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JUNIOR SCHOOL
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WELLNESS Week
R U OK? Day
Mr Baldino Vetrano - Director of Students
Wellness Week 2021 was a wonderful opportunity to support both staff and students throughout Week 8 of Term 3 and beyond.
During remote learning, COVID-19 restrictions made some of us feel isolated and alone and it became extremely important that during these difficult times the wellbeing of students and staff were our main priority.
The College Counsellors developed a number of very proactive activities throughout the week for students to complete in the lead up to RUOK? Day.
Homeroom teachers did an amazing job in guiding students to complete the activities and enhanced the atmosphere with support and compassion to everyone. Each day, students were given different activities to complete. The aim was to stimulate discussion throughout Homerooms and to connect with each other in a personal and honest way.
Being able to ask someone if they’re ‘really’ OK is not easy to do and our students needed to master these skills so they could approach others with care and dignity, while truly looking out for one another. Activities were designed to help students ask, listen and encourage action when it comes to having meaningful conversations. The activity also promoted meaningful insight into the strengths and weaknesses of social media when asking RUOK?
Staff also shared wellbeing tips and recommendations throughout the week. Motivational and inspirational messages were sent to all, in the hope that EVERYONE was travelling well and feeling inspired.
At the end of the week, all students across the College were encouraged to wear a splash of yellow in support of RUOK? Day. Our young men took the initiative seriously and it was extremely pleasing to see how creative some students were in displaying their support for positive mental health.
Finally, our staff and students came together in making a promise video, this was shared with the College community on the last day of Wellness Week 2021. It is very clear that wellbeing is of high priority at St Gregory’s and our College community takes great pride in making sure we are all safe and well.
JUNIOR & SENIOR School
Remote Learning
Ms Judith Tolomeo - Director of Teaching & Learning
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the worst disturbance to global education and training systems in a century, with the longest school closures affecting more than 1.6 billion learners at its peak time.
As we reflected on Term 3, remote learning was starting to feel like the “new normal”, with our daily routines so very different to that of just a few weeks earlier.
We recognised that homes were not classrooms, often making explicit and timely feedback opportunities more difficult. Feedback more than ever was needed to support students in their learning and development. Check-in questions and exit questions were perfect assessment for learning activities providing feedback of student understanding and progression along with their engagement in the learning environment. Feedback to students provided explicit strategies for improvement.
Teachers provided learning overviews at the commencement of each week to support students as they navigated through their own weekly timetables. Overviews provided a lesson-by-lesson structure that highlighted the Learning Intention and Success Criteria, outlined the learning activities planned and described any other resources or links needed for the lesson. Video conferencing was used to support lesson activities and provide students with a forum to discuss, ask questions, seek clarification, and apply knowledge of the content and theory being taught. Lessons provided enough time for students to “do, apply, show” their understanding.
Lessons continued to be student centred, and teacher-facilitated where possible, as we would see normally in a face to face lesson setting. Video conferencing (Microsoft Teams / Zoom etc) provided an opportunity to engage with students, answer questions, provide explicit instructions and guide learning opportunities. This would not exceed 50% of the lesson time, enabling teacher support via Google Classroom, Teams chat or email for the duration of the lesson.
Throughout Term 3, we continued to provide as many opportunities for students as possible. Students competed in English Championships with a number of fantastic
Charlize Anatasio - Active time at home Max Anastasio (Year 7)
results. Individual standouts: Aaron Sojan (Year 8), Domenico Cocco (Year 8), Patrick Ward (Year 10), Lucas Di Fazio (Year 8) and Callum Granger (Year 10). Overall standout result: 14th in our school category size in AUSTRALIA!
The Year 10 Agriculture students entered the Hermitage Ag Science competition where the students had to prepare and conduct an experiment, create a poster and a video on sustainability and food waste (each year the topic changes).
There were 130 schools and 3600 students entered from across the country. The College was represented by two teams- Ben Anderson/ Elliot Power and Macs Rubain/ Joe
Offord/ Toby Drinnan. The class won an encouragement award. Only two were awarded for Years 9-10 category and St Gregory’s was one of them!
Science Week was celebrated in Week 6 with an array of activities. These included Biotechnology challenges, genetically modified food activities, Virtual Reef diver simulations, and opportunities for students to attend online seminars throughout the week.
Book Week was celebrated in August and whilst it looked a little different this year, the activities developed and run by staff across the Junior and
Senior Schools were nothing less than amazing. The theme this year was Old Worlds, New Worlds,
Other Worlds. Activities included: A Poetry Slam,
Flash Fiction Writing Competition, Read A Book,
Spelling Bee, Author Visit, Where in the World are St Greg’s Staff, Story Time, and a Virtual Book Character Parade.
St Gregory’s Feast Day was celebrated on 3 September. Whilst we couldn’t gather as a
Community at the College grounds, College
Bryce Skillen (Year 11) Eva Luximon (3M)
Staff, Students and Families were able to do so virtually.
Year 10 Student Thomas Anderson was “Commended” for his poem ‘Battle Against the Dust’ in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition. Thomas’ poem will appear in the anthology that will be available on the website: https://www.dorothea.com.au/award-winners
On Monday 23 August, all teaching staff (K-12) engaged with James Anderson and the Agile Learner. The focus of the day was to engage with and explore the “Learner Landscape”. Staff looked at the importance of a Growth Mindset in developing more skilful learners and explored common misconceptions about Mindsets; why most interventions don’t work, and how to adopt a “style guide” to help develop more growthoriented mindsets in our students. Staff examined the Learning Landscape and how the metaphor of the Learning Landscape can help students begin to understand themselves as active, skilful learners, paying particular attention to the nature of challenges and how students equip themselves with Habits of Mind to prepare them to succeed at increasingly difficult challenges. During the final part of the day, staff engaged with the concept of Learnership - the skill of learning. Teachers were asked to complete a Learnership Diagnostic related to the students they teach and to identify the degree of skill with which their students are engaging in the learning process.
As we return to the classroom, we need to remember that true learning doesn’t happen without a challenge. We must stretch (not strain) ourselves to increase our standards and abilities. As the world’s expert on expertise, Anders Ericsson, points out,
JUNIOR School
PYP – The Journey Continues
Mrs Diana Ivancic - PYP Coordinator
During Term 3 inquiry learning in the Junior School took a very different approach to the usual scenes of classroom group work and butcher’s paper, student work covering walls and excursions.
The teachers and students adapted to the online environment using different approaches to inquiring, collaborating, researching and presenting.
The COVID pandemic has resulted in our Junior School students becoming skilled in coordinating Zoom online meetings in order to work with a team to research and present lines of inquiry. This took skills in organising time, upskilling in the use of technology and perfecting their presentation skills. Our Junior School students continued their Spanish lessons, practising their speaking skills through voice and video recordings and writing in Spanish. Parents were also involved in conversations, picking up a few words here and there.
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) values all these approaches to learning, skills that have been essential in adapting to the online learning we were faced with in Term 3 and early Term 4 in 2021. It has been such a positive outcome to what we often saw as a negative experience of online learning. The Junior School has been granted the opportunity to apply for authorisation as an IB (International Baccalaureate) School towards the end of Term 4, 2021. This process which is usually made up of a three-day face-to-face visit will be organised virtually, yet another challenge we will be faced with during this pandemic. However, we feel very confident and accept the challenge.
We look forward to a favourable outcome and a great way to end the 2021 Academic Year!
