Brigidine Campus Update

There has been an increase in student learning on our Brigidine Campus as students prepare for assessment tasks and exams. Year 12s continue with the busy schedule of SACs and all students should be aspiring to work hard and try their best at all times.

Working hard looks like putting in the effort, doing drafts to improve the final product, and asking and responding to feedback. Learning should stretch students. It shouldn’t all be easy.

One of the keys to doing the hard work well, is to minimise stress at the same time. Trying your best doesn’t need to be stressful. Stress is best alleviated through being organised and not leaving task completion or revision to the last minute.

Is homework a natural habit? Do students review the work completed from the day and try to make connections to past work and new concepts? Making links between concepts helps to strengthen understanding. Students in Yr 9 - 12 should all be doing homework. The amount and type will vary but there is always something to do.

Learning Mentor (LM) lunchtime netball has been a great success so far and we are now into the quarter finals. Competition is fierce, the skill level is high and the support and encouragement from the sidelines is great to witness. Playing in the quarter finals this week are:

Chisholm 3 v Patrick 5

Nicholls 1 v Moore 1

Patrick 4 v Moore 2

Delany 5 v Nicholls 5

The semi finals and grand final will be played next week. Good luck to all LM groups that are still competing. The winning LM will head to Kildare Campus to play the winning LM from their competition which was held in Term 1.

Over the past three weeks the House Captains were set a challenge to get students in their House undertaking an allocated random act of kindness. Teachers were quizzed about whether they had observed an increase in the number of students giving a friendly welcome at the start of the lesson, and a thank you at the end; students volunteering to tidy the room; and encouraging rubbish to be placed in the bins when out in the yard. Hopefully, these ‘random acts’ become daily habits and we get to witness a more welcoming and friendly environment every day.

If you have been following the media over the past week you will have been hearing a lot about the harms of social media on health and wellbeing, particularly mental health, excess screen time and how powerful the algorithms and advertising on these platforms are. While there is a big push to limit these platforms to the 16+ age group, the key message needs to be about how to use these platforms safely and to set strong boundaries around use of phones and other devices.

Some starting strategies for families could be:

Limit the number of hours young people have access to their phones/devices. This should also be role-modelled by parents.
Keep phones/devices out of bedrooms. Use in an open part of the house and this is where overnight charging should occur too.
Stay off phones/devices during family times e.g. shared meals

Parents and carers should have regular conversations with their child/ren in relation to use of social media, and the pressures they may be feeling to be online all the time, especially the need to check the number of likes a post may have. Research has shown that social media is having a detrimental impact on mental health and wellbeing, especially for young people. It has resulted in an increase in bullying and harassment of students, something they can’t escape unless they are offline; increased exposure to threats of violence and pornography; and the threat of being scammed. It is imperative that parents know what is going on and to support and role model screen free time.

There is more information and resources linked into the Wellbeing page in this newsleter; including resources from School TV and the eSafety Commissioner.

Elevate Education

Keen to learn how you can best support your child during exams?

Elevate Education is a company that runs study skills workshops with our students here at St Joseph's, and they regularly host free online webinars for parents.

The next webinar in the Term 2 series is scheduled for 5 June and will provide helpful tips and advice on how you can support your child during their exams.

Before signing off, I would like to advise our school community that I will be reducing my workload to part-time from Semester 2 onwards which will result in a change to the Director of Campus position. Mrs Shari Gotch will be the Director of Brigidine Campus from June 17 for the remainder of the 2024 school year. We thank her for stepping into this role and know she will do a wonderful job. There will be no impact/change to my teaching load or current classes.

Geraldine Ryan

Brigidine Campus Director