Principal’s Message

February 17, 2022

by Principal, Mr Steven O’Connor

Academic Assembly

This week we gathered to celebrate the academic achievements and efforts of our Year 12 students from 2021 and students across Years 7-11 in the form of the Chris Nolan and Principal’s Academic Excellence Awards for Semester 2, 2021. As a school, our core business is teaching and learning and therefore, acknowledging and celebrating the outstanding academic outcomes of our students is really important.

We were delighted to welcome back most of our Year 12 students from 2021 who had achieved an ATAR of 90+ and those students who were Dux or first place in VCE Studies. I congratulate the following Year 12 students from 2021:

  • Jack Sheehan ATAR of 99.85 (College Dux)
  • Connor Gaffney ATAR of 99.8
  • Hugh Ollerenshaw ATAR of 99.35
  • Darcy Williams ATAR of 98.5
  • Patrick Clarke-Thomas ATAR of 95.95
  • Daniel Collier ATAR of 95.6
  • Lewis Grigg ATAR of 93.5
  • Thomas Collins ATAR of 93.2
  • James Harrington ATAR of 92.4
  • Adam Severino ATAR of 90.55
  • Patrick Tyler ATAR of 90.45

In addition to this, we acknowledged those students who achieved first place in or Dux of their VCE studies. These students included:

  • Jack Sheehan – Dux of Literature and Dux of Mathematical Methods
  • Connor Gaffey – Dux of Chemistry, English Language, Specialist Mathematics and Visual Communications & Design
  • Hugh Ollerenshaw – Dux of Japanese (Second Language)
  • Darcy Williams – Dux of Physical Education
  • Patrick Clarke-Thomas – Dux of Philosophy
  • Daniel Collier – Dux of Physics
  • Patrick Tyler – Dux of Media
  • Toby Clack – Dux of Biology
  • Alexander Guevara – Dux of Psychology
  • Harry Graham – Dux of Engineering
  • Mitchell Hutson – Dux of VET Sport & Recreation
  • Matthew Jones – Dux of Further Mathematics
  • Jack Lawler – Dux of English and
  • Tristan Puddy – Dux of Environmental Science

 

The Chris Nolan Awards and Principal’s Academic Excellence Awards (from Semester 2, 2021) were also presented at this week’s Academic Assembly. I congratulate the recipients of these awards and encourage them and all students, to continue to strive towards growth, improvement and excellence in their studies.

2021 Year 7
Chris Nolan Award

·         Cooper Beseler

·         Jed Blood

·         Mason Bullen

·         Noah Buttler

 ·         Finley Dalziel

·         Jacob Robertson

·         Harry Waight

 

Chris Nolan Award and Principal’s Academic Excellence Award

·         Patrick Buttler

·         Beau Callanan

·         Jacob Carthew

·         Codie Chapman

·         George Charles

·         Harry Clark

·         Tom Cosgriff

·         Tyler Crane

·         Daniel Crockett

·         Ned Cummins

·         Finn Curran

·         Noah Eales

·         Hudson Eales

·         Justin Goodison

·         Ashton Halsall

 ·         Josh Hayes

·         George Heaton

·         Lachie Huebner

·         Seth Hynes

·         Tate Koleski

·         Myles Lovison

·         Luis Maldonado

·         Archer Mohr

·         Joel Molloy

·         Flynn Sandlant

·         Blake Scott

·         Jeremy Simanjuntak

·         Jacob Sinclair

·         Lachie Squire

 

2021 Year 8

Chris Nolan Award

·         Henry Ebbels

·         CJ Richardson

·         Lachie Riding

·         Josh Roberts

 ·         Max Sanders

·         Harry Sutherland

·         Ryan Walker

 

2021 Year 8 Chris Nolan Award and Principal’s Academic Excellence Award

·         Haymish Busscher

·         Alex Clark

·         Cooper Clifford

·         Jensen Coelho

·         Will Flanagan

·         Joe Foley

·         Harry Fraser

·         Leonard Goodison

·         Reuben Hackwill

·         Amal Hari

·         Noah Kerr

·         Levi Lawlor

·         Owen Mahony

 ·         Will McCahon

·         Aidan McDougall

·         Lachy McPhan

·         Christian Morrison

·         Xavier Morrison

·         Zavier Nunn

·         Henry Reinehr

·         Nic Ruyg

·         Kristopher Stephens

·         Cody Torney

·         Lenny Ward

·         Kayden Williams

·         Paco Wong

2021 Year 9

Chris Nolan Award

·         Lachlan Alimic

·         Brodie Bull

·         Hunter Cunningham

·         Gabriel Freeman

·         Alex Griffith

·         Nicholas Kan

 ·         Archie Lalor

·         Owen Murphy

·         Parth Shah

·         Wyatt Torney

·         Toby Walshe

 

