Year 8 Character Retreat

Av�԰� Character 8

The Year 8 Retreat experience in 2017 was titled Av�԰� Character. It was chosen around the theme of building one’s character as a child of God, created in His image and likeness with the call and responsibility to grow in and live with by God like qualities.

The presenters at 24/7 Ministry focussed on the concept of ‘who are you as a person?’ The call was to be stewards of the gifts given to us, to nurture and use them to not only enrich our own lives but in sharing these gifts to then enrich the lives of others. The gifts that were discussed were focussed on character traits like the gift of friendship, generosity, compassion, loyalty etc.

The students are currently studying about the teaching of Stewardship as part of their Religious Education program and the Character Retreat linked in well with their learning.

Below is a brief report from Year 8 student- Olivia Dellaca on her experiences of the day.

On the 26th of July, Wednesday Week 2 the Year 8 cohort attended the excursion of "Av�԰� Character", run by the Catholic Youth Ministry Team of 24:7, accompanied by Mrs Coelho, Mr Italiano, Ms Overend and the Year 8 Homeroom Teachers.

The 24:7 Ministry Team are a group of young, friendly Christians who help out all schools who come to learn more about God, to serve within the community.

The Retreat was held in Osborne Park, the headquarters of the Ministry Team and went from 9.30am - 2.30pm. Throughout the day, all Year 8 students participated in various activities, games and sessions, where we learnt more about the creation of God. The retreat started with a game and introduction, working with each other in groups and then progressed through morning tea, videos, worksheets about how God created the earth and how precious we all are. After lunch, we finished with a quiet reflection activity.

As we were leaving, all Year 8’s were given a pot of soil and seeds to plant, to look after and care for, following the same story outline of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-23).

All the staff at 24:7 made the day fun and exciting. All activities were different and fun, whether it was watching, listening, writing or doing.

The entertainment, games, activities and all the effort that was put into the retreat by 24:7 and the teachers that made it possible, was highly appreciated as the excursion was a great and fun day out!

Mrs Judy Coelho
Coordinator of Liturgies and Retreats

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Year 8 Pastoral Program - Alpha Motivation (Motivation and our communication)

Ms Jen Overend

Head of Year 8

Marius Rodari – Theatrical Response Group – Isolation

I found that the presentation was really good and interesting. Parts that I found interesting were the way that they presented, their form of theatre was very good and I found that a visual "show" of sorts helps us understand a lot better than a speech. The discussion section at the end was very interesting and I found that when they asked two students to work with them I found it very involving and funny. The thing I found hard to deal with personally was how straight forward they were in showing a real-life example, it was really sad and showed that bullying hurts a lot. They showed very well.

Benjamin Cutri – Alpha Motivation – Teamwork

Throughout the past two weeks, Year 8 have been given the opportunity to hear from the speakers Alpha Motivation. They presented a new topic regarding motivation and our communication abilities, some things that we can all be lacking or at times may struggle with. During the presentation, we learnt about approximately how many people we can talk to when we need help or advice and how our communication with these people can greatly benefit us in and out of school. These were some great, relevant topics as everyone needs to be motivated in whatever we do and in our modern age of technology some people’s communication can be poor. It was also a very fun presentation as the presenters had thought of a few games that could help us test our communication abilities among our cohort. Overall this was a really fun and enjoyable presentation and I'm positive that future Year 8s could benefit from the same talk.

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Year 7 Pastoral Program - Mental Well Being

Mark Barron

Head of Year 7

The recent pastoral session began a new unit with a focus on Mental Well Being.  Over the coming Term Year 7s will be covering topics including:

Resilience

Self esteem

Confidence and achievement

Mental health

Social anxiety

Stress

As our students become more embedded into life at Av�԰� Christi College and friendship groups change and develop it is hugely important that students learn to be resilient. The key focus of sessions includes:

 “Psychological resilience – a person’s ability to adapt to stressful situations and tough times. A resilient person will keep trying until they get the result they desire and have developed coping techniques to help them along the way.”

The Learning Outcomes

·       All Students must correctly identify coping strategies that could aid our resilience in stressful situations.

·       Most Students should describe what each of the different coping strategies for resilience means.

·       Some Students could explain how we can apply the different coping strategies throughout life to enable us to be resilient.

 Year 7’s are to be congratulated on their engagement during the session.  After the session this is what they had to say….

“It was very useful learning how to cope with change and hearing about strategies to become resilient.”

