KLA News
This fortnight we hear from the English, Science, TAS, CAPA and PE Key Learning Areas.
CAPA
Visual Arts
Mrs Jenny Frazier
What's happening in the art room?
Year 7
We have just finished creating our amazing self portraits in clay. Learning about proportions and how to use different techniques for effect in hand building sculptures.
What are year 8 doing in art?
We have been building on our design skills to create functional Pop Art inspired ceramic cups. Using ideas from popular culture to be creative with our designs.
Year 9 - Ella Luchich
What are you doing in art?
We are making a self portrait but it isn’t actually my face. My portrait shows my favourite colour, place to visit, astrology among other things. I have chosen a Bauhaus style because I have always gravitated towards that style of art. Colour and shape is something I really enjoy exploring.
Year 10 VA - Lilly Croft
What are you doing in art?
I’ve explored the theme of Strange Happenings in a mixed media artwork. My idea is based on my dream of being in a bathroom with menacing creatures. I worked with watercolour, calligraphy pens and a charcoal wash.
Year 10 Design - Nixon Bird
What are you doing in art?
I have made a pebble clay sculpture in Visual Design. I learnt how to create a pinch pot and use items to texture the clay. Currently I am glazing my sculpture. I have also made a clock.
Year 11 VA
What are you doing in art?
We had the opportunity to visit NERAM and explore the outstanding works from the Archibald Prize.
Currently we are experimenting with multimedia materials to create a triptych based artwork that explores the theme of Journey.
Year 12 VA Sharnaya Abdul-Majid
What are you doing in art?
My Major Work is about my dogs; one who passed during the process of making the work. In my work I wanted to celebrate my love of my pet dogs. The large image focuses on their features and the smaller images say something about their life. I have enjoyed developing new techniques in my work and experiencing the process of being creative.
Let’s Hang it Art Competition and Exhibition at the New England regional Art Museum.
In 2022, more than 590 artworks from 46 schools in the region were submitted to the award. Only 60 entries were then selected to be professionally exhibited and from this just a handful of winners. Congratulations to Aveline Dawes for her intriguing work “Attachment” which was selected for the exhibition. The exhibition will be on display at NERAM from the 29th July – 14th August 2022. All works on display are on the NERAM website. From here you can vote for your favourite artwork; The People’s Choice Award.
English
Ms Lauren Donnelly
What’s happening in English this term?
7 English
This term Year 7 English are exploring a unit centred around The News and are considering how they are created to position us on important topics in the country. Students are currently creating Sports Articles that have students investigating the participation, teamwork and results of the Australian team in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The students of 7.2 are participating in a 20 Book reading challenge over the semester and it is great to see students discussing their reading and moving their tally up.
Year 8
This term Year 8 English are exploring Australian poetry in the unit ‘Capturing Australia’. Students have been deconstructing the famous and iconic poem of ‘My Country’ by Dorothea Mackellar and have used this as an inspiration to create a poem of their own with the same title. Students will continue to look at classical and contemporary poets and consider how Australia’s identity has changed throughout the generations.
Year 9
This term Year 9 English are exploring the use of documentaries to shape society. Students are particularly focusing on the text The Social Dilemma which has led to some great conversations about the impact that social media is having on students' lives and how they can learn to be less dependent on devices.
Year 10
This term Year 10 English are exploring Neil Gaiman in an author study. They are considering how he uses a range of techniques and devices across his compositions in order to understand the distinctive qualities that make that composer unique. Students are also beginning an author study project where they are investigating their own composers and their works to produce an analysis in the medium of their choice.
Book Clubs at O’Connor Catholic College
Miss Donnelly and Miss Armfield are organising Stage 4 (Year 7 and 8) and Stage 5 (Year 9 and 10) Book Clubs. This is a great place for students to share what they are reading and why they are enjoying these books. Reading is a fantastic way to improve literacy skills, but also to develop new ideas and engage in the world.
More information about the upcoming dates for Stage 5 Book Club will be released soon.
Music
Year 8 Music
Music classes are in full swing and have been exploring the elements of music composition and performance.
Miss Suann's (Mus 1) class has been working on practicing the riff from Decode by Paramore on their guitar, keyboard or bass and are combining some of the instruments with drums to perform the riff in class.
Miss Samson's Year 8 (Mus 2) class were busy on Friday working on their compositions. It is always enjoyable to see what they compose on a variety of instruments.
PDHPE
Ms Camilla Clydsdale
Welcome to Term 3 in PDHPE. Subject selections are underway for our students in Year 10 moving into Year 11 next year and also for our Year 8 students moving into Year 9 electives in 2023. Below is a link to the PDHPE Departments google sites for both Stage 5 and Stage 6 where you can find more information about each of the PDHPE electives on offer.
