IONA 17

Mary’s Faith and Dedication
Tuesday 21 November is the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, honouring Mary’s faithful dedication to God, through her inspired motherhood. Mary’s gift is one of deep listening to what the spirit of God was calling her to do in her life. Authentic listening is a gift we offer the other, and in Mary’s case, this listening and responding to the call of the Spirit was Mary’s gift to God.

In our very busy lives, there will be times when God’s voice stirs our hearts. I wonder in my own life how many times that voice goes begging because I do not have the peace of mind and heart to deeply listen to that voice. Mary’s faithful response continues to be a relevant challenge and inspiration in our modern times.

Junior Performing Arts Concert
Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 students, and to their teachers, for a wonderful concert showcasing learning in the Performing Arts this semester. A spectacular evening featuring polished performances, high energy, smiling faces and very proud families. These nights are a wonderful way to share the high standards that are part of every aspect of our learning and teaching program at St Columba’s College.

Performance and Development at St Columba’s College
Term 4 sees all teachers engage in an annual review meeting (ARM) with two members of College Leadership. In the ARM teachers have a chance to share the goal they set as part of performance and development, discuss the data and research they have collected, and evaluate their progress against the goal. The professional conversations highlight the complex, technical and precise work teachers do in planning for the learning of all students in their classes.

In the next two weeks, the Leadership Team members will also meet with each teacher who holds a position of leadership at the College. These meetings aim to align the work of all leaders with the College’s Strategic Directions Statement, celebrate the successes within each leadership role, acknowledge the challenges, and determine steps forward for the coming year.

We have a committed and highly talented staff who value the opportunity for reflection and evaluation as a means of continuous and ongoing improvement.

Languages Review
Thank you to all of the students and families who contributed to the review of the Languages Program. There are several recommendations that emerged as a result of the review that the Leadership Team are currently working through.

One key finding that emerged from the review is the success of the Languages Program in being able to retain students in VCE Languages given the reduction in language study across the system. This is a testament to work of the languages faculty and the commitment of our students to expand their horizons through a language study.

Changes to the St Columba’s College Board
Following many years of inspiring and faithful service to the St Columba’s College community, Ms Deirdre O’Donnell is retiring from her position on the Board as a Director and the Board Chair. In her role Deirdre has steered the work of the Board through some tumultuous years for the College as we navigated a COVID response, and developed a forward-thinking and innovative Master Plan to provide facilities that will stand the test of time. On behalf of staff, students and families, I offer my deepest gratitude to Deirdre for her commitment to our College community.

After an application and interview process conducted by Mary Aikenhead Education Limited (MAEL), Mrs Angela Agricola, currently a Board Director, has been appointed as the new Chair of the College Board. We are grateful to Angela for her commitment in taking on this role in her support of the College, and to each Board Director for the gifts of discernment, time and energy they bring to this role. For more information about each of our Directors follow this link.

Heavenly Father,

As this year’s academic chapter draws to a close, we come together in gratitude for the journey of learning and growth experienced by our students and their families. Bless them with Your guiding light as they embark on the sacred and joyous seasons of Advent and Christmas. May Your love and truth, the guiding themes of this year, resonate deeply within their hearts and homes.

“Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) Lord, may this divine commandment inspire our students and their families to spread compassion, kindness, and understanding during this season of hope and celebration. Grant them safety in their travels, peace in their gatherings, and joyful moments with loved ones. Help them to recognise your children on the margins of our society and give them the courage to love and serve them.

In the spirit of reflection, may they find the true essence of Christmas, embracing the love that unites families and communities. May this time of rest and celebration rejuvenate their spirits and strengthen the bonds within their families.

As they pause to rejoice in the birth of Jesus, let them find comfort in Your presence and carry the light of love and truth into the new year. May they return refreshed, ready to embrace new challenges and opportunities with renewed vigor and faith.

Amen.