“By becoming self-aware I can adjust to change and be less stressed”

 “It’s very important to always bounce back.  I understand the importance of changing my attitude in different scenarios.”

Cyberzine: The pros and cons of location services

You may wish to access resources from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner

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CAMBODIA IMMERSION PROGRAMME 2018

 Still interested in joining the Cambodia Immersion Programme in 2018? Open to all students currently in Years 8 & 9.

We have a great itinerary which includes:

·      Understanding the history of Cambodia and why they need help

·      House-building, teaching and community projects

·      NGO organisations and their role in Cambodia, especially the Catholic groups assisting in the country

·      Understanding the culture by experiencing their lifestyle by visiting the temples and local communities, including a floating village.

The programme asks for a commitment from both a parent and the student to work through the experience together, along with a number of staff.

We believe that this is a unique opportunity to develop an understanding of and assist those who are less fortunate than ourselves in a small way as well as enhancing relationships between yourselves, your children and teachers.

Please do not hesitate to contact either Ms Wendy Quint or Mrs Rae Cook if you would like further information or even better, talk to the parents and students of those who attended in 2016.

Year 9 Pastoral Programme

During Period 2 on Monday August 7, the second Year 9 Pastoral Period was run by a number of Year 9 teachers. The emphasis of this session was Social Development and focused on Bullying. The Year 9’s worked through activities and information that discussed the Common Ground we all have and how we can find positive attributes in each person we are asked to work with, sit with or collaborate with. We discussed what bullying is, the causes of bullying, the types of bullying and particularly focused on cyberbullying, as this one of the four most common types of bullying encountered by our youth. 

Within this week’s session the students were asked to identify some of the concerns they have that are causing them stress and are often the basis of bullying. A number of these were; wealth, assessments and grades, belonging to groups, belonging by having a relationship with the opposite sex, and technology and the ability to record images at any time. Students are particularly concerned about the ability of images and recordings to be taken and uploaded to the internet.  The College encourages parents to discuss these concerns with their children and to seek assistance with these matters from the College ICT department or College Counsellors where necessary. 

Students were also made aware of a number of organizations where they can seek assistance; 

Kids Helpline, 

1800 55 1800

Headspace

Beat the Bullies website

Born This Way Foundation

Bullying is becoming more and more frequent among today’s youth with mean, hurtful behaviour that occurs repeatedly in a relationship with an imbalance of power or strength. Open discussion is one of the keys to empowering our youth to prevent and stop bullying.

Yvette Pearce

Head of Year 9

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AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS SCIENCE COMPETITION 2017

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We have now received the results of the Australian Schools Science Competition that was conducted in May 2017. Schools in Australia and many other countries participated.

This year 47 Year 7 and 56 Year 9 students from Av�԰� Christi College entered and achieved very creditable results.

Students from this school were awarded 9 Certificates of Distinction (within the top 15% of the state), 33 Certificates of Credit (within the top 40% of the state) 25 Certificates of Merit and 36Certificates of Participation.

In Year 7, congratulations for achieving Distinctions to HUDSON CRAIG-POWER, EMMANUEL FOO, HUGH LIVINGSTONE and CAMERON HOLLOWAY.

In Year 7, congratulations for achieving Credits to JENNIFER TASSONE, JENNIFER KING, SARAH SCARR, AUDREY HO, ELKE RUANE, CARMEN WONG, OLIVER GEORGE, THOMAS REID, KADE MACDONALD, THOMAS VAJDA, GRACE HARBEN, TOBY MARSHALL, MICHAEL BOVET, ISABELLA ROSSI and DICKSON PHOON.

In Year 9, congratulations for achieving Distinctions to THOMAS NICHOLLS, DIETER CADZOW, TYLER SAVY, EDISON FOO and CALLUM GARLAND.

In Year 9, congratulations for achieving Credits to SIOBHAN STEVENS,  KALEA GOWLAND, NICHOLAS NG,  BYRON DEVENE,  SARA POI, TERINDER RIKHRAJ, LACHLAN ALLEN, MOSAIA MCDONALD, ADAM NERI, MELVIN DING, JAMIE HOLLOWAY, SHERNEI LAM, LEEUWIN PAVY, MARINA PIPER, CHLOE JAMES, KONRAD RUCKI, DANIEL SANTINI and RAHUL CORREIA

Finally, well done to all those who committed themselves to the extra work required studying for this competition.

Ms Sally Farrington

Head of Science