Junior School

Stage 3 Public Speaking Competition

Earlier this year, all Junior School boys took part in a class-based public speaking competition and the top two presenters (a winner and a runner-up) from each class were chosen to participate in a unique additional competition which was organised in collaboration with Santa Sabina College. 

This inaugural special event for the nominated students in Stage 3 was held last Thursday 7 September in the Robson Auditorium. Presenting in front of our esteemed adjudicator for the day, Mr Michael Robson whose very name is reflected in the title of the Robson Auditorium itself, the winning student from each Junior School class delivered their own speech before the ‘top six’ students (three boys and three girls) were nominated for the final round of the competition. This involved the chosen students selecting a specific topic from a previously unseen list and delivering an impromptu speech of between one-two minutes in length, with very little time to prepare! 

Suffice to say, this is a rather challenging public speaking skill to master, and it is certainly one which many adults would shy away from, let alone students who are only in Years 5 or 6. However, the three boys chosen to compete in this final round performed remarkably well despite the added pressure and received much deserved praise from our experienced adjudicator. 

The top three students on the day were Marcus Donovan (5 Orange), John Karantonis (5 Blue) and Raymond Nakhel (5 Green). While all three boys are certainly worthy of an extra special mention, it was ultimately Marcus Donovan who was selected as the winning student from the Junior School competitors based on his impromptu presentation about how to have fun without technology! 

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the boys listed below who were chosen as either the winning student, or the runner-up, from our class-based competition held last semester.

I sincerely hope that all students involved in the Stage 3 public speaking competition enjoyed the experience last week and benefitted from the added opportunity to collaborate with their fellow peers from Santa Sabina College.

Promoting a love of reading

The window for the 2023 version of the ‘NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge’, which aims to encourage a love of reading in students and enable them to experience quality literature, recently closed at the beginning of the month. While the vast majority of our Junior School students were able to reach their individual goal, it is certainly my hope that the boys will continue to read and develop their skills, even if they aren’t chasing a particular target anymore! The benefits of reading are too numerous to individually name. Among many other positives, reading improves one’s focus, memory, knowledge, and communication skills, while also reducing stress at the same time, not a bad combination to promote amongst our Junior School boys! However, despite these benefits, 44% of Australians have low or very low literacy; approximately a quarter of Australians have not read a single book over the course of a year; and children’s participation in reading for pleasure has been trending downwards, dropping from 79% in 2018 to under 72% last year.

Did you know:

1. Reading is four times more influential on intellectual progress in teens than having a parent/carer with a degree.
    
2. Exposure to larger home libraries in adolescence has a positive direct effect on adult literacy, numeracy, and information and communication technology skills.
    
3. A 20% reduction in mortality was observed for those who read books (30 minutes a day), compared to those who did not read.
    
4. Adults who read books, magazines and newspapers almost every day had a substantially lower risk of being diagnosed with depression. They also scored lower on the loneliness scale.
    
5. 43% of readers said that reading helps them to get a better quality of sleep at night. This recent research undertaken by the ‘Australia Reads’ organisation makes for fascinating viewing and analysis, and all parents/carers are encouraged to look at the findings by clicking here. 

A friendly reminder that our Junior School library has a wealth of wonderful reading material for the boys, including a diverse range of texts on offer for them to borrow and enjoy.

If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via email (glenn.stephenson@spc.nsw.edu.au) or phone (8705 9247) and I will endeavour to assist you in any way that I can.

May God bless you,

Glenn Stephenson

Director of Junior School

Carpool Initiative

The Junior School Justice Group have been investigating how many students carpool to and from St Patrick’s College (you might have seen us out counting cars recently). We were surprised to find out the huge number of students that are the only passenger in the car. 

One morning, we counted 376 cars at Kiss and Ride, and 300 of them were dropping off only student!! That’s more than three quarters.

We want to encourage more families to join up and carpool wherever and whenever possible. If you have any relatives, friends, and neighbours at the school, we ask you to consider carpooling.

There are so many benefits:

• lightening the traffic on the roads
• reduce carbon emissions
• building networks and connecting with others
• saving money $$$$
• save time
• take turns and only drive twice per week
• less cars means a shorter line at Kiss and Ride

So why not give it a try this week, arrange even just one more person in the car. 

Sincerely from John K and the JSJ group