Pastoral Academic Care (PAC)

Pastoral Focus: Junior – OPTIMISM AND HOPE

Senior – TAKE NOTICE

Wellbeing Element: POSITIVE EMOTION + GRATITUDE

Character Strength: brainstorming how they can build their wellbeing and resilience using Forgiveness.

Parent Wellbeing: a key ingredient in feeling motivated to try new and more challenging things is a sense of competence, the feeling you have the skills to master something. Believing that you have what it takes means that fear of failure is not going to stop you from leaving your comfort zone to risk failure

This week we hear from the Year 7, Year 9 and Year 11 PAC Leaders

Year 7

Well done Year 7!

Year 7 have had many successful learning opportunities this term, many of which are to be recognised and celebrated. We had students participate in sporting events such as the school athletics carnival, the Dio cross country, the Da Vinci Decathlon, and an array of eisteddfod items, just to name a few! All of the wonderful year 7 students who participated in these extra-curricular activities should be extremely proud of themselves and how they have represented O’Connor.

What’s happening in our classrooms this term?

We have officially made it to half way through term 2 and the learning in all our classrooms continues to thrive. Students have been engaging in a variety of educational activities that all aim to enhance students knowledge and understanding of key concepts in all subject areas, but also enhance skills such as collaboration, communication, higher order thinking and problem solving skills. I have had much joy over the course of the term visiting classrooms to see what learning is happening in our year 7 classrooms and engaged in many conversations with students about their thoughts and ideas. Below are just some examples of many!

Year 7 Tech - Building birdhouses:

Year 7 HSIE posing questions about livability:

Year 7 Food Tech - Learning about the importance of farms and the food they produce

Reporting:

This year our reporting system is going to be slightly different to previous years. When your child’s report is completed, parents will be able to receive two key bits of information through Compass. One will be a “grade”, and the other will be “approaches to learning” for each KLA. The change in the system is due to each KLA placing a stronger emphasis of feedback on learning tasks to all our students. Effective feedback assists the student to reflect on their learning and their learning strategies so they can make adjustments to make better progress in the future. The grade and approaches of learning will be a reflection of the learning tasks provided by the KLA. If you are having any difficulties accessing feedback on your child’s learning tasks please reach out to the school so we can help guide you through this process.

Ms Felicity Magann

On behalf of the Year 7 PAC Team.

Year 9

“Where is your power?”

It’s been a great privilege to visit various Year 9 lessons around our College over the past few weeks. There has been some in-depth learning that has challenged our students to think in different ways. Success comes in various forms and for students to achieve success in lessons, they should be in the correct mindset for learning and demonstrate positive and productive behaviours for learning.

Athletics Carnival

Last week, O’Connor Catholic College hosted their annual Athletics Carnival. Participation in sports carnivals teaches students important skills around winning and losing which builds valuable skills faced in all areas of life.

Since the start of Term 2, practical PDHPE lessons have been focussing on various Athletics events in preparation for the carnival. It was really great to see so many of our Year 9 students not only in attendance on the day, but also participating and really having fun!

Central Rotary Meeting

On Thursday the 25th of May, Hunter Scrivener was invited to the Armidale Central Rotary Club Luncheon to present a speech about his recent week in Walcha engaging in the RYAG (Rotary Youth in Agriculture) program. Hunter addressed a board of 15 Rotary members discussing details of what he learned from the program. The Rotary Youth in Agriculture program offers budding young agriculture students the opportunity to learn about the sheep industry. Hunter came away from his experience with a new found knowledge of meat and wool production along with the ins and outs of the process from start to finish. Hunter represented O’Connor with pride and spoke exceptionally well about his time at RYAG.

Lily Fryar

PDHPE Teacher

Year 9 Mass

Year 9 students had the opportunity to practise their faith formation over the past fortnight in the Year 9 Mass. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that the Mass “is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through Him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”

The music performed at Mass helps to impart spiritual truth to one's mind, heart, and soul and it displays a dimension of meaning and feeling that mere words cannot. Music makes prayer more pleasing, promotes a sense of congregational unity, and confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites. During our Mass, we were fortunate to have a number of our Year 9 musicians perform our hymns.

Mother’s Day Morning Tea

At O’Connor Catholic College, we take pride in honouring the significant role that our Mothers and Mother figures play in the lives of our students. This year, we were excited to extend an invitation to the families of our College in celebrating expressing love, appreciation, and gratitude towards these important role models for their unconditional love, support, and sacrifices by hosting a morning tea. A huge thank you to those who were able to celebrate with us.

Ms Natalie Mellowship

On behalf of the Year 9 PAC Team

Year 11

Year 11 students are now half way through the Year 11 course and as outlined in the last newsletter, are likely to have received feedback for at least one assessment task. I have had a number of students speak with me about how they are very happy with their result.

It has been fantastic to hear of the achievements of our students, not only in class but in other activities. These form an important part of developing a young adult’s confidence and self-worth and I would like to share some of these with you.

They range from personal achievements of students such as Josephine Ryan receiving the Student Catholic Spirit Award to team efforts including soccer, basketball, eisteddfod and ethics olympiad. I commend all these students on their achievements and encourage others to challenge themselves to participate in all educational and co-curricular activities on offer. This includes dancing the nutbush!

I thank those parents/carers who were able to attend the Student Led Conferences. These are a great opportunity for students to lead a discussion regarding their studies and to have parents/carers discuss this with the teachers. I remind parents/carers that teachers are only an email or phone call away, if you wish to discuss anything.

Spirit of Catholic Education Awards - Student Catholic Spirit Award