At A.B. Paterson College, we offer a range of opportunities for our students to not only have access to a mentor, but to become mentors themselves. In Year 12, each of our students are assigned a staff member who is a mentor to help support and guide them through their final year of schooling. In each of our homerooms in the Senior School there are students from Year 7 to Year 12 who support each other and help guide those younger than them through the challenges of high school. In our Junior years, our Year 12 students spend each Monday lunch and Tuesday homeroom working with students across a variety of year groups to engage in play, reading and reiterate the importance of building relationships. 

Having access to a mentor is a gift, this person can act as a guide to support and help you navigate your way through a range of events that occur in life; friendship breakdowns, subject selection in Year 9 and university applications to name but a few. It is important that this relationship is built on mutual respect as the mentor is there not only guide to you, but to affirm and empower you. 

Meetings with mentors predominantly commence by discussing your goals, the journey you are currently on and what you hope to achieve. The goal of any mentor is for their mentee to take the journey out of the mentor’s hands, and to truly make it your own. To do this, and to achieve the goals set out in that initial conversation, takes a significant level of commitment and motivation.

There are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivators tend to involve compensation, reward or punishment whereas intrinsic motivators come from within. Becoming intrinsically motivated offers autonomy, mastery and purpose. Initially, extrinsic motivators can provide short bursts of motivation to help us commence working towards a goal, however, it is important not to rely on these as we can become used to the praise or live in fear of what the punishment can be. Rather, aim to develop intrinsic motivation and this is where a mentor can help you to find the drivers to motivate you to achieve your goals and identify your purpose. A mentor can help you to envision that moment where you have achieved success and can say, ‘I did that!’. This journey, however, will not be without its challenges and when things get tough it wont be the praise or the punishment that gets you through, but drawing on your intrinsic motivators; do I need to increase my autonomy to complete this task? Should I refer to my previous mastery to affirm that I can achieve this? Do I need to remind myself of my purpose and what I aim to achieve? 

Everyone is unique and will have different needs from different people in their lives. When meeting with a mentor or coach, consider:

- What are your goals?
- What does success look like to you? 
- What approach do you need from a mentor? 
- What obstacles might you encounter?

Discuss these questions as they can guide you to where you want to go and will help you to recognise the connection between today’s choices and tomorrow’s consequences. We have many opportunities available at the College to not only become a mentor or coach, but also to receive mentoring. By considering different types of motivators, and what a mentor can truly offer their mentee, these relationships can help those within our College community go from strength to strength; to achieve their goals and affirm their purpose. 

Charlotte Brook
Head of Senior School

Congratulations to the incredibly talented cast and crew of Guys and Dolls! This extravaganza of music, dance and drama was performed last week in the Dawn Lang Performing Arts Centre across multiple shows. Of course a huge round of applause must go to the seemingly never-ending talents and energy of the Performing Arts Faculty and Production team, lead by Sharyn Walker-Joyce, the AV/Sound and Lighting team, set designers, front of house volunteers, costumers, make-up and hair team and the Friends of A.B. Paterson College (FAB) for providing refreshments to our guests each night. What a fabulous start to Term 3! 

From Lisa Lang, Chair of the Friends of A.B. Paterson College...

On behalf of of the Friends of A.B. Paterson College I would like to congratulate everyone involved with the amazing production of 'Guys and Dolls'. The cast and crew did outstanding work. As always the work of the costume department lead by Lisa Wise and Janet Burrage was amazing. And last but by no means least, Sharyn Walker-Joyce and her team should be very proud.

As for the front of house - nothing would be possible without our fabulous volunteers, a huge thank you to Emma Dell, Paul Murphy, Phillip Mooney, Sara Malihi, Furie Chapman and Emma Dalziel. All of your hard work is most appreciated.

Cheers went up from the crowd of delighted Year 6 parents as the headlights from three Kangaroo Buslines' buses could be seen emerging from the darkness around 8:15pm Thursday night.

The buses were carrying some very precious cargo - our intrepid adventurers who had just conquered their nine day Outback Experience!

