Leading ourselves and others in the School of Leadership

12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12

A culture of high expectations in a school is often defined by the value placed on the ‘little things.’ This can range from the way a student wears their uniform, to how they acknowledge a passing teacher, to their inclination to help a younger student find their way. Indeed, often it is these elements upon which our students may be judged, both within and beyond the St Luke’s gates. To this end, the beginning of 2022 has seen teachers in the School of Leadership breathe life into the verb “leadership” for a 9-14 year old audience.

The scripture reference above reminds us of the importance of how we represent ourselves. Leadership has been reinforced as a verb, an act, a doing word that can manifest in many ways, across many settings. Acts of leadership do not need to be grand gestures, but rather consistent, persistent and insistent attempts to do our part to sustain a community of learners who respect themselves, the environment and each other.

School of Leadership students have had multiple opportunities to participate in authentic leadership of themselves and others including but not limited to the Peer Companion program in Year 8, Stage 3 Freeman’s student-led assembly, participating as SOL Ambassadors at last week’s Open Evening, setting goals for their learning or extracurricular commitments, sharing learning experiences during Year 7 and 8 year meetings, letting the right person know when they or others have made questionable choices, staying back at the end of the lesson to ensure the learning space is re-set for the next lesson… and so the list continues.

School of Leadership students are encouraged to always strive to be their best version of themselves in all facets of their lives. Whilst that does not mean every student is expected to be the best at everything, all students have the opportunity to do their best - a very important distinction!

Mrs Kate Kelly - Head of School- School of Leadership

From Stage 3:

Harmony Week

Stage 3 explored what Harmony Week means to us and how we can use this as an opportunity to tell our own stories, linking with our autobiography writing in English. Students explored the use of symbolism in visual texts and created their own visual text about Harmony Day.

Mr Jerome Wick and Ms Carmel Cuneen - S3 Riley Teachers

SOL Peer Companions in Term 1

During the term, a group of Year 8 students have acted as Peer Companions to support Year 5 students to make a smooth transition into the School of Leadership. These Year 8 students are to be commended on how well they have taken on this responsibility. They have been supportive, encouraging and have been shown impressive leadership skills in leading their groups.

The Year 8 Peer Companions are: Leah Ramazan, Sandra Awale, Diva Kaur, Krystel Arevalo, Pippa Tanner-Meskers, Jessica Still, Ravya Aryal, Asmika Vanam, Gabriel Martinez, Jonas San Juan, Joshita Amarabadi, Peighten Laurente, Abha Gaurkhede, Sesinando Dela Cruz, Bhadra Prasanth, Kevin Bosco, Bhuvi Pareek, Atharv Rathore, Summer Claudio, Jashanth SatishKumar, Erina Zohaib, Natalia Abwi, Razi ShambeHancock, Callum Zarka and Marcus Rowe.

Here are some thoughts from our Year 5 students and Year 8 Peer Companions:

Peer Companions is a wonderful way for the Year 5 students to feel comfortable with the new transition into the School of Leadership. Being one of the first Peer Companions comes with a responsibility to make sure each session has an activity where the students can interact with each other and learn new ways to face problems that might come up. A technique we used last week was SODAS (Situation, Options, Disadvantages, Advantages and Solution) and we created a scenario and used the technique to solve it. Being a Peer Companion has helped me develop leadership skills and better ways to communicate and collaborate with others.

- Pippa Tanner-Meskers (Year 8)

This term in Peer Companion we have been working with students from Stage 3, helping them with the change to the School of Leadership. During these sessions we ran a small group and did various activities with them. For example students wrote down the highs and ‘could be better’ of Stage 3. This information helped us to see what Stage 3 students might need in the next session. We also enjoyed different ice breaker games. To me, being a Peer Companion is all about connecting with younger students (mini leaders) and helping them adjust to transitioning into the School of Leadership and them having fun while doing it. During these sessions I really enjoyed just connecting with the students and having fun with them. They all kind of remind me of myself when I was that age.

- Kevin Bosco (Year 8)

I am one of the Peer Companion leaders which means I get to help Year 5 students this year and be a mentor to them. As Peer Companions, we are trying to help the students get through this big change with fun activities like ice breaker games, as well as wellbeing activities to support them.I really enjoy leading a small group and it has been great getting to know the Year 5 students

- Atharv Rathore (Year 8)

What I enjoyed about Peer Companions was that the Year 8 students helped us understand the information with examples. As you can apply what you learn with a situation to get the strategy/information and how it works. Another thing I like about Peer Companions is that we get help from each other, so that we can go out of our comfort zone to share what we need help with. Then give either suggestions or ideas on different situations, helping us to solve any problems or situations we are in.

- Isabela Alano (Year 5)

What I liked about Peer Companions was that we got to know each other better and got used to moving from the School of Foundations to the School of Leadership. I also liked how we get to do activities to show us what to do in possible friendship incidents. We also have Year 8 students to guide us so that they can show us what to do because they are more experienced.

- Aarshia Arun (Year 5)

Peer Companions is a lovely way for Year 5 students to learn ways to deal with challenges in Year 5. We also get to relax from stress by playing group games to relax our minds. In my opinion, at first I wasn't sure about it but I have learned a lot over this term and it has been a blast! It’s really fun and I would love for it to continue throughout the year.

