iServi News | 31 May 2019 | Term 2, Week 5
Associated and Catholic Colleges Cross Country
As mentioned in the previous edition of iServi, the College was involved in the Associated and Catholic Colleges (ACC) Cross Country Carnival on Thursday this week. The event is a significant one on the College calendar as it allows our students to compete in one of the largest school sports carnivals in WA. The ACC Cross Country Carnival attracted more than 4000 athletes this year from 74 Associated and Catholic Colleges.
Our students represented themselves and the school with pride at the Carnival and competed strongly, with terrific energy and sportsmanship. The team showed genuine spirit and excellent support and encouragement of one another.
The Carnival also allowed us to showcase our new interschool athletics uniform which was created using the design brief of our latest sports uniform upgrades. The students looked terrific out on the track, with the new singlets being complemented by our recently introduced Associated and Catholic Colleges warm up tops.
We were thrilled with the number of students who committed to running for the school and who chose to represent us at this prestigious event. The large team numbers and positive overall results demonstrates the growing momentum around sport at the College. We encourage this trend to continue for the rest of the term as the regular NAS sports season resumes after the senior school exam period.
We congratulate our students for their involvement in the ACC Cross Country Carnival. We also acknowledge the contribution of our hard-working staff in preparing students for the event. Head of Sport Mr Dave Maxwell has provided an in-depth overview of the Carnival later in this week’s newsletter.
Servite – A Learning Organisation
As a learning organisation, we strive to ensure that we explore innovative and contemporary educational strategies to improve student learning outcomes. To this end, various members of our College staff attended different sessions of the Learning Environments Australia National Conference this week.
This is the first time in ten years that this Conference has been held in Perth, so it provided a good opportunity for us to continue to investigate latest learning trends and initiatives connected to the effective design and use of space. As you are aware, we are working though development of the next staged roll out of our College Masterplan, so it was very a very beneficial and affirming experience.
The design of future spaces will support improved student engagement and promote creativity. We aim to encourage student ownership of their own learning and utilise provided spaces to engage their curiosity, allow them to collaborate and connect together to solve problems. Students learn in different ways, so it is our vision to provide multiple opportunities and pathways to support their individualised skills and talents. This underlying premise in the design of our current and future spaces will ensure the delivery of a genuinely impactful campus. We look forward to updating our community on the latest development later this year.
Parent Forum – RU Legal?
This week the Servite P&F hosted an important forum for parents at the College on various legalities associated with young people in today’s modern world. The event is part of a programme designed and run by Legal Aid Western Australia entitled RU Legal?
RU Legal? is “a program of free community legal education sessions and resources for young people between 10 and 18 years old. It has been developed by Legal Aid WA to provide young people with information about the criminal justice system and the laws that affect them.”
The information delivered was of genuine interest to parents present and will support quality future conversation around important legal issues with their children. As a school we are also looking to further integrate these important learnings and reflections into our Pastoral Care programme. Details on RU Legal?, including important parent resources, are available from their website here.
As always, we are most grateful to our P&F for organising this very informative event. We look forward to continued parent support of our upcoming parent forums including the very special event on 31 July where we will have the privilege to hear from inspirational speaker Mr John Coutis. Booking and information is available here.
Exams and Work Placements
This week saw the commencement of student exams and work placements for our Year 11 and 12 students.
Exam periods can often be a time of stress for students, however they can also be viewed as important learning opportunities. Students can test their organisational, study and preparation strategies and look for continued improvement in each set of exams as they progress to their formal ATAR exams at the end of Year 12.
Students are also encouraged to use exams results as indicators of gaps in their learning that can then be filled through seeking feedback and sourcing additional information from teachers and peers. Our in-school exams are also designed using the same format as the final ATAR exams, so students become increasingly comfortable about the types and variety of questions that they may face.
Work placements form an important part of the College’s Vocational Education programme. They allow our students to utilise their communication, collaboration and practical skills to explore their interests and potential future pathways in a real-life situation.
We wish all of our Year 11 and 12 students well as they complete their exams and work placements.
Mr Jeff Allen
Principal