Below are our PAL and CM leaders for 2021. A PAL leader will guide and support your student whether it be pastoral or acaedmic. 

ACW Pastoral Academic Leaders (PAL) 

ACW Curriculum & Middle Leaders 

STUDENT VOICES AT ASSUMPTION COLLEGE

One of the many priorities Assumption College is keen to further foster is our College students' empowerment in the classroom, across the College and in our communities. Students who find their own voice in a supportive school such as ours are more likely to develop not only confidence but a capacity to act in the world and a willingness to lead others.  

Student engagement is enhanced when students feel able to exert influence and to be heard. Students are growing up in an increasingly technological society, and the need for them to understand how to use their voice in a meaningful way is crucial for their future. As teachers, it is our responsibility to provide students with significant opportunities to develop their own voices and use them effectively.

Assumption College has been supporting our students to experience success in having their voices heard in the last few weeks. 

LIONS YOUTH OF THE YEAR

On Thursday evening, 25 February, and Monday evening, 1 March, two of our senior students, Kaitlyn Newley and Matthew Higgins, participated in the first round of the Lions Youth of the Year Quest. 

Although this prestigious competition was not held in the Warwick region this year, Kaitlyn and Matthew were determined not to be dissuaded from the opportunities the event presented and participated in the local Boonah contest. On Thursday afternoon, Kaitlyn and Matthew drove with Mrs Bennett to Boonah for an individual interview with a panel of judges. During this interview, Kaitlyn and Matthew were asked to talk about their academic, cultural, and sporting achievements; their participation in community life; and give opinions about topical issues.

On Monday evening, Kaitlyn and Matthew initially addressed two impromptu questions (which had to go for 2 minutes each). They presented their five-minute prepared speeches before family and members of the Boonah Lions Club and wider Boonah community. The first impromptu question asked students to give their opinions/ideas about maintaining a healthy attitude to social media, while the second impromptu question asked them to discuss their views and experiences of learning during the COVID-19 lockdown of schools last year. Both students are to be congratulated on their performance. It’s certainly not easy standing up in front of a mostly unknown audience and responding to impromptu questions, but Kaitlyn and Matthew seemed to handle it with style, grace and ease. Both of their prepared speeches were engaging and very well-delivered. Kaitlyn’s prepared speech was on the unrealistic pressures placed on young females in the media. Matthew spoke about inaccurate and unrealistic representations of men and the dire consequences this has for all of us. 

Matthew Higgins won the Public Speaking Award, and Kaitlyn Newley was the runner up to the local Boonah student who was the overall winner at Club Level.  

Congratulations to both Kaitlyn and Matthew for their perseverance to participate in this quest. Both students spoke beautifully and conducted themselves admirably, and were a source of great pride for their families, the College and certainly me.

Many thanks to the Boonah Lions Club for their support of our students; to the judges for giving up their time; and to the families of the students involved for their time and support. We look forward to the competition being held in Warwick in 2022. 

DEBATING 

Debating is another way Assumption College is supporting students to experience success in having their voices heard. It is a vital extra-curricular activity and one that we want to continue to nurture at the College. We have had an overwhelming response from our students to be involved this year, and we are very proud of the interest students are showing. As a result, we have been able to enter teams for each year level division – Year 7 (one team), Year 8 (three teams), Year 9 (one team), Year 10 (one team) and a Senior team into the Queensland Debating Union’s Toowoomba competition. What a tremendous response!

In response to our students’ interest, the Queensland Debating Union provided a free workshop for all local Warwick students involved in the competition on Thursday 11 February at Assumption College. The workshop ran from 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm. 

Mr Tony Scarcella, the Program Manager of the Queensland Debating Union, based in Brisbane, travelled to Assumption College and ran the workshop where he had our students riveted for the entire afternoon. Topics covered in the workshop included the fundamentals of debating, case construction for short prep debates, rebuttal techniques, and points of information, all of which are relevant to our debating teams.

Since then, our students, most of whom have never been involved in debating before, have successfully participated in the first round of the Toowoomba regional competition.

