Principal

Staff Changes

This week we welcome our new Head of HSIE B, George Sacco. George is an Old Boy of the College and returns to us after gaining experience at Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview as an Assistant Head of Faculty and House Master.

NAPLAN 2023 is fast approaching

The National NAPLAN tests have been moved to Term 1 to allow for schools to actually be able to use the results to plan for their cohorts and their unique needs.

The NAPLAN Test for 2023 will include testing on four domains:

• Writing – Students are provided with a ‘writing stimulus’ (sometimes called a ‘prompt’ – an idea or topic) and asked to write a response in a particular genre (narrative or persuasive writing).
   
• Reading – Students read a range of informative, imaginative, and persuasive texts and then answer related questions.
   
• Conventions of language – This test assesses spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
   
• Numeracy – This test assesses numeracy skills i.e., numbers and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.

St Patrick’s College, Strathfield will schedule tests on 15, 16 and 17 March 2023, taking into account the test order as below:

Students who are absent during the test period for their class will need to take ‘catch-up tests‘ in the following week.  

How are NAPLAN results reported?

Results from the NAPLAN tests are reported on scales that compare student performance to established standards. The scales are divided into 10 bands and apply to all academic years, from Year 3 to Year 9.

Not all bands are reported for each level of the year. For each year i.e., Years 3, 5, 7, and 9, the scales and standards system are reported.

The band scale shown below reflects the standard marking pattern for the respective years i.e., Years 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Establishing Digital Boundaries

It’s well established that sleep is vital for children and adolescents’ learning, physical health, mental wellbeing, and emotional regulation. Yet, a concerning number of Australian children and adolescents aren’t meeting the national sleep guidelines according to a recent study*.

There are many reasons for young people’s poor sleep habits including school demands, co-curricular and/or work commitments, perceived pressure from parents/carers and educators and consumption of energy drinks. Young people’s digital device habits can have a significant, negative impact on their sleep.

Handheld devices emit blue light which hampers melatonin production. This can result in the delayed onset of sleep and potentially shorten critical phases of the sleep cycle. Research confirms that children who have not yet gone through puberty are particularly vulnerable to blue light exposure in the evening as they have larger pupils, compared to post-puberty adolescents.

Strategies to stop screens from sabotaging your child’s sleep

Parents/carers can have a positive influence on their child and teens’ digital habits and doing so will yield positive results for their child’s sleep and subsequent learning and wellbeing.

Establish a digital bedtime

Kids should switch off digital devices 60 minutes prior to falling asleep. Reinforce this habit by establishing a ‘landing zone’ such as a kitchen bench, a desk in a study or sideboard where digital devices go for charging and storage. Many students report that they ‘need’ to complete homework or submit assignments late at night. Verify the validity of such statements and work in partnership with your child’s school to limit this type of required screen activity at night. Parents need to also be good role models by switching off before bed too.

Tech-free zones

Bedrooms should be tech-free zones so consider buying an alarm clock if your child uses a mobile phone to wake themselves up. Keeping devices out of bedrooms removes the tech-temptation to use them throughout the night, reduces the likelihood that they’ll reach for them upon waking and lessens the chance of cyberbullying incidents. Ensure any devices left in bedrooms are on airplane mode and that the device is away from their line of sight.

Ensure a daily dose of ‘greentime’

Exposure to natural blue light from sources such as the sun is critical for regulating circadian rhythms and promoting sleepiness at night. Ensure your child/teen is exposed to bright, natural, daytime light preferably before midday each day.

Use blue light filters

Most devices include options for ‘night mode’ or ‘dark mode’ that reduce blue light exposure. Dimming the brightness of the screen in the settings or applying a filter on a desktop or laptop also assists.

Do a screen swap before bed

Encourage passive tech activities before bed such as watching TV, listening to an audiobook, music or podcast, or reading on an e-reader.

It can be a challenge navigating digital boundaries with your child or teen particularly when it involves sleep, which is vital for health, wellbeing and learning. Talk to them regularly about the importance of sleep using science and facts to substantiate your claims.

*The Australian Department of Health recommends between 9-11 hours of sleep for children (aged 5-13 years) and between 8-10 hours of sleep for adolescents (aged 14-17 years). A 2019 study published by the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that a quarter of 12-15 year-olds were experiencing a concerning lack of sleep and more than half of the 16-17 year-olds in the study were not getting the recommended 8-10 hours/night. 

