With our holiday break moments away, it is a good time to reflect on the first half of our year, and – as I mentioned in my Illalong post last week – to purposefully take an action that improves our outlook and mindset, in preparation for returning to the College in Term 3. This is often likened to the metaphor of filling your cup. When we spend each day pouring our energy and attention into any number of different parts of life, we need to find ways to replenish what we have given out, so that we don’t run dry.

Given the year we have all had – parents, teachers and students – we need to ensure we prioritise tuning in to, and taking care of, ourselves over this next break.

Retiring after 17 years of service, we wish Mrs Sharon Adams farewell as she embarks on a joyous phase of life, where she can spend more time with her family and grandchildren. Sharon will be missed at the College, but she goes with our warmest wishes for an amazing retirement.

I would like to remind our students, our staff – who deserve every moment of their holiday break – and our families to embrace time to do something meaningful for yourselves. Acts of kindness and compassion are always within our control. They connect us to each other as shared human experiences, they assist us to focus on gratitude and they reframe our thinking to ensure we focus on the positive, rather than be dragged into the ‘doom and gloom’ the world entices us to believe.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday break and I look forward to welcoming you back in Term 3. 

Joanne Sheehy - Principal/Head of College

Every year more than 1400 birthday cards to A.B. Paterson College students celebrating their special day. For the next 12 months, these cards will feature the designs of four very talented young artists - Bree Holt (Year 8), Lucy Wu (Year 6), Charli Cooke (Year 3) and Makena Kainikkara (Year 2). Congratulations on your beautiful artwork!

Principal/Head of College, Joanne Sheehy presents the winners with a framed copy of their birthday card design.

This week we were fortunate to receive a visit from two members of the Whitehead family, Phillipa and Jessica of Mentone Station.

During the College’s flood relief fencing effort, in Winton last year, we formed relationships with many of the graziers in the region. Mentone Station and the Whiteheads were a College favourite and it was tremendous to have them tour the College, reuniting with our Year 12s who travelled to Winton last year.

Spending time with Phillipa and Jess was a great way for the students to reconnect with their memories of the trip and of Western Queensland, reminding them of the generous hospitality we enjoyed during our brief visit.

Mentone Station is a large cattle property an hour north-east of Winton. During the flood they lost majority of their cattle and a lot of their fences. The past 12 months has brought more stable weather conditions, but they have not received enough rain and are still doing it pretty tough. To see their bright smiles, resilience and generosity is something to aspire to and a great way to give our students greater perspective of life in regional Queensland.

Travis Templar - Winton Flood Relief Organiser & Maths Teacher

Wash your hands, save a life!

As Term 2 draws to a close it so important to stop and reflect on the term that was. Our versatility, along with our resilience, has been stretched to the core. We have accomplished the unimaginable over the past few months, together. Though initially apart, we were all intricately connected and have seemingly returned to the College with a heightened inner strength, hope and appreciation of those around us.

Amongst a myriad of shared experiences, our Year 12 Japanese students recently reconnected with our youngest College members to share their joy of learning a second language together and teach our College community a very important lesson – to continue to wash our hands over the holiday period.

During a global pandemic, one of the cheapest, easiest, and most important ways to prevent the spread of a virus is to wash our hands frequently with soap and water. So please remember everyone to wash, wash, wash, goshi, goshi, goshi!

Watch the wash, wash, goshi, goshi video: https://www.facebook.com/abpatersoncollege/videos/2706469559588544/

Wishing you all a safe and a Happy Holiday!

Barriga Sensei

“It was great to connect with the younger students as we haven’t been able to interact with them over the past few months. It is amazing to see students that young practicing their Japanese!” – Adeeba Hossain

“Even with the current situation, we were still able to interact with the younger generation, joining together to educate others to stay safe while continuing our language journey and uniting those who have just begun it.” – Chloe Lim

 “Learning the choreography was certainly a challenge but we are all rather theatrical and with Barriga Sensei’s guidance, we took it all in our stride.” – Sascha Lawton

Best Role-Play Contest

Our Year 7 Spanish students participated in the Languages Faculty annual Best Role-Play Contest in which they demonstrated their Spanish-speaking skills in a variety of situations as if they were in a Spanish-speaking country.

They created their own scenarios and devised role-plays based on the language learnt in the classroom. Students were then treated to an Oscars-style experience in which prizes were awarded based on the level of difficulty and accuracy of Spanish skills utilised.

Students were also encouraged to tap into their creative minds and explore their acting skills in the process, with marks awarded for creativity, use of props and overall wow factor!

La Profesora Barriga, La Profesora Lindeberg and La Profesora Valade, found it hard to choose a winner, and couldn't be prouder of everyone for what they have achieved in a term like no other!

Michelle Barriga - Assistant Head of Languages

There is evidence to suggest that if a child can’t say it, they can’t write it, therefore, children who talk productively and as participants in real and rich conversations, are more proficient writers.

In Prep and Year 1, students have been engaging in The Big Talk process, as well as consolidating their understanding of VCOP (Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation). In class, we select an interesting image to use as a stimulus for class discussions. After viewing these stimulus images, students are given the opportunity to talk to each other, as well as to the teacher, about anything that comes into their minds, relating to that stimulus. As a class, we discuss and describe each image, welcoming different thoughts and responding to questions. The purpose of this is to allow all students to verbally share as many ideas and words as possible; with the view to explore new and exciting vocabulary along the way, whilst engaging in rich language stimulation.

As vocabulary plays an important role in fostering reading development, these oral language discussions assist students in consolidating their literacy development, which yields strong readers and writers later in life. Here are some examples of spoken ‘juicy’ sentences by our very own Year 1 students!

One cold and chilly morning, the leaves were rustling, the dog was madly barking and… I was running late for school!! Luke Williamson (1D)

I could feel the cold sea blowing in my face as I gently walked across the bright yellow sand. Alexis Walmsley (1D)

Whoosh! The trees were blowing gently in the air, the leaves scattered across the cold, grey concrete floor and then I noticed something strange… a man was walking his dog in bright purple pajamas!  What! Dex Quenon (1D)

The Big Talk and VCOP journey will continue next term in Prep and Year 1, and we look forward to sharing more details shortly.

Trent Davis – Year 1 teacher 

The Planeteers have launched a new initiative inviting parents to help us on our mission to reduce single use plastic and cans from ending up in landfill.

Each Tuesday morning during term time, between 7:45am and 8am we will be in the Marble Arch car park near the big red recycling bin. The Planeteers want you to donate to us your 10c plastic bottles and cans. We can now also accept empty, rinsed alcoholic 10c drink containers. They will then be taken to be recycled into other goods, with the proceeds to go towards our community garden.

There are a few things we need your help with, to make the process a little easier.

• Ensure that the containers you bring in have the 10c logo on them and are non-alcoholic bottles or cans (see ‘Yes’ image)
• Remove all contents inside and give them a rinse so they’re clean.
• Remove any lids from bottles as these cannot be recycled yet. These can be put into your recycling bins at home.
• Bring your items in a bag to the red bin where a friendly Planeteer and Miss Moore will be there to collect them.
• Feel amazing that you’ve helped reduce landfill and helped the Planeteers raise money towards building our community garden.

If you are interested in participating, please print off the logo below and place it on your dashboard for the traffic guides to help direct you into the right lane to minimise any congestion.

Watch the latest 10c Tuesdays video: https://www.facebook.com/abpatersoncollege/videos/2393836414052087/

Remember, the Power is Yours!  #10cTuesdays