Well done Year 6, teachers and volunteers on your remarkable tour. We cannot wait to hear and read all about your experiences in the coming weeks. While you are getting some much-needed rest, we can enjoy some images from your outback adventure.

Thank you to Mr Wheeler for keeping us updated with some great happy snaps.

First comes listening, then comes speaking, next comes reading and then we are writing…

“Language, is how we think. It's how we process information and remember. It's our operating system. Vygotsky (1962) suggested that thinking develops into words in a number of phases, moving from imaging to inner speech to inner speaking to speech. Tracing this idea backward, speech—talk—is the representation of thinking. As such, it seems reasonable to suggest that classrooms should be filled with talk, given that we want them filled with thinking!”

From 'Content-Area Conversations' by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and Carol Rothenberg

Just how important is the vocabulary we use in a Prep classroom and what does this look like?

From explicit Jolly Phonic lessons, to singing and revising all 42 sounds taught over the past two terms, our Prep students have already been given a strong foundation in English literacy.

As we begin our reading journey in Prep, we are continually developing our speaking skills within the classroom. Children are encouraged to speak in complete sentences, not answering questions with one word answers or asking questions with simple and disjointed words: ‘Can I please go to the bathroom?’ instead of ‘Go to bathroom.’

Talking is the foundation of literacy and should be encouraged. As teachers, we are building the children’s vocabulary every day through conversation and questioning. The children’s 'Show and Tell' presentations are an integral part in developing speaking and listening skills.

Our Prep classrooms are filled with exposure to new and extensive vocabulary by the expression of ideas through feelings and emotions, creative thinking and language through craft, and the teaching of letter sounds through song and actions. All of which help to contribute to confident speaking in a fun and exciting way.

Term 2 saw the introduction of Prep students to ‘investigations’ within our Transport unit in Literacy: Investigating Real Problems. Students comprehend the problem by talking through it and asking themselves – what is it? They then developed their problem-solving skills by completing the investigation – how can we fix this?

Continuing in Term 3, we will be using the think-pair-share strategy. The children talk through the investigation from the beginning with a partner. Each child is given the opportunity to listen and speak to their partner and discuss their findings, procedures and any challenges they faced. Once the children have verbalised their ideas and problem-solving strategies, they will have the opportunity to write their findings in simple sentences. By first saying the sentence out loud, children are able to practise the structure of their sentence before committing it in writing to their book.

Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teaching and learning English literacy. It is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation.

As teachers, we look forward to continually developing these skills with our students each and every day, making learning PREP-tastic!
  
Prep Teachers
Bec Barraclough, Kristina Diaz, Jacinta Lauder and Jo Muirhead

No one person can claim credit for the idea of establishing our College over 30 years ago, still, one small group of dedicated people took that realisation and turned it into reality. One member of that original group of Founding Guarantors was Mr David Kerr.

Mr Kerr (pictured far right) was instrumental in ensuring our College opened with enrolments that would continue to grow. In fact, Andrew and Natalie Kerr were our first enrolments at our College; a testament to Mr Kerr’s belief in the Vision of our College.

Sadly, Mr David Kerr passed away this week on Monday 19 July, 2021 with our College flag flown at half-mast to acknowledge his passing and contribution to our community.

It was with the deepest of sympathy that we passed on our condolences to Mrs Kerr, Andrew, Natalie and their extended family on his passing this week.

Mr Kerr’s support of our College as a Founding Guarantor will be always remembered.

Image: First Board of A.B. Paterson College (L - R), Noel Boucher, Kelvin Hutchinson, Vince Thackeray, Alan Rickard, David Kerr.

'I can do that, I can listen.'
-Grietje Van Randen

Yarn can be defined as, spun thread used for knitting, weaving, or sewing and telling a story or talking.

Mob can be defined as, a colloquial term for a group of people and a group of sheep that run together.

In January 2019, the ABC ran a feature called, ‘A farmer made of baling twine’. Baling twine is made of synthetic fibres and is used to bind together hay into a compact bale. This twine is abundant throughout all farms and is usually discarded as waste. In Tasmania, a farmer called Grietje Van Randen decided to use blue baling twine to knit a sculpture of a farmer in order to raise awareness of mental health in the farming community. Ms Van Randen enlisted the help of her local community to knit and she found that, ‘they would tell me things that they had never spoken about before’. She explained that the process of having something to do with your hands whilst talking, allowed conversation to, ‘just flow out’. Ms Van Randen realised that, ‘it is not up to the listener to solve the problem’, it is simply the process of being able to talk and allowing your voice to be heard that was important.

