Principal's Report

Dear Parents and Carers,

Recently I was asked to present to the Secondary Principals and Assistant Principals from the Maitland Newcastle Diocese about our learning agenda and school improvement plan. Eli Simpson, Leader of Pedagogy, and I travelled to Newcastle and presented a two hour summary of our learning journey and the work we have done to put learning at the centre of what we do. We started with our vision for learning -

Our vision is a faith filled Catholic Professional Learning Community, founded on faith & focused on learning, working collaboratively to enhance the learning for all, resulting in students who are creative, confident and informed people ready to make a real difference in our world. We believe that everyone can learn, not always at the same time or in the same way, and we strive to create learning opportunities for all. 

Through our vision we spoke about how our Annual Improvement Plan sets the direction to bring our vision to fruition. It was very affirming to talk about our learning over the past three years and the growth of our community towards this vision.

Year 12

Our Year 12s head into their last two weeks of formal schooling and I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate them on all they have achieved over their whole schooling life. The students have been working well after trials, completing coursework and consolidation of their skills and knowledge. Now is the time students can make a big difference to their final mark. The students need to work consistently and strive for achieving the best learning they can.

Congratulations to our English Extension, Design and Technology and Visual Arts students who have completed and submitted their major works. Major works involve determination, resilience and persistence. A huge amount of work! Well done everyone. Good luck to our students who have HSC performance and oral exams coming up including French and Music students.

I wish the students well in their last two weeks of formal schooling.

Staffing

Last week we sadly farewelled our Bursar, Mrs Kay McLennan. Kay has been a valued staff member for 17 years. Her empathy and professionalism has been extraordinary and will be missed by our whole community. We wish her all the best as she moves to the coast to be closer to family.

Mrs Liz O’Hara will be joining O’Connor in Term 4 as our new School Finance Officer. Liz has a wealth of school and system financial experience. She is currently employed in a similar position at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Armidale and prior to that at the Catholic Schools Office. We look forward to Liz joining our learning community.

Ms Lauren Clarke will be leaving O’Connor at the end of Term 3. Lauren will be moving to Glen Innes and taking up a position at Glen Innes High School. I’d like to thank Lauren for her work over the past three terms and wish her well for the future.

Mr Pat Turley took on a temporary role with Year 12 Business Studies. We were very lucky to have such an experienced teacher work with our HSC students to attain the best learning outcomes. I’d like to thank Pat for filling this position at short notice and the great work he has done.

Leave

I will be taking leave for Weeks 9 and 10. During this time the leadership team will be as follows:

Damian Roff Acting Principal

Eli Simpson Acting Assistant Principal

Stephen Chapman Leader of Pedagogy

Jon Hawthorne Leader of Learning (Pastoral Academic Care and Wellbeing)

Denise Fittler Religious Education Coordinator

What new learning will you undertake this week?

Regina Menz