Senior School Report

by Director of the Senior School, Mr Hamish McCrum

Over the last two weeks we have held our parent/teacher/student interviews.  When teachers, students and families are working in unison the best outcomes are achieved.  I encourage our students to use the feedback positively from these interviews and to take up the challenge to increase or decrease particular behaviours so as to improve their learning and ultimately themselves.  Should you have been unable to attend or obtain a meeting with a teacher and wish more feedback than you can currently obtain from PAM, please send the teacher an email seeking further clarification or suggestions for improvement.

When students don’t perform particularly well on a task, how we encourage them to react is important.  While it might feel good in the short term to blame somebody else or a set of circumstances, those who recover the best from a poor result take ownership and view the result as a valid assessment of where they are now, and take from it what they will need to do to improve.  It remains important to focus mostly on the effort students are making.

It is known that high (and realistic) parental and teacher expectations of students’ performance typically leads to higher performance by students.  We need to dare to expect our students to do as well as is realistic for each of them.  In many cases this is higher than people might think.  With this expectation then comes the expectation that they will apply themselves while at school and with their homework.

Congratulations to all students who have embraced the good St Patrick’s has offered this term.  The plethora of sporting opportunities, and other opportunities such as chess competitions, drama, music and social justice, to name a few.  And congratulations to those who have started well and embraced the opportunity to apply themselves to their studies.  Students will have some work to do over the Easter break, particularly Year 12’s.  While it is important they do some work, it is also important they have a break.  Easter provides an excellent opportunity to spend time with family, to refresh and recharge before winter arrives.  Term 2 requires some stamina, particularly with COVID added to our selection of illnesses.

Easter also provides time to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and an opportunity to accept the gift of grace that this brings.