O'Connor Catholic College Newsletter

Around the KLA's (Key Learning Areas) - PDHPE

PDHPE

With mass sport cancellations, sporting news hasn't been as plentiful as in the pre COVID-19 era.  While the College has been following an asynchronous timetable, daily exercise as been incorporated into the daily routine. Walking the 3km cross country course and playing tennis have proved popular. 

 

PHOTO: Year 7 students setting out for their walk. 

Feature Teacher - Mrs Natalie Mellowship-Brown

 

What is your Full Name?  

Natalie Mellowship-Brown

 

What schools have you taught at? 

I’ve had many experiences in a variety of schools both in the UK and in Australia. I’ve taught in the following: The Nobel School (UK), Hitchin Girls School (UK), Thomas Alleyne Academy (UK), Armidale High School and O’Connor Catholic College.

 

What years and subjects are you teaching? I currently teach 7, 8, 10 PDHPE. 9 Child Studies and 11 SLR. 

 

 

Where have you lived? I’m really fortunate to have lived in a few countries. I grew up in the UK and studied there but have also lived and worked in the United States for a brief time as a professional Soccer coach before I went to University. I’ve lived in: Stevenage (UK), Sheffield (UK), USA and Australia.

 

What kinds of hobbies and interests do you enjoy? Anything to do with sport! As many of you know, I am a huge Rugby Union enthusiast. I play Hockey (not very well), love to read, go for walks and spend lots of time with my family (especially my little son Jackson) and close friends. 

 

Which 'Little Miss' book series character would best describe you?  I think that most of my friends and family would say that I’m either Little Miss Chatterbox or Little Miss Trouble! 

 

What do you enjoy most about O’Connor? O’Connor is a welcoming place to work and learn. I love the connection to the sense of community that O’Connor has. We’ve got such a great student body who make teaching a pleasure. And we have such a caring, inspiring and supportive staff team who make coming to work every day so much fun! 

 

 

 

  1. Union Jack (for obvious reasons)
  2. With my successful OCC Girls’ Rugby Squads in the inaugural year of the Friday night competition at the Armidale Rugby Presentation Night
  3. With the 2018 Year 9/10 Netball squad in Tamworth

Where are they now? - From our alumni.

Katherine Hosking

It has been two years since Katherine has attended O'Connor. We were interested in finding out what has been keeping her busy since completing her HSC year. 

 

What Year did you complete the HSC? 

2018

 

Where are you now? What are you studying?

I still live in Armidale and I am in my second year of studying a Bachelor of Clinical Exercise Physiology at UNE.

 

What have been your biggest achievements since leaving school? 

Academic wise, I’ve done pretty well in my degree. Sporting wise, I was named the UNE Athlete of the Year for 2019 which was pretty unreal!

 

If you were to give HSC PDHPE students, or any HSC student  some advice to succeed in their final year what would it be? 

Know your syllabus back to front and try not to slack off towards the end of the year, work hard to the end! 

Have something that you can do to take a break from study, something away from technology! Whether it be a sport, reading, arts and craft, you name it, I think it is really important to be able to do something you enjoy for your mind to relax and have some away-time from study and school. 

 

What did you do that worked for you? How did you achieve a Band 6 in PDHPE?

I really enjoyed PDHPE, so naturally I probably paid a bit more attention in class and it was one of the subjects that I would study for first! 

I memorised the syllabus and made a set of notes for each syllabus dot point. I did a lot of past papers and I tried to better each answer by adding in a statistic or another point, which also acted as a back up answer if I forgot one. 

 

What’s next for you?

On the study side, I will continue my degree. Riding wise, hopefully I will be able to travel to the Netherlands for the MTB World Uni Games and also World MTB Champs in Germany later in the year!

 

Any final words of advice to O’Connor students? 

Study hard and put in your best effort! If you can say you tried your hardest at the end of year 12, I think you’ve already won!