During this week, our College has had the great pleasure of hosting Mr Nigel D’Souza and Mr Ravi Victor. Both men are College Principal’s from schools in Asansol. Ravi is the College Principal at St Vincent’s High School and Nigel is Principal at St Patrick’s High School. In 2016, I had the pleasure of attending both schools as a part of the Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders (EREBB) conference. I certainly enjoyed my time at the schools in Asansol and formed a friendship with Ravi and Nigel. In 2017, six staff members from our College travelled with me to work in their schools and share ideas with the teachers. Ravi and Nigel’s return to our College is a part of a plan for us to “twin” and continue to share ideas and educational practices. As Asansol is only 4 hours from Kolkata, our staff and students on our annual Indian immersions will also visit and stay at their school for three days starting this year. Ravi and Nigel were able to meet with these young men and their families last Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, we held a special assembly to welcome them to St Patrick’s. It was grounded with lots of musical items as this is a tradition in the Indian schools as well. We also presented them both with some message sticks to take back to their schools. The sticks were made by our own indigenous students.

The last week of each term is usually marked by periods of exams and submission of other assessment items. It is most important, that each young man understand that best results occur from good preparation. This includes constant homework and study as well as attention in class and using his teachers as the great resource that they are to help and support him to understand what is being taught. This will happen best when he takes responsibility for what he needs to do as a part of this process. I would urge all parents to take some time with their son over this weekend to see where he is with his preparation and targets for the semester at this point in time.

We are in a process of writing our Strategic Plan for the next five years. This process includes opportunities of consultation with all staff members, student representatives and parents. We are also complemented with feedback from staff and students and this week, Jackie Upton forwarded a discussion paper to all parents asking for feedback. It allows for two types of feedback. Firstly, you can respond to the questions through on-line comments or attend a parent forum to be held in the Christian Brothers Building at 6:00pm on Thursday, 11 October. This plan sets out our vision and priorities for the next five years and your feedback is very much valued as a part of the process. I thank you in advance for your commitment to the process.

This weekend is our last weekend for sport. Our junior teams compete at Padua College and our senior teams play at home against Padua in Tennis and Basketball. We are also calling this our Big Brother/Little Brother round and hope to see our younger and older students connect for the day and support each other’s teams. I hope that all students and parents have enjoyed the term’s sporting fixtures and this last round especially our young men in Year 12.

Live Jesus in our Hearts!

Mr Chris Mayes – College Principal

Two weeks ago, the NAPLAN results were released throughout Australia. Many of you will be aware the release of this information was delayed due to some disagreement nationally about the validity of the data. This controversy was due to a few states arguing against ACARA (the national testing authority) that the online test data could not be statistically compared with the traditional pen and paper scores. ACARA have justified the comparisons by stating through their own research they have found no significant difference in scores between the two mediums of testing. And so, the data was released! This year, like other years St Patrick’s College did NAPLAN via the traditional pen and paper methods. From 2019 we will be involved in the online testing. We have an inclusive approach here at St Patrick’s College and so therefore encourage all our boys to participate in NAPLAN.

The Data Team have commenced their analysis and will slice and dice the data in a number of ways. We are interested in many aspects of the test including the following:

• How much did a cohort (and individuals) grow from one test to the next?
• How is SPC tracking from one calendar year to the next?
• How does our growth rate compare to other EREA schools, competitor schools, Queensland and Australia?
• What is our band distribution in each test in each year level? Are we improving our number of Upper Two Bands and decreasing our number of Lower Two Bands? Did we hit our Growth Markers for this?
• Are there particular literacy and numeracy skills that appear to be a deficiency across a year level?
• Are there areas of celebration that may correlate to an intervention or program that has been put in place in recent years?

This list is by no means exhaustive but gives you an indication of the detailed analysis that takes place. It is important to note our philosophy is that NAPLAN is a measure of a student’s current ability level in Literacy and Numeracy, but it is not the measure. Nor does it capture the wonderful uniqueness of each of our boys and the many ways in which they demonstrate their talent, passion, interests, intelligence, grit and determination.

This week I share with you the first aspect of our analysis listed above; how much has a cohort grown since their last test (measured by the % of students above the National Mean Score)?

