Principal's Report

Dear O’Connor Community,

There have been so many wonderful events at our College these last few weeks. Our newsletter pages are full of photos celebrating the engagement of our students in these events. I am so proud of our students and their teachers who readily participate to showcase their talents. 

This week we will be speaking with our Year 12 students and their parents at the Student-Led Conferences. We have listened to our parents regarding these conferences and school reports. Last year we redesigned our Senior reports so that feedback is given to parents and students during the Student-Led Conferences. This year we are expanding this format to all students in Year 7 to 11.

Our Student-Led Conferences format will involve parents and students meeting with each of the subject teachers to talk about their learning. We will be working with our students to ensure they are ready to talk about their learning and next steps with each teacher. It is important that we have our students use this feedback to grow in their learning. These meetings will be early next term so that our students have an opportunity to improve before the reports are issued for Semester 1.

School Representative Council

It is my great pleasure to congratulate our students who have been elected to the O’Connor Student Representative Council. These students are dedicated to improving our community and I am looking forward to collaborating with them to bring their vision for our College to life. 

Student voice is important as it ensures everyone is valued and enhances our community. It is easy to see the love students have for their school when they are given an opportunity to make changes. The introduction of the new winter jackets is a direct result of students' input into making a positive contribution to our community. 

Year 7                                                                           Year 8 

Isabella Brodbeck                                                     Lily McFarlane  

Samuel Pavy                                                               Laura Lidgard

Hunter McDonald                                                     Poppy Stace

Tahlia Burney                                                              Ranier (Rap) Pabalan

Piper Doran

Year 9                                                                           Year 10

Vanessa Riggall                                                         Maya Teege

Sean Healy                                                                  Bernard May

Madeleine Crowley                                                   Saloan Paul

Skye Barley                                                                  Mara Maksimovic

Year 11                                                                         Year 12

Salisar Poomipak                                                       Jorja Wilson

Sophie Ridley                                                              Harrison Ross

Lily Bull                                                                         Rafe McAuley

Molly Franklin                                                             Charlotte Killen

                                                                                        Isabelle Kelly

                                                                                        Bradley Lidgard

When these student’s nominated themselves for the SRC they were asked three questions. Here is a sample of their very impressive and insightful responses. I am looking forward to the ideas and contributions our SRC will bring to our community. 

What are your strengths? OR What are you good at? 

• I feel that I'm good at leading groups by letting others' thoughts be heard. I then try my best to execute these ideas with the best intentions. 
• My strengths are being compassionate towards other people, working hard in academics and participating in school life.
• My strengths include leadership, cooperation and compassion. 

Why do you want to be on the SRC?

• I have a strong interest in improving all aspects of O'Connor Catholic College, as well as contribute my ideas to the wider school community. 
• To make a difference and help others in our school community.
• To be a voice for my peers is an incredibly important position.
• I want to make changes/improvements within the school and bring ideas that the students of O’Connor want to change about the school.
• I am passionate about improving our school. 
• To represent the voice of the students.

What are some of your ideas to help make our community better?

• I want the community to be better in communicating as a whole and get along well so that education and kindled relationships can thrive.
• Issues that I am particularly passionate about resolving include: creating a more environmentally-friendly community; increasing the amount of student participation in all areas of school life, whether that be in the classroom, at breaks, or outside of school; and supporting the academic growth of my peers.
• More house spirit, finding ways to get more participation in things such as the upcoming Autumn festival float, make the school more welcoming, find ways to recognise more students achievements, acknowledge different cultures around the school, identify a goal for the school that everyone can work towards, and more engaging activities during breaks for anyone to come along to. 

School Visits - Mrs Healy’s STEP day!

This week Mrs Lauren Donnelly (Leader of Pedagogy) and I visited St Patrick’s Walcha, St Joseph’s Uralla and St Mary’s Armidale for our STEP day. This was a day for our Year 6 students to showcase their school and learning for us. We had a wonderful day learning about what works best for our Year 6 students. 

At St Patrick’s we heard about their Chinese language classes and the different breeds of cattle they have on their farms. We enjoyed the stories of cheeky leprechauns and elves. Year 6 were reading Runt by Craig Silvey when we arrived. We were so impressed when the explained the meaning of pugnacious and our favourite term - aquatic larceny (water theft). Mr Hyatt’s fundraising idea using duct tape might have given Mrs Donnelly something to think about.

St Joseph’s students gave us a tour of their school including letting us know that Mary

 Mackillop stayed in Mrs Elks’ office. This was impressive especially as I was educated by Josephite nuns. They showed us their sculptures and the QR codes for Artist’s notes. We really loved the organic learning afternoon where students work together on themes such as Growth Mindset, Empathy and Respect. I liked the images of the Learning Pit and was so impressed with their explanations of the power of ‘YET’ in learning. 

St Mary’s students had an extra visitor Mrs Felicity Magann (Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7). Year 6 were so articulate in explaining how they learn best. I appreciated the feedback on our STEP day. Science needs more explosions, Technologies is awesome for laser cutting, Smores are marshmallows sandwiched between biscuits (sounds delicious) and our Farm was a hit with our Devon cattle, chickens and sheep. Year 6 gave us a tour of their classrooms showing us the ‘chill out’ room, rules for living (we have the same ones) and breakout spaces including the campfire. I got to hear about their favourite subjects (love it when they say Maths) and work they are doing.

It is an honour and privilege for us to visit our Primary Schools. The work of our Primary teachers is so important in laying the foundations for the success we see in our HSC students. I would like to thank Mr Dallas Hyatt, Mrs Judith Elks and Mrs Belinda Burton for allowing us to visit this week but also for the open invitation to visit as often as we like. 

Next week we are so looking forward to visiting Mrs Zoe Nugent and Year 6 at St Mary of the Angel in Guyra. We can’t wait to meet you all again and have an awesome STEP day experience.

Parent Communication

Thank you to all of our parents for responding to our Communication Survey. It is important for us to get your feedback on how we communicate with you and most importantly how we are doing. The partnership between parents and school is essential for the success of our young people. It is important that we acknowledge there are times when we don’t get it right. When this happens we would ask that you let us know so that we can improve. We are a learning community and feedback is essential for the success of everyone in our community. 

Our goal this year is to provide as many opportunities to welcome and celebrate with our parents. Our young people need both their family and school to have a strong partnership. The pandemic stifled this in recent years however we are committed to improving this at every opportunity. 

Compass is our primary communication tool. If you are not sure about how to sign into the Parent Portal please contact us for assistance. It was encouraging to know that this is your preferred communication method.

While we will always use Compass, we will also use our socials for photos, Term planners and monthly reminders of events as well as those opportunities that are too good to pass up. We have heard your feedback on giving you more time to plan work commitments around College events. We are working on this and will be sending out the survey again in Term 2 to check on our progress.

God Bless,

Mrs Clare Healy

Principal