Junior School

Welcome back to our final term of 2022! I do hope that you enjoyed time with your sons during the break, away from the challenging routines of the school week that can make it difficult to consistently find time to spend together.

Towards the end of last term, I wrote about the increasing amount of time that our boys are spending connected to their devices. As a result of this, teachers are noticing a steadily growing trend of technology-related issues that are occurring as some boys are making quite poor choices while online.

Although there certainly does exist a number of positive academic benefits that can be gained by meaningful and appropriate use of technology, the negative is that some students in Stage 3 are continuing to test the boundaries of what is considered to be acceptable usage. 

The College has a strong policy in relation to the appropriate use of ICT and boys are also reminded of the school’s CyberHound internet security system which generates daily reports on search terms that have been flagged as inappropriate. It is important for students to remember the responsibility they have as digital citizens and to uphold the expected values of the College at all times, not to mention their own, which are hopefully closely aligned! 

Many of these issues are also occurring out of school hours, on buses and trains, and when walking home. They also occur because boys have unfettered access to mobile phones that essentially put the entire world wide web at their fingertips. This is particularly important for parents/carers to consider with the lengthy Christmas holiday break just around the corner.

As always, our staff will continue to reinforce and model expected behaviour from students across all areas of their education, so that the extremely positive year we have been able to enjoy together in the Junior School is not tarnished by the actions of a handful of individual boys. 

Finally, parents/carers are reminded of the importance of regularly checking the College calendar this term, in conjunction with the notifications highlighted through the SPC app, as the final eight weeks of the school year promises to be an incredibly jam-packed and ‘event full’ period of time.

As always, if you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me via email (glenn.stephenson@spc.nsw.edu.au) or phone (8705 9247) and I will endeavour to assist you in any way that I can.

May God bless you,

Glenn Stephenson 

Director of Junior School

Year 6 Religious Education Test – Week 2

Each year, Sydney Catholic Schools runs a knowledge-based test for Year 6 students in all primary schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney. St Patrick’s College will again be participating in this opportunity which will take place next Wednesday 19 October and covers information from across all their previous years of Religious Education. It will be administered at school but will not count towards the students’ end of year grade.

Stephen Cooper

Junior School Religious Education Coordinator