Term 2 Week 8
Dear Parents/Caregivers,
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever. John 6:51
We have now concluded our assessment period and have commenced bringing evidence together to produce an end of Semester report. I acknowledge the tremendous work from many of our students to demonstrate to their teachers what they have learnt and can do! For many students at the College, their reports will celebrate their growth throughout the Semester.
As part of our continued Academic Care within the College, we, as staff wish to make what we present in classrooms explicit for the students. Over the next few weeks and into next term, ALL our teachers will communicate in EVERY LESSON.
Learning Intention
Why we are learning this? What is being presented must make sense and be meaningful to students and easily communicated between the teacher, the student and the parent/caregiver.
Success Criteria
What this will look like when this learning is understood? How has this work been better understood as a result of a collaborative (group) process?
Our students should EXPECT that this is communicated to them across the lesson and, if not, it should be requested from the teacher. This develops the important skills of self-regulation for a student:-
- What am I learning?
- Why am I learning this?
- How will I know if I have learnt and understood what has been presented?
This is a very exciting initiative for our school community. It again highlights the importance of quality teaching and learning at St Paul’s and the intent to continue to improve our practice.
End of Day Pick-Up
I have been watching our students leave the College at the end of the school day and have noticed some concerning behaviour. Students’ movement to the buses, parents/carers picking up students, and students driving home can create situations that can put student safety at risk. Below is a timely reminder of precautions we can all take to ensure student safety:
As parents, you should take the opportunity to talk with your children about getting to and from school safely. Here are some safety tips:
- Be alert and aware by travelling distraction-free. Ask children to take off their headphones when walking. Choose a safe place to cross. The fastest way may not be the safest way.
- Keep safe getting in and out of the car. Always use the door closest to the kerb.
- Keep safe getting on and off the bus. Wait at the bus stop and stand at least one step back from the edge of the road. Wait until the bus has gone before you cross the street.
- Student driver reminder. If your child is driving to and from school, remind them that they are required to adhere to all road rules and go safely and responsibly.
- Wear a helmet. Children must wear a helmet when riding a bike in any public place – it is the law.
- Be a positive role model when you are a pedestrian, passenger and driver.
- Young people learn from what they see, as well as what we say.
- Never sacrifice safety for convenience.
Wishing you all a safe weekend enjoyed with family and friends.
Kind Regards
Mr David JOHNS B.Ed., Cert. Gifted Ed., Grad. Cert. Adol. Health and Welfare, M.Ed. (Ed Lead), M.Ed. (Theol)
College Principal
david.johns@lism.catholic.edu.au
P & F NEWS
The next P & F meeting will be held on 9 June 2021 at 5.30 pm (new time) in the Staff lunchroom. Please come along and support the College.
Recently, there have been wonderful moments to see our Catholic faith in action, so many opportunities to celebrate and witness our faith with students and staff here at St Paul's. For example, the College came together to support many Year 12 students who shaved or cut their hair for 'Shave for a Cure'. On a different theme, Mr Graham Bramley and his team were recognised in the RSL Vision magazine for their recent co-ordination of fodder for the Macleay Valley - great effort by all.
I was delighted to attend the First Holy Communion Mass on Sunday with Fr James Foster and the Year 4 students of St Joseph's. Sienna Moore and Tom Fletcher joined Mr Brad Clarke in providing musical accompaniment to the service. Tom's singing of the First Holy Communion Hymn left everyone speechless, a very proud moment.
We have many opportunities for students and staff to be immersed in their faith through retreat opportunities such as Ignite and Shine conferences in Term 3. Notes for these are due to Mr MacAndrews next week. Please contact him for any further information.
An invitation to Join Adult Faith Formation
In the world where many seek to learn at their pace in their own place, participating in the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (VLCFF) provides an opportunity for people within the Lismore Diocese, including those of the Macleay and Nambucca Valley, to access courses and seminars on a wide range of topics to build their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic Faith. Registrations close on 25 June. For further information, visit stagnesparish.org.au/our-faith/virtual-learning-community/ or contact Tony Worner at VLCFF.LismoreDiocese@stagnesaprish.org.au
College Uniform
With winter upon us, I urge parents and guardians to make sure their children have the correct uniform, especially jumpers, as they leave the house. The uniform policy can be found in the student's diary and on the College website. If there are issues following the policy, could you please provide your child with a note including the date the matter will be rectified. If you have any queries regarding uniform, please contact the College office.