Inspired by Ms Van Randen’s words and actions, I wondered if we could possibly bring the simplicity of listening whilst doing a meaningful activity into our own College community.

From small country towns to cities across Europe, I had seen knitting appearing on famous landmarks, statues and trees. When something unexpected appears in a familiar place this can often cause people to talk. Not only was the process of knitting creating conversation, but the finished pieces were encouraging people to talk and listen to each other. 

The briefest of conversations with our Director of Positive Education and Leadership, Toni Kirton was met with enthusiasm and before I knew it the Yarn Mob was born. Equipped with knitting needles and balls of wool, a steady flow of students from Years 4 to 12 started to meet every Monday lunchtime. A.B. Paterson College students are very quick to learn and it soon became evident that the knitting was a by-product of the discussions between us. The knitting was rarely the topic of our conversations and it continues to intrigue me how naturally we are listening to each other.

Our knitting has been joined and wrapped around the bicycle rack at the front of the College. We are hoping that our bright woolly creations will encourage passers-by to stop, just for a moment, and spark conversation which will involve not just talking but meaningful listening.

Angie Hall
Year 1 Teacher 

Recently, while perusing articles published online by the Australian Bush Poets Association, College Founder and Patron, Mr Alan Rickard was overjoyed to stumble upon a winning poem by Year 9 student, Isabelle Doo! Isabelle won the Junior Poetry section in the Laura Literary Awards. The judges comments included:

"From the very first line this poem grabs the reader and what a feast follows."

"Cleverly crafted with many reasons why we should all appreciate books."

Congratulations Isabelle! 

Please enjoy Isabelle's winning poem 'The Reading Room', below.

The Reading Room
by Isabelle Doo

A sandwich of ink and paper,
A banquet of pictures and words,
A meal of chapters and plot twists,
A recipe to read undisturbed.

An adventure of magic and mischief,
A planet of fiction and fun,
A holiday of romance and thrillers,
A quest on the moon or the sun.

A lake of knowledge and beauty,
A spring of wild thoughts and dreams,
An ocean of myths and legends,
A trench of betrayal and schemes.

A book is a weapon and antidote,
A quiet, imaginative friend,
To curl up with by the fireside,
To read to whatever end.

Some people think books are useless,
A jumble of phrases and rhymes,
But we know that the pages are precious,
To reminisce over one at a time.

So next time that the world gets you down,
Which is more often than we like to admit,
Get lost in the pages and listen to;
The stories who shape us bit by bit.

Excitement has hit fever-pitch at the home of our Lilly Pilly librarian, Mrs Stephanne Siberry! Together with husband Tyrone Clancy and daughters Treia (1H) and Tilda (Pre-prep Kangaroos), the family are eagerly awaiting the chance to cheer on their cousin, Taliqua Clancy, as she and her beach volleyball partner, Mariafe Artacho del Solar, compete for Gold at the Toyko Olympics!

Their first game is this Sunday at 1pm. And with the last name Clancy - like our A.B. Paterson College brumby mascot - Taliqua is sure to have luck on her side. 

Good luck Taliqua and Mariafe from everyone at A.B. Paterson College! 

Congratulations to our Week 2, Term 3 Bumper Sticker Winners!

Ashleigh Odgers-Jewell

Lanette Hughes

To be eligible to enter, simply get the new College bumper sticker from Administration, place it on your rear wndow and register your car in the competition here:

collegebumperstickercompetition@abpat.qld.edu.au

Include you car registration number, name, email and phone number.

Our lucky winners each receive $100 off their school fee invoice for the following term! At the end of Term 3, all of our weekly winners will be invited to an afternoon tea where one of our Term 2 and 3 weekly winners will win FREE* tuition for their eldest child for Term 4 2021! 

Don't delay, get your bumper sticker today!

(*tuition fee only)