From the Assistant Principal- Students

NOT EVERYTHING IS CANCELLED

Sun is not cancelled
Spring is not cancelled
Relationships are not cancelled
Love is not cancelled
Friendships are not cancelled
Learning is not cancelled
Reading is not cancelled
Music is not cancelled
Imagination is not cancelled
Kindness is not cancelled
Conversation is not cancelled
Hope is not cancelled
Prayer is not cancelled
Faith is not cancelled

Remember to keep a growth mindset during this unusual time.

Making a difference to student wellbeing

There are many factors that influence a young persons wellbeing but the two that have the biggest impact are parents and teachers. These two groups are the ones that spend the most time with the young person and are the ones that develop learning in each young person. 

Having positive relationships with teachers is essential for their development and learning. A positive relationship with their teachers will help give the students a sense of belonging, which can lead to happier students, which promotes positive learning. Negative relationships can create anxiety and destroy a student’s confidence. It has been a little harder online to develop relationships but communicating with your teachers will strengthen the relationship.

Parents play a vital role in the development of the students. Spending time and setting boundaries with your children can increase the levels of life satisfaction in young people. Parents can help a young person manage anxiety and motivate them to do well in life. This is so important during lockdown as the parents in some cases are with the children 24/7. This puts a huge strain on the family unit.

It is essential that parents and schools work in partnership for the benefit of the child. If the home and school are working together in a common direction, the child will have a greater chance of success at school and in life. While in lockdown the partnership is essential for success while working online.

Please feel free to contact the College and any of the staff to develop a positive partnership between home and school.

Students Learning

As we come towards the end of an online learning term we need to ask “How is my child progressing with their learning?” The next couple of weeks would be a great time to touch base with your Child's teacher to see how they have been progressing.

As a Learning community the partnership between home and school is essential for the success of the child. Your Child's teachers are always available to discuss the progress being made in learning. If you wish to speak to a teacher please contact the office on 9626 4000 and arrangements will be made for you to talk or Zoom with the teachers. Alternatively you can send the teacher an email to get an update.

If you have questions about something happening in the classroom please don’t hesitate to contact the Leader of Learning for that Key Learning Area (KLA) or their Leader of Learning- Wellbeing with questions about the learning needs of your child. Email or a class to the College is the best way to start the conversation

Online behaviour

Now and then we are told about negative online behaviour by students. Some post negative or threatening comments, some post videos that are inappropriate and some just follow and like these negative actions. 

The person that pays for the service is the one who is responsible, most of the time it is the parents. Do you know what they are doing online? You should know what your child is doing on line. If the action online affects others in the school or brings the College into a poor reputation, there will be a severe consequence for the child.

Please ensure that your child is being responsible online and that you have access to all the devices and programs that they use.

What is in the planner?

Developing research skills in research is essential in learning. Having a structured process helps you to think more intelligently and will help create new brain pathways. 

An effective process involved” Defining, Locating, Selecting, Organizing, Presenting and Evaluating. 

When you are active and healthy, life seems more enjoyable. The balance of exercise, diet and thinking positively helps build a healthier body and healthier mind. 

The Keys to success are exercising everyday, eating smaller portions and healthier choices, limiting screen time, spending time with others and surrounding yourself with positivity. 

Key character strengths to focus on this week are Relationship and Empathy. 

God Bless

Mr. Nicholas Thrum

Assistant principal - Students

Online Mindfulness

Online Mindfulness sessions are occurring every week during online learning, for all students. The only thing you need to do Online Mindfulness, is a quiet space and some headphones if you have them. Each session runs between 5 - 10 minutes. It is a great way to bring some stillness & focus into your day. Thank you to all the students who have already attended.