A Word from the Counsellor
Hi, I'm Beth, one of the school counsellors. I work at the school every Monday, Tuesday, and every second Wednesday. A prominent issue I see is young people struggling with high levels of anxiety. It is my job to help them learn how to manage this.
Fear is an emotion we have in response to a real or perceived threat, whereas anxiety is the anticipation of a future threat.
Fear is an emotion we have in response to a real or perceived threat, whereas anxiety is the anticipation of a future threat. It is common to experience anxiety when faced with stressful situations. This is normal, and it's our body's way of preparing us to act in difficult situations. Anxiety can help us perform better by allowing us to feel alert and motivated.
People experiencing an anxiety disorder find that their anxiety gets in the way of their daily life and stops them from achieving their full potential. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health problems experienced by young people. They are characterised by excessive fear and related difficulties that happen a lot of the time, feel overwhelming and interfere with daily life. Different situations or objects can cause different types of anxiety disorder, but they can all be treated. Follow the link to find out how you can help your child https://headspace.org.au/friends-and-family/what-is-anxiety-in-children/
Mrs Bronwyn Shipton - Assistant Principal - Mission and Wellbeing
A Day in the Life at St Paul’s
This week St Paul’s welcomed our Year 6 friends from St Patrick’s Primary Macksville to experience A Day in the Life at our College. This was an excellent opportunity for our whole school community to spend time with our visitors, which followed a brilliant day with ninety-five Year 6 students from many state schools in May. We have structured these days by showcasing some of the outstanding curriculum offerings at the College as outlined below. However, there are many other aspects of College life that we wish to introduce to our Year 7, 2022 cohort during Term 4 this year, so the transition to high school is smooth and exciting.
What Was Offered this Term
The Year 6 students who have visited the College this term have experienced five rich learning opportunities. There has been an opportunity for our visiting students to get to know the College with a scavenger hunt expertly directed by Ms Meg Henry, where St Paul’s students supported our visitors to solve clues at different areas of the school. Ms Henry has used this program with our Year 7 cohort, where students use technology and QR codes to investigate the history of the College. Second, there was an opportunity to visit Francis Farm, where Mr Graham Bramley outlined the great diversity in animal and plant production. A significant number of students use this farm as a learning resource throughout their high school years, including the opportunity to study two agriculture-based subjects for the HSC. Third, Mrs Laura Vonholdt had all visitors cooking scrumptious muffins during their time in the Hospitality facility. St Paul’s was awarded the National VET School of the Year in 2020, where the judging panel considered the Agriculture, Hospitality and Construction areas of the College to offer students best practice at the national level. Fourth, Mr Scotty Edwards has been an expert leader in Sport at the College for many years and showcased the enthusiasm and support outlined in the PDHPE program at the College to our visitors. There is excellent inclusiveness and care in this program at St Paul’s, where students have the opportunity to demonstrate their theory and practical skills. Last, Mrs Maria Littlejohn and Amy Tovey provided our visitors with a range of skills that are the cornerstone of Science. Mrs Littlejohn taught a Year 9 student who achieved first place in the HSC Investigative Science course in 2020, an outstanding teaching and student tuition partnership.
What Are Our Future Plans?
The College seeks to resolve enrollment confirmation for Year 7, 2022, during the next few months. During Term 4, our next Year 7 cohort will have the opportunity to embark on further visits to the other learning areas of our College as we begin our partnership between school, student and parent. This partnership is the cornerstone of learning at St Paul’s, and we believe parents supporting their sons and daughters as learning partners increases opportunities for our students. Please contact me at the College if you have any further enquiries regarding Year 7, 2022.
Mr Geoffrey Melville - Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching
Vocational Education and Training (VET)
Year 12 Vocational Education and Training students have been completing Work Placement throughout the Macleay and Nambucca Valleys for the past three weeks. It is an integral part of the VET program where students have to undertake seventy hours in a work environment related to their course over two years. In addition, Work Placement allows students to practice the skills they have learnt at College.
Presently, St Paul’s offers three VET courses; these include Certificate II in Agriculture, Certificate II in Construction and Certificate II in Hospitality. In addition, we are fortunate to have teachers on staff who have strong Industry skills, which allows us to provide training that will help our students transition into the various industry workplaces.
During Work Placement, teaching staff visit the workplace to check student progress. Our staff received very positive feedback from many of the employers. In some cases, students were offered further work opportunities in the future, as casual employees on weekends and school holidays. In the past, some students have been offered apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities.
