Faculty News

Counselling

FIONA BAUDINETTE

Student Counsellor

FEELING OVERWHELMED? These tips may help

Feeling overwhelmed is like a tsunami about to hit. It’s an emotion that affects most of us at times and feels like our stress is too big to handle. It can manifest in many ways from anxiety, anger, maladaptive thoughts, worry, self-doubt, helplessness and behaviours such as crying, or experiencing panic attacks.

Anxiety is the most common presentation when feeling overwhelmed. The reason we feel overwhelmed derives from many causes, from having a very long to-do list, time pressure, to external factors such as grief or loss. It is a normal emotion and like all emotions, we can learn to regulate it. Here are some things to try, to help reduce the feeling and regain control.

Accept the feeling. Fighting against it does not help to reduce it, nor does ignoring it, it often just makes it worse.
Change your overwhelmed thoughts. Feeling out of control is a common thought when feeling overwhelmed. Unrealistic or unreasonable thoughts trigger stress. It is important therefore to pay attention to our self-talk and negativity. For example, looking at a long to-do list of homework or study, and thinking “I’ll never get all this done” is counterproductive. It stops us from thinking clearly to problem solve and find a solution. It is better to reframe the unhelpful negative thought to, “It seems overwhelming right now, but if I break it down into smaller parts that I can complete today, then I will get it all done in the end.”
Are you multitasking too much? By very definition multitasking implies doing more than one thing at a time, sometimes this is achievable, sometimes it is not. Ask yourself, “does everything need to be completed immediately/today?”
Focus on now! When we are consumed by what we must do tomorrow, this week, this month we forget to appreciate what we can do now. Plan for tomorrow, the week, the month, so you can see how it all fits and what is important right now.
Take a deep breath. Breathing immediately helps regulate our emotions and our body’s response to emotion. Mindfulness, listening to music, going for a walk, and watching a movie can also help to settle emotion.
Take action. Take steps to identify your triggers and actively manage your load. I make lists. It immediately gets everything out of my head, and I can see clearly on the page, how it will all fit. Stress gone. Overwhelmed feeling gone. 😊Perhaps lists will become your friend too.

Careers

MICHELLE MASCARO

Careers Advisor

It has been a big term of careers events for our senior students at Oakleigh Grammar, where they are making great progress in their career development journeys.

Term 2 Careers Events included:

The VCE Careers Expo Excursion

All Senior Students attended this event and had the opportunity to meet with Tertiary and employer representatives to collect information and talk to them about courses and career opportunities. Students also attended VCE seminars, where they were able to obtain study advice and knowledge of how best to perform in these subjects.

The Morrisby Profile

Year 10 students completed their Morrisby Profile – a career testing tool that assists them to identify their key strengths and abilities, and also provides them with a suggested list of VCE subject choices and careers. They will receive their report during a one on one Morrisby feedback career counselling session with me next term. Parents will also be encouraged to attend these sessions.

The Monash Women’s Business Network Lunch – Women in STEM event.

This event was a wonderful opportunity for 2 of our students to represent our School, and make connections where they not only learned about STEM careers, but the importance of networking.

Our first Senior School Careers Morning Tea of 2021

Guest speakers Mike Larkin and Helen Baker spoke to all senior students about their careers, and discussed programs such as “pitchfest”, a platform designed for students to use their voice to pitch their business and charity ideas.

The “At Our School” Tertiary Speaker Series

No lockdown stops any careers event at Oakleigh Grammar, and this event was no exception! Our tertiary speakers from Deakin University “Zoomed" into School, and introduced University life to our year 10 students.

Watch this space as further events proceed in term 3. In the meantime, have a restful term break.

LOTE

ANASTASIA SPANOS

Acting Head of LOTE - Greek and Mandarin

In 2019, Oakleigh Grammar introduced the “Certificate II in Applied Language – Greek” to our School. Students who are in the Year 9 Greek Pathway II class are eligible to enrol and complete the two-year course.

This course is designed to provide individuals with language skills and intercultural knowledge. This enables students to communicate in social and workplace situations in a language other than English, both in Australia and overseas.

Graduates of Certificate II in Applied Language will be able to communicate using Greek in simple and basic tasks. This could be through the requirement of an easy and direct exchange of information, and opinions on familiar and basic matters.

On Tuesday 22nd of June, during our Middle and Senior School Assembly, the first group of students who completed their course at the end of 2020 received their certificates. We would like to congratulate the following students for their achievement and their outstanding work during the two-years course:

Paul Apos

Stephanie Burnett

Isabella Fassos

Maya Haddad

Greg Kakaras

Billi Lambropoulos

Alexia Markos

Lucas Morgan

Panagiota Pantoulis

Chris Tsiagalos

We are also very proud to announce that Oakleigh Grammar is the only school in Victoria offering the course to students in Year 9 and Year 10.

Science

ANGELA KORLOS

Head of Mathematics/Science

The following response are student extracts from The Girls in S.T.E.A.M Program that students attend on the 18th of June.

The Girls in S.T.E.A.M. Program was a fun day. We got to learn about different careers in steam and also participate in some fun activities that tested our knowledge across math and science.

We found it very inspiring!

By Paris, Olivia, Emma and Arietta

The Girls in S.T.E.A.M. Program was good and it was interesting to learn about the different fields that would be possible to work in.

We did an experiment on building a floating house/raft and it was interesting to see all the different ways we could do it, and in the end the simplest versions worked the best.

The speakers were very passionate in their fields and also gave a different perspectives about future jobs.

By Camryn

The program was fun! We got to work together and problem-solve how to make a raft support the greatest mass.

By Ella

Student Representative Council

ANASTASIA SPANOS

SRC Coordinator

On Friday 18th of June, Oakleigh Grammar turned RED! The SRC, together with Middle School Leaders and Junior School Social Justice Leaders organised our annual Red Nose Day to support “SIDS and Kids”.

This year Red Nose Day is on the 13th of August. However, Oakleigh Grammar kept the tradition by holding a casual day and encouraging students to wear an element of red on Friday 18th of June.

Red Nose Day is a day of fundraising where people come together to raise money for Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by wearing red noses. SIDS is the unexplained death or a young baby, usually during sleep.

On that day, students came to school in comfortable casual clothes waring an element of red to highlight the importance of this worthwhile charity. Each student donated $2.00 for the casual day. Alternatively, ELC and Junior school students were able to pay $3.00 and to receive a red nose. Every dollar raised on Red Nose Day helps stop little lives being cut short and ensures every grief-stricken family gets the support they need.

Thanks to all students and staff who participated and supported to this year “Red Nose Day” fundraiser! We raised $1,646.50!