Chris Nolan Award and Principal’s Academic Excellence Award

·         Nedd Bennett

·         Jacob Britt

·         Tim Buckland

·         Brodie Graham

·         Josh Gray

·         Charlton Hand

·         John Hansen

·         Sam Hansen

·         Lachlan Hodge

·         Sam McDonald

·         Liam Morrison

 ·         Ben Nixon

·         Paddy O’Brien

·         Lachie Pritchard

·         Noah Quick

·         Jacob Rae

·         Brodie Reardon

·         Zane Rutherford

·         Thomas Stute

·         Rex Van Berkel

·         Jack Williamson

·         Eric Yang

 

2021 Year 10:

Chris Nolan Award

·         Jude Bristow

·         Eamonn Curran

·         Cayden Geljon

·         Rory Gunsser

 ·         James Halsall

·         Isaac Martin

·         Will Middleton

·         Taine Powell

 

Chris Nolan Award and Principal’s Academic Excellence Award

·         Mike Bleicher

·         Tom Bosworth

·         Alec Carthew

·         Mitchell Collins

·         Lachlan Cooper

·         Noah Cudia

·         Alex Fademi

·         Campbell Gladman

·         William Hexter

·         Damian Irvin

·         Patrick Kelly

·         Jack Kovacevic

 ·         Matthew Michalik

·         Luke Mihaljevic

·         Matthew O’Brien

·         Ted O’Brien

·         Angus O’Keefe

·         Tom O’Loughlin

·         Luke Ozols

·         Guy Ripley

·         Lochlan Rowe

·         Oscar Watkins

·         Finn Watson

·         Sean Weigall

 

2021 Year 11:

Chris Nolan Awards

·         Edward Charles

·         Tom Grant

·         Nyjo John

·         Alex Kerr

 ·         Alex Molan

·         Will Quinlan

·         Noah Ryan

·         Leo Turnbull-Gent

 

Chris Nolan Award and Principal’s Academic Excellence Award

·         Tony Begbie

·         Will Burzacott

·         Jesse Cairns

·         Toby Clack

·         James Clark

·         Zenon Czulij

·         Sam Farrington

·         Ben Gibcus

·         Mason Gullick

·         Alex Hamilton

·         Nicholas Hontzogloy

 ·         Zac Kennedy

·         Benji Laursen

·         James Molloy

·         Andrew Monaghan

·         Ben Mornane

·         Alister Nixon

·         Harley Passalick

·         Patrick Porter

·         Oliver Tribe

·         Matthew Wood

For those of you who do not know who Chris is, I encourage you to watch this video about him and why he is such a valued member of the College Community:  https://clickv.ie/w/i5ks.

Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, Chris and his mother, Mary, were unable to be present on Tuesday, however they were able to watch the Assembly via live stream.  We hope to welcome them back to the College for our next Academic Assembly at the end of July.

After much consideration and discussion over the last 12 months, the College has decided to make a slight adjustment to the Chris Nolan Awards. These awards are highly regarded and sought after by students and recognise a consistently high level of achievement, or excellence, across all subjects. The internal assessment results of students are aggregated and currently, the top 15% of students in each year level are awarded a Chris Nolan Award. As a student, Chris Nolan was known for his commitment to striving for and achieving excellence in all his studies and everything else he did at the College.

In the true essence of ‘excellence’ a decision has been taken to move the measure of the top 15% of students in each year level to 10%. In many other forums and settings, awards, scholarships and prizes are captured and determined by the top 10% of the candidature, rather than the top 15%. In our efforts to promote and reward academic excellence at St Patrick’s, we feel that using this measure reflects the notion of academic excellence more accurately.

Cooper Sherman – Congratulations!

I am delighted to acknowledge Cooper Sherman for the following achievements in Athletics:

  • Last Saturday winning the 70-metre race at the Ballarat Gift last Saturday.
  • Last week he recently ran a time of 10.56 seconds for the 100 metres, qualifying him for the World Junior Championships, having already secured a place on the team in the 200m and 400m.
  • Additionally, on Saturday 5 February, Cooper broke one of Ballarat’s longest standing athletics records – the 200m all-comers record. Cooper’s time of 21.24 seconds at the Llanberris Athletics Reserve during Round 9 of the Athletics Victoria Shield League (AVSL) broke the long-standing record of Michael Benoit set in 1984. The run also beat the Ballarat under-20 record of 21.5 seconds set by Gerrard Keating in 1980 as well as Sherman’s own under 18 record which he beat earlier this year.
  • In January, Cooper won three gold medals at the Victorian Country Championships in the 100m, 200m and 400m in the under 20s, posting the World Junior qualifying result in the 400m heat where he ran 47.20 seconds. He also ran an equal personal best of 21.11 seconds in the 200m, a mark he had previously set at Box Hill, which qualifies him for that event at the world titles as well. Congratulations Cooper!  We look forward to seeing more of your fantastic achievements in the future.

In this context, the St Patrick’s College Athletics team are competing in the ACC (Associated Catholic Colleges) Athletics next Thursday 24 February in Melbourne.  This is our first event as a renewed member of the ACC, and I wish all members of the team the very best for next week.  I am looking forward to cheering them on during the Carnival.