St Andrews College Marayong eNewsletter Term 4 Week 6

Term 4 - A Focus on Learning

Term 4 brings many things to completion in an academic year. Usually all high stakes formal assessment is completed quite early in the term which leaves the rest of the term open to students to ‘wind down’ from the pressure of exams and testing.

End of Year reports are not released until the end of Week 8 and a significant amount of the term provides students with informal opportunities to improve their final end of year grade because everything counts. A student's final grade on their End of Year report is focused on a whole year’s worth of learning, which includes the weeks at the end of Term 4. Students should see this time as a way to demonstrate what they have learnt in critical and creative ways.

It’s also a time to use teacher feedback especially in relation to our literacy and numeracy skills. Year 10 will be completing their HSC Minimum Standards tests in their transition week, these tests are mandatory for the successful completion of the HSC. “Students need to achieve Level 3 or 4 in short online reading, writing and numeracy tests of skills for everyday life to meet the HSC minimum standard.” (NESA) Only students who meet the HSC minimum standard will receive an HSC testamur.

Much of Term 4 provides important preparation for the year ahead. Year 10 will also complete All My Own Work which “ s a program designed to help HSC students follow the principles and practices of good scholarship. This includes understanding, valuing and using ethical practices when locating and using information as part of their HSC studies.” (NESA)

This program is mandatory for all students who are continuing into Year 11. “Students who have completed the program will also know about penalties for cheating and how to avoid malpractice when preparing their work for assessment.”

This course is vital, especially with more and more students relying on AI to do classwork and assessment tasks for them, the consequences of malpractice and plagiarism will have a great impact on their learning and their final course performance.

So as we draw closer to completing Term 4, we put our best efforts forward to finish the Year off with great success, knowing that we undertook every opportunity to focus on learning throughout the entire academic year.

Student expectations about Learning

In the final weeks of 2023 students are expected to be at school and working in every class. Holidays do not start until the end of the year, and we expect that every student is in class and working to the best of their ability right up until the last lesson. 

If you feel that your child is not getting any class work or homework, please contact the class teacher or the Learning Advisor and express your concerns. The College has the expectation that as a learning community we are making the most of every learning opportunity.

St Andrews Day

St Andrews Day is on Thursday 30th November. 

Students will need to pay $20 for the rides and this is payable to the company on the day. More information regarding this day will be sent out next week.

Uniforms

Overall, our students have been well presented at school. I ask parents to check the following items regarding their uniforms.

1. the girls kilts must be down to the knees, some are too short
2. if a boy wishes to wear a tie, the shirts must be tucked in
3. a sports uniform is to be worn on a Thursday and on a day, they have PDHPE. The sports uniform must be a full sports uniform or summer uniform, no other track pants etc.
4. a school bag is the only acceptable bag at the College
5. all girl’s hair is to be tied back at school
6. students should wear hard leather school shoes not black runners, this is a WHS requirement.

I ask parents to help ensure that the uniform is worn appropriately. If there is an issue with the uniform, please contact the Leader of Wellbeing for your Childs year group. Students who abuse the rules will be removed for classes until the uniform is rectified. 

Respect for others

The college has many sayings, one of them is:

“Be a person for others”.

Over the last year how have we used this simple phrase? How have we used our thoughts, comments and actions in the playground, the classroom and online towards other people. We should never comment about others unless it is positive and we should always treat others the way we want to be treated ourselves.

It is very easy to neglect the way we treat others and the impact of negativity towards others can have a long-lasting effect on a person. We need to ask ourselves what type of person we've been seen as? Is it negative or positive? If it's negative, we need to consider what impact we are having on others and how we can change that to a positive one.

I think it is important that we always ask ourselves before we do anything - What would Jesus do?

What’s in the planner?

The focus this week is on Positive emotions and gratitude. By choosing to have optimism and hope for the future, we set ourselves up for finding our best self. We can do this by focusing on the good things and setting achievable goals.

You need to be curious and explore possibilities and strengths and believe that you have the willpower and way power to achieve the goals you set. You need to reduce the distractions by making the choice to live by less is more.

