Newsletter of The Riverina Anglican College

LEADERS OF WELLBEING REPORTS

All articles published week beginning  15 June 2020

Year 7

For this fortnight, we are wanting to highlight the amazing achievements of a variety of students in our Houses. Since having access to Compass, the level of participation and a positive attitude towards learning has been exceptionally evident throughout the Year 7 cohort. We congratulate the following students for their achievements and cannot wait to highlight others in the future. These students have displayed the qualities that we are trying to instil within our Houses. These qualities include resilience, building strong positive relationships, being kind to others and showing respect, embracing opportunities and developing a positive relationship with learning and finally being trustworthy, honest and fair.    

Alethea Levy 

Alethea is a well-rounded student who is courteous and service-minded. She has received numerous awards in all available categories and consistently wears her uniform with pride. Alethea has received 14 commendations and was the Week 5 STRAVA Challenge leader. Her fantastic participation throughout TRAC Online was noted by various teachers and she should be exceptionally proud of her positive attitude towards her learning. 

 

Anneliese Klimpsch

Anneliese has stood out as a trustworthy, honest, and fair student. She has received many awards and has gained recognition for always presenting well in her school uniform. Annalise has demonstrated a willingness to get involved in many of the College’s extra-curricular activities, including the da Vinci Decathlon, The Premier’s Reading Challenge, and is to be commended for being the only Year 7 selected as a Junior School Chaperone. 

 

Sheppard 

Dan Ray 

Dan is a lovely student who always goes above and beyond with his interaction with other students, as well as his teachers. He is exceptionally selfless and consistently tries his best. He is the first student to say good morning to everyone and consistently oozes positivity. Dan has received multiple awards across numerous subjects and is to be commended for this effort. 

 

Kate Burton

Kate has been flying along while here at The Riverina Anglican College, steadily progressing through the College welfare level system. She has recently received a dozen classroom commendations from a variety of her teachers. Kate is really embracing all the opportunities that are on offer here at the College, she is involved with the Band, she has put in a good effort with the STRAVA challenge and completed 100% of the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Kate’s teachers have told me that she was proactive while we were learning remotely during TRAC Online.

Justin Buckley | Acting Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7 

Fox and Stanley House 

Lauren Kelly | Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7 

Browning and Sheppard House 

Year 8

Welcome to the Week 8 edition of our Year 8 report for Term 2. As the semester comes to an end and reports are to come out shortly, it provides an excellent opportunity for you to reflect with your child on their academic progress. My best advice - learning is not a competition, rather it is about individual growth. Use the report to start a conversation about learning goals, progress and improvement from Year 7.  

 

During our Year meeting this week, I spoke with the group about the importance of being a good witness/bystander in the presence of poor behaviour. I outlined the importance of:

  • Not engaging in poor behaviour
  • Calling out poor behaviour
  • Standing up for those who experience poor behaviour
  • Reporting poor behaviour to an adult (this should be the least confronting)

If you notice something isn’t quite right with your child, please encourage them to talk to someone (strongly preferable to be adult) so that any situation can be dealt with and they experience the support they need. No student at the College should have to simply ‘put up’ with poor behaviour. As I said to the Year group on Monday - they all have a right to learn, and they all have a right to feel happy and safe at school.

 

Moments of Joy over the last fortnight

This fortnight, my particular highlights have been:

  • Spending Friday afternoon being able to enjoy the sunshine at the CSU Oval playing some semi-competitive frisbee. The participation rate was really pleasing to see, with many interactions between kids who don’t normally spend time together.
  • Getting to see students analyse Zootopia and The Outsiders in English and being able to relate the issue of acceptance to their own experiences- the inquisitive looks of budding scientists as we delve deeper into chemical reactions.
  • The superhero designs that are currently getting ‘printed’ in ink during Visual Arts.
  • Mrs Kjaer’s PDHPE class teaching Mr Glanvill’s Year 12 SLR class a lesson in indoor soccer.

As always, if you would like to discuss your child’s wellbeing and flourishing here at the College, please don’t hesitate in sending an e-mail or calling either of us.

Luke Richardson | Leader of Wellbeing - Year 8

Jennifer Jenkins | Assistant Leader of Wellbeing - of Year 8

Year 9

I hope you are all well and enjoying the cooler weather.

 

This term has gone by very quickly and students have done a great job completing assessment tasks and settling back into the school environment.

 

Next week, on Tuesday 23 June, we have a mufti day. The theme is ‘What you want to be in 10 Years’. I’m looking forward to seeing all the creative outfits and ideas. The students will need to bring in a gold coin donation. We are also currently collecting donations for the St Vincent de Paul Winter appeal. Donations of blankets, jackets and warm clothes are very much appreciated. This will continue into the first two weeks of next term.

 

Fortunately, we are able to run our Cross Country, this will be next Friday, the last day of Term 2. On the day we will also have our TRAC Idol and Shave for a Cure. It’s a great day and an even better way to finish Term 2.

 

Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday 29 June and I recommend that students attend with their parents. You will need to book these through Compass and they will be live from next Monday.

 

Have a great day and if you have any questions or concerns please let me know.

Emma Smith | Leader of Wellbeing - Year 9

Issac Mannion | Assistant Leader of Wellbeing -  Year 9

Year 10

The focus for the past fortnight has been on the subject selections for 2021. Our teachers have offered many sessions on all the different streams offered here at the College. We are very fortunate to have so many choices to offer our students as they move into their senior years. It can be a confusing time for both parents and students as they navigate their path forward. I would encourage you to support your child to make decisions around their interests and application level. Talking to older students and classroom students is invaluable for them and will offer a wide array of insights. 

 

We are looking forward to a College mufti day, Vinnies Winter Appeal, Cross Country and TRAC Idol at the end of the term. Such activities provide opportunities for students to participate in the culture of The Riverina Anglican College and enjoy being involved at many levels of school. 

 

If you have any questions regarding subject selection or require more information don’t hesitate to contact me at Meegan.Farmer@trac.nsw.edu.au, or Helen Foster, Head of Academic Administration at Helen.Foster@trac.nsw.edu.au, or Anthony Heffer, Deputy Principal – Teaching, Learning and Innovation at Anthony.Heffer@trac.nsw.edu.au

Meegan Farmer | Leader of Wellbeing -  Year 10

Trevor Dawson | Assistant Leader of Wellbeing -  Year 10

Year 11

I am sure that you will agree with me when I say this term has flown by. Year 11 only have one term left before they begin their Year 12 studies!

 

Compass

Thank you to everyone who have already downloaded and are using the Compass app. If you are yet to download it, please do so as this management platform enables you to view your child’s timetable, school calendar, download academic reports and now book Parent Teacher Conferences. A guide for Parents and families will guide you through the platform’s functionality. 

 

As a parent, I use the school calendar regularly to monitor my children’s assessments so I can further support their learning. From there I map out when the assessments are due on a calendar to help with their time management skills. 

 

 As a teacher, my favourite part of Compass is seeing the students’ commendations. Commendations are the digital version of the merit system. It gives me great pleasure to see the students’ achievements whether it is through academic, service, sport, or music.

 

Thank you to the following students who have achieved Service Commendations this week for their assistance in chaperoning the Junior School Meet and Greet interviews

 

Inigo Bardos

Hannah Billet 

Mia Bowcher

Charlotte Collins

Hugo Currie

Anna Falepau

Ingrid Holzapfel

Tahlia Lewry

Lucy McKelvie Hill

Judd McLeod

Miles Martin

William Mieiklejohn

Eliza Parker

Isabella Purnell

Kynan Smith

Liam Whiting

Ciara Wilson

Holly Wilson

Abby Wood

 

If your child is not using Compass yet, please encourage them to seek assistance from their homeroom teacher or me.

 

As the term draws to an end I would like to reiterate how proud I have been of Year 11 during this semester. It has been a semester of uncertainty and disruption. However, the students have proven to be resilient, determined and most of all extremely co-operative. Please encourage your child to take a break from their studies during the holidays...they have earned it!

 

Thank you all for your support.

Amall Liakatos | Leader of Wellbeing - Year 11

Kelly Bowen | Assistant Leader of Wellbeing - of Year 11

Year 12

A short message from Kym and I for the last time this term. 

 

It was fantastic to see so many at the Parent Teacher Interviews this week - your final one as parents for this Year group. It doesn’t seem that long ago we were meeting in the school library in 2015 for the first lot of Year 7 interviews.

 

As Mr Humble communicated with students this week, at this stage graduation and final week celebrations in Term 3 will be going ahead in what looks to be a relatively normal format. We will let everyone know when we can confirm details. Some of what the farewell will look like will be determined by suggestions from the student leaders.

 

On the topic of leadership, it has been wonderful to see the group come together the past few weeks in rehearsals for the TRAC Idol performance of Footloose. There were almost 90 of them dancing (and I use that term rather loosely) on Tuesday lunchtime in the gym. Let’s just say they have a lot of pent up energy post COVID-19 that will be unleashed on an unsuspecting school community next Friday.

 

And finally, I’ve recently finished reading an interesting book called Atomic Habits which has been wonderfully informative with regards to the psychology of changing behaviour to meet goals. I used some of the ideas from the book in the Valley of Disappointment video I made for the students a fortnight ago. I created another clip about ‘Funnel Vision’ for them this week. The links to both are included below.

 

Funnel Vision - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bBmfVJOxzw0KfyyzeS-VnaU2Z7M7iKCq

 

Valley of Disappointment- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M8X0g5QBHnqfPkIEnO468AN-CD72ApxG/view?usp=sharing

Dane Fuller | Leader of Wellbeing - 12

Kim Kjaer | Assistant Leader of Wellbeing - 12