The times & dates for Online Mindfulness are:

Senior Campus - Monday Recess & Wednesday Lunch

Junior Campus - Tuesday Recess & Thursday Lunch

Please see your Wellbeing Google Classroom for more information including the zoom links. Any questions please email Mrs Cooper scooper@parra.catholic.edu.au

Zest Week

In Week 8, as part of our Wellbeing Program, our College celebrated Zest Week. Our SRC & Captains did a great job planning the week with Zest themed activities, all of which could be accessed via their Wellbeing Google Classroom. At this time of the term, and with it being online learning, it is easy for us all to lose our enthusiasm & energy. Zest Week has encouraged us to find our energy again - to be inspired by our friends and family who are full of energy; to look after our physical & mental wellbeing; to keep doing the things we love to do. Thank you to all students who participated and got involved. I think we have a lot more energy now!

Mrs Sue Cooper

Leader of Wellbeing

In these challenging times we would like to brighten your day. Please have a look at our newly created website ‘St Andrews Artists’ which features some of the finest young and talented artists in our beautiful school community. A variety of artworks are featured, including hand drawn pieces, photographs, paintings and digital art. 

https://standrewsartists.weebly.com/

The website will feature artworks each term, from each year group. 

We would like to congratulate the students who have their work featured in this term’s edition of St Andrews Artists, it is an outstanding achievement. 

We are so proud of all your hard work and dedication in Visual Arts. 

Below I have included a sneak peak of two artworks, be sure to check out the website for more brilliant artworks.

Mrs Tiana Psaila

Visual Arts Teacher

On the 28th of August 2021, St Andrews’ first Esports team, “SAC Crew '' played our last game in the AEHSL Rocket League Tournament. We made a valiant effort to win as many games as we could to climb the leaderboard but had just missed the final qualifying spot. Sadly we didn’t walk away with the main prize of a viewsonic interactive board for our school but will go down as the first St Andrew's Esports team to compete.

What was it like to compete in an esports competition?

Jayden - “Competing in this competition was very exhilarating as none of us have done anything like it. We all had experience in the game but didn’t expect the competition to be on par and slightly better. Overall this competition was a game changer for both the school and the students as a new out of school extracurricular. This also gives the students a chance to support the school using the skills they have developed. This was an interesting experience to say the least and has been the utmost fun over the last 4 weeks.”

Christopher - “The Esports competition was difficult, but still we persevered and had a blast playing as a team in AEHSL Rocket League's competition. The competition was fierce and the games were difficult, we managed to get a couple of round wins. There were a couple of hiccups when training, we were struggling to set a routine. But all together we tried to pull through and just fell short of qualifying for the second round. I encourage anyone interested in playing Rocket League Esports to join the tryouts and play for our school.”

Joshua - “The Esports tournament in my opinion was quite good but definitely difficult. We lost quite a bit but we also gave it our all which led us to a few wins and ranking above some schools. We were also shown as a team that had a lot of potential to get better. Our teamwork with one another wasn’t as good as everyone else's but we did a decent job at it and hopefully next term we will come out on top for our school.”

We would like to thank Mr Kennaugh & Mr Robson for giving us the opportunity to compete as well as Miss Mifsud for organising our registration and for supporting us every Saturday online throughout the competition. We hope to continue competing in future AEHSL competitions with hopefully more interested students entering the competition alongside us representing St Andrews College.

Written by Jayden Cassar, Christopher Simonetta & Joshua Burrows 

Year 10 Students

To the staff and parents/carers at St Andrew’s, I would like to thank you for the warm welcome this term. My name is Olivia Tan, and I am a prac teacher from the University of Notre Dame, currently undertaking the final practicum of my degree. It has been a blessing to be able to continue with my professional experience amidst these difficult and uncertain times, and I’d like to express my gratitude for the support of the entire school community.