- Lauren Liu (Year 5)

Ms Melinda Bowd - Wellbeing Leader

Stage 3 Maker Space

Stage 3 students have had the opportunity to explore our newly-furnished Maker Space in recent weeks. Alongside our New Technologies Officer, students worked in teams using the available resources to tackle a series of scientific, computational and design thinking challenges. In term two, students will extend their STEM learning, engaging further with the space and newly arrived technologies such as the Kookaberry kits (microcontrollers with a range of peripherals).

Mr Brad Ptolemy - New Technologies Officer

S3 Freeman Student - Led Celebration of Learning

This term, Stage Three Freeman were given the opportunity to celebrate their learning in the company of their peers. Students identified work they believed best presented their understanding of the 6 Pillars, creating a collaborative slideshow to present for all of Stage Three. Across the Key Learning Areas, Freeman had all bases covered, enjoying the opportunity to plan, create and present their best efforts. Here are some slides they shared with their peers.

Mr Nick Stevens and Miss Lauren Passmore - S3 Freeman Teachers

From Year 7

Year 7 Religious Education:

This term, students have been answering the Driving Question, “ How can belonging and identity enhance human flourishing at St Luke’s?”. As part of the process of self-discovery, they were introduced to the reflection tool, ‘The Examen’; a gift from St Ignatius of Loyola. Students used the five sections of the Examen to review their day; the sections are ‘Awareness’, ‘Gratitude’, 'Emotions', ‘Shortcomings’ and ‘Future’. They had to link the theme ‘Belonging’ to the reflection questions.

This is the Examen that was created by Aaria Patel from Year 7.

Year 7 English:

Students in Year 7 English enjoyed speed dating a collection of novels in preparation for their differentiated novel study in Term 2. Students relished the opportunity to get lost in a book during reading time in English!

Year 7 Italian:

Year 7 students have made stunning progress in their studies of Italian this term. They have engaged in speaking, listening and cultural immersion activities and have been practising basic conversational and introductory phrases and

THIS video shows some keen linguists in action!

Ms Cheyenne Gallo - Italian Teacher

Year 7 Mathematics:

This term in Year 7 Mathematics we are learning about Data. Students have been answering the driving question:

“What is the point of collecting, representing and analysing data?”

During this unit, we have learnt how to classify Data (Numerical Data, Continuous Numerical Data, Discrete Numerical Data, Categorical Data), how to organise data into a frequency distribution table and how to calculate the Mean, Median, Mode and Range.

We have also been working on a Data project. In this project students are in groups of 3 to 4 and each group is given a topic

Our topics are:

number of people in the family
length of right foot (nearest cm)
arm span (nearest cm)
number of pieces of fruit eaten in a week
hours on technology in a week
hours of TV watching in a week
Time to travel to school (in minutes)
Time exercising in a day ( in minutes)
Time spent doing school work in a week (in hours)

We chose from one of these topics and collected data from different students in the class then we organised this data into a frequency distribution table. Once the data is organised we then calculate the Mean, Median, Mode and Range for that data. We are still working on the project side by side with the Data unit.

The workshops and problem solving questions related to Data, helps to excel and understand the Data project better.

-Aarna Mahindru Year 7 Teal

As our final assessment this term, the teachers told us to complete a Data Project. The Data Project is a project where we use our prior knowledge about data and the variety of ways of discovering, collecting and analysing data. Some aspects of data that we had to include in this project were raw sets of data, frequency distribution tables, and the mean, median, mode and range of that set of data.

-Ansh Arora Year 7 Navy

From Year 8

Year 8 Life Design

Students in Year 8 Life Design have had the unique opportunity of developing their own projects and driving questions to pursue over the course of the past 5 weeks in an attempt to achieve flow. Flow is a state of mind categorised as a highly productive level of hyper focus in an area of interest to an individual. This has seen a wide range of projects come to life from the students. Students have presented with great brilliance!

Miss Rowena Chand - Life Design Teacher

Year 8 English/HSIE

As part of their unit: Water in the World, Year 8 took part in a ‘Who’s who in the newsroom’ task. Together as a class, the students created a news simulation, with a variety of stories. Students took on the roles of reporters, graphic designers, writers, and camera operators. Here are some snapshots from 8 Teal News!

Miss Chelsea Wick - English Teacher

Year 7 and 8 Learning Space Names

As part of the recent Belonging and Leadership Days, Year 7 and 8 students engaged in a rigorous process to determine the names of each of the six Year 7 and 8 learning spaces. To complement the SOL learning space names in Stage 3; Freeman, Riley, Malala and Acutis, our Year 7 and 8 students nominated and voted on local and international leaders who inspire them and motivate them to be leaders of themselves and others.

We are excited to announce the room names as follows:

7A	7B	7C	8A	8B	8C

Congratulations!

James Tarr

Earlier this week James Tarr from S3 Acutis participated in the NSWPSSA Swimming Championships and placed first in both the 50m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke events. This event saw the best swimmers from all over NSW in his category so it is a huge achievement for James. James now progresses on to Nationals to represent NSW.

You can watch James in action in THIS video.

Ethan Mateo

Ethan also competed in the hotly contested NSWPSSA Swimming Championships and took home bronze in the 200m Freestyle. Ethan will progress to Nationals later this year.

We wish both James and Ethan all the very best!

Mohammad Abdullah Umair from Year 7 White placed a very impressive 2nd Place in the SydWest Multicultural Services #everyonebelongs Harmony Week Art competition!

Holiday Opportunity

Wellbeing Matters @ St Luke's