Pastoral Academic Care (PAC)
Pastoral Academic Care (PAC) Focus - Grateful For Effort (junior) / Effort Before Achievement (senior)
Well Being Element - Meaning and Purpose
Character Strength - Self Control
Parent Wellbeing: One valuable thing that COVID19 has taught everyone, is the importance of being there for, playing with and enjoying the outdoors with our children. Prior to the pandemic, the 21st century was becoming a time where many parents fell into the trap of just occupying their children with ipads and screen games. Playing outside in nature is a wonderful of building your whole family’s wellbeing. How often are you enjoying the outdoors with your children? Acknowledgement: Fredrickson
Year 7
Mrs Kathryn Czinner
Students continue to surprise me with their resilience. We had a great deal of excitement in the lead up to camp. When the students were told that the camp was to be postponed they accepted the situation,moved on and focused on the next learning activity. There appeared to be a true acceptance about our circumstances in this difficult time that COVID issues present.
Many of our students are getting involved in the extracurricular activities. We offer such a range of opportunities. It is wonderful to see our students explore their interests. We have many involved in Chess, Basketball, Soccer, Swimming, Debating, SRC, Vinnies group, Youth group and the Da Vinci challenge.
Classes have been running smoothly and quality work is being produced. It is great to see the high number of commendations and awards being given out to the students. Acknowledgement of the awards is noted on Compass as well as a parent email sent home.
This week students will receive the Term 1 progress report. The teachers were asked to give an indication of how students were going in the areas of: :Completion of set tasks, Focus on Learning, Learning behaviours are respectful, Prepared and organised for learning. This is indeed a snapshot and does not give academic grades, this will follow in the Semester reports. Parents are always encouraged to open up communication and talk to our PAC teachers or subject teachers.
As PAC teachers we meet regularly and aim to get to know the students so that we can work best with them in guiding their education. As a strong team we would on really supporting Year 7 to “Strive to Thrive” and “From little things, big things grow.”
Mrs Kathryn Czinner and PAC team.
Year 9
Mr Mark Fulloon
Year 9 are now finding themselves coming to the end of the first term of 2022 and have experienced a range of experiences both academic and extra -curricular. We have seen a large number of our Year 9 students involved in the recent agricultural shows in Guyra, Armidale and Walcha, and from all reports they have represented the college admirably.
It has also been pleasing to see a large number of our Year 9 students taking their academic pursuits seriously as I have been writing a large number of Year Leader commendations for students. And also seeing a large number of commendations being written across all KLA’s and for community and college service.
I would like to offer my apologies for the postponement of the Year 9 Lake Keepit camp, unfortunately due to Covid, the decision was made to look at dates later in the year, when hopefully all things Covid have settled down. I know many of our students were disappointed with this event not going ahead at this time.
This week Year 9 are doing Naplan practice tests and seeing what will be required of them going into the actual Naplan tests, which is now done online on devices. This should make the process of testing more streamlined.
Keep up the good work Year 9 into the final 2 weeks of another very busy school term.
Mr Mark Fulloon (on behalf of the entire Year 9 PAC team).
Year 11
Ms Amanda Bell and Mr Frank Patricks
We are past the halfway point and the end of term and the break that comes with it are now in sight. It is the perfect opportunity for our Year 11 students to revisit the goals that they set in PAC in week 1 for the term and reflect upon their journey -
Have I taken steps towards my goal?
Has my goal shifted?
Do I need support in reaching my goal?
Have I met my goal?
Self reflection is a valuable tool, one that will be utilised as students progress through the next 18 months, to help them ensure they are meeting their potential. This will be a conversation that students will participate in during morning PAC over the coming days.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Year 11 team for the generosity that they showed during the Flood Appeal fundraiser - it was incredible to see so many students thinking beyond themselves and throwing notes into the buckets.
We have had students participate in a whole range of extracurricular activities over the coming weeks including having students represent the College at the Armidale Regional Council’s International Women's Day event, participating in the Armidale Blues Youth Leadership Program, debating and Rugby League trials, with Logan Dalli selected to play in the U18’s side - congratulations to Logan and to all our students who are being active participants in the many opportunities available to them. We encourage everyone to make the most of the opportunities that come up to our senior students and to jump on board - are you an active part of our community? Are there opportunities you would benefit from? Grab them and learn from them!
Ms Amanda Bell and Mr Frank Patricks on behalf of the year 11 team.