I had never envisioned that I would be teaching in the current circumstances that we are in, and I extend my thoughts and prayers to all families in the community who are struggling in this pandemic. As a university student myself, who has had to acclimatise to online learning for almost half of my degree, I wholeheartedly understand the challenges that our students are facing - lack of motivation, yearning to interact and work collaboratively with peers and teachers, the fatigue that comes with prolonged screen time - it is not an ideal environment that is conducive to learning. However, with great challenges comes even greater opportunities to adapt to new circumstances, build resilience and to grow as individuals. I am finding that there are so many different ways to utilise technology to engage students online, and the importance of regulating time, facilitating discussions and mimicking the interactions of a face-to-face classroom is so crucial to student learning. I’ve been given great opportunities to grow as I refine and adjust my teaching strategies, and to learn how to reframe my approaches in order to create virtual learning experiences that are meaningful and productive. I hope that our students are also learning to reframe their thinking as well - to see this as an opportunity to strive to be active participants who can take responsibility for their own learning too. Online learning is difficult - but it certainly is not impossible!

Tips for Parents

As a Religious Education teacher, I would also like to share some practical tips for creating a prayer space at home for families. During such a difficult time, prayer is so vital to our spiritual well being, and is a great source of strength during times of adversity. I encourage all parents in our school community to invite your children to take a break from their devices, and spend some much needed time with God. 

A Prayer Space can consist of:

• Icons/images of Christ and holy figures (a crucifix, image of the Virgin Mary, Saints etc)
• Rosary
• Bible (I like to use God’s Word: Daily Reflections for 2021 as it contains the daily Gospel readings for the year in chronological order)
• Candle 
• Display of your favourite quote 

Family Prayer Time: You can set up your prayer space in a part of your home where your family can gather for communal prayer time. This is a great way to come together and prioritise quality time as a family.

Desktop prayer space: Encourage your children to create their own prayer space on their desk, next to their device and school essentials. As they complete their online learning throughout the day, it is a great reminder to spend some time with God, and to establish a prayer routine that best fits in with their learning schedule. Parents can also create one for their office desk too if you are working from home!

I’d also like to share a simple prayer that I wrote during my own personal prayer time, as I reflected and meditated on the realities of this pandemic. I encourage the whole school community to use this in your own prayer times as well.

 A Prayer of Surrender

Jesus,

The road ahead is too murky for me to see with clarity. Yet, I thank you for this grace - for the opportunity and invitation to trust you more despite the future being so unclear. I entrust myself to your loving embrace, and I feel peace knowing that I can surrender myself to You. 

St Andrew,

Pray for us. 

Amen.

Thank you for this opportunity to share with the parents/carers of the St Andrew’s school community. Take care and God Bless!

Yours in Christ,

Olivia Tan

Message from Hiroshima

Recently, Year 8 Japanese class has been learning about the message from Hiroshima. Hiroshima is a city in Japan, the first-ever city in the world to suffer an atomic bombing, which is awfully tragic to hear. What is truly inspiring, however, is the story of a survivor who was a girl named Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was a strong and brave girl who always had a courageous spirit. At the age of just two years old, she experienced an atomic bombing which affected her health deeply. Sadako was a very athletic person and she loved to run. In 1955 when she was 11 years of age, she was practicing for an upcoming race but became dizzy and plummeted to the ground. She was then later on diagnosed with leukemia due to the radiation she had been exposed to from the atomic bomb. As we mentioned earlier Sadako was truly courageous and brave, that being said, she spent the rest of her life making paper cranes as her best friend had told her that there was an old Japanese legend that would make her wish of being able to run again come true if she was able to make 1000 paper cranes. She ended up making over one thousand paper cranes before tragically passing away at the young age of 12. Her story touched not just ours but many hearts as she never gave up trying to achieve her dream, even whilst suffering from cancer. After her passing, Sadako’s hope was still spread all around the world.  A statue was made in Japan to honour and commemorate Sadako and her paper cranes, becoming an international symbol of peace. We are glad to have heard her story and hopefully teach others about it too, with the aim to inspire and never forget her in the upcoming generations.  Sadako’s story inspires us all to have courage and hope in our minds and soul.

We have made some paper cranes in honour of Sadako Sasaki.

