Term 3 Week 6 - 28th August 2020

HSC Trials

Staff Development Day

Today, the staff of St Joseph's Regional College participated in a Staff Development Day where we engaged in a process of reflecting on our aspirations as a College community. The day incorporated sessions on School Review and Improvement, the Teaching and Learning Domain, Prayerful Reflection and Spirituality.

My sincere thanks to all staff for your participation and also, thank you, to our families for allowing a student free day.

SJRC vs MacKillop Annual Intercollegiate Debate 2020 

This week, it was a pleasure to host a small group of MacKillop students and teachers for the Annual Intercollegiate Debating Competition. Ensuring COVID restrictions were catered for, debates were held in our College library and in specialist classrooms.

These events would not be able to go ahead without the superior organisation and efforts of the English teaching staff here at the College. A very special thank you must be given to Mrs McKee, who organised the event and the topics, coached and coordinated this important academic event with zest and passion.

Team coaches Ms Mooney and Mr McMillan were similarly dedicated to their teams, as was Andrew King, our Education student from UNE. Mrs Bale who not only allowed the library to be used but transformed it into a very professional looking space in which to hold the debates, also performing the job of an adjudicator. We are very lucky to have such a supportive and innovative librarian who enables such traditions to occur. Thank you also to Ms Marchment for adjudicating and to MacKillop teachers Ms Ryan and Miss Dobson.

Congratulations to all students who were involved. We have an outstanding group of young people participating in this annual event, and with such creative and critical thinkers, we can be assured that the future is in great hands.

I refer you to Mrs McKee's report below:

Our combined Year 7/8 team debated “That learning from home should be compulsory one day a week” and won this debate with their affirmative stance, effective arguments and solid team approach.

Year 9 battled with the topic, “That the most dangerous pandemic of all is our reliance on social media” and presented a highly effective debate, and rebuttal, in their position as the negative team. Arguments over the definition of “pandemic” underpinned the debate and MacKillop narrowly won this one, with adjudicators and the audience praising both teams for their language and critical thinking.

Year 10 debate was “The current education system is not preparing us for the real world”, and both teams were particularly strong in delivery, with our team winning the day with assured deliveries, critical thinking and highly effective “unpacking” of the opposing team’s arguments.

Impromptu debates followed. This required each team to spend only one-hour researching, organising arguments and anticipating what arguments their oppositions might pose. The Year 7/8 combined team debated “That all schools should have a Pets for Therapy programme” and were successful on the day and were impressive with such limited time to form their strong arguments.

The Year 9 topic was “That high profile sports stars do more harm than good to the general population” and this team were very impressive in their delivery of examples and their ability to deliver under pressure, ultimately winning this debate.

The Year 10 topic, “That generation Z is the most educationally advanced demographic of our time” produced strong arguments and rebuttals on both sides, with Mackillop emerging as victors on this occasion.

Congratulations to the following teams:

Year 7/8 Winners of both debates: 
Lauren Johnston, Zoe Copeland, Maisy Taylor, Jack McManus with Brock Holliday, Eli Greenwell, and our most valuable assistant Cora Puttick.

Also, a valued team member was Kieran Copeland who was unfortunately ill on the day.  

Year 9: Winners of the Impromptu debate: 
Emily Edmed, Emily Dunstan, Chelsea Lewis, Findlay Marshall, Josie Yardley, Harrison Brown and Jeff Keena

Year 10: Winners of the prepared debate: 
Dylan Lambert, Lexie Williams, Charlotte Schrader and Sea McManus

Student Assistants and Chairpersons: 
Arin Pachure, Oska Johnson, Alana Toogood, Brock Holliday, Bella Kilmurray, Rachel Dutlow and Gianluca Polacci Byrnes. 

God Bless

Jim Dempsey
Principal

VPN's

VPN's or Virtual Private Network services are banned at the College. We need to ensure students are using the internet safely, responsibly and ethically.

Please check if your child has VPN installed on their device and ask them to remove it if they do so. This will avoid them being issued with a consequence at school.

IT Help - What to do

Year 7 Device Warranty Claims

To log a warranty claim, parents/guardians will need to visit the HP support website and follow the prompts.

https://support.hp.com/au-en/contact/laptops

You will need to have ready the serial number of the device which is located underneath the laptop.

If families have attempted to log a claim but have had difficulties or unable to, please contact the College for assistance.

IT Help Desk

If a student requires technical assistance with their device, they will need to submit a 'Help Desk' ticket through Moodle. Our IT personnel will respond to that ticket and arrange to meet with the student.

Loan Devices for Students

Students with a broken device

If a student's device is in need of repairs and unworkable, they are to go to the library where one of the library staff will issue a Loan Letter to the student. This letter must be signed off by a parent/guardian and returned to the library the next day to receive a loan device.

The student will be able to loan the device for up to three weeks, this allows time for their device to be repaired.

Students who come to school without a device

If a student comes to school without a device for any other reason (forgot the device, left at mum's etc). They will not receive a loan device. In this case, the student will be issued a MOTTO. The student will need to, if possible, work with another student in their class or will be provided with alternative work.

IT Enquiries

The following information is Technology advice for students in Years 10 to 12.

Students Riding Bikes to School

While riding bikes is encouraged, students need to ensure they are safe doing so.
Please reinforce the need for your child to walk their bike while inside the College grounds. The bike racks are next to a busy entrance road and students darting across in front of cars is extremely dangerous.

We appreciate your support in keeping our students safe.

