Shining Lights Week 2 Term 4

The Foundations of Pastoral Care ....

Through the year College staff, have focused on developing our pastoral care structures in order to meet the evolving needs of our students. The stressors of the last few years are being seen in our student behaviours, their approach to relationships and to learning.

The 2019/20 bushfires resulted in serious impacts to student wellbeing across all levels of schooling. Most common impacts were to student relationships, especially in family settings, seeing a rise in anxiety about separation from parents, irritability, aggression and disobedience and an increase in conflict with siblings, parents or friends. In school, this translates to a drop in attendance and academic performance.

The pandemic of course had similar, and in some cases, compounding effects with students reporting impacts to their mental and physical health because of lockdowns and restrictions, along with strains to their social connections and friendships.

The College recognises too, the enormous growth toward identity and independence that students experience as they grow through College. We acknowledge that student media consumption in its many forms, social, broadcast, online, is ever present, bringing the range of issues from climate change, to gender identity, war and global injustice into the forefront of our students’ minds.

We have developed a responsive framework for Pastoral Care in the College. The Framework builds on solid foundations, asking of each of us, “how do we become the light of Christ?” and “how can we shine our Light?”  The framework builds on three foundations:

• Theology: Being the Light of Christ.
• Philosophy: How do we live the Good life
• Psychology: Understanding motivations and behaviours.

In posing foundational questions, we identified a number of virtues that we seek to develop in our learning community. These are about developing respectful relationships, becoming accountable members of the College, and people who understand the deep connections of belonging.

Working with academics and facilitators we have commenced building a series of practices to support student development. Last week we worked with Graeme George in the development of Restorative Practices in our College https://www.rpforschools.net/whats-rp.html.

We seek to keep coming to our students in dialogue as the basis for our relationships as Jesus did.  We continue in the aspiration to Be the Light of Christ.

Awards Season ....

Firstly, let me be transparent with the main awards at the College: 

Kindergarten to Year 12 have Semester Awards at which time Academic Awards, Application and Consistent Effort Awards and Leading Learner Awards are given. 

In Semester 2, add the John Liston Service Award (open to K to 12), the All Rounder (open to K to 12) and in Year 10 two ADF Awards (Long Tan and Future Innovators), the Australian Catholic University Academic Award and a Kristy McBain Citizenship Award. The Highest ATAR from the previous Year 12 also go here. We also have our Light of Christ awards. 

At Year 6 Graduation there is the Principal’s Award, the Sporting Award, the Academic Award and the Reynolds Family Mathematics Encouragement Award. 

At Year 12 Graduation there is the Light of Christ Award, the Unique Contribution Award, the All Rounder Award, the Sporting Award, the Cultural Award, the Paul Carroll Service Award, the David and Heather Waite Rotary Service Award, the Women in Business Award and the two ADF Awards (Long Tan and Future Innovators). 

It was quite a mouthful to get all that out. 

In a way not dissimilar to uniform, you can make a case for or against awards. The “for” case might run along the lines of recognition, increasing self-confidence, celebrating core values, encouraging… The “against” case probably includes variations of exclusion, elitism, promoting competition rather intrinsic reward. Like uniform, rewards should not continue just because, “we have always had them“ but need to regularly be reviewed and evaluated. Remember that some of the things schools (society) did in previous years are not acceptable today, the easy example is corporal punishment. 

Perfection is a heady aspiration and I’m sure that we don’t quite get to there, but I think we do pretty well. I don’t think that academic achievement should be devalued and we have plenty of these awards. Our religious /ethical/spiritual values are reflected in the array of service/citizenship type awards (which, of course, are not the sole preserve of “academic” kids). You might notice that on Year 12 Graduation night that while academic ability might have some resonance in the All Rounder and Future Innovators (Science and Maths based) that most of the other awards try to capture the spirit of “Shine Your Light” - serving others, contributing to others, sharing your gifts.   

There are dedicated Sporting awards in Year 6 and Year 12 and I wouldn’t argue with these either. I worry, particularly since COVID, about the numbers in junior sport. Too much screen time, too much isolation, not enough exercise… I can’t imagine growing up without sport with all its benefits, but perhaps this is a longer discussion for another time. 

So let’s run the scenario that Student A is not going to receive an academic award (and remember that many subjects in secondary, as diverse as PDHPE, Food Technology and Music – might be considered to be as “skills” based as academic). Student A does not like sport. Student A has not completed any “formal” service. I might take some issue with this lack of service, but maybe in Student A’s life a combination of factors beyond their control conspires against them, so I’ll let it go. 

Where was I? OK. Not academic, not sporty, no service. What do our award systems offer Student A? Here I would cue our Growth Mindset Awards – being the “best” is not an issue, this award is for doing your best. Student A might also be a contender for a Leading Learning Award – these try to capture the students who enable or inspire others to learn, who are gifted leaders or collaborators or facilitators in the processes of learning. 

Not academic, not sporty, no service, hates school (ie. is not the greatest asset in the learning of others). While Student A is now beginning to stretch my resources (but we still love them), we have the Light of Christ Awards. These try to recognise particular aspects of Shine Your Light which we value so highly – honesty, empathy, compassion, kindness, humility……… 

I am sure that we have an award attainable for everyone. At the same time, it doesn’t feel like “everyone gets an award” and so is undervalued. I do occasionally hear kids being a little dismissive of ACE awards, but my advice on such occasions is to invite them to consider their position in regard to gratitude and empathy. 

I am a veteran of school award ceremonies and remember far less the awards and much more the sense of common purpose.

 Primary NAPLAN Information ....

Parents who have students in Years 3 and 5 will have recently received their child’s NAPLAN results. Each year the students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit tests that cover Reading Comprehension, Writing, Mathematics, Spelling and Language Conventions. 

While these tests are standardised tests that all students across Australia undertake, and can be a useful tool and provide a snapshot of some of a child's ability, they are only one of the many tools that schools and teachers use to monitor student progress and plan for teaching and learning. 

More important to the day by day teaching and learning cycle is the ongoing monitoring observation of students in the classroom and regular feedback and assessment cycle. This can range from the quick observation and correction of an error in class to targeted support in a specific area of the curriculum, area of learning or skill. Teachers are constantly making decisions about how students are learning and making adjustments to the planning and implementing lessons, both in real time and when planning for future classes.

This is not to say that the data from NAPLAN is not important to the cycle of teaching and learning. As a school we are able to analyse trends in achievement. We can look at patterns of successful learning and growth and reflect on the reasons for this as well as identify areas that we can target for whole school improvement. Most importantly it is one of the ways we can measure growth over time and this allows us to ensure that all our students are able to develop to their full potential. 

There is a lot of information online for parents about the NAPLAN tests. Here is the link to the parent information page from ACARA. https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers

As always if you have any questions about your child’s learning please get in touch with their class teacher to organise a time to discuss it with them.

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