As you can see, in Year 7, they grew in Reading and Numeracy however declined slightly in Writing, Spelling and Grammar & Punctuation. This is something that our Head of English and her team are working very hard to remedy.

Our current Year 9 group grew in Reading and Writing but declined slightly in Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation and Numeracy. Sometimes this can be attributed to the fact that although our cohort did grow, they did not grow as much as the National Mean did.

Another measure schools will often use is the % above the National Minimum Score for each test in each year level:

Our boys performed well both from state and national perspectives in terms of the number of our students who are above the National Minimum Standard.

Ms Elizabeth Gaber – Dean of Administration and Business Intelligence

Please find below Paddy's Van Roster

Paddy's Van Roster

The next few weeks are certainly action packed for your son with exams, assignments and the excitement of holidays just around the corner. In Week 9 I always remind students and their families of the requirements of the St Patrick’s ‘Exit Procedure’.

To help the young men of St Patrick’s College finish Term 3 smoothly we ask that all our families familiarise themselves with the ‘Exit Procedures’, outlined below.

End of Term Procedures

Checklist

1. Locker must be clean and well-organised with a St Patrick’s College issued lock (Checked by Group Tutor)
2. All library books must be returned (Diary signed - Group Tutor)
3. All assignments must be completed
4. Diary must be filled out correctly and in good order (Diary signed – Group Tutor)
5. All detentions must be complete (checked by Group Tutor)
6. Computer and computer bag in good order (Diary signed by IT staff)

Students who have failed to fulfil these commitments will not be issued an exit statement from their House Dean. This will result in these students remaining at the College for the times outlined below.

Year 11 who have not fulfilled their commitments will not be granted the privilege of block exams. Students in Year 11 will be required to attend school throughout the block exam period until these commitments have been met.

Year 7, 8, 9, 10 Exit

Students in Year 7-10 who have not fulfilled their commitments will be required to remain behind on detention on Friday 21 September.

As we enter in to the last few weeks of Term 3 the pressure for many of our students starts to build. If you are concerned about your son, can I encourage you to please make contact with his House Dean today.

Mr Darren Kearney – Dean of Students

One week to go to complete the 2018 AIC team sports competitions.

Our Basketball teams tied aggregate honours against Iona last Saturday. The 9A team are now one game away from being crowned AIC Premiers. A number of other Basketball teams are fighting hard to finish on the top of the ladder. Our Tennis 2^nd IV A and B teams are very much in contention and look forward to this week’s competition. Students are reminded to thank their team coaches and officials at the conclusion of this week’s games for all the time and effort taken to give St Patrick’s students the opportunity to participate in sport.

The first Track and Field AIC meet was held on Saturday for Year 5 and 6. Our second meet, open to all year levels, will be held tonight. A bus will transport the students to and from the College for all Track and Field meets. Students are required to sign on for the bus to ensure sufficient seating on the bus. All squad members are encouraged to attend the scheduled meets leading up to the AIC Championships on 22-23 October. Track and Field coaches will use the meets to assist with selecting the College team. Performances at Bramble Bay and Metropolitan North Championships will also be considered. Students attending these meets are required to wear the appropriate uniform. The SPC singlet with our green HPE shorts or Track and Field shorts. The green training shirt should be worn to and from the meet. The SPC hoodie is the only jumper permitted. Parents and spectators are welcome to attend the AIC Track and Field meets. A reminded training and meets are open to all students, not just the athletes trying to gain school selection.

Brisbane Roar are conducting four Friday morning Football training sessions on the College back oval on 26 October and 2, 9 and 16 November. Details have been emailed to all current Year 5 – 7 players. For more information please contact Di Twist dtwist@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Contacts for Trimester 3 Sport

• Basketball Coordinator - Mr Steve Copping scopping@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Tennis Coordinator - Br Chris Pritchard cpritchard@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Track and Field – Mr Jake Jennings jjennings@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Mr Doug Locke - Head of Sport

Chess News

Mrs Rosemary Butt - Chess Coordinator

College Coin is now an additional method of payment at the store. Cash, Eftpos, Credit Card, Cheque payments are still accepted also.

OPENING HOURS

• Tuesday 12:00noon-4:00pm
• Wednesday 12:00noon-4:00pm
• Thursday 7:30am-11:30am

Mrs Julie Bowden - Merchandise Store Manager