Alexandra Marasigan and Youssef Tannous 8.7

SHARE YOUR FLAIR 2021

Let's not forget our wonderful school spirit and continue to share the good news with the world. St Andrews College would like to share some of its finest student talents from across all year levels during the next few weeks. 
Why not upload your creative act and be in the running to receive prizes for your efforts? 

Time to SHARE your FLAIR

Creative videos will be shared and acknowledged during assembly and pastoral lessons over the next few weeks. Highlights will also be shared on our school facebook page.

We encourage you to  HAVE FUN , get involved and be creative from the comfort of your home. 

You have from NOW until school resumes to submit your entries via email to Mr.Chiappetta.

achiappetta@parra.catholic.edu.au  

Please take advantage of this opportunity to develop your ability to sing, be artistic, play an instrument, dance, create video content, collaborate online with friends, tell jokes, recite poetry or even perform magic.If this sounds of interest, then this is the initiative for you in semester 2, 2021 at St Andrews College..

We would love to hear from you and find a way to be able to share your talents with our school community.

Over the next few weeks, the Science Faculty is hosting various Science competitions and challenges. This week (week 8), Wwe are kicking it off with a SAClympiad (Science Olympiad St Andrews version). Week 9 we are hosting a SACttergories (St Andrews Version of Scattergories) and week 10 we are accepting videos of scientific experiments that you have done at home. All details can be found in your Year Group or Science Google Classrooms. The competitions will be held over Zoom on Thursdays during Sports. You can sign up using the Google Form or QR Code. Hope to see you all there!

SAC Science Faculty

Hello St Andrews - I have a STEM challenge for you!

There is still time to register for the iSTEM challenge which finishes up on the 8th of September, across Year 7-10, with one winner chosen from each grade. 

What is the competition?

This competition will be based on Rube Goldberg - Cartoonist, Sculptor and Engineer. You will be tasked with creating your very own Rube Goldberg machine using a range of materials. A Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way. A Rube Goldberg machine utilises a range of simple machines to form one compound machine (2 or more simple machines in one). 

I have linked some video resources at the end of this article for you to view some existing Rube Goldberg machines for inspiration! 

What do you need to do?

Identify a simple task that you would like your machine to do, such as:

Brushing your teeth

Turning a light on

Watering a plant

popping a balloon

Turn off an alarm 

and build a machine using a variety of simple machines with materials around your home. Some materials you can use include:

Plastic cups

Cardboard

Paper

Dominos 

Wood

The options are endless! (As long as you have parental permission to use materials that your parents own!) 

You will need to record your machine in action and submit your video via a Google Classroom post which will be posted closer to the due date by the 8th of September at 8pm.

The winner will be featured in the school newsletter, the next Junior Assembly and possibly on our school's Facebook page!

Register your interest in the competition by filling out the Google Form below!

Inspiration Links:

https://youtu.be/qybUFnY7Y8w

https://youtu.be/OHwDf8njVfo

https://youtu.be/Av07QiqmsoA

https://youtu.be/nf094faga5w

Google Form Sign Up:

• https://forms.gle/p4Xv2FVNXJ9Kd7bLA

Shanai Mifsud

Technologies Teacher

Send Entries Here

EKN Home School Support Fact Sheet 
Strategies to support students preparing for the HSC 

HSC - Hoping, Succeeding, Celebrating!

Supporting your HSC young person is an incredible challenge for every family. During times of stress and challenge it is important to build capacity, resilience, and hope in our young people. These strategies will help our young people to build skills to manage their time, maintain and grow their wellbeing, and be successful with making good decisions for academic and future life success. 

Getting to the finish line 

Many parents and caregivers feel like they too are in the most competitive high stakes event with their teenager hurdling towards the HSC and hoping for ATAR glory. It is a breathless, gut wrenching battle to get to the finish line. You are at times a spectator, willing your teenager’s success or a coach timing their efforts and getting them moving. These challenges can be addressed if as parents and caregivers we adopt a growth mindset and start to work on strategies with our young people to build future success, resilience, and hopefulness. We need to re-position what the HSC means to all of us and maybe start to see it as journey of “Hoping, Succeeding and Celebrating!” 