Ask yourself what you are grateful for and build on this. 

The character strength for the week is LOVE. How can love help build your wellbeing?

God bless

Mr Nick Thrum

Assistant Principal

Leadership Retreat

Next week, our newly elected student leaders will go on a Leadership Retreat at Kiah Ridge in Tahmoor. They will develop and build on their leadership skills, select portfolios and plan for their roles in 2024. We wish them well and look forward to the year ahead.

Principal’s Awards - Senior Campus

Congratulations to the following students who have received Principal’s Awards:

Congratulations to the following student who received their second Principal’s Awards:

House Cup Competition - Gould wins the House Cup!

The 2023 House Cup competition has now finished, and Dr Kennaugh presented the House Cup to the winning House - Gould! Due to the refurbishment of the Hall, the Assembly could not take place as normal - instead it was filmed earlier and shown to students during the scheduled Assembly time. To keep the House spirit alive, the identity of the winning House was kept secret until the official screening of the Assembly in Learning Groups. A big thank you to Josip Mihaljevic & Chadi Karam who videoed 4 different endings (one for each House) so we could keep the winning House secret. There was definitely a lot of excitement during the Learning Groups when the video was shown. The winning House will celebrate by going to Luna Park on Monday December 11. 

Congratulations to all students for a fantastic House Cup competition in 2023. 

The final point are below:

Bennelong - 54, 355

Chang - 55, 145

Frances - 48, 961

Gould - 59, 426

Congratulations Gould!

Mrs Sue Cooper

Leader of Wellbeing and Learning

scooper@parra.catholic.edu.au

Hi everyone, 

We are almost at the end of your first school year at St Andrews College. It is great to see a lot of you trying to achieve your personal best in class and also trying to grow as a whole person. A few things that I want to address before the end of the year:

• Spiritual Wellbeing

St Andrews Day is approaching. This is a day where we come together to celebrate our Patron Saint and a day to remember the kind of person he was. St Andrew was the first disciple of Jesus. He was a person who always took the opportunity to help others. He was always available when others needed him. He was a person of strong faith. He was teachable and was always willing to learn. He was kind and friendly and was someone that always gathered people for the right cause. 

You, as a student at St Andrews College, should try to embody the qualities that St Andrew has. You should try to emulate his actions and try to live this in your life with your faith and with your relationships with others. 

• Physical Wellbeing

As the weather starts to warm up, it is a great opportunity to be out and being physically active with your peers during break times. Exercise releases endorphins that make you feel good about yourself and allows your brain to take a break from all the hard work you are putting into your classes. However, with exercise comes sweat and you need to ensure you bring a small towel and deodorant to school to freshen yourself up when you do start to sweat from the heat. 

Swimming; it is good to hear that a lot of you are enjoying your time at swimming during Thursday sport. With the weather warming up, you are very lucky to be able to cool down in the water. Understanding how to swim is important as it is a skill that you may need to use at some point in your life, to relax or to even save yourself.

• Intellectual Wellbeing

Intellect is the ability to reason and understand things using your mind. It is important that you all have a strong intellectual ability and this begins with learning. Learning how to be resilient and also learning in class. Learning increases our brain capacity and can allow us to better understand ourselves and others. Your wellbeing is very closely linked with how well your brain is functioning. 

As the term goes on, continue to focus and concentrate in class. Have a mindset of growth. Do not give up on things that are difficult. 

• Relational Wellbeing

Your friendships are one of the biggest factors in your wellbeing at school. Having good relationships with others is vital to your happiness and how well you navigate through high school. 

Recently, there have been a fair few incidents where misunderstandings and feelings have caused a rift between some people. It is important to always show respect to one other, respect to the person’s opinions and feelings. Do not be so quick to “dob” someone in. Do not be so quick to try and get others in trouble. You must always be kind to each other and must not let words affect your relationships with others. 

• Emotional Wellbeing

A few weeks ago, I spoke to you all about being emotionally resilient. The ability to ignore and block out the negativity of others is a skill that you will continue to develop into your adult age and although you are still in high school, you need to learn that you cannot allow others to control your emotions. If you let others cause you to be sad or emotional then you are letting other people control you. You are the only person that can control how you think, feel and act. 

