Dear Friends and families of St Paul’s,
Over the course of the last two weeks the College has held several events that truly reflect who we are and that indicate how diligent the College approaches our Professional Development and preparation for 2024.
Monday 24 November was a PD Day for the staff and our Primary team completed their fourth and final day of BESM (Berry Street Education Model) training. This has been a huge success and so very beneficial in helping all the staff develop an understanding of the theory and formulate implementation strategies that will assist all students. While the program is centered around trauma and its impact on children the skills and strategies developed will be beneficial to all.
The Middle and Senior Years staff were provided with a Resource center update and the transfer to a the new “Oliver” system. We would like to thank Ms Kate Haskey and Ms Yolanda Rogers for this terrific presentation and their fantastic efforts throughout the year. This presentation was then linked to a discussion about the connection between Inquiry Based Learning and resources which the staff all found extremely valuable. After this time our staff (who have been given a draft timetable for 2024 – much earlier than normal) were given the opportunity to commence preparation for their relevant learning areas.
Transition Day
Friday of last week was our 2024 Transition Day for all the new and continuing Yr 6 into Yr 7 students. It is a tremendous opportunity for new students to meet and mingle with our current Yr 6 students and to find out much needed information regarding our facilities, courses and also to complete a couple of learning tasks for us so that we can adequately prepare for all the needs of all the students. We are extremely well served on this day by our newly elected College leaders for 2024, who gave up their Yr 11 exam study day, and all the staff.
As I explained to the students, even when we were a College of about 600 students, they came to St Paul’s from nearly 90 different schools. Not only does this highlight, yet again, the diversity of St Paul’s, but also explains the significance of days such as this one. To see all the smiling faces leave the College at the end of the day clearly indicated it was a huge success.
Year 9 Rite of Passage Celebration
On Monday evening of this week, we held our Year 9 Rite of Passage ceremony and dinner. Again, this was a tremendous evening, so very well attended by families and so valuable for continuing to build on our terrific relationship with our students, staff and families. There were three parts to the evening. Firstly, and as always, most importantly we had a shorty liturgy presented by our Senior religious identity Leaders in Mr Joe Hicks and Mrs Maria Girolamo-Corbo. Secondly was a presentation in regard to what a Rite of Passage is, (a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another, involving a significant change of status in society,) and the significance of this in relation to the history of St Paul’s, who we are as individuals and how the school, families and students need to work together to assist these wonderful young children across “The Bridge of Adolescence” which can be very tricky and challenging at different times.
Exams and Learning Expo
Our year 12s have finished their exams last week, our Year 11s are finishing theirs this week and next Wednesday we will have our end of Semester 2 Middle Years Learning Expo. This will round out and highlight the major achievements and learnings of our Middle Years students and we encourage every family to be present to celebrate that.
We are in Week 6 of term 4, so much is happening and there is still so much to achieve, celebrate and accomplish. The Year 12 Graduation this Thursday being one of those.
Take care, God Bless
Paul Belton
On Wednesday, the Year 1 classes finished their HASS unit on Recycling by making paper! We borrowed our kits from Mrs Field, which included a booklet on how to make perfect paper. The students worked in teams supported by Miss Stokes and our co-educators Mrs Kerry, Mrs Sharon and Ms Bianca to turn our shredded paper into sheets of quality hand-made paper.