On Wednesday evening, 24 February, our Year 9 team challenged Toowoomba State High School and were victorious. The Senior team went up against The Glennie School and were narrowly defeated.

The Years 7, 8 and 10 debating teams travelled to Toowoomba on Wednesday, 3 March for their first round of debates. One of our Year 8 debating teams (8.2) experienced a resounding win against St Mary’s College. Our other teams were narrowly defeated; however, this experience will allow each of our students to apply with greater insight their knowledge and understanding of debating to their experience of an actual competitive debate. Nothing builds better understanding than experience – competing schools had better watch out for the Assumption College teams in the future debating rounds!

Of course, a big thank you to our teachers who, in response to the students’ willingness and eagerness to participate in debating, are volunteering their time and effort to support and coach our debating teams. These teachers include Mrs Melanie Fraser, Miss Hannah Barclay, Miss Belinda Payne, Mrs Carmel Wooding, Mr Ken Turnbull and the irrepressible enthusiasm of (a successful National debater himself), Mr Patrick Donnelly.  Further thanks is also extended to Mrs Wooding, Miss Barclay, Mr Turnbull and Mr Donnelly who have travelled with me to Toowoomba to support and supervise our debaters.

Let us all continue to further encourage and support student empowerment through the careful nurturing of their positive voices.

Debating Workshop

Mrs Natalie Bennett

Curriculum Leader – English and Languages

QPAC - COME FROM AWAY TRIP NEXT TERM

All students are invited, be the first to secure your seats! Grab a group of friends to share the day with. Numbers are limited.

If you are thinking about joining the QPAC school trip to see the musical here is some more information and some clips that may be of interest for you to find out more about it! 

It’s a great opportunity to see something new and for some of you to see a full stage performance at QPAC for the first time. Notes are at the office about it- the cost is $75 that covers the $55 ticket and contributes to paying to the bus expenses. You can pay a $20 deposit to secure your ticket and then pay the rest off by April. We will leave at 9:00 and have morning tea/lunch together and some time to look around the art gallery/museum in groups before the performance. We will be getting home around 6:00 pm.

About The Show – Come From Away

Come From Away performance 'Welcome To The Rock' | Olivier Awards 2019 with Mastercard - YouTube

Cast of "Come From Away" performs for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - YouTube

Year 7 Art

This week in Year 7 Art, students have been learning to use the right side of their brain.  This is often difficult to do because they have to learn to 'still' their often busy, left mode brain.  In order for students to be successful they were challenged to draw Pablo Picasso's "Stravinsky".  This activity required them to turn the art piece upside down, cover the image and gradually draw the lines that they could see and then slowly reveal more and more of the image.  As students negotiated their way through their drawing, the classroom was so quiet because all students managed to engage their creative right mode.  The results were amazing and students all displayed varying levels of success.  

Year 9 Ag

The Year 9 Ag class have been successful in hatching silky chickens this term. The eggs were kindly donated by Alyssa March's parents, Craig and Jodie March. The students were able to enjoy the process of incubating them and candling the eggs to check on their development.  We now have a healthy clutch of chicks to enjoy and care for.  Thank-you to the March family for providing the eggs for our Year 9 Ag class.  

Year 12 Pastoral & Academic Bulletin 

By Alison Porter, Year 12 Pastoral & Academic Leader (PAL Acting) 

In this fortnight the theme for our Year 12 students has been considering what changes they can make to demonstrate maturity in their choices. Many of our Year 12 students are demonstrating great efforts and contributing responsibly to our school community. I have been encouraging them to make the most of their final year and be at their best.

This fortnight’s student year level meeting has included the following discussions with Year 12 students:

CONGRATULATIONS!

• Congratulations to Lillie Clarke, Kaitlyn Newley and Lauren Hutchinson on their impressive applications to the Zonta Young Women in Public Affairs award. Lauren Hutchinson was the winner of the award for our local Zonta club.
• Congratulations to Declyn Osborn, Georgia Osborne, Jake McGrