Assistant Principal  -Curriculum

Dear O’Connor community,

Week 4 has drawn to a close for Term 2.  Next week we celebrate Catholic Schools Week.  It’s a special week for all Catholic Schools, but it’s particularly special for us as two members of our community are receiving a CSO Spirit of Catholic Education Awards on Thursday.  In other news, our Year 10 students are already looking at the subject choices they will choose from for Yr 11 2024.  In this article, I’ll also talk about Artificial Intelligence and how that is impacting schools.

Next week is Catholic Schools Week.  We will celebrate it with a whole school Mass in our Chapel on Wednesday.  As with each Mass or Liturgy, all of our community are invited to attend.  It starts at 9.15 am.  We will have a few different activities running during the week that you will see promoted on our Facebook site.

Catholic Schools Week is a week to celebrate all it means to be a Catholic School in the Armidale Diocese.  We are one of 24 schools in the New England/North West region with schools from Armidale to Walgett.  Five of those schools teach secondary (two central schools up to Yr 10 and three 7-12 schools) with the remaining 19 being primary school.  We are proud to be part of the team of schools with the Catholic Schools Office here in Armidale bringing us all together as our administrator.  The theme for Catholic Schools week this year is Renew with Hope.

One of the showcase events in our Diocese for Catholic Schools week is the presentation of the Spirit of Catholic Education Awards for our Diocese.  These will be presented on Thursday at the CSO.  There are just 8 awards given out across all 24 schools to people who have demonstrated outstanding service to their school.   We have two members of our community who will be recognised for their hard work.

Julie Burton will be awarded the School Officer award and Josephine Ryan will get the Student Catholic Spirit  award.  We are honoured and humbled to have two out of the eight award winners on the day coming from our school.  Both awards are very well deserved.  Julie works very closely with me and completes tasks that would normally be done by an Assistant Principal.  These tasks include coordinating all the NESA entries and organising the daily lesson covers for staff (which is a HUGE job in itself!).  Josephine sets an outstanding example of a hard working and empathetic student.  She is always looking out for others and volunteering seems to be her middle name!  Congratulations to Julie and Josephine and keep an eye out for the photos after the ceremony next Thursday.

Photos: Julie Burton and Josephine Ryan will be awarded Spirit of Catholic Education

Awards on Thursday next week.

Our Year 10 students are currently thinking about the subjects they will choose for Year 11 2024, and as a result Year 12 2025.  All Year 10 parents/carers and students are invited to the Information Evening coming up in the school library this coming Monday, starting at 5.30 pm.

After this students will have two weeks (Weeks 5 and 6) to fill in their Edval Choices form to indicate what preference order they have for their subjects.  KLA Leaders of Learning (LOLs) have been talking with Yr 10 about each subject with more information available on this Google Site.  The Subject Selection timeline is also on this site.  After this process is complete for Year 10 into 11, we will begin with Year 9 into 10 and then (next Term) Year 8 into 9.  For those years, students will select two electives.

Finally, I’m writing about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its effect on education.  I’m sure you’ve heard of Chat GPT and how it can write an original text that feels and sounds human.  AI’s explosive growth has shocked the world of education!  How do we ensure students' work is their own?  Should we fight against it, or try to embrace it?  I read an article yesterday that said Sydney University asked their Medicine students to use Chat GPT to write their first assessment task.  

In another article, the writer is optimistic about the possibilities AI brings. “As scary as it may sound, our schools should resist any urge to merely weather the ChatGPT storm and instead embrace its immense possibilities” (SHM, Jan 21, 2023).  To help us navigate this challenge, Mark Harris and I will attend a one day AI Conference in Sydney next Wednesday.  The agenda looks interesting.

Thanks for continuing to be a part of our O’Connor Catholic College Community.  I wish you could all walk beside me as I drift in and out of classes each day.  It truly is a great place to work!

Yours sincerely,

Mr Stephen Chapman

Assistant Principal - Curriculum

Never stop learning; for when we stop learning, we stop growing  - Jack Lewman

References

Schools right now face a choice - fight the wave of ChatGPT, or surf it, Sydney Morning Herald, January 21, 2023, Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/national/schools-right-now-face-a-choice-fight-the-wave-of-chatgpt-or-surf-it-20230118-p5cdle.html