VET allows students an opportunity to participate in the world of work and allows the students to sample various workplaces. We are incredibly grateful to all of those employers who have made their businesses available to our students.
If you are a business owner or manager in the area and operate in one of these three key areas:
- Construction
- Hospitality
- Primary Industry
we would be interested to hear from you. Please make contact with me so we can add you to our list.
Mr Graham Bramley – Leader of Vet
Francis Farm
The Francis farm continues to be a hive of activity, with students involved in various tasks on any given day. After the floodwater receded, we have made an effort to sow a variety of pasture species, including ryegrass, chicory, oats and storm white clover into some of our paddocks.
We have also been busy halter training steers for the Kempsey Show and the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza, which will occur in October. The steers have been purchased by the College or donated as half shares by various parents.
Vegetable crops continue to thrive using compost that we have produced on-farm over the past twelve months. The material used includes waste hay, tree mulch, animal waste from our poultry and pig enclosures, and coffee grounds from a local coffee shop and brewers waste from a local brewhouse. In addition, last year we made around ten tonnes of our compost. All this was used in our vegetable enterprise.
This week students will drench and vaccinate all cattle on the property. The drench will be to help control various internal and external parasites such as lice and liver fluke. We will also weigh and check the teeth of our older animals. This will be carried out by the Year 10 Ag class
Our new shed over the cattle yards is a welcome improvement to the facilities. This lets us work independently of most weather conditions. It allows us to provide a greater deal of animal welfare for our animals and comfort the students, particularly on hot days.
Four of our students will be travelling to Canberra to the Limousin Youth Camp in the coming school holidays. We have been allowed to prepare and show three 10 -12 month-old pure breed heifers on behalf of Mr Colin McGilchrist of Back Creek Limousins near Wallabadah. We have had the heifers for around three weeks, and they have adjusted well to their new surroundings. Mr McGilchrist will allow us to exhibit his animals at the Kempsey show and the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza in October.
Mr Graham Bramley – Leader of VET/Ag Teacher
Oliver App ‘Library Link’
To make it easier for students, staff and parents (if interested) to search for a resource, our Library management system (Oliver) has an app called Library Link. To install and use, please complete the following steps:
- Download the Library Link app for Apple or Android
- Open Library Link on your mobile device.
- Press the 'Setup' button, then press the 'Scan setup code' button and scan the QR Code provided
- You can then search for a book. Hard copies can be ‘reserved’ in this section, and SORA ebooks borrowed
NOTE – when in ‘SETUP’, you will need to add your child’s unique school username and password.
Reconciliation Week Display
To support Reconciliation Week, the Library displayed a collection of our indigenous resources. Amongst these were three of our most recent purchases. They were two popular books, Salt and Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe. The other was The Biggest Estate on Earth, winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature 2012 and written by Bill Gammage. Both these books are available to borrow to anyone interested.
Our Book Exchange Corner
is always looking for more books to share as items come and go. So if you have a great teen read that you no longer wish to keep, please feel free to send it in to the Library to add to our collection.
Learning to Love Literature
Last September, the Catholic Schools Parent Assembly organised a webinar to assist parents in nurturing a love of reading in their child. It was presented by Megan Daley, a teacher-librarian from Queensland, who is very passionate and knowledgeable about this subject. Her webinar had some great ideas to support parents interested in developing their child’s reading to become lifelong readers.
As a follow up to this webinar and to support parents interested in encouraging their children to read more, the Library has purchased a copy of Megan Daley’s book, “Raising Readers How to Nurture a Child’s Love of Books”. Parents are more than welcome to borrow this book. If you would like to, please either email me or ring the College Office to speak to library staff.
A Final Reminder
Parent of Students with Outstanding Books from Last Year
Could you please have a thorough check at home for any outstanding items from last year? A reminder email has been sent to students, and an email will be sent soon to parents regarding these resources. If the items are not returned or an explanation given, then the Library will need to issue invoices for the cost of their replacement. However, please remember that library staff are more than happy to discuss the matter if there are any queries or issues regarding these overdue 2020 items. Thank you for your assistance.
Some Insightful Thoughts from One Famous Book Lover…
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), astronomer and book lover:
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.
Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
~excerpt from the 11th episode of Carl Sagan’s 1980s Cosmos series, titled “The Persistence of Memory”
Mrs Patrice Martin and Cathy Whalen - Library Technicians
Junior Football Gala Day
Last Wednesday, St Paul's students travelled to Coffs Harbour to attend the Lismore Diocesan Junior Football (soccer) Gala Day. Our students were in keen spirits for the day and took to the field eagerly. Coaches Ms Stuart (boys) and Miss Thomas (girls) were proud of their team's efforts on the day.
