Pastoral Academic Care
Pastoral Academic Care Update
Year 7
Ms Yolanda Kreuzen
Swim lifesaving notes are now overdue. If you haven’t brought your note into school yet please do this as soon as possible as we need all notes for your child to attend swimming.
If you are unsure if you have handed in a note or not please email ykreuzen@arm.catholic.edu.au. This is a great event and highly useful for skill development. It would be a shame to miss out.
Year 7 had their Spring Fair last week on Friday. It was an extremely successful event.
Our stalls consisted of:
Popcorn and Zooper-Doopers
Cake stall
Chocolate dig
Three-legged race
Chocolate toss
Sausage sizzle
It was lovely to see so many Year 7 students involving themselves in this event. One of the most memorable stalls was the three-legged race. Will Starr and Robert Flint versed the teachers in an all-in race. The two boys started extremely eagerly, however; unfortunately had a malfunction with their rope as the starting gun discharged at the start of the race. The two boys jumped to start but face-planted as soon as they took off. The boys then had to make some adjustments to their rope and took off like lighting to catch the speedy Mr Fittler and Mr May (whose rope had broken as they took off too). The boys made up time and ended up beating some of the teachers in the end.
Other stalls saw students taking on leadership roles and financial responsibility. Students who worked at the stalls either had to serve peers and teachers, exchange money and interact with some students and teachers they may not have already known. All students represented Year 7 with enthusiasm and respect. What a positive and fun Friday afternoon?!
Some photos from Spring Fair day.
QuickFire Writing
by Ryley Smith
QuickFire on 18/11/19 was 15 minutes of quick writing:
"There is a real life crisis going on as we speak but we are not doing anything to put an end to it. We are creating fires but not water to put them out.
Take a look at our ground, well what is left of it. What is it - dirt, just dirt. You can’t even notice when we’ve had some rain that is what drought does. It kills not just our land but our starving animals which now people think it’s ok to use them as circus acts but it is not! We are going through a very rough patch, by that I mean fires. Currently, there are 64 fires burning some are under control where others are out of control and are vigorously spreading."
Year 7 students embracing music at O'Connor.
Year 8
Mr Lloyd Honnery
We are in the back half of the term now with some key dates coming up. Even in this time of drought, it is imperative that everyone living in Australia has the ability to survive a fall into a body of water. During week 9, all of Year 8 have the opportunity to refine and develop vital lifesaving skills at the local pool. All students should have returned their notes so organisers have time to sort students into ability groups. Please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you have concerns.
The focus for PAC this week is Avoiding Procrastination, below are some tips you can keep in mind when you need to get something done:
1. Get organised
You can't do any work if you don't know what needs to be completed. Writing a list can help!
2. Set simple, achievable goals
It’s a lot easier to get started on a project when you establish simple, reachable goals rather than a big, vague plan. Climbing a mountain takes small steps to reach the summit.
3. Create a timeline/schedule
After you set your goals, make sure you set specific time aside to complete them. If it helps, try not to think of it as work - reframe your task as something fun. Make it a game!
4. Set a deadline
It's important to set a specific date for when you want your goals to be accomplished. Don’t wait for the right mood to strike you, take a deep breath and get started.
5. Get rid of distractions
It’s important to rid yourself of all potential disruptions before you begin working so you don’t get needlessly sidetracked halfway through your task. Put your phone in another room!
Year 9
Mr Peter McLeish
Let’s go Year 9, Let’s go! It’s the end of Week 6 and there is lots of learning to absorb. Students are busy preparing for, or undertaking, Learning Tasks and other various forms of assessment. Teachers will be busy writing reports to highlight the achievements of students and the areas requiring further effort to move their learning forward. Reports should be posted in Week 8.
This week’s PAC Focus is Avoiding Procrastination. I can’t decide whether to tell you about this or not. :) Just kidding! The aim is to build our Positive Engagement by avoiding and overcoming procrastination.
Procrastination is avoiding tasks we need to do because we:
• have a fixed mindset and don’t want to show that we can’t do them
• do unimportant tasks
• start things, become distracted, and not finish them
• take drink and toilet breaks often
• bounce from task to task
• wait until you are in the mood to start.