Stage 5 PDHPE Electives:
https://sites.google.com/arm.catholic.edu.au/pdhpedepartment/home
Stage 6 PDHPE Electives:
https://sites.google.com/arm.catholic.edu.au/pdhpe-department/home
Year 9 Sport Science have been exploring Issues in Sport and Physical Activity this term. Most recently we have been exploring Gender and Equity and how it has evolved since the inception of the first Ancient Olympics in 776 BC, in comparison to the Modern Olympics today. As part of their studies both classes have spent their practical lessons competing in a variety of sports from the Commonwealth Games https://www.birmingham2022.com/sports. Each class has been divided into Commonwealth Countries and have been competing in a mini Commonwealth Games Tournament. Stay up to date with all the action from the games at :
https://7plus.com.au/birmingham-2022-commonwealth-games
Pictured below are Year 12 Sport, Lifestyle and Recreation students coaching Year 7 as part of their Coaching unit:
West Tigers School Rugby League Festival Tamworth
On Thursday, Ms Clydsdale and Mr Honeysett accompanied 18 students to Tamworth for the West Tigers Rugby League School Festival. During the day our students experienced cultural activities from the Kari group such as spear and boomerang throwing, Aboriginal craft and inclusion activities such as wheelchair rugby league and league tag.
On Friday night O'Connor featured on Prime Seven News. Our Year 7 and 8 students enjoyed a great experience and got to meet some West Tigers NRL players.
Science
On Wednesday the 27th of July, 30 students from O’Connor competed against other schools in the Armidale region in the Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge. In this event students work in teams of 4. Their team will work through 2 challenges over the course of the day. The challenges that each team faces are different. The table below outlines how the challenges are set out.
The students need to bring a variety of skills to each of these challenges because the challenges are so different. In the Grasping at straws activity, students make a “bionic hand” from straws (which make fingers), string (which act as the tendons) and some PVC pipe which is the palm of the hand to which the fingers are anchored. Their masterpiece is assessed on its dexterity i.e. the kinds of objects that it can pick up such as pingpong balls and coins. The confounding communications activity requires a different skill set as this activity gets students to develop a code (like morse code) to send a message using combinations of different coloured lights (red, green and blue).
At the half way point the score update revealed that O'Connor was in the lead by a tenuous 11 points and with the motivation that the winning team would get to compete in Newcastle the pressure was on to do their best. At the end of the day the scores are tallied up during the testing of the final activity - The Bridge.
The Bridge activity is the only one which takes the whole day to complete. In this activity, students build a bridge that crosses a gap in a model train track. With their bridge in place, the track is laid down over the top of the track (which is heavy in itself) and a mining cart is rolled down a ramp and over the bridge. If the cart gets safely to the other side then a weight (called an ingot) is added to the cart and it passes over the bridge. There are 4 ingots in total that the bridge needs to hold to start with and it is safe to say that the O’Connor bridge team was able to hold these 4 ingots with ease. After this test the 4 ingots are replaced with the “super ingot” which has a much greater weight than the combined weight of the 4 smaller ingots. Again, O’Connor passed with flying colours, with the students cheering enthusiastically even before the cart crossed the bridge such was the confidence that we had in our bridge. The final challenge for the bridge team is to carry the weight called “Bertie’s Bridge Buster” which is a much bigger weight than the 4 smaller ingots combined and this is loaded onto the trolley with the super ingot. This proved to be too much for the O’Connor bridge and it collapsed under this great expectation. That being said, the only other team to carry the same load as the O’Connor bridge was the team from PLC, even so the O’Connor bridge was lighter than the PLC bridge and therefore had a better load to weight ratio thus giving us more points in this activity than PLC.
After the conclusion of the bridge activity, the scores were announced. The judges came to the moment when they announced second place, they paused and due to the excessive amount of cheering from both the O’Connor team and the PLC team, the judges blocked their ears and announced that O’Connor had come second. Although this is an excellent result there was a slight tinge of disappointment from our team. That being said, the solutions that our students put forward in their challenges were exceptional, but even greater than that was the team work and comradery that the O’Connor team displayed on the day. Truely coming together to solve the challenges that they faced and this is the greatest thing I would like to commend them for on the day.
MOVING FORWARDS: The students enjoyed the interactive nature of the day.
TAS
Mr Jon Hawthorne
Agriculture
Mrs Janet Price
Making mosaics with seeds
Mrs Price has been teaching her classes how to make mosaics with a variety of seeds.
Royal Queensland Show (EKKA)
Mitchell Northam and William Starr spent a big week working at EKKA exhibiting Red Poll Cattle. 5am to 11pm days.
LEADING THE WAY: Will Starr was 2nd in his paraders age group.
Wood Tech - Mandatory Technology Toyworld
Our students continue to be enthused with creating these clever spinning machines. It is always interesting to see what designs they come up with. Mr Fulloon's class certainly created some great toys!
Year 8 Tech Engineering
Mr Healy's Engineering class recently tested the strength of their straw structures under the pressure of weight. Students gradually add more water to a bucket to see how much weight they can bear. It is always a great experiment to watch!