The boy's team was very competitive, ending up placing on top of their pool and progressing into the semi-finals. They came up against MacKillop College from their Bill Turner Cup loss in the previous week. The boys were thrilled to have the opportunity to take them on again, but unfortunately, MacKillop was too strong once again, and the boys went down 2-0. A massive congratulations to them for making it that far.
Junior Soccer Gala Day
The 16 girls from Years 8 and 9 who attended the Junior Soccer gala day performed incredibly well. The girls competed against some of the toughest schools in the Lismore Diocese, including Xavier Catholic College, Mount St Patrick's, St John's Woodlawn and Trinity College.
The first game was challenging, and we, unfortunately, came away with a 1-0 loss to Trinity. After that, the team had another intense and nail-biting game against Xavier for their second game, which saw the game tied 0-0 at the whistle. Mount St Patrick's became the next opponent, and with minutes to spare, the St Paul's team slotted a goal and took a 1-0 win. It was pretty safe to say that by the last game, the girls were exhausted.
The St Paul's girls wanted to have a bit of fun for their last game, and they did. A fun yet challenging game against Woodlawn allowed the girls to try different positions and push themselves. The score was 2-1 to Woodlawn, and with SECONDS to spare, Ava Ryan put one into the nets to square the game at 2-2. The draw landed the team 4th in their pool. I want to congratulate the team on their participation and behaviour on the day.
The students should be proud of their efforts. It was an absolute pleasure to coach the St Paul's girl's team.
Coach Shannon
Bill Turner Trophy
On Friday, June 4, the girl's Bill Turner Trophy team travelled to Mackillop, Port Macquarie, for the next round of competition. The game was a nail-biting, heart racing and very high-quality match. It was a rocky start, but the girls gave it their all.
The score was 0-0 at halftime, and after a pep talk and some motivation, the girls went out stronger in the second half. However, after many missed opportunities, the score remained 0-0 at full time.
Into extra time they went and the nerves set in for players and coach. Every five minutes, the teams had to drop a player. The girls got to the fifteenth minute of extra time and dropped their third player, leaving eight. The girls worked very hard, and with two minutes to go, the wait was over, with Chelsea Hackenberg chipping the golden goal to win the game 1-0!
The combined team effort of each and every player was the key to the day. Each player did what was needed for their team and the girls are an amazing group.
The girls take on GLC Forster in the area final on Monday, June 21, in a home game.
Coach Tamblyn
CCC Cross Country
Good luck to the following students at the NSWCCC Cross Country Championships (Tuesday, June 8). We look forward to hearing the results of your runs.
- Keelan Brien
- Ruby Trappel
- Imogen Ward
Mr Heath Needs - Sports Co-ordinator
Soccer
Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of taking the Year 7-10 Boys Football (Soccer) team to Coffs Harbour Stadium and Leisure Park.
The boys had demonstrated their commitment to the diocesan tournament through their efforts at training and ensuring they were at school for 6.30 am starts.
The team suffered an early setback with one of our goalies arriving with suspected broken fingers. Despite this, they started their first game with a highly disciplined approach. This attitude continued throughout the day, and the boys were able to place first in their pool. They met MacKillop Colleg, Port Macquarie, in their semi-final. The boys fought hard and, unfortunately, were defeated.
The team are to be commended on their talent, sports etiquette and school spirit. They made sure they supported our girl's team as the girls did likewise.
It was a great effort from all, and I was proud to be associated with such a fine group of young men.
The team:
Julian Ardetti
Harry Askew
Jack Bool (injured)
Keelan Brien
Blake Bullen
Ricky Daniels
Nathan Fletcher
Jai Goodman
Lleyton Goodman
Drew Lancaster
Patrick Lawrence
Patrick Preston
Kane Richards
Jonte Ross
Dylan Smith
Darcey Swaine
Mrs Fiona Stewart - Sports Teacher
Workers Urgently Needed
We need volunteers to help in our canteen once a week, fortnight or month. No special skills required. If you can make a salad wrap, toastie or put some drinks in the fridge, your help will be greatly appreciated. All welcome - mums, dads, nannas, pops, aunts and uncles. Should you be able to spare just a few hours, please contact me.
Ricki Saunders
Canteen Manager
St Paul's Secondary Catholic College
E: ricki.saunders@lism.catholic.edu.au
P: (02) 6562 7200