Mr Kharl Carlos 

Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7

Join us in Week 8 at the annual end of year Junior Visual Arts Showcase that will be held on Monday 27th of November 2023 at 3:00 - 4:00pm. 

Year 7 - Animals of World Heritage Sites 

Year 7 students have begun their oil pastel artworks which explore the animals of the Daintree Rainforest or Great Barrier Reef. We have seen a remarkable amount of talent across the grade. Students have used the grid method, a numeracy technique used in Visual Arts to enlarge an image onto paper and accurately sketch. 

Our students then used oil pastels and employed numerous techniques learnt in class to complete their artwork. Below you will find the artworks of Viliami Tu’ipuloto ‘Clown Fish’, Jeremiah Owusu ‘Manta Ray’, Angeline Rentoy ‘Jellyfish’ and Sleiman Awkar ‘Shark’.

Year 8 - Mombasa style Paintings

Year 8 Visual Arts students have been exploring the artist Reg Mombassa. Mombassa is a New Zealand born artist, residing in Australia. He is best known for his work with Mambo graphics designing T-shirts and Posters since 1986. Our students designed a Mombassa style poster based on the theme of Australia. Last semester we explored bushfires, floods and the struggles that our nature faces each year. This semester we have decided to lighten the mood and have explored icons of Australian culture such as Luna Park, Australian foods and the Sydney Harbour. 

 

Below you will see the work in progress from 8VISAC.

Year 9 - Poetic Landscapes - Ceramics unit

Following on from last fortnights newsletter, I would like to share with you the work of 9VISA2 in their unit poetic landscapes. A variety of designs were created and executed by our Year 9 students with the expert advice of Rebecca Verpoorten Laws. 

 

Below is the work of Ana Donjerkovic ‘Shell’, Amelia Korczowski ‘Mushroom field’ and Cryztle Espino ‘Koi Fish’

 

The first season of Seize the clay, Pottery club has come to an end. 

Initially Seize the Clay was set to run for 10 weeks, however, students had so much fun, constantly asking when the next round would start so they could apply again. As a result,  I extended the session by a further 5 weeks. Allowing students to explore a larger variety of techniques and forms in the medium of ceramics. We have learnt so much and have made a variety of ceramic pieces including, ghosts, mushrooms, pots, mugs and more.

Below are some of the finished pieces from Pottery club. To see the rest, please come and join us in Week 8 at the annual End of year Visual Arts Junior Showcase. This will be held on the 27th of November, 2023 at 3:00 - 4:00pm. 

Mrs Tiana Psaila

Visual Arts Teacher

Our St Andrews College Diving Team have been training hard for three terms now and are gaining great results on the Diving NSW competition circuit. We have five registered divers, all in year 7 who practice 2-3 times a week at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC).

There have been three Diving NSW competitions thus far this season. Two Interclub competitions (August and September) and the Metropolitan Championships (held last weekend). The divers start in the Pathways competition and then progress to their Age Group where they attempt to reach National qualifying scores. Below is a list of some achievements of each of our divers.

Eesa Mir skipped Pathways on the 1 metre springboard and went straight into the 12/13 years boys competition. Eesa has placed in every competition he has entered. He placed 1st in the Matthew Mitcham Interclub, 3rd in the Frank Murphy Interclub, 3rd on 1 metre in the Metropolitan Championships, and 1st on 3 metre springboard in his first 3 metre Pathways event.

Analise Gregoriou also skipped Pathways on 1 metre and went straight into the 12/13 years girls competition. She has yet to place but was only 3 points away from qualifying for Nationals in her first competition. Last weekend, she came 4th in the 3 metre Pathways event at Metropolitan.

Rachael Griffiths also went straight into her 14/15 years girls competition. She has competed in one Interclub and Metropolitan Championships. While she has not placed, she has improved her score between competitions by 25 points.

