SECONDARY NEWS
From the Assistant Principal

Miss Kim Bailey
kbailey@arm.catholic.edu.au

Reminders...

Field Events

Students will participate in their first session of field events this Thursday on the school oval from 12.10 p.m. On Thursday, students may wear shirts in their House colours to school.

Athletics Carnival

The carnival will be held on the school oval this Friday. Students may wear a shirt in their House colours to school on Friday. Any other props or costumes must be brought to school and changed into before the carnival and put of before leaving for the day.

Good Luck...

Small Schools' Rugby League

Good luck to the U14s and U16s rugby league teams who will compete at the carnival on Thursday at Kamilaroi.

Congratulations...

Bill Turner Trophy

Congratulations to the girls' soccer team who were valiant in defeat on the school oval yesterday. The girls were defeated by Carinya Christian School, but they played extremely well. Thanks to Mrs East for coaching the team.

Cochrane Cup & League Tag

Congratulations to all the teams who played last Thursday. They were excellent ambassadors of the school.

Online chess Competition

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the online chess competition last Friday. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Reports

Students have been doing assessments over the last couple of weeks; however, there are still some tasks to be completed. Reports will be written in the next few weeks and will be distributed to parents in the last week of the term. If there are any concerns or queries regarding this matter, please contact the school.

Making the most of opportunities...

ICAS - Assessment Platform (Available to Years 3-10)

What is ICAS? ICAS is an online academic competition that is designed to assess students’ higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics and Science. Each assessment celebrates students’ accomplishments by providing opportunities for recognition and development. Every student who participates will receive a printed certificate and an online results report. Top performers will be eligible for medals. We encourage you to consider entering your child into ICAS this year.

How to participate in ICAS If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:

1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)

2. Go to Parent Portal to purchase tests here:(shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps)

3. Enter our school’s access code – [insert access code] (Our code is XEQ247)

4. Enter your child’s details and select the tests you would like to purchase.

All payments must be done online as this is an external assessment.

English: 12-16 August

Mathematics: 26-30 August

Science: 19-23 August

Closing date: 15 July 2024.

REMEMBER to accept the invitation to Google Classroom Guardian Summaries

Device Policy

Students are not permitted to use their devices unless instructed by a teacher. This includes both the classroom and the playground. The students are aware of this policy and receive constant reminders in Pastoral Care, their teaching classes and there are also many posters displayed all around the school.

If a student needs to use their device, they must first seek permission from a teacher and use it in an area designated by the teacher. This is usually under their direct supervision or outside the Secondary staffroom.

If students are unable to follow this policy, their phones are confiscated and placed securely in Miss Bailey's office, where they are collected by the student at the end of the school day.

Teachers record each time a device is confiscated. After it is confiscated for a second time, it remains at school until it can be collected by a parent or carer.

STUDY SKILLS TIPS

MAKING THE MOST OF FEEDBACK

Throughout the year, you will have been receiving feedback from your teachers about your assessments. But are you making the most of this feedback? Many students are too focused on what mark they received and neglect to make the most of the feedback they are given.

It’s not just about what you did wrong, either! The feedback is a chance to celebrate what you did right, what you understood and the skills and learning you demonstrated.

However, it is also a chance to address areas you found difficult or did not perform as well in.

Below are some questions you can ask yourself when an assessment is returned to make the most of the feedback you are given.

When a test or exam is returned:

What specific feedback did your teacher give you, and how should you use that feedback?
Will you be tested on these topics again, or are they important for overall understanding in this subject?
Which areas do you need to ask for help on as you still don’t understand?
Which questions from your test paper should you re-do? Re-do them!
Should you re-write any questions or essays and re-submit?
Was there any revision work you did not complete before the test?
What topic areas do you need to review and revise, what should you do to address these?
Are there topics you still need to finalise study notes on?
Are there sections of your study notes that you need to re-do?
Did you plan ahead to give yourself enough time to revise?
What changes do you need to make in the way you study for that subject next time?
Are there students who did really well that you can talk with to find out what they did differently?

For other types of assessments:

What parts of the assessment did you do really well?
What did you enjoy about the assessment?
What can you learn from the feedback you were given?
Is there any part of the feedback you don’t understand that you need to discuss with your teacher?
Can you ask a student who did really well if you can look at their assessment so you can see what is needed to get top marks?
What could you have done differently?
Do you understand what you need to do to improve, or do you need to ask your teacher for more guidance?

Living Well, Learning Well

Emotional Wellbeing

Our Emotional Wellbeing is healthy when we use our top strengths to mindfully be in charge of our emotions and look for what is right in what we are doing and looking at. Most of us can think back to times when our emotions hijacked the way we thought, spoke and acted, and we regretted it afterwards. Because students’ good decision-making centre, the Pre-frontal Cortex, is not fully wired up and operating to capacity, emotional hijacking can occur when they feel under pressure from stressors.

To build students’ social-emotional resilience to reduce the likelihood of this happening, they need to be involved in discussing positive, negative and mixed emotions and identifying the body language they show when their emotions begin to intensify. Using their top strengths to create positive coping strategies and plenty of positive self-talk are the growth mindsets they need to overcome these challenges to maintain and build their emotional wellbeing.

The most difficult thing about doing this with 21st-century students is slowing them down to think hard about the above issues. To do this, ask them to reflect on the achievements they are proud of, the emotions they felt and the body language they showed.

Making Contact with Teachers in the Secondary

If you have any questions or concerns about your child's learning or wellbeing, please make contact with Miss Bailey, your child's Pastoral Care teacher or their subject teacher. We are only too happy to assist.