Senior School

GAT

On Tuesday 18 June, all students currently enrolled in at a VCE 3/4 subject or scored VCE VET 3/4 subject in 2024 were required to sit the General Achievement Task or the GAT. At St Patrick’s College, 259 students qualified as being required to complete this task this year.  

There is a power of work that goes into organising the event in the lead up and the Human Resources team consisting of Jamie Bobrowski and Ebony Corden, together with VCE Co-ordinator Abbey Panosh did a fantastic job to ensure all went smoothly on the day.  

The GAT is a pen and paper task that tests general knowledge and skills.  It plays a key role in the quality assurance of VCE Assessments and also provides students with an opportunity to show that they meet the Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Standards that are expected of students studying at a secondary level in the state.

Section A was completed in the morning session and focused on Literacy and Numeracy, with one two-part writing task and 50 multiple choice questions in each category.

After a break over lunch, the students returned to complete Section B which focuses on General Knowledge and Skills. It consisted of one extended writing task, 25 multiple choice questions focused on Mathematics, Science and Technology and another 25 multiple choice questions focused on Arts and Humanities.

Patrick Cronin Foundation – Rethinking Anger

Earlier in the year the Patrick Cronin Foundation visited the College to deliver their “Violence is Never OK!” presentation, established following the tragic death of Patrick Cronin in 2016 as the result of a single strike to the back of his head on a night out with friends. 

The presentation uses Patrick’s story to highlight the worst possible outcome of social violence, with the aim of helping students make wise choices in their life.  On Wednesday 26 June, they returned to deliver their follow-up presentation, “Rethinking Anger”, to our Year 12 cohort, raising awareness of conflict, physiological responses to threats and strategies to avoid violence.  Our students are now better positioned to defuse any situation that could lead to violence, instead resulting in a peaceful resolution.  Ideally, we hope that our boys never find themselves in these situations in the first place.

Congratulations Archie Lalor 

Year 12 student Archie Lalor has been selected in the Australian Squad for the U19 Cricket Program. This is an amazing achievement for a young man who applies himself with maximum effort in all aspects of his life at St Patrick’s College. 

This coming holidays Archie will be attending a camp in Brisbane, where he will be put through his paces with targeted 1:1 skills development sessions, general training and education, and leadership sessions. 

Plans are currently underway for a tour of India, with the National Youth Selection Panel being tasked with selecting 15 players from this squad to tour later in the year. We wish Archie all the best in his endeavours and congratulate him on his well-deserved selection. We have no doubt this is the start of an amazing journey ahead.

Term 2 break

As we move into the Term 2 holidays, it is time to reflect on what has been a long 11-week term.  The boys have applied themselves to their studies, on the sporting field and on the stage.  We encourage them to recharge the batteries during the break, spending time with loved ones, and return to us refreshed and ready to go again.  For our Year 12’s, Term 3 is the last full term of school ever for them. 

Over the holidays it is important they have a plan to ensure they can complete the three hours of holiday homework for each of their Unit 3/4 subjects and have time for guilt-free fun, spending time with family and friends. We look forward to seeing the boys upon their return, ready to apply themselves with 100 per cent effort to all aspects of their school life at St Patrick’s College.