Claire De Vos started competing in Pathways Level 3 and placed 3rd in her first competition. At Metropolitan she had enough dives to compete in her age group on 1 metre and placed 1st in Level 4 Pathways on 3 metre.

Keana Hickey has only dived in one competition so far due to illness but came 2nd in Pathways Level 4 at the Matthew Mitcham Interclub.

I am extremely proud of our divers and the effort they put into their training. I wish them the best as they compete in more competitions, culminating in the State Championships in March.

Anita Weaver

St Andrews College Diving Head Coach

NSW CCC Diving Convenor

In the second week of the term 3 holidays, we went on a week-long diving camp to Lighting Ridge. Lighting Ridge is a town in the middle of nowhere. It is about 8 hours North of Sydney and is known for its Opal mines. We had an amazing time there and made a lot of memories and amazing friendships. Plus, we learned many new dives that we can use for our next competitions. 

We trained 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon in the pool each day and then during the middle, we had fun with dry training and having free time. In addition to water training, we would get to go on the trampoline where we would play for ages and go on the dry board. Everyday we would go down to the IGA for our casual walk and to get bottles of water as the water there didn't taste good.

The last day we had a synchronised competition. This was separated into two groups of ten. We dived as a St Andrews pair and placed 5th. 

One of our favourite memories was from the first day. We went next door from where we were staying where there was a water park and pool. With our friends, we went into the wave pool and spent at least an hour playing and having a chicken fight. The first time we went to the hot springs, we all gathered around and played truth or dare and slowly tried to go deeper into the hot spring only to jump out a few minutes later from the heat and smell of it. Some days we had a party of our own doing thing like playing hide and seek in the dark and chasing each other around.

Every day was fun and a great experience. Overall we loved this experience and would definitely do this again. 

Claire De Vos and Rachael Griffiths

Science at SAC has been going strong as our student scientists continue learning about the world and universe around them through both first hand investigations and research. 

Year 8

Year 8 has been working in groups, learning about the solar system and over the last two weeks we have focussed on learning about how day and night are caused, how seasons form and what causes eclipses to occur. Students made 3D models, online presentations, google sites as well as scripts for presentations. This week we have learned about ancient ideas early civilisations had of the structure of the solar system from Indigenous Australians, Incans, Ancient Greeks, Middle Eastern and Renaissance Astronomy where different students researched one civilization, and then did a gallery walk to evaluate the findings of their peers and learn about each other's research. We are now preparing debates to learn viewpoints of people who once supported 'geocentrism' over 'heliocentrism', and look forward to having a constructive conversation about the ideas people had in the past, and the technologies that have paved the way for deeper knowledge about our universe and how to further explore it.

Marina Assey

Science and Mathematics Teacher

Year 7

Our Year 7 scientists have been learning about forces including friction, gravity, magnetism and electrostatics. This has led to some fun and interesting investigations including exploring the magnetic field of bar magnets using iron filings (pictured), making paper helicopters to investigate the effects of gravity, as well as investigating static electricity through different materials and using a Van de Graaff generator. If they haven’t already, soon students will begin their new module on energy which again prompts some great experiments so watch this space.

Year 9

Year 9 scientists continued to study ecosystems including ways in which different organisms interact with one other whether beneficial (mutualism) or even harmful (parasitism) to some species, as well as methods of managing and conserving ecosystems including that of First Nations communities, the impact of invasive (otherwise known as introduced) species, and understanding why Australian biosecurity laws and regulations can be quite strict. Some classes participated in a mock court case involving a fictional celebrity who tried to bring in a pet from overseas but did not follow the appropriate biosecurity regulations to declare the pet. Each student played a role in the mock court whether being the judge, jurors, lawyers, witnesses, or even representatives from the media. Students seemed to have enjoyed themselves combining their scientific understanding, their research of laws and regulations, along with acting and improvising.

Year 10

The SAC scientists of Year 10 have been learning about the vastness of the universe and scientific theories of how the universe began alongside the Catholic perspective and interpretations. Students modelled the Big Bang theory using balloons, relating it to how the universe is constantly expanding, as well as investigating the evidence supporting these theories. 