CELEBRATION OF EXCELLENCE EVENING – Thursday 30 November

The hard work and persistence of our award recipients will be acknowledged at the upcoming Celebration of Excellence Evening. The families of these recipients will have received an invitation via direct messaging on Thursday, 16 or Friday, 17 November. We look forward to seeing you at the College for this special event.

2024 STUDENT EXECUTIVE TEAM

We are incredibly proud to present our 2024 Year 12 student leaders who form the College’s Student Executive.

The team, which also comprise Ms Georgia Seymour (Cahill House Leader), Ms Nakkita Egan (Head of Students) and I, have already begun working together and planning for 2024. The have already demonstrated great enthusiasm and reliability.

Parent Engagement Committee (PEC)

The PEC is always looking for greater parent involvement. If you are interested in coming along, our next meeting is tonight, Tuesday 21 November. This meeting will be held online. Feel free to join us via this Google Meet – https://meet.google.com/vzu-fcaz-nzy

As part of our commitment to providing the best learning tools for our students, the mathematics department will be introducing a new calculator program specifically tailored to meet the needs of our senior maths students.

Currently, all our senior maths students are using the CASIO Classpad. While the Classpad has proven to be a reliable choice for our General Mathematics classes, we have identified that it may not be the most effective option for students enrolled in the Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics courses. To address this, we are pleased to announce the integration of the TI N-spire into our curriculum.

We believe that this transition will enhance the learning experience for our students and better prepare them for the challenges of these subjects. Starting from the 2024, the TI N-spire has been booklisted for Year 9 MAPs. It is important to note that any student who currently owns a CASIO Classpad is not required to purchase a new calculator. If students prefer the TI N-spire, they are more than welcome to make the switch. To facilitate a smooth transition, our teachers will be providing support for both the CASIO Classpad and the TI N-spire in the Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics classes. This ensures that students can be guided through the functionalities of either calculator, ensuring a seamless learning experience.

For those students who decide to transfer from Mathematical Methods to General Mathematics mid-year, we have implemented a trade-in system. The department has acquired a set of second-hand CASIO Classpads from our outgoing Year 12 students, these will be available for trade-in by students who have kept their calculators in a good condition. This initiative aims to make the transition between courses as convenient as possible for our students.

Thank you for your ongoing support in ensuring the success of our students.

Year 11 VCE Vocational Major Literacy class have successfully completed a 5 week “Schools on Air” program with SYN Media. Every Thursday we caught a train to RMIT city campus to visit RMIT’s student lead radio station: Syn FM. Schools from around Melbourne visit the station and talk about various topics live on air. Syn Media is a great way for students to be introduced to the world of radio. We started with a two hour workshop where we learnt all about SYN FM and much more. There were many highlights of our SYN Media experience and on a whole this was a great learning experience for us.

Some background to Syn Media. SYN started off in the early 2000 as an AM station and was run by High School students. By November 2003 SYN TV was airing in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and attracting audiences of up to 80,000 viewers in Melbourne alone! On April 2nd 2014, Syn officially launched its digital radio station. The newly created SYN is home at RMIT University City Campus. This Melbourne based community radio station provides media broadcasting training opportunities to over 200 young people per year. Syn supports over 300 volunteers under the age of 26 to produce the radio, as well as 12,000 young people have been directly involved in SYN. You can find SYN at SYN FM 90.7.

Before we made it to the airwaves, we had to prepare our discussion topics. In our groups, we brainstormed various issues or topics that we would like to discuss while on air. We tried to choose topics we knew a lot about. Some topics we covered were the Melbourne Show, gap years, crime rates in Victoria, fast fashion, if Melbourne is the most livable city as well as many more interesting topics. When we knew what topics to discuss, we had to research it and then make a draft of a script so we knew what we were going to speak about. Most groups wrote dot points instead of a whole script so we sounded like we were all having a casual conversation on air instead of reading from a script while on air. This was something that the producer suggested in the workshop. In the workshop we learnt that there were certain topics, words, ideas we were not allowed to say on air such as: names of brands, anything discriminative as well as slanderous comments to avoid defamation.

