Year Ten Year 10
Y
Mr Peter Hawke Head of Year Ten
ear Ten marks an important time in a student’s high school education as it represents the final year of compulsory schooling. From this point on, students are required to take on the responsibility for their career path and to choose the course or maybe even the job that they feel is best for them.
As such, it is the responsibility of Year Ten teachers and support staff at Trinity to prepare our students for whatever path they choose from here on. This obviously means that our Year Ten programme has a very heavy vocations focus. We have tried to achieve this by finding the best career or set of subjects for each student. What we want our students to develop is a sense of ownership – ownership of their career choices, of their academic progress, of their behaviour both in and out of the College, and probably hardest of all, of their own faith development. Our greatest challenge lies in the promotion to students of a spirituality that requires both awareness and action. The Year Ten Religious Education course, based on a theme of Social Justice continually challenged students to assess critically their world against the message of the Gospels. The impressive numbers of Year Tens who have acted on their beliefs by joining groups such as Eddie Rice Outreach is proof that many students have taken up the challenges given to them during their Religious Education classes. Further opportunities for faith development came with the students’ attendance at the Emmaus retreats during Terms two and three. Some students took the opportunity to attend a day at the East Perth Monastery where they could focus on their life journey and where God fitted into that journey. These highly successful retreats, along with the regular year group masses, formed an invaluable part of each student’s faith development.
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Academically, we challenge students to progress to new levels of achievement in preparation for their moves into post-compulsory education next year. To assist in the process of subject selection, students attended the Careers Day in early Term Two. Teachers gave individual counselling to assist in selection of subjects.
The vocations focus of the year also was evident in the year group’s attendance at the Jobseekers Workshop hosted by Chris Maxwell at Gloucester Park. The Workshop, run with the assistance of East Perth Rotary, taught the year group many valuable lessons on searching for work, attending interviews and selfpromotion. Chris again proved himself a popular speaker with his informative and humorous style of presentation. During the year, Year Ten students attended socials at Iona and Penhros. The Trinity-Mercedes Halloween social was a great success. Occasions like these are invaluable in the development of the boys’ social skills and for learning appropriate behaviour around females. I commend the year group on the seamless way in which they were able to adapt to the demands of PSA weekend sport. Mention must also be made of the sportsmanship and Trinity College spirit that the boys demonstrated on a weekly basis, even in times when the results weren’t going their way. My congratulations go to those Year Ten teams who were successful in winning their competitions as well as to those Year Ten students who earned selection in senior teams. Finally, I would like to thank the efforts of the Year Ten Homeroom teachers; Mr Tony Webb, Mrs Lea Wilson, Mr Troy Alexander, Ms Sharatha Mizen, Mr Jean-Marc Rousset and Mr Bobby Emmanuel. They have played an invaluable role in the pastoral development of the Year Ten group and I feel that their efforts, along with the efforts of all the Year Ten teachers and support staff have resulted in many of the successes that made 2003 such a wonderful year.
Peter Hawke Head of Year Ten