Students are excited as they have begun or will soon begin a short module on Forensic Science, where investigations will be similar to that of what is actually conducted in forensic science laboratories, as opposed to the fast forwarded versions often seen in television and movies.

Mrs Carmela Hollero

Assistant Leader of Learning Science

We are excited to share the heartwarming and impactful initiative carried out by our dedicated students from the Japanese elective course. During Week 5 Term 4, our elective Japanese course students in Years 9-12 participated in the incredible #OnigiriAction activity, demonstrating their compassion and commitment to making a positive difference in our world.

What is #OnigiriAction?

#OnigiriAction is an annual autumn social good campaign since 2015. It connects the simple act of taking a photo with helping to feed school children in need. Every photo of onigiri (Japanese rice balls) posted to the campaign website or on social media with #OnigiriAction makes a 100 yen donation. Their generous sponsors contribute donations to fund this campaign. It's a beautiful way to celebrate Japanese culture while helping to feed school meals to children in need around the world. 

For further information, please see the link below:

https://onigiri-action.com/en/

Our Japanese elective course students passionately embraced this project, not only to engage in cultural culinary practices but also to make a tangible difference in the lives of others. Through their dedication and hard work, the students not only learned about the art of crafting onigiri but also about the significance of world support and giving back.

The event was a fantastic success, with students and teachers enthusiastically participating. The creativity and care put into each onigiri were truly impressive and heartening. It was a beautiful reflection of our school's commitment to empathy and support for school children in need around the world. 

We extend our deepest gratitude to all the students who took part, and the Japanese teachers who guided and supported the initiative to contribute to this campaign. Your enthusiasm and generosity have made a real difference, and we are incredibly proud of the compassion and commitment demonstrated by our elective Japanese course students.

As we continue to foster a culture of giving and compassion, let us remember the power of collective action in creating positive change. We look forward to more such initiatives that bring us together to support important causes in the future.

Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to making a difference in the lives of others.

Ms Mariko Suzuki

Leader of Learning - Languages

The Year 8 students had their Japanese Cooking lesson in Term 4 Week 6, where they had the opportunity to taste the delicious Japanese dish called Yakisoba. This culinary adventure was made even more special with the invaluable assistance of students from Years 10 and 11 Japanese courses, who generously shared their expertise and passion for Japanese cuisine. We also had a special guest who just completed her HSC Japanese Contineurs at St Andrews College this year. 

One of the highlights of this cooking adventure was the involvement of students from Years 10 and 11 Japanese courses, who eagerly volunteered to assist their younger peers. They cooked Yakisoba for the Year 8 students under the sunny sky weather in the junior school quad area and talked about their experience of studying Japanese as an elective subject at St Andrews College. This cooking lesson proved an invaluable learning experience as they shared tips, techniques, and cultural insights, fostering a collaborative and supportive learning environment at St Andrews College. This inter-year interaction not only enhanced the cooking experience but also promoted a sense of camaraderie among students from different levels.

While waiting for the yakisoba, Year 8 students learnt how to use chopsticks and table manner words which are いただきます itadakimasu and ごちそうさまでした gochisousamadeshita. As the aroma of sizzling noodles and savoury sauces filled the air, the students started to get more excited. The school quad area became bustling with laughter, chatter, and the sizzle of Yakisoba on the griddle creating an atmosphere of joy and excitement.

The culmination of the cooking session was a shared meal, where students sat together to experience Japanese food - yakisoba. The joy and satisfaction on their faces spoke volumes about the success of the Japanese Cooking lesson. It was not just a lesson in culinary arts but a celebration of cultural exploration and the joy of tasting delicious Japanese food together.

A special thank you to the students from Years 10 and 11 Japanese courses for their enthusiastic participation and mentorship. We extend our appreciation to the Japanese language teachers for their dedication to making this cultural experience possible for our Year 8 students.

We look forward to more enriching experiences that blend cultural exploration with hands-on learning.

Sincerely,

Mariko Suzuki

Leader of Learning - Languages

College Leadership Team

Leaders of Learning - Wellbeing

College Leaders of Learning - KLA

College Leaders of Learning