How do I help my teenager with study? 

Teenagers often feel overwhelmed by the amount and time pressures of study. Their normal support peer networks have changed during COVID-19 with online and remote learning. As parents we can often feel we cannot contribute to the content or knowledge areas our teenagers are struggling with, but we can use our skills in goal setting, meeting deadlines, and time management to really help out. Getting your teenager to write down tasks for each day in a student diary, whiteboard, or Google calendar is an important step. We can build in reward and chill out time into this schedule, and assist our teenagers to see how chunks of productive study gives them a sense of success and enables rewards to be enjoyed. 

A great tip is to discuss what they really like to do with their time, what they must do with their time, when tasks needs to be finished by, and how long they think each task will take. You can start with a daily schedule or even map it out per week leading up to the HSC. Seems simple and practical, but it works. Studies by Adams & Blair (2019) show us if your teenager can manage their time and have an academic work and life balance, they achieve higher marks or grades in their subjects. It works because it buffers student stress and anxiety at the critical point in time and also builds stronger academic success for future study and work. 

The “Write” way to academic success. 

One of the simplest strategies to help with HSC study is through writing. Did you know that writing helps young people to comprehend, select information and store the knowledge in long-term memory? It also helps encode and retrieve information from long-term memory, and the more often we practise this skill, the faster and more efficient the retrieval process is. What this means is that if young people handwrite notes, key terms, practice answers and summarize some content, their ability to remember and apply that information under examination pressure is significantly improved. It helps them to retrieve information faster and removes the strain on their working memory under test conditions. While colourful highlighting is often the preferred choice for many teenagers, or adding to google docs is easy, handwriting these notes is more effective. According to Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014), students who used handwriting performed much better than students who had taken notes on a digital device. If you drill down little you find that the richer the summary notes or better practice attempts improve performance a little more too (Morehead, et al., 2019). Another tip is that handwritten notes that are revised (added to) outperform other techniques such as cramming, underlining or annotating (Brown et al., 2014). 

How can I build my child's resilience for the HSC? 

The HSC is an event. It is a moment in time and that does not define us. Our young people at this time can be hyper sensitive to criticism and high expectations from us as parents and caregivers. Despite their preference for peer interaction and social media, teenagers really care about what we think as parents and caregivers (Butterfield et al., 2020) . It's important to give them a sense of what the real expectation is that we have for them; we want them to do their best, not necessarily get the ATAR of their dreams; we want them to feel like they have achieved success by getting through, rather than worrying if they have not learnt that final quote for English or formula for Mathematics. We do care that they prepare, but we respect their choice and judgment about what is good preparation and when they feel they have learnt and consolidated a topic or concept. Teenagers need to see how they have some choice and control over their success and become intrinsically motivated to achieve their own goals rather than worrying about the ATAR or HSC mark they think we want for them. We also need to share stories of our own successes and sometimes failures and what we learnt from this. Creating each new goal for this one moment of the HSC will help our young people to tangibly see the next opportunities and move towards these next experiences. Recognising that failure is sometimes part of the success can help young people to build this resilience.

Dealing with difficult moments and distractions 

Deliberative procrastination is often a behaviour that HSC young people excel in. There is social media, gaming, Netflix, and facetime absorbing their interest and time. Negotiating the distractions can be challenging. Some tips include discussing how each distraction can take 20 minutes to re-group and reconnect with the task. We can help teenagers to build in social media time into their day as a priority, and then have open conversations about checking into social media after tasks, phone free zones or hours, and creating spaces that are comfortable, low noise and well set up for study. Ideally another room with a bench or desk space or even outdoor areas that students can access with wi-fi. 

