Year 12 News 2011

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the final year of your son’s education at St Joseph’s College. After a very hot and uncomfortable first week, things have settled down and the boys are in full swing as they head to the half-way point of their HSC courses. Term 1 in Year 12 is characterised by Half Yearly examinations and these are an important milestone in the Assessment schedule with these exams usually carrying a significant weighting towards students’ final assessment marks. These exams also give a very formal reminder of what will come in October and November when the external HSC examinations occur.

I have been fairly pleased with the start made by Year 12 in the classroom and in Study. As they know all too well on the sporting field, the boys must realise that personal bests must be achieved in order to achieve and sustain real progress. They need to ask a lot of themselves this year.

In the Classroom:

Students studying English Standard and English Advanced received work back from their teachers on their very first lesson back in the classroom. This was their assessment task that involved creative writing and short passage responses. The return of this work made for a very sudden back-to-work transition from holiday mode.

Geography students have spent three days away at Leeton looking first hand at rice production in Australia and visiting two farms in their case study. Mr Mark Cahill and Mr Fergus Stewart commented to me that our Year 12 Geographers were thoroughly engaged and excellently behaved. Similarly, Legal Studies students visited Maitland Gaol on Friday with Mr Darren Frost and Mr Mark Conlon where they saw real-life exemplars of their HSC topic: Crime. Students were addressed and lead on a guided tour of the gaol by an ex-convict who had some sobering and tragic stories to tell of the prison system.

Many Subject Departments have their own blog on the school website as a way of keeping parents up to date with happenings in their subject. It is also a wonderful way for students to access important content from their teachers including course outlines, up-coming assessments and topic specific information. You can use the following link for Mathematics:

http://blogs.joeys.org/maths2011

In Study:

Year 12 students are privileged to be able to spend their day-time Study Periods in their own rooms. This provides an excellent opportunity for quiet, individual study free from distraction. These Study Periods are supervised by Boarding Staff who walk the floors taking Roll Call and keeping the peace. Students are well aware that they are not permitted to visit the rooms of other students during Study, though they can ask permission to visit the Resources Centre or Teaching Staff and they can also ask to work in small groups in the Year 12 Common Room.

Every student was given a 2011 wall planner upon their arrival back to school. I encourage students to update these calendars with important dates for assessments, homework tasks, excursions, sport fixtures and exams so that they can be well organised.

Desktop computers are available on the second level of each “block” of rooms in Year 12 and wireless internet access is available to all students using laptops in their rooms. Mr Gary Evans, Director of ICT, spoke to the Form last week to explain how best to use computers in the Year 12 area. Social network sites such as Facebook are only accessible during recreation time and I encourage students to avoid using their personal electronic devices for pre-down loaded games or movies during Study or after lights out. While the school takes all possible precautions to deny access to Facebook at night, some students are able to dodge these restrictions by using proxy logins. My view is that Facebook will be the single most destructive element in a student’s HSC if they continue to abuse it. Boys are not permitted to use their phones during Study so I remind parents to leave their calls until the nightly Study Break which is between 8.30 and 9.00 PM.

There is a very comfortable air of silence around the rooms during Study Periods and Night Study. While many students prefer to listen to music while they work, they must only do this through headphones so that no loud music can disturb others. We have a very experienced team of Boarding Supervisors working with our Year 12 students this year. Mr Craig Sharpley (PDHPE) and Mr Greg Thompson (Mathematics) are Head of Departments, while Mr John Cherry (Physics), Mr Miguel Nunes (General Mathematics), Mr Craig Attwater (PDHPE) are all Year 12 teachers at the College. Mr Martin Gillogly is a senior PDHPE teacher at Oakhill College. Mr Conrad Mathias and Mr Mark Hegerty are a constant presence particularly during daytime study periods. As well as being Boarding Coordinator, Pat Rodgers is an experienced Senior English and Modern History teacher and I specialise in the area of Visual Arts. There is a wealth of experience available to all Year 12 students if they need help during study.

All Year 12 students received two important documents last week – the Half Yearly Examination Timetable and the Term 1 Assessment Schedule. Parents and carers can view these documents on the school website and also on the Year 12 Blog.

Academic Awards:

Congratulations to those students who received 2010 Academic Awards the 2010 Prize Giving Ceremony. They are:

Congratulations also to Callum Barry who completed a cultural exchange in France over the summer vacation. Callum has returned to school speaking very fluent French which will serve his HSC studies well, I’m sure.

Careers:

I strongly encourage Year 12 students to arrange appointments with our Careers Advisor, Mrs Lorna Charters over the next few weeks. These meetings are important for goal setting and layout out all options available for 2012 and beyond. Cadetship and scholarship applications often close mid-year and students should be well organised to take advantage of these opportunities. In the coming weeks I will include some links to career related items such as scholarship applications, university Open Days and so on.

Best wishes,

Mark Fenech