Pastoral Care
WELLBEING ANECDOTES FROM THE STUDENT DIARY PLANNER
“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” - B.B. King
“I cannot teach anyone anything, I can only make them think.” - Socrates
- RUOK Day
- House Cup
- Year 9 Camp
- Year 9 REACH
- Year 10 Bstreetsmart
- St Pius X College Old Boys Association Annual Dinner
- Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Conference
RUOK Day
A huge vote of thanks is due to our Student Wellbeing Empowerment Team including Chris Pelle, Dom Fromager, Jason Sacre, Sam Schyvens and Tom Wong, as well as their mentor Ms Kugananthan, for their leadership of the RUOK Day as a gift for the College before graduation. They were well supported by spokesmen Tyson McCallum and Nick Ward leading the Year 11 and 10 Teams respectively.
RUOK Day kicked off last Thursday with an epic Dodgeball encounter (everybody loves Dodgeball) between the staff and senior students. Despite Mr Couani, Mr Russo and Mr Formosa almost suffocating in the heat of their Gorilla suits the honours were shared at one match all, and I am pleased to say the staff-student working relationship remains intact with a good time had by all.
On Friday morning members of the Student Wellbeing Empowerment teams greeted students with positivity, well-wishing and conversation start-up wrist bands at the school entrance points before the Sports Assembly featured a good humoured Tim McLachlan impersonation of Mr Stearn. Eloquent addresses by Luke Forwood and Mr Lynch followed, focusing on the importance of caring for each other’s wellbeing and maintaining healthy habits throughout the year .
Rugby affiliated Batyr wellbeing group then provided our guest speaker, and good friend of Mr Lynch - Waratahs Munster (Ireland) bound player Jed Holloway - who addressed Year 10 in the Sarto Centre on the need to look out for your mates. Jed grew up at Yamba and attended both McCawley Catholic High on the North Coast and EREA school Waverley College from which he was selected in the Australian Schoolboys team. Jed is a great advocate for mental wellbeing and peer support.
Lunchtime commenced with gifts of zooper doopers exchanged between staff and students and then came the 4th incarnation of Ms Doyle and Ms Bryant’s Short Film Festival Committee’s Pius Camera Action! While this is reported overleaf, I would make mention of our Cultural Prefects and School Captain-led Open Mic at the podium which kept many of the older students, who were unable to fit in the gym for the Film Festival, entertained over the lunch break. Classics such as Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” along with a lesser known (to me) repertoire of Ed Sheeran and other songs. Alec Paterson (Year 11) reportedly managed to restrain himself to one song!
Thank you particularly to our Year 12 Wellbeing student team for whom RUOK Day is the official finale to their leadership of Wellbeing across the College. We acknowledge that they were supported by huge undercurrents of goodwill across the College and that the wellbeing of every member of our community is everybody’s business.
Am I OK? Not always, but I am optimistic!
House Cup
This Friday, after 12 months of torrid - and less torrid - competition, the House Cup will be awarded at Assembly to the House which has accrued the most points across all manner of Sports, Cultural, Academic, Identity, extracurricular and cocurricular pursuits. College Vice Captains Nic McLachlan and Luke Forwood, who have overseen and adjudicated the Competition, will also hand over the House Cup responsibilities to their 2020 successors Tyson McCallum and Michael Fakhoury, and new House Captains:
Will the Red Barrons see Tim McLachlan receive the Cup from his brother? Or will Luke Psaila’s Purton Shamrocks prevail? Will the spoils go to Hayden’s Rice Crackers or Kalani’s Treacy Cyclones?
Excitement builds! Either way we commend our Semester 1 House Vice Captains listed below and prepare to acknowledge our newly elected Semester 2 House Vice Captains who will lead their Houses in Semester 2 activities and represent the College at events such as the Remembrance Day commemorations in November.
Year 9 Camp
Year 9 Rites of Passage Workul Koo Camp is fast approaching. Homerooms 4 and 5 depart with their Homeroom Pastoral Care staff on the first Monday and Wednesday of Term 4 respectively. Homerooms 3 and 1 undertake Camp in Week 2 and Homeroom 2 the first half of Week 4.
The Camp challenges our Year 9 Students to listen to story and to each other in a respectful way, to help identify how they shape the identity and direction of our school community.
Activities on the camp include a paddle boarding lesson, challenge by choice beach activities, bushwalk and Aboriginal culture, spirituality and contemporary society, a self-reflection Enneagram, environmental sustainable practice session and learn to surf lesson.
The advantage of working in homerooms rather than the whole cohort affords the students the opportunity to develop the sense of self and unity on a scale which should help them forge the connections as a Year group which will sustain them as functional individuals and learners as they progress towards Year 12.
Year 9 REACH
In the lead up to our Rites of Passage camps the Year 9 cohort attended a REACH Foundation workshop in the Concourse complex last Wednesday. REACH is a non-profit organisation founded by AFL leader Jim Stynes, and challenges students to overcome the factors which can limit their interactions and development as individuals, working with others to maximise their wellbeing and potential. The Pastoral care staff in attendance - Mr Yue, Mr Cogan, Mr Quinn, Mr Mendez. Mr Russo and Mr Kovacic - were impressed with the progress the students achieved in identifying some of the issues which can impede their positive development as individuals and in teams.
Over the coming camps and pastoral care opportunities we will be continuing the conversation with Year 9, as well as surveying their teachers and pastoral care staff to review and plan their development as students moving through Stage 5, and becoming leaders within their peer group, in their classes and more widely across the College.
Year 10 Bstreetsmart
On the same day as our Year 9 REACH Workshop, Year 10 attended the road safety intervention Bstreetsmart at the Olympic precinct Homebush. Mr Pawlak and the Year 10 Pastoral Care Team report that the day went very smoothly and stimulated the concepts of responsible thinking behaviours in the context of road use as many of our Year 10 students commence their journey as Learner drivers, responsible passengers and road users
St Pius X College Old Boys Association Annual Dinner
The second Friday in September marks the Old Boys Annual Dinner and it was pleasing to note last Friday that the 130 attendees featured a strong representation of the Class of 2018. The evening was MC'd by our own Parish Youth Minister, Adrian Brannan (School Captain of 1990). Mr Coauni and Old Boys Association President Mr Jeff Clark addressed the gathering, providing detail of the many ways in which the Old Boys Association contributes to the strength and wellbeing of the College including scholarships, support of sports tours and expeditions, funds raised and provided to the clubs through the Old Boys BBQ and connections and mentoring for students present and past.
A highlight of the evening was the rousing rendition of the College Song and War Cry led by the Class of 2018.
Fide et Labore!
Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Conference
It was my great privilege last Thursday to attend and present at this conference to an audience which included members of our Year 10 Immersion partner schools in St Joseph’s Walgett in Aunty Fay Green and Hannah Pedersen (whose brothers attended St Pius), and St Mary’s Bowraville, as well as respected journalist Jeff McMullen, and members of the wider Catholic Schools NSW Community.
The Theme Focus: Community engagement and cultural connections within the school environment provided opportunity to present St Pius X College’s journey in developing links to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Culture, History and Spirituality, to the benefit of its students and community.
Please click below to see my report on the conference.
Mr Sean Brannan - Assistant Principal Pastoral Care