process.

On Monday 2nd November at 6 pm, we will have a Year 11 Parent and Student Information Session to go through the HSC Rules and Procedures for HSC 2021. A zoom link will be sent to you via Compass.

Student Leadership Team 2020/21

As always, I was incredibly impressed by the calibre of the recent speeches given by 21 students who nominated for leadership positions for 2020/21. The breadth of talents and passions of our students is incredible and was shown through their desire to serve their College community.

I would like to congratulate our new student leaders for 2020/21

College Captains - Lara Moloney and Hamish Biddle

College Vice Captains - Nikolai Tursan d'Espaignet and Sophie Troon

Faith and Service Captains - Emelia Rice and Alex MacMahon

Arts Captains - Charlie Fittler and Meg Lawry

Sports Captains - Fletcher Chappell-Davis and Ema Suluma

School Leaders Photo: (L to R) Charlie Fittler, Meg Lawry (Arts Captains), Alex MacMahon (Faith and Service Captain), Sophie Troon (Vice Captain), Hamish Biddle (Captain), Lara Moloney (Captain), Nikolai Tursan d’Espaignet (Vice-Captain), Emelia Rice (Faith and Service Captain), Ema Suluma and Fletcher Chappell-Davis (Sports Captains).

I look forward to working with this team over the next year and know they will be excellent ambassadors for both our student body and the whole O’Connor community.

Staffing

We welcome our staff - Ms Elizabeth Campbell who will work in the English faculty and welcome back Mrs Delwyn Smidt who will work in HSIE faculty.

What new learning will you undertake this week?

Regina Menz