Syn FM was a great way for us all to work and further develop on our oral communication and confidence skills. The opportunity to work in a real recording studio, accompanied by a Syn media team member for guidance, provided us with the feeling of being in a truly professional recording environment.
We found it fun to be sitting in front of a microphone with the other members and a producer, discussing the topics that we decided to speak about. While groups were recording, the rest of the class found it enjoyable to sit in the room next door and listen to our fellow groups discussing their ideas on the air. We all also enjoyed being able to have lunch and explore Melbourne Central once we completed our recording in the studio before returning back to school via train.

On a whole, what we took away from the experience was that we found thinking on our feet presented a notable challenge, particularly in ensuring a seamless flow of conversation without lapses of silence. We have come to appreciate that discussing topics of personal interest is paramount to engaging conversation. One significant takeaway from our previous session pertains to the necessity of avoiding certain brand names when on air. Additionally, we learned that scripted dialogue tends to sound contrived, whereas employing bullet points for reference allows for a more authentic and natural exchange between friends.

We, as a class, are very grateful for this opportunity and would really recommend this experience to other students and schools.

Early July this year, I (Tiana) received an email informing me of the BIOTech Futures Competition, run by MBSI (Melbourne Bioinnovation Student Initiative) at the University of Melbourne. I was immediately intrigued, having a passion and keen interest in Science and problem solving. But little did I know where I’d end up 2 months later…

After doing some research on the Challenge itself, I asked my friend and fellow classmate, Sophia, if she wanted to enter it with me. She said yes and we immediately chose our topic, ‘Applications of Hydrogels’- soon after we met our mentor Hilary McKie, a UniMelb Biomedical Engineering student. Sophia and I had no idea what to expect from the competition; we’d never heard of it before and we had little to no knowledge of what a hydrogel even was. But we sure were excited to find out! We were in for a jam-packed ride.

The next 6 weeks were filled with 7:30am meetings in the library where Sophia and I would go on Zoom with Hillary (who we whole-heartendly thank for waking up so early, especially being used to a 9am university wake up time!) and work on our project. After much deliberation we eventually landed on Stroke Therapy using Hydrogels, and our research led us to one particular hydrogel: called the Hyaluronan and Methylcellulose Hydrogel (HAMC Hydrogel in short).’

The aim of our investigation was to try to find an alternate treatment option and since we didn’t really have a lab with a lot of resources at hand we relied heavily on long scientific articles on different stroke treatment options which could inspire us and teach us how the stroke works and what needs to be done to reduce the effects. Despite most of the articles sounding like Japanese (every second word was some massive scientific monstrocity), we were not afraid to ask for help and Hilary was able to help us understand what all of these big words meant using analogies. These were really helpful and something that we recommend to anyone studying something that can be difficult to understand!

After extensive research on multiple different therapies for stroke using hydrogels we combined them to form a HAMC Erythropoietin, autologous Neural-Stem Cell hydrogel matrix.

Think of it like this: Erythropoietin works like an alarm when you wake up in the morning. After experiencing a stroke, your brain can’t naturally start repairing itself. So the erythropoietin acts as an alarm, instructing the brain to ‘wake up’ as it works to increase oxygen delivery and promote neurogenesis; which is the formation of new brain tissue.

After 4 weeks of extensive research, we formed our speech and were all ready for our big pitch at Melbourne University on the 4th September. Our judges were Doctors and Professors from across the University and we competed against 7 other teams from across Victoria tackling issues from AI to helping people with dementia. Being the youngest team there (and one of the smallest teams) we didn’t think we would win but were determined to give it our best shot and just enjoy the night for what it was!

We would like to thank Ms Condello, Ms Biocos and our families for supporting us on the night. After all the presentations were done- it was time to announce the winners- they announced a winner (wasn’t us)- but a couple of minutes later they said there was one more winner- us! We were beyond excited and were over the moon that we had come out on top.

A couple of weeks later, we received emails inviting us to the International Biotech Futures Finalists’ Symposium at The University of Sydney in Sydney on the 23rd October- where we would present our project again representing Victoria, Australia.

