Pastoral Academic Care (PAC) Focus

This week’s Pastoral Academic Care focus is: POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Wellbeing Element: POSITIVE EMOTIONS + GRATITUDE

Character Strength: TEAMWORK

Wellbeing Reality Activities: POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Parent Wellbeing: A skill of social-emotional resilience is seeking help when you need it by reaching out to the right people. Describe a time you have done this and how you could do it more often. Acknowledgement: Rievich & Shatte.

As Barbara Fredrickson, an expert in the field of emotions, once said, “Positive emotions don’t just make us feel good, they transform our minds, our bodies and our ability to bounce back from hard times.” So, teaching students how to self-generate positive emotions will benefit their wellbeing. Self-generate means them doing challenging things to feel fulfilled. Some include: Every term self-assessing by doing: • How are your elements of wellbeing growing? • How they progressed towards achieving their three goals. • Setting three new goals for next the term.

Focusing on five positives for every negative, being grateful for little good things happening, accepting their full range of emotions, enjoying respectful relationships, being kind, having personal timeouts, looking forward to several things every day, contesting negative thinking, being with nature, applying their strengths, turning off their devices 4 times for 30 minutes daily, mindfully thinking about loved ones, writing gratitude letters and journals, sending kind texts, savouring special times, trying new and challenging interests and making a deliberate effort to meet new people. Positive emotions don’t come from thinking about them, they come from doing positive things. Acknowledgement: Lyubomirsky, Fredrickson & Branigan.

STRENGTHS FOR RELATIONSHIPS: TEAMWORK WEEK This is Teamwork Week, where students and their classes are encouraged to work together to accomplish something they value.

Wellbeing Measurement Tool: Students, staff and parents can measure the state of their wellbeing by taking the free PERMAH survey at https://permahsurvey.com Acknowledgement and thanks: Dr Peggy Kern & Michelle McQuaid.

Year 7

Mrs Kath Czinner & Mr James Russell

Students have been welcomed back to school and been supported by their wonderful PAC team and subject teachers. The students have settled into a good routine again and appear to really appreciate the learning environment and the direct contact they have with the teachers.

We have worked with the students on aspect of their life that they see to be positive. We continue to discuss the importance of our wellbeing in what is still a challenging time with plenty of restrictions and protective measures in place at school and the wider community.

We stress the importance of building positive and respectful relationships and remind the students of our theme of PEACEFULNESS. This is indeed a very topical issue with the current stress that is conveyed by the media in all parts of the world.

Congratulations to the following students who have gained Year Leader Awards:

Year Leader Awards: Rowena Willis, Montana Dodd, Josh Kurikka, Mia Vaughan, Michaela Gerard, Chloe Inman, Olivia Fenton, Lachlan Greaves, Hannah Friedman (2), Ava Loudan (2), Sarah Swadling (2).

Principal’s Awards: Shyaan Dodd, Poppy McKay, Hunter Bolt, Cooper Morley, Abby Van Eyk, Mya Teege.

Year 8

Mrs Katie Biddle

It is so great to see the smiling faces of year 8 students back at school!

The key focus for teachers this week is wellbeing and supporting students to settle back into the school routine.

The Victorian Department of Education has published a useful document that contains some information that parents can use to support their children during this time. Please click here to read the article. Supporting your child during coronavirus

Over the remainder of the term, Year 8 will be exploring study habits that suit their learning style. We will use our experiences of remote learning to support our individual reflection on this. I anticipate that students will gain a deep insight into their personal learning style when reflecting on this and this will prove valuable in their future learning.

Congratulations to Joe Schmude on receiving a Year Leader’s Award last week.

I would also like to give a shout out to the amazing team of 20 O’Connor staff who completed the PushUp Challenge in May. This involved a team total of 3046 push ups and was a fundraiser for Headspace. Check out these strong teachers!

Sincerely

Katie Biddle and the Year 8 teachers

kbiddle1@arm.catholic.edu.au

Year 10

Mr Peter McLeish

Now that we are back full time, let me start by thanking my team for their work in following up with those students who found difficulty in coping with connected learning offsite and tried to ensure adequate outcomes during these times. Secondly, I want to thank you, the parents and carers who tried your best to inspire, motivate and tutor your children while in the home environment. Finally, I want to thank the students. They have shown amazing resilience, optimism and enthusiasm for their learning from home. We know not all of them did as much as they could have and we know those who went above and beyond what was expected of them.

It is as important as ever for all students to knuckle down over the remaining weeks of this term. There will be new topics to master, learning opportunities to get excited about and assessment tasks to complete. Students will be asked to do some self reporting next week. We are really looking forward to seeing those results.

My team and I will be grateful if you continue to reinforce our theme of RESPECT with your child. Call them out if you think they can do better with this aspect of their personality. The greatest success comes from all of us working together.

Congratulations to Calan, Abbee and Vanessa who received Year Leader Awards and Emma who received a Principal’s Award since the last edition of the Newsletter.

By the time you read this, it will be only four weeks until school holidays and you will have the opportunity to have your children at home all week. And it seems like only a week or two ago.

Enjoy your long weekend and continue to stay safe!

Peter McLeish (on behalf of the Year 10 PAC team)

Year 12

Mrs Vicki Channon

Students are now back into their second week of full time schooling and most are coping exceptionally well. Assessments continue to be given out, discussed, prepared, completed, submitted and gladly ticked off the calendar.

It is important that they keep motivated and looking towards that end goal of completing the HSC. Much support, guidance, advice and resource material is available for our students (in abundance!!). It is just a matter of sifting through what works for each individual student in terms of their personal circumstance, learning needs and where they are at with their learning. Mrs Lemon provides very important emails regarding UAC, ATAR, careers and university information. There is also much on the web for emotional well being as well as lots of study strategies and individual subject information, such as ATOMI, Studiosity, Education Perfect. Do not forget NESA which provides past papers, suggested answers, and important updates on the HSC.

The students provided a delicious morning tea for the staff last Friday, accompanied by individually, hand-written cards for each and every staff member. It was a wonderful and heartfelt gesture that was very much appreciated by all. It is so rewarding when we see our students grow into young, maturing adults who can share empathy and support for their fellow human beings, the teachers. They know we are here for them, which is so special. On behalf of all of the O’Connor staff, THANK YOU:))

I do hope they can now continue that empathy on the home front and be kind to parents/ carers, siblings and of course to their fellow classmates as they weave through the rest of this term and into their final Term 3.

Some special events coming up this term that I strongly encourage students to participate and be part of (as you are all leaders) are Vinnies Winter Appeal and Founder’s Day. It is your last opportunity. These are the events that you will remember fondly when you leave school so have a go, do not be afraid, have fun:)

Mrs Channon (on behalf of the entire Year 12 PAC team).

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