Assistant Principal - Learning and Wellbeing - Happening Events

Schools are incredibly busy places. The curriculum requires students to be at school for over 6 hours a day following a pattern of study that usually involves attending 5 hour long lessons a day. Students in their breaks, manage to eat, rest and attend a range of clubs such as Drama, Chess and Vinnies. Students are often required to commit to home study to improve learning outcomes. I am guessing at this stage you will be saying to yourself, schools are indeed a busy place. I have not yet mentioned the co curricular activities that take place and you will see in upcoming events that the busyness of school is even greater than you first thought. 

As this author is typing, our students are preparing to perform in the musical, The School of Rock. The hours of effort put into this production has been incredible. The rehearsals, the building of sets, logistics and the technical considerations are only a part of the terrific work our students and our helpful adult community have worked through to the point where next week it will be performed at the Showground Pavilion. If you haven't purchased a ticket yet, make sure that you do. You will not only be supportive of the arts, and the great work of our community, you will also be thoroughly entertained by a very polished performance. I am off to the Thursday evening performance and cannot wait. Our students in Years 7 to 10 will get the opportunity to see matinee performances during the week. 

Last week, I had the pleasure of witnessing our Design and Technology and iSTEM students put a lot of their theoretical work into practice by building and racing CO2 dragsters. It was busy and involved hard work but great learning was visible to the large crowd who attended. The Year 7 Praxis classes, five in all, visited the studios of 2AD as part of their unit on Fake News where they were given great insights during their hands-on tour of the facility. Also last week our Year 7 to 10 students were treated to workshops facilitated by REAL TALK. This is a diocesan wide initiative aiming to help students make good decisions and deal with in a healthy way relevant issues such as relationships, phones, internet use and social media. 

In the theme of busyness, sport gets a mention in other areas of newsletter, but I would like to highlight, The North West Equestrian Event, where our students excelled, our Rugby League teams that did so well last week in Moree, our Cross Country runners representing the diocese last week in Sydney and looking forward our Football teams, inspired by the Socceroos travelling down to Coffs Harbour next week to to compete in the next round of the statewide cup.

I'm exhausted mentioning all this but I have not yet included the upcoming transition day for primary school students at O'Connor. Our students assist teachers in giving the younger students a taste of what the College curriculum looks like, the structures involved and indeed a healthy sense of familiarity with grounds, buildings and people which make up our great community.

The members of our community including students, parents and staff are busy for sure, but the rewards are great and the College will continue to provide for our students great opportunities to learn in a variety of contexts.

Mr Damian Roff

Assistant Principal - Learning and Wellbeing

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