(Source: https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/lsac-asr-2018-chap4-sleep.pdf).

First Week of Lent: Facing Temptation

26 February 2023: First Sunday of Lent (Year A)

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. 

Matthew 4:1–2

Is temptation good? Certainly, it’s not a sin to be tempted.  Otherwise, our Lord could never have been tempted Himself. But He was. And so are we. As we entered into the first full week of Lent, we have been given the opportunity to ponder the story of Jesus’s temptation in the desert.

Temptation is never from God. But God does permit us to be tempted. Not so that we fall, but so that we grow in holiness.  Temptation forces us to rise up and make a choice either for God or for the temptation.  Though mercy and forgiveness are always offered when we fail, the blessings that await those who overcome temptation are numerous.

Jesus’s temptation did not increase His holiness, but it did afford Him the opportunity to manifest His perfection within His human nature.  It is that perfection we seek and His perfection that we must strive to imitate as we face the temptations of life. Let’s look at five clear “blessings” that can come from enduring the temptations of the evil one.  Ponder these carefully and slowly:

• First, enduring a temptation and conquering it helps us see the strength of God in our lives.
   
• Second, temptation humbles us, stripping away our pride and our struggle of thinking we are self-reliant and self-made.
   
• Third, there is great value in completely rejecting the devil.  This not only robs him of his ongoing power to deceive us, but it also clarifies our vision of who he is so that we can continue to reject him and his works.
   
• Fourth, overcoming temptation clearly and definitively strengthens us in every virtue.
   
• Fifth, the devil would not tempt us if he were not concerned about our holiness.  Thus, we should see temptation as a sign that the evil one is losing hold of our lives.

Overcoming temptation is like acing an exam, winning a contest, completing a difficult project or accomplishing some challenging feat.  We should take great joy in overcoming temptation in our lives, realising that this strengthens us to the core of our being.  As we do so, we must also do so in humility, realising that we have not accomplished this on our own but only by the grace of God in our lives. 

The opposite is true also. When we fail a particular temptation over and over again, we get discouraged and tend to lose the little virtue we have.  Know that any and every temptation from the evil one can be overcome.  Nothing is too great. Nothing is too difficult. Humble yourself in confession, seek the help of a confidant, fall on your knees in prayer, trust in the almighty power of God.  Overcoming temptation is not only possible, it is a glorious and transforming experience of grace in your life.

Reflect, this week, upon Jesus facing the devil in the desert after spending 40 days of fasting.  He faced every temptation of the evil one so as to assure us that if we but unite ourselves completely to Him in His human nature, so we also will have His strength to overcome anything and everything the vile devil throws our way.

In Memoriam

This week we keep Mr Andrew Viney (Head of TAS), Mrs Ingrid Viney (Events Manager) and Ms Heidi Viney (Diverse Learning Teacher) in our prayers. Mr Viney and Mrs Viney’s husband are brothers, and they lost their beloved mother last week, Mrs Jan Viney, at 85 years old, also great aunt to Heidi. Jan Viney was a remarkable woman who had a long and happy association with our College. She lived a full life. A wife, a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother. She was also a wonderful supporter of St Patrick’s College. Mrs Viney was a Santa Sabina girl who married her St Patrick’s College boy (Mr Viney Senior, Judge Michael Alan Viney, Class of 53). They sent their daughters to Santa Sabina and their four sons went to St Patrick’s: James Viney (’78), David Viney (’79), Justin Viney (’80), Andrew Viney (’81). Their three grandsons also attended St Patrick’s – Michael Viney (’07), Max Viney (’09), Zachary McCann (’11). The late Mrs Viney was a teacher and loved history.  After her husband passed in 2007, she compiled enormous dossiers on fallen Australian Soldiers in Papua New Guinea for the St Patrick’s College PNG Immersion Program.  She did so at her own expense and they have been in constant use since then. We keep Mr Viney, Mrs Viney, the seven children and their extended families in our prayers.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. 

May her souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, 

through the mercy of God, rest in peace. 

Dr Vittoria Lavorato

Principal

SPC boys can do anything! 

**except divide by zero