To celebrate the win on the 21st of October- bright and early in the morning we headed off to Sydney with our mums to immerse ourselves in the city for two days before our big pitch on Monday.

After two long and fun filled days exploring the city- it was time to head off to Sydney University for our big pitch. We were there from 8am to 5pm, listening to 23 extraordinary speeches as well, presentations from academics from around the world, a team building workshop where we had to work with different groups to make a functioning hand out of cardboard, a science fair were we informed people on how our treatment works and finally our pitch. Being the last speakers of the day was extremely nerve racking but we were determined to just embrace the opportunity and have fun. Although we didn’t win in Sydney we will forever cherish all the memories we made, how much we learnt and how far we have come.

Both of us had an incredible time in Sydney and we had to constantly pinch ourselves to remind ourselves that the whole experience was in fact real. We’d like to say a huge thank you to our teachers and parents as well as our mentor Hilary for always believing in us and supporting us in our endeavours.

We are excited to announce that we will be adding hockey, futsal and table tennis to our CGSAV Sports for next year.  This now takes us to a total of 12 co-curricular sports to choose from.  The Sports Sign Up google form will be emailed to all students during the first week of term 1 next year, but will also be available via SEQTA to complete at any time during the year as well.  Students can still attend the information session for each of the sports to find out more as well as sign up – they just need to keep an eye out on the student bulletin next year for more details.

In other news, next year we will be holding our College Cross Country event separately to our Athletics Carnival.  This will see signed up runners depart school at lunch time to participate in the event during lesson 4 at the Maribyrnong river.  This will not be a full school event, just runners only.

We look forward to another fun and competitive year of Sports!

A big thankyou to all of the St. Columba’s College community for sponsoring the Bike Ride as well as the teachers and students who rode on the day. We were able to meet our goal of raising more than $2000. Bahay Tuluyan runs 10 amazing programs- helping street kids and young families that are struggling to survive, they give them safety, education and life-giving support in the Philippines.

The portrayal of teachers in the media has become negative over the past few years through abusive teachers, heavy workloads and unhappy parents. We want to flip the script on teachers and show who they really are. Mr. Morris has a life outside of school which we hope to highlight, demonstrating his true self. From reading this interview we hope that people come to realise the false stereotype of teachers and that they are human beings trying their best.

What is your opinion on how the world views teachers?
Adults view teachers through their own experience of teachers. Too many families think that teachers are responsible for everything.

Do you agree with the negative portrayal of teachers in the media?
No, I do not think that teachers are as bad as the media says they are. Teachers are a cheap target that the media will always focus on and portray them in such a negative light that most of the time is false.

How do you treat students at S. Columba’s College?
I treat students like adults as it teaches them how to be adults in the future. I don’t expect students to be perfect, everyone makes mistakes so I treat students with respect. Overall, I treat people how I want to be treated so that also applies to students.

Do you think that your teaching has a negative effect?
I really hope not. As I said for the last question, I treat my students like the adults they are learning to be and the responsibilities that come with it. I believe that it is unfair to expect people to know how to do the right thing without showing how to do the right thing. Overall, I think my teaching has a positive effect.

Do you enjoy teaching?
Yes I enjoy teaching, I enjoy being someone to help young people become a better version of themselves and working in a big team that helps young people work towards their goals.

What do you enjoy outside of school?
I love spending time with family and friends. One of my favourite things is sport. I love all types of sports. I watched most football games and now I’m into the rugby world cup. I love going out and chatting with my friends.

What are your short term and long term goals?
A short term goal is to help teachers with workloads at St Columba’s. A long term goal is generally to be happy and enjoy where I work and work. A personal short term goal of mine is running ten kilometers in under forty five minutes. A personal long term goal to do with daughters and give them opportunities to grow into the people they want to be.

How long have you been teaching for? Have you lost or gained interest?
I have been teaching for a while. Since 2006 so seventeen years. I am certainly enjoying it much more now than I was back then. I also feel that I have gotten better at managing and keeping track of things.

What are three attributes you would use to describe yourself?
I like to think of myself as positive. I am a logical thinker when I need to solve something. I am also an empathetic person and like to put myself in the positions of others to see how they are feeling.

What are your priorities in life?
I’d say that my number one priority is happiness. But I am very big on respecting and being respected. I like to treat people with dignity and respect at all times. I always want to understand others and see where they are coming from.

Recently education has seen two major reactions.  On the one hand there are major teaching shortages and on the other hand, the media has been flooded with criticising comments, tweets and articles. Mr Rowland teaches STEAM, Coding and Digital Technologies at St Columba’s College and was eager to share his thoughts and opinions on the current teacher shortages and media-bashing whilst also describing his past experiences before becoming a teacher.

Why did you choose to teach at St Columba’s?

I was a lab tech here before, and I had my teaching qualification since 2007, but I didn’t teach. Last year Mr. Bonavia said to me “I know you teach Chemistry, do you want to do it?” and I said, “okay”, but I had to get my VIT (Victorian Institute of Teaching) card and it takes six months to do so. 

So I did my registration and I finally got my VIT card. But it was too late and they found someone else. I was annoyed because I realised that I actually wanted to teach Chemistry. So I looked for a job and I got one somewhere else. Then, another job came available here and I applied.

I actually like this school because the staff are really good here and they’re nice people. That’s essentially why I moved back because I still kept in contact with everyone, even though I wasn’t here.

What did you do before you became a teacher? Did you always want to be a teacher?

No, I wanted to be a fireman. I actually did my work experience at the fire brigade in the city. It was cool. But then I realised I was scared of heights. By qualification I’m a Biochemist. I did that for twenty years. I finished up at the Alfred Hospital. I did the last ten years at the Alfred Hospital. I worked in research labs from 1990 and then robots came into the picture. So, my actual career is a good example of where STEM has killed it off, where technology has killed off the person that does it. 

What made you want to teach STEAM? What sparked your love for these subjects and why?

I’m not very good at coding and that sort of stuff. I can do it, but I’m not fantastic. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but the Science stuff, it does. I went to a Tech school, so I learnt wood work and sheet metal engineering practice as part of normal high school. I still carried it through, even until now at home as a hobby. But I learnt so much from doing that regularly. I think being able to do that and the passion of Science to support it, makes it very fulfilling for me.

What’s your opinion on the teacher shortage and the protests going on?

They give teachers way too much work and they just keep giving them more and more and more. My workload is twenty times greater than it was when I worked as a lab tech. You can still get more people to teach, but once they get into teaching and they realise the workload that they have to carry, they will still leave anyway. The government needs to improve conditions for teachers.

Do you feel any pressure from being a teacher? Teachers are normally bashed by the media, do you have any comments or concerns about this?

Yeah. People say “you get so much holidays!”. We do get a lot of holidays, but we spend a hell of a lot of that time marking. For example, I’ll spend this whole holiday just marking. So even though I’m at home, I’m still doing work. So that sort of understanding would be nice for people in general to know that we actually do a lot of work to make you succeed.

Where do you see yourself in the next five to ten years?

That’s a good question. I’d like to stay here. I’m not a move-up-the-ladder person. My mum says I’m so laid back, I’d fall over. I’m a bit of a daydreamer and I don’t plan too far ahead. I like to just find a job I like to do and I’ll do it. At the moment, STEAM is great and next year we’re starting Systems, so I’ll be running that as well. That is all I need is a bit of STEAM, a bit of Systems Engineering and I’ll just go with that. I reckon I could be doing that in five years.

Meet Mr. Taylor, a passionate and dedicated science teacher. Mr. Taylor brings the world of science to life for his students. His classroom is a place of exploration, where his students are there to learn but also to have fun. Mr. Taylor makes learning engaging for his students in the science classroom.

What were your other possible career paths before you decided to teach?

I always wanted to be an athlete particularly in basketball. I tried my hardest to meet my goal but obviously this never worked out. I always wanted to work with kids so that’s how I ended up in teaching.  