Overcoming procrastination is one of those more difficult things to master, but when we do use our strengths, we will experience satisfying personal growth.
To overcome procrastination:
• write a list of things we regularly put off and read it often to focus ourselves
• turn off our phones, social media and TV when studying
• wear headphones to block out noise
• don’t move until we complete a task
• work when our energy levels are high
Year 9 students amassed an amazing 37 Commendation Certificates over the past fortnight. Unfortunately my phone doesn’t have a wide angle lens but the recipients were Riley F (3), Ethan H (2), Christina J (2), Nicholas H (2), Blake Mc, Ben H, Nathalie C, Luke W, Lauren F, Kaitlyn S, Brydie P, Bonnie S, Jean B, Thomas B, Jack D, James R, Tara S, Tom H, Lara W, Fletcher S, Madisson A, Jenna S, Tyler Mc, Angus S, Tommy N, Calan L, Joel C and Ned M.
Congratulations to Tyler, Ned, Joel and Nicholas who received Year Leader awards.
Year 10
Mr Mark Fulloon
Year 10 have had another busy time at school in the last couple of weeks. It was a time for students to become involved with the Catholic Missions Week and they contributed to the school community by holding stalls for the Spring Fair. I congratulate all students and PAC teachers who donated their time to run a stall and raise money for this worthy cause.
Year 10 students have also gone through the process of nominating and been interviewed for LYL leadership positions for 2020. I was impressed to see students step-up and put themselves into a potential role that supports the school and parish community. I look forward to seeing our new team of LYL’s in action and how they interact and help out, particularly with some of our younger students here at O’Connor. Also a reminder that teachers are preparing reports for students and there will be time for students to be finishing projects and learning tasks in this time. I encourage students to keep working to the best of their ability until the end of term.
Year 11
Vicky Channon
Sam Bible attended the New South Wales State Schools Constitutional Convention at Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney a couple of weeks ago. This was a wonderful experience for Sam.
The Year 11 cohort really took up the challenge during the Spring Fair by participating fully in the activities for Catholic Mission. They worked collaboratively in house groups with house captains, proving their worth by coordinating their teams. As a group, they all came up with a whole range of excellent and fun ideas for the stalls, and then made decisions on what they needed to organise and carry out for the event. It was a massive success and such a carnival atmosphere.
We continue to acknowledge the students that consistently work hard to strive to do their best at school, in their studies, and also in community service. Well done.
These next few weeks will prove very hectic for our Year 11 students, with many assessment tasks due before the end of Week 8. I used the analogy of a marathon in describing the HSC year. It is not a sprint. It is so important to eat well, sleep well, exercise, achieve a good balance of work and play and this needs to start now (if it has not already started). Students who come to school tired and irritable are not giving themselves the best chance to learn, so we would encourage as much support from families as we can over the next 12 months to get our young people to the finish line and what a celebration we can then have. As always, staff at O’Connor are more than happy to help wherever they can if they know that someone is struggling. Reach out and ask if you need.
To that end, we will be starting our mentoring program. Teachers offer to be mentors for our senior students. Students are then given the opportunity to approach one of the teachers who they feel a connection to. This is a person students can go to if they need advice, assistance, help etc.. The mentors will touch base, hopefully on a regular basis with the students.
The senior jerseys have arrived and students are very happy with the overall design and finish. They look amazing. Thanks to Armidale Sportspower for working with us. Just a reminder that students can wear them every Friday. This was stated in the letter that was shared with them earlier in the year.
I would like to thank Mr May for accompanying the College Leaders to the Commemoration Service last Monday, 11th November.
Congratulations to Emily Meehan who was placed 2nd in the Under 19 category and Olive Tutt who was placed 3rd in the Under 17 category at the NSW State Mountain Bike Championships in Orange.
Will Wood has also achieved much success in show jumping over this term.
Congratulations to all students who continue to achieve their very best every day.
Year 12 Jumpers Presented
On Wednesday this week, our new Year 12 cohort were excited to receive their personalised Year 12 jumpers. An annual tradition, the students will be able to wear them with pride every Friday. They are particularly useful in winter. Thanks go to Mrs Channon and the Year 12 PAC team for organising the jumpers for Year 12 this year.