Tanya Daley
Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care and Staff Support

What is a Prayer Sponsor?

It is someone who prays for another person with a specific intention in mind and at specific times. When someone is sponsored they know that someone else is praying for them at a certain time.

The Scheme

Each year, we invite our Year 12 students who wish to be sponsored in prayer to submit their names and times of their HSC exams to us. We will then allocate their name to a sponsor who has volunteered to pray for a student at this time. Each sponsor will receive information with:

1. the name of the student
2. the prayer offered
3. the times of the student’s HSC exams

A strong aspect of our Catholic Faith is the efficacy of prayer (i.e. prayer does make a difference). At the same time the injection “Pray as if everything depended on God; work; as if everything depended on you” has its own wisdom.

We appeal to parents’ family and friends of our Year 12 HSC class to make themselves available as a prayer sponsor. Knowing that someone is praying for you at a difficult time is a source of great strength and consolation.

If you are interested in being a Prayer Sponsor for one or several of our Year 12 students from a St Agnes' Parish Secondary School, please contact the College Office on 5525 4100 with your details.

You will receive the following information (student name, exam times and prayers to be offered) before the commencement of HSC exams on Tuesday, 20th October 2020.

Leaders of Evangelisation
St Agnes' Parish Secondary Schools

Hastings Education Fund

Applications are now open for HEF grants for 16-25 year olds from the Port Macquarie- Hastings area who will struggle with starting post-school study in 2021 due to financial or circumstantial needs.

You can apply online and find more info here. We encourage you to share the following link and also make a donation if you are able to. 

https://cef.org.au/foundations/hastings/

Tim McCosker
Assistant Principal - Curriculum & Administration

Ph: 5525 4100

Mr Morson's Year 7 Mathematics class have been working on Data Analysis. Students were given M&Ms to work with and went through the process of organising data, displaying data on various graphs, then interpreting what the data presented.

The students worked extremely well, handing in work of high-quality, however, they all agreed that the best part of the lesson was eating the M&Ms.

Technology – Food/Agriculture

Year 8 Technology Mandatory students, in the Food/Agriculture context area, have been learning about the 'Paddock to Plate' concept. Students have been growing herbs and plants from seeds in the College's hydroponics area. The produce is being used in practical lessons. Herbs such as coriander, basil and parsley are thriving whilst students are pleased to see the lettuce and spinach leaf seeds.

Recently, some of the herbs were used in a 'Cheese and Herb' biscuit recipe in which students then created savoury platters, which looked very appetising.

We look forward to using the lettuce, spinach leaves and tomatoes to create what will be a very delicious and nutritious hamburger.

Well done, on creating yummy platters, as seen below.

Year 10 Textiles - Quilts

Well done to Year 10 Textiles students, Charlotte Smith and Madison Byfield on the completion of their quilts. 

Charlotte's quilt will be given to her cousin, while Madison will use her quilt at her own home.

The girls proudly showed their quilts to Mrs Williams in the College Office who is also an avid quilter.  Both Ms Morton, Textiles teacher, & Mrs Williams agreed that the quilts, with the degree of difficulty in sewing the complex designs, were well made and the students should be very proud of the finished product.

Mrs Diana Walsh
Assistant Leader of TAS

Library Spaces

The Library has a few different spaces within its ‘shell’, used for many different purposes. Mr Lutton utilised the large Promethean Screen located in “The Exchange” area of the Library to present to his Year 11 Modern History students. 

Raising Readers

Megan is a Teacher-Librarian at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School and was recently awarded the Queensland Teacher Librarian of the Year by the School Library Association of Queensland, as well as the national Dromkeen Librarian's Award, presented by the State Library of Victoria. She is passionate about books and reading and growing a love for literature in young people.

Use the details below to register for this free webinar.

Megan_Daley_A4.pdf

Megan_Daley_A4 _pdf 8.70 MB

Significant Literary dates

On September 5th, 1957, Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” was published. It is now recognised as an American classic, but was based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America.

St Joseph's  Regional College Library

We love catching up with past students and following their journeys since graduating from St Joseph's Regional College. The breadth and variety of career paths and life choices are amazing and make for such interesting reading. Our current students will find inspiration in these stories.

This week, our alumni update shines a spotlight on Marina Sindija, a graduate of SJRC in 2011 who has recently completed her second degree in Education and is currently working in the higher education sector.

Debating

Meaning: argue about a subject but in a formal manner.

Debating competition was held against MacKillop.

Prayer through Music

Check out some of the great music featured this week on the SJRC Digital Ministry Blog https://sjrcministry.wixsite.com/digitalministry

Featured Music

Digital Ministry

We invite you to click on the links below to see the great resources on the SJRC Digital Ministry Blog and Instagram Page put together by our Youth Ministry Officers, Chloe Nash and Amelia Stennett.

SJRC Digital Ministry Blog https://sjrcministry.wixsite.com/digitalministry

SJRC Digital Ministry Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/sjrcdigitalministry/

The Soul

Each week, the Catholic Schools Office, Lismore puts together 'The Soul' e-newsletter; packed full on great information and resources.

We invite you to click on the link below to check out this week's edition:

https://csolismore.schoolzineplus.com/the-daily-soul?nid=143  

Timo Gobius
Leader of Evangelisation

Weekly Lunch Specials

The Canteen opens at 8.00am every school day.

Volunteering in our Canteen

In the current climate, Canteen volunteers will not be required until further notice.

Thank you for your understanding and take care.

Ms Donna Hamlin
Food Services Manager