Around the School
Z Club
Z Club members, teaching staff, Zonta members, mums and grandmas came together on Saturday morning to assemble 600 birthing kits for women in need. They will be delivered to various places around the world to allow women the opportunity to have a clean and hygienic birth. The kits contain a plastic sheet, string, gauze, scalpel and soap. This simple kit that costs $3.00 to purchase is an effective method of reducing the risk of infection for both mother and baby and helps achieve the goal of reducing infant mortality in these developing nations. If you wish to support this great initiative that the O'Connor Catholic College Z Club are involved in, please contact Vicki Channon at the school.
Honey Zahoor (graduating student from 2017) visited us last week. He spoke of his faith as a Muslim in a Catholic school and some of the challenges he faced, but also the amazing opportunities he has had in attending a Catholic School. An amazing young man. The students really appreciated his insight and honesty in his presentation, and he challenged the students just to be a good person. That was an important message to all.
Zonta Club - Change Over Dinner
The three executive members for Z Club attended the annual Zonta of Armidale changeover dinner. They included Claire Giles (President), Maria Alkhouri (Vice President) and Georgia MacMahon (secretary). They were treated to a 2 course meal that was delicious, and witnessed the induction of 2 new members. Awards were also given for an Aboriginal student who has achieved highly in their Year 12 studies. The 2 students who achieved this award were so humbled with winning this award and told of their excitement about their future. The students were so thankful for the support they receive through their families, community and school and put their success down to all of these factors.
Another inspiring speaker was a local woman who has faced many hardships in her short 18 years of life. She spoke of the terrible adversity that she had to endure as a young foster child but has shown so much resilience to overcome some of the obstacles that she faced. She reiterated that the support that she was given is what got her through some of her most difficult trials.
It was great for the students to be able to meet some of the members of the Club and attend such a special event. Thank you girls for making the effort to come to the dinner.
Rotary
This weekend we have four Year 11 students participating in Rotary’s Model United Nations Assembly in Gunnedah. Alanah Bowden and Isabelle Stoessel representing Gerorgia, and Taryn Ramage and Claudia Ley representing Chile. What a wonderful experience for these young people with the opportunity to learn so much! The College would like to thank the Rotary Club of Central Armidale, and in particular Kristyn Barker, for the huge amount of support and mentoring they provide for our students.
College Choir
Our Choir at Armidale Eisteddfod. They were fantastic and were awarded second place. Well done everyone! Thanks to Miss Sampson for her hard work preparing the Choir!
Year 12
Students are well and truly into the second half of Year 12. A very successful reporting evening was held last Tuesday with teachers providing detailed feedback on students' progress so far. Many thanks to the parents who attended. If you were unable to attend but would still like to contact your child's teachers please do so.
The athletics carnival was held recently and the participation from Year 12 was fantastic. The junior students really benefit from observing such an engaged group of leaders. A special mention must be made of the Tom Selleck / Magnum PI lookalikes.
Students have recently had the opportunity to establish personal goals and identify their HSC targets. These goals and targets have been shared with all staff in order to assist us in helping the students as much as we can. There are only 13 weeks to go to the HSC trials and with a slight pause in the number of assessment tasks due, it is an ideal opportunity for students to establish really solid study routines and reinforce their deep knowledge of the subjects they are completing.
On a less studious matter, preliminary discussions have been held concerning the Year 12 Graduation Mass and Formal. More information will be provided as it comes to hand. If you would like to be involved in the Formal organisation, please contact Mr May.
Many thanks for your support throughout the year so far.
PDHPE News - Gymnastics
The gymnastics unit will start next week. All students in Years 7-9 will be going to the gymnastics centre. If your child is unable to participate please contact the school with details of the medical condition. The schedules is below
Combined Schools SRC Meeting - Meet and Greet
Last week, the Student Representative Council of O’Connor organised a combined schools meeting with AHS, TAS, NEGS, and PLC. Within the meeting, representatives from O'Connor and the attending schools participated in a variety of activities before splitting into mixed groups and discussing potential combined schools events, in addition to fundraisers that the schools currently undertake and could implement individually. The meeting provided a great opportunity for O’Connor and the schools present to build a better relationship, and work together to produce ways of increasing our level of involvement within the Armidale community.
Year 12 Hospitality - Live in Vocational Experience
In early May, Year 12 Hospitality students participated in an experience rich 3 days at the Gold Coast at the Royal Pines Resort. Part of the cost of this excursion was covered by catering events that the group have been involved in. After a bit of fun with the Physics class at Dreamworld, we had a tour of the Star Casino Surfers Paradise to increase our understanding of the gaming industry and in particular their customer rewards program. The next 2 days were spent working in a varieties of departments at the Royal Pines Golf Resort. Reception, Marketing, Housekeeping, Maintenance, Food Production and Patisserie. We were very well catered for with the Tepanyaki dinner a clear highlight. This live in experience and the visit to The Star Casino greatly consolidated our learning on the functioning of the Hospitality Industry, career pathways in Hospitality and the importance of following policies and procedures in the workplace. Many thanks to Mr Harper for driving the bus and to the students for being such positive and enthusiastic ambassadors for our school.
Mrs Anne Healey, Hospitality Teacher
Wingham Beef Week
Six O’Connor students were among 450 students from throughout NSW who attended the 31st Annual Wingham Beef Week festival, where beef producers and school students meet for competition, education and interaction.
The week-long event features hands on educational workshops, with key industry presenters, and competitions relating to all facets of the beef industry.
It is the only event of its type in the State where exhibitors are invited into the Wingham Beef Export’s chiller facility, for carcase evaluation and assessment.
As well the Beef Appreciation Competition, coordinated by the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging Association (ICMJ) is one of only 3 such events of its type.
Our students acquitted themselves very well with Harry Simpson, Ed Simmons, Heidi Matthews, Megan Tisdell, Matthew Smith and Tom Smith competing in Educational activities, Beef Judging, Junior Paraders and Meat Judging activities, while Tom was our representative in the Hobbs Allrounder award.
Megan, Tom and Matt were all finalists in the paraders using animals borrowed from Walcha Central and a Murray Grey stud from the Hunter Valley.
Megan won her 16yrs junior judging class with Tom 2nd in the 17 years. Tom went on to be Reserve Champion Judge with Ex student Kieran Sullivan Champion.
Tom was the associate judge for the main steer judging on Thursday and he performed very well and learned lots about preparing steers for the local market. He was also our representative in the Hobbs Family Encouragement Award where he was placed 4th. In this Competition, competitors were interviewed by a panel about their knowledge of, commitment to and aspirations for their Agricultural future and about their involvement in Agriculture at their school and the contribution that they make to the subject.
All students participated in the ICMJ event judging retail and primal meat cuts in the abbatoirs.
Congratulations to all competitors on a very useful 3 days.
Armidale Poultry Club Show
O'Connor exhibited some of our poultry last weekend at the local poultry show. Our Jungle fowl pullet was second, and our Vorwerks a rare breed we have been breeding over the last year was champion in the class.
The school will have 2 pairs of Vorwerks and a trio of Jungle fowl for sale in the coming weeks.