When dealing with the melt-downs try and stay calm and see this a normal setback. Over 40% of teenagers at this time can feel very distressed or even depressed or anxious. Your teenager may be negative, lethargic or a little more irritable. We need to avoid reacting and understand their pressures. If our young person is increasingly showing these signs, then help from others such as Headspace, Reach Out and Beyond Blue can really be important. 

https://headspace.org.au 

https://au.reachout.com/ 

https://www.beyondblue.org.au 

Creating safe and stable routines around teenagers’ priorities and needs such as sleeping, eating, and socialising is important and can help to avoid the difficult moments or get us all back on track. So, agree on a wake-time time and the wind-down time. Making some time to share a quick lunch or coffee break with young people between study periods is a great tip and helps with connection and checking in on their wellbeing and sense of progress or mastery of a topic. Finally, it may be good to have a chat about how much sleep a teenager really needs- 9-10 hours per day. Give your teenager a reason to be asleep until 9am. 

How can we create hopefulness in the HSC year? 

The HSC can be a sign for hope. Hope that it could bring an opportunity to go to TAFE, get a new job, attend university or achieve a long held career goal. For others it could be a hope for some freedom from study, from routine. It is also an important rite of passage that signals the end of schooling and should be celebrated as a significant achievement for all families and communities. 

Beyond the HSC 

The HSC allows our young people to do amazing things beyond the school years. Today there are so many pathways to future careers and work opportunities. One way to focus on the journey beyond the HSC is to be informed and help your teenager navigate this space. 

Good links to check out are: 

University information for HSC students (NSW Department of Education) 

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/stay healthy-hsc/resources/university-information-for-HSC students 

Special Program for most impacted HSC students ( NSW Department of Education) 

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/stay healthy-hsc/resources/news-special-program-for-most impacted-HSC-students 

After the HSC, there are many options (NSW Department of Education) 

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/stay healthy-hsc/resources/after-the-hsc-there-are-many options 

References 

Adams, R. V., & Blair, E. (2019). Impact of time management behaviors on undergraduate engineering students’ performance. SAGE Open, 9(1), 2158244018824506. 

Butterfield, R. D., Silk, J. S., Lee, K. H., Siegle, G. S., Dahl, R. E., Forbes, E. E., ... & Ladouceur, C. D. (2021). Parents still matter! Parental warmth predicts adolescent brain function and anxiety and depressive symptoms 2 years later. Development and psychopathology, 33(1), 226-239. 

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning (p. 313). The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 

Morehead, K., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2019). How much mightier is the pen than the keyboard for note-taking? A replication and extension of Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014). Educational Psychology Review, 1–28. 

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09468-2 

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25, 1159–1168.

Macquarie Leaders and Achievers Early Entry Scheme

Macquarie University has reopened the Macquarie Leaders and Achievers Early Entry Scheme.The deadline for applications is Sunday the 19th of September.

Students can receive an early offer to study at Macquarie University in 2022 if they have performed well academically in Year 11 and can demonstrate initiative and commitment through leadership, community, sport or casual work activities.

Students need to demonstrate the following qualities: :

• Leadership: mentorship, coaching or leading a team, collaboration and teamwork skills, empathy and self-awareness
• Service and community engagement: positive benefit to others and active engagement in the school, local or wider community
• Contribution and commitment: genuine connection with your chosen purpose, persistence and dedication to manage self and/or work with others to achieve a goal
• Initiative: independent thought and action; ability to anticipate needs
• Self-efficacy: self-awareness, personal learning and development

Click here for more information and the online application form.

The University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame Early Offer Program has been extended. The new closing date is the 10th of October. 

For those students who have already submitted their application The University of Notre Dame is currently making offers on a rolling basis. 

The University of Notre Dame has an admission process that goes beyond a single score. It is like the Notre Dame study experience, focused on the whole person and includes the following criteria:

• Academic record
• Personal qualities
• Gifts and talents
• Motivation to study
• Contribution to community life

Click here for more information and the online application form.