Senior School Report – May 24, 2018

Last Thursday night our Year- 10’s spent the night -sleeping rough- in an attempt to increase their empathy for the homeless.- Talks from Mr Anthony Nunan and Craig Schepsis (Ballarat Soup Bus) gave the boys some insight into the variety of causes of homelessness and the difficulties and vulnerabilities that follow on from this.- When children end up homeless, it is usually because they have a home that has not been safe for them.- While our boys experienced some discomfort and tiredness, they are aware that they were not ever as cold, lonely or unsafe as those who are really sleeping rough. It is important for our boys to develop empathy, for their own sakes and the sake of our community.- We now know that men who can articulate their own emotions and who can feel empathy toward others will be men who make a positive contribution to their own families as husbands and fathers as well as to the wider community. And as followers of Christ we are called to feed the hungry, and provide shelter to the homeless.- I would like to thank Mr Taylor and Mr Clark for organising the event, and the many teachers who once again gave up their time and sleep to enable the event to occur.

Next Thursday Year- 10 students will spend the afternoon looking at education beyond St Patricks College.- A choice between Federation University’s Mt Helen Campus (academic) and SMB (TAFE/trade) needs to be made on PAM by parents of Year Tens after talking with their sons.- Some of the reasons for this activity are to encourage students to look further ahead than they otherwise might and to make them aware of some of the types of options that are available.

The Year 11 Social Justice Retreats ran last week. These retreats invited students to step outside of their world and into the world those of people less fortunate. A number of guest speakers bookended the day, no least of which was Isaac Moses a former Sudanese refugee who raised himself from his difficult background to his current PhD work. An incredible story of persecution and strength of will.

Ultimately, the core of the program centred on students collecting donations for those less fortunate in the community. The Ballarat Community was incredibly generous with this, offering over $200 and dozens of bags filled with items to support those in need. A very warm thank you to all those community members who donated.

On June 5 our Year- 10 and Year 11- boys commence exams.- This is not only a chance to consolidate and improve on the learning that has occurred during the semester, it is a chance to develop exam preparation skills.- Some students complain of poor exam techniques, but I would suggest preparation and knowing the content well is what tends to cause good performances.- When preparing for exams, at some stage students need to put down the pretty highlighters and do some real study, that is, some practice questions.- They need to check their answers and then correctly re-do the questions they got wrong; this is where their strongest growth will occur.- One way of distinguishing serious study from pretend study is that the phone gets put to the side and music gets turned off. (While on this, please keep all phones/computers etc. out of student bedrooms.)- Students who take these opportunities develop exam preparation skills over a number of years, enabling them to do well in Year 12. The exam timetables may be found in the Director of Administration section of this newsletter.- Should a student need to re-schedule an exam they should see their Year Level Coordinator before the exam’s scheduled time.- Reasons for re-scheduling include clashes with other exams or a Unit 3/4 class or illness.

Year- 12 Formal

On Friday June 1 our Year- 12’s will have a chance to enjoy their formal.- It is expected that they will be able to attend all classes on the Friday and still have enough time to apply their fake tan, get their hair done, put on their suits and make it to the Mercure-Ballarat for the 7pm start.- The night concludes at 11pm.- We look forward to seeing the boys enjoying themselves on this social occasion.- Year Twelve can be a long and tough year as boys try to get the best out of themselves academically.- It is great to have some fun along the way.

On Wednesday night I had the joy of watching the St Pats/ Loreto performance of Beauty and the Beast.- Fantastic.- Congratulations to all involved.