Principal

Term 4 Take-off: The Final Stretch of 2026!

Welcome back to Term 4! This final term brings major academic milestones across all year levels, starting with our Year 12 cohort, who begin their HSC examinations this week. At the same time, Year 11 students are stepping up by moving directly into their Year 12 course of study for 2027, while Years 5 to 10 focus on consolidating and completing their core 2026 teaching cycle. It is a busy, high-stakes term, and we encourage all families to support their children at home by breaking big tasks into manageable steps to reduce stress and help them finish the school year strong.

Key Dates

• HSC commences Tuesday 13 October and ends on 5 November.

• Tuesday 13 October: Year 11 Transition Liturgy.

• Wednesday 14 October: Year 12 (2027) Parent Information Evening, 6:30 PM, Gymnasium.

• Friday 23 October: P&F Trivia Night, The Renaissance Lidcombe, 7:00 PM.

• Wednesday 25 November: Festival of Carols and Readings, College Chapel, 6:30 PM.

• Wednesday 2 December: Annual Speech Night and Prizegiving, Quay Centre, 6:30 PM.

• Thursday and Friday 3-4 December: Optional Parent/Teacher Interviews.

Learning Together: How "Explicit Instruction" Helps Your Child Succeed 

You may have noticed a lot of media coverage during the vacation period about how Australian children are being taught. Recent major reports, such as The Sydney Morning Herald’s investigation into fixing the education system and ABC News features following the national NAPLAN data, have cast a bright spotlight on a highly effective, evidence-backed approach called explicit instruction.

Major national bodies, including the Australian Education Research Organisation ([AERO] https://www.edresearch.edu.au "About explicit teaching"), have highlighted explicit instruction as one of the single most powerful ways to boost student achievement. But what does it actually mean for your child in Years 5 to 12? Far from old-fashioned, dry lectures or simple memorisation, modern explicit teaching is a supportive, active approach structured around exactly how the human brain processes, stores, and retains complex information.

The Science: Understanding "Working Memory"

The push for explicit teaching is deeply rooted in Cognitive Load Theory, pioneered right here in Australia. Think of your child’s working memory (their immediate brainpower) like a small bucket:

• The Limit: The human brain can generally only hold four to seven new pieces of information at one time.

• The Problem: When students are asked to "discover" a complex new rule or formula by themselves, their mental bucket immediately overflows. They waste energy figuring out the process instead of learning the content.

• The Fix: In class, teachers break down big, complex concepts—like writing a high school essay or solving multi-step algebraic equations—into tiny, manageable "chunks". This keeps the brain from overloading and helps push the information cleanly into their permanent, long-term memory.

What it Looks Like in the Classroom

Explicit instruction brings a structured sequence to life, often called the "I Do, We Do, You Do" model:

1. I Do (Clear Modelling): The teacher clearly demonstrates how to do a task step-by-step using "worked examples".

2. We Do (Guided Practice): The teacher and students solve problems together. Teachers use quick, interactive checks—like rapid-fire questions—to catch and correct mistakes immediately before they become bad habits.

3. You Do (Independent Mastery): Only when the teacher is certain the class understands the foundational concepts do the students tackle the work independently or move into complex, creative project-based learning.

Try This Tonight: Supporting Your Son at Home

When your sons are doing homework, studying for exams, or trying to manage their busy schedules in Years 5–12, their mental "buckets" can easily overflow. You can use these simple, evidence-based strategies at home to reduce their cognitive load and reinforce what they are learning in class:

• Maximise the "Signal" by Cutting the Noise

  • The Idea: Multitasking is a myth for working memory. When your child is studying, texting a friend or listening to a podcast with lyrics uses the exact same verbal processing channels as the text they are trying to read or write.

  • Action: Create a dedicated study zone where phones are placed in another room, and TVs are turned off. Keeping the environment visually and audibly calm frees up 100% of their brainpower for their schoolwork.

     

• Use the "Chunking" Method for Big Assignments

  • The Idea: Looking at a massive project timeline (like a high school major work or a Year 7 history project) causes instant mental paralysis and procrastination.

  • Action: Help them break the task down into tiny, bite-sized daily goals. Instead of saying, "Work on your geography assignment tonight," change the goal to: "Tonight, we are just going to find and write down three source quotes for the introduction."

     

• Ask for a "Brain Dump" Explainer

  • The Idea: True learning happens when information is pulled out of the brain, not just read off a page.

  • Action: Instead of asking, "Have you finished your study?", ask them to teach you. Say: "Can you explain to me in two sentences what you just read?" or "Walk me through the first two steps of how you solved that maths problem." If they can explicitly explain it to you, it means the information is successfully sticking!

     

Great teaching isn't about leaving students to wander in the dark hoping they find the light switch. By removing the guesswork, explicit instruction gives every student the foundational tools they need to succeed. By combining structured, success-oriented classrooms with a focused study environment at home, we build independent learners who don't just survive complex schoolwork—they master it.

Staff News

• We welcome Mr Dane Cousins to the College who is replacing Mrs Katrib while she is on Parental Leave.
• Ms Rebecca Lerve has resigned from the College. We thank her for your contribution to date and wish her well for the future.

Keep in Your Prayers

We keep in our prayers: 

• Mrs Fochesato (Community Liaison Officer) and her sister, Mrs Cipollone who have had to urgently travel to the UK to tend to their ailing mother. We wish them safe travels and God’s grace as they navigate this difficult time.

• Mrs Sarah Tatola (Acting Director of Middle School) for the loss of her beloved grandfather at the end of last term. 

• Ms Angela Amoruso (Receptionist) for the loss of her beloved Dad, Gerardo Amoruso, during the holidays. 

• Matteo R (Year 9) and Massimo R (Year 7) and the Rossetto family on the loss of their grandfather, Mr Peter Pryce.

  Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, Through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Dr Vittoria Lavorato

Principal

SPC boys can do anything! 

**except divide by zero