Cathedral College Wangaratta

CATHEDRAL COLLEGE WANGARATTA

CREATING CONNECTIONS

This year Middle School students at Cathedral College Wangaratta are creating connections and enhancing relationships in a new program called Community Time.

Introduced by the Head of Middle School Mrs Brigid Perkins, students in Year 6 to 8 participate in the program which is designed to create a sense of belonging and connectedness.

“In a time when our students are seeking consistency and constancy in an uncertain world, it is about creating and enhancing relationships across the Middle School year levels and providing an additional opportunity to consolidate a sense of belonging,” Mrs Perkins said.

“The introduction of Community Time into the Middle School has allowed for students to create new relationships across year levels and consider their role within the School community and the wider community.

“They have heard stories of resilience and growth, as well as explored skills and knowledge they are wanting to develop to assist them in the modern world.” This semester the students also participated in a series of choice workshops, which included sporting, design, wellbeing and performing arts activities.

Principal Nick Jones said it was vital students formed meaningful connections when they were at schools, particularly as Victoria continued to face statewide lockdowns and intermittent periods of remote learning.

“We still find ourselves faced with constant change, as evidenced by continued shifting from learning on-site to remote learning. In response, we continually strive to enhance our students’ school experience and focus on ways to help them thrive in the face of continued adversity,” Mr Jones said.

“It is joyful to watch our Middle School participate in Community Time. These experiences reinforce our strong sense of community and build on the notion that we are part of smaller communities within our whole school community.”

Students have responded positively to Community Time, providing positive feedback on their experiences.

“I like that we get the opportunity to learn important life skills. We get to learn different things that we might use day to day when we are older. It is nice to end the week doing something fun and different to the usual subjects,” Year 6 student Lilly Noble said.

Year 8 student Alex Cairncross said: “I look forward to Community Time because it is always fun, and we do different things that we get to choose. I also get to know students in Year 6 and 7 who I normally wouldn’t talk to. I have enjoyed some of the guest speakers and loved playing footy with new people.”

Mrs Perkins said research demonstrated that a sense of belonging and connectedness relates to higher levels of student emotional wellbeing and better academic performance and achievement.

“While we continue to focus on our core business of teaching and learning, we understand that underpinning academic success and a growth mindset is creating occasions in the school day that give our students opportunities to connect meaningfully with others and in turn develop an authentic sense of belonging,” she said.

STUDENT QUOTES

“Mountain bike riding and bike maintenance was really fun, and I got to learn lots of bike repair information and even repaired a bike tube. We got to do so much and learn so many new things and the people from Rock and Road Cycles even came in to show us some repair tricks.” Eva Siperki – Year 7

“I have loved doing our choice workshop. It has been great getting to know other people in the Middle School community. In Yoga we had Mrs Crosse take a lesson where she went through different kinds of poses and relaxation methods. It has been a great way to finish off the week and hanging out with my friends has been fun.” Flynn Carson – Year 8