Why did you choose to teach at single sex over co-ed schools?

I don’t know. I saw the opportunity and wanted to take it while it was up for grabs.

How do you motivate students to complete their work?

I always try to keep the energy high and enthusiasm in the room. Sometimes students are unmotivated to learn. The way that I keep them on task is by making learning as fun and engaging as possible. 

What is your biggest career achievement? 

I had an article that was published in a magazine for a student voice project about what goes on in the school that I used to teach at. 

What is your favourite year level to teach?

Every year level is different and I enjoy teaching them all. I like Year 7s because they are new to the school and curious. I like Year 9s because it is a big growth year and Year 12s is a massive year because I want to make sure I support students to learn as best that they can. Overall, I don’t really have a favourite year level to teach because I enjoy them all.  

And, of course, 9.3 is your favourite class.

I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite class but it is definitely an interesting class. 

Do you like engaging in school activities like St Columba’s Day and the Athletics Carnival? 

It is always fun to get to know students outside of the classroom. I enjoy helping out and also participating in the Athletics Carnival. It’s always a great day to get outside of the classroom and have fun because that’s what school is about. 

What GSCSA sport would you choose to get involved in at the school?

I would choose basketball because of my interest in this sport. I like other sports as well but basketball is my first preference. 

Do you feel like you are valued at St Columba’s?

Yes I feel valued, I believe that teachers and students respect me within the St Columba’s community. 

What do you think about the issue of ‘teacher bashing’? For example, people say that teachers get too many holidays. Do you agree with this? 

The reality is if you spoke to most teachers, particularly those who teach VCE you would realise that the holidays are often spent marking and preparing for classes that are coming up. So it’s not really that much of a ‘holiday’ for us anyway. The other thing that people don’t consider is the emotional stress levels that teachers are under. I think the latest figure was that teaching is the second most stressful job in Australia after being a social worker so you need the holidays as a break for your own mental health and wellbeing. If you took holidays from teachers, most wouldn’t be able to do it long term and teacher burnout would be very high. Overall teaching is a rewarding job but it also takes a lot out of you at the same time. 

Hi, this is Mia, Matilda and Audrey from Year 9 Journalism writing for IONA. Recently we interviewed Ms Nguyen, who is the Domain Leader of Maths at St Columba’s College. She teaches Years 9 to 12.

Hi Ms Nguyen. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview with us. We want to highlight the passion, commitment and dedication of the staff at this school and we thought there was no one better to start with than you. So, what made you decide to become a teacher?
Originally, teaching wasn’t my primary choice when I started at my university. I was actually pursuing a degree in engineering, which is a field that’s well-known for its extensive use of mathematics. I started tutoring maths on the side. Then I realised, I really enjoy working with young people to ensure that they can see the relevance of maths in everyday life. So I thought that it would be a great opportunity to spread my love of maths and to show students who might not necessarily enjoy maths just how wonderful it can be.  

What is your favourite part of being a teacher?

My favourite part of being a teacher is the time I get to spend with young people and getting to learn about how they see the world whilst exchanging my world view, and so it becomes a learning experience for myself as well. I hope that my students feel stimulated by our conversations and become more curious about the things around them.

Do you think that teachers have it easy?

It depends, I think that while teaching can be rewarding and meaningful, it is not necessarily easy. Teachers do a lot of marking and with everything else that goes on behind the scenes, there can be more work than what people think. You could compare teaching to a drama production in some ways. There’s what people see and then there’s backstage, and there’s so much going on there as well. 

I think that the first thing people think of when they hear ‘teachers’ is primarily teaching in the classroom. It’s what we’re mainly known to do. But, there’s also a lot of background work like making sure that parents are kept up to date, the work is engaging, and the curriculum is documented. I think these are the challenges we have to face as teachers and there’s not a lot of time to do those things.

What is the hardest thing about being a maths teacher?

The most difficult thing about being a maths teacher is the preconceived idea that maths is bad. Because of the experiences that parents and students have had with maths, often mindsets are not as positive as I would hope!

