Principal, Mr Graham Leddie
The last week and weeks ahead provide many amazing activities and lifelong learning experiences across the College from: Year 11 and 12 Kairos retreats, to an amazing Mother/Son dinner with guest speaker MAJ Hugo Toovey, to winter co-curricular, to Year 11 Visual Design Excursion to National Art School, to Year 10 Career Profile Interviews, to the HSC and Careers Expo excursion (31 May), to University of Sydney Year 10 Subject Selection Webinar (3 June), to European Music Tour Concert (6 June), to Years 5 & 6 ICAS Competition entries (23 July), to Year 8s helping out at Our Big Kitchen, to many boys committing to run the City2Surf for Premature Babies, to final preparations for our production Tartuffe (18-21 June), to an invitation to the Youth Photographic Award and Short Film Prize 2024, to Br Murphy and Mr Jack de Groot speaking at May Procession, to an all years’ Trades and Real Estate Careers Night (11 June), to National Sorry Day (26 May), to Mr Stan Grant speaking at Reconciliation Week, to Hearts for Arch Day (13 June), and to a lovely prayer service in our chapel celebrating and remembering the amazing life and contribution of Mr Greg Harris. These experiences build wisdom, empathy, appreciation, resilience and help guide our future pathways. Encourage your son to engage with as many of these opportunities as possible.
Images: courtesy Constantine Iatrou (Year 10)
Examination Tips
The examination block commences next week for students in Years 7-10 (Weeks 5 and 6) and students in Years 11-12 preparing for a range of assessment tasks. Please engage with Mrs Lynsey Porter’s newsletter article here regarding examination tips.
New HSC English and Writing Skills Workshops
We are running a new series of workshops designed to enhance English and Writing skills as Year 12 students work towards the HSC. All students in Year 12 Standard and Advanced English courses are expected to attend workshops at least once.
Workshop 1 – Effective Paragraph Writing
Facilitator: Ms Mary Ryan – Head of Literacy
Time: Period 6 Monday | Before school on Thursday (7:30am-8:30am)
Venue: WO5
This workshop is relevant to all subjects which require the writing of long answer responses and extended responses. Focus will be on the following:
- Writing effective paragraphs for different purposes
- Formulating an organised, logical argument with evidence and analytic discussion of the evidence
- Maintaining an academic tone through nominalisation
- Effective sentence and paragraph structure
- Expansion and precision
Students will be expected to bring along a sample of their own work (long answer/ extended response) which has already been marked. This can be from any subject.
Workshop 2 – Interpreting Marking Criteria in English
Facilitator: Ms Helen Barrie – Head of Academic Enrichment
Time: Before school on Thursday (7:30am-8:30am)
Venue: K24
This workshop examines the precise elements that support an HSC marker’s decision to determine which band your essay sits in. By matching your essay with the specific criteria of each band, you will learn how to tighten and elevate your essay compositions to ensure they precisely convey your overarching thesis and establish a strong writer/reader relationship with the marker.
Students will be expected to bring along a sample of one of their English responses.
| Date | Course – Elevating your writing to access higher bands in the HSC | Room |
| Thursday 30 May | Advanced English – Short Answer Paper | K24 |
| Thursday 6 Jun | Advanced English – Short Answer Paper | K24 |
| Thursday 13 June | Advanced English – Textual Conversations | K24 |
| Thursday 20 June | Advanced English – Textual Conversations | K24 |
Strategic Planning – Perspectives Survey
The 2025-2027 Strategic Planning process will begin shortly. The College will be seeking feedback from stakeholder groups. The information gathered will assist in furthering the growth and development of our school community. We will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies.
We will ask you, your child/ren in Years 5-12, and the school community to participate in this confidential and anonymous survey. The online survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete on any device and will be available from Monday 17 June – Sunday 30 June 2024 for parents/carers to complete. For students we have allocated a time not to impede on their class time.
A letter will be sent out to all parents/carers with more information regarding this survey by the end of this week.