We have been reading articles that claim teachers have too many holidays, what are your thoughts about that?

I have to say I think if we had less holidays the students would be very upset and grumpy! Would you agree? Yep. The terms are full of learning and assessments and having a break is nice and refreshing but teachers still have to do some work on the holidays. For example, last holidays the Year 12s had to come in for trial exams which required supervision and correction.

Why do you think there is a shortage of teachers?

I think there is a shortage of teachers because there are many aspects of classroom teaching which make a teacher’s workload really huge and daunting. Not only do I need to teach, but I also have to make sure my students’ wellbeing is being looked after. From making sure my students aren’t feeling anxious about school to ensuring that they any friendship problems are resolved. It can be quite emotionally demanding. There are also just so many more career options to choose from these days.

You’re very involved in school activities. What drives you to support students at St Columba’s by volunteering to supervise after school activities?

I really enjoy getting to know my students outside of maths class. Maths might not be everyone’s first choice or favourite subject, and that’s okay. I believe that forming a connection with students beyond just teaching maths is super important. When we have a good relationship outside of the classroom, it can actually make a big difference inside the classroom. You see, school can be tough sometimes, and maths can seem tricky. But when I get to know my students better, I understand what they’re interested in and what they enjoy doing. This helps me connect maths to things they already like, which can make learning maths a lot more fun and understandable for them. Plus, it’s awesome to see them grow and learn not just as students but as unique individuals with their own passions and interests.

Do you think teaching is an attractive profession?

I think there should be a program where people have to work as a teacher for a certain amount of time in their adult life. I learned so much about myself as an individual when I became a teacher. It’s not just about teaching maths; it’s about learning to be patient and being creative. For example, when I explain things, I have to think of fun and easier ways for students to understand. It forces me to be creative, and that’s awesome! It’s a job that has a ton of benefits and can be very rewarding. You get to help young people learn, grow, and see the world in new ways – it’s pretty amazing!

And finally, when you’re not teaching, what do you enjoy doing?

When I’m not teaching, I embrace the great outdoors. You’ll often find me hiking up mountains and taking advantage of the beautiful views nature has to offer. Additionally, I also like to do lots of rock climbing. On weekdays you can catch me taking walks around the block, everyday sights and sounds also make for a relaxing walk. You’d be surprised how many maths questions I encounter when I’m outdoors. Perhaps I’ll write a textbook using these examples one day.

Thank you for agreeing to the interview. We appreciate all you do!

We’re excited to announce that Elevate Education’s next free webinar will be taking place on Wednesday 22nd November.

Elevate Education works with our students, delivering high impact workshops on study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. By tuning into their webinar series you will learn how you can help better support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school:

Wednesday 22nd November @ 6:30pm (AEDT)
How You Can Build Resilience in Your Child

Click here to register for free

In this webinar Elevate will be showing parents:

 What resilience means, what it doesn’t mean, and why it’s important;

 How to help build your child’s resilience levels, both in and out of school

 How to help your child break their ‘fear of failure’

Attention Year 7 and 10 families!

Has you child missed any scheduled immunisations this year?

If yes, please find important immunisation information here.

Wednesday 22 November – 2024 Timetable Commences, 2024 Cape York Immersion Applications Close Engaging & Empowering Students Year 11 & 12 VM Incursion

Thursday 23 November – ‘Meet Me Where I’m At’ StCC Online Art Exhibition

Sunday 26 November – Auditions for 2024 College Musical

Monday 27 November – Peer Support Leaders Training Day and Mental Health Week Begins

Tuesday 28 November – Industry Speaker Incursion

Wednesday 29 November – Days for Girls Excursion and Miss Saigon Performance Years 10 to 12 Excursion

Thursday 30 November – Celebration of Excellence

Friday 1 December – Mental Health Week Concludes

Tuesday 5 December – Student Advent Eucharist Liturgy

Wednesday 6 December – End of Term Assembly and Last Day of School – student finish at 1pm

Thursday 7 December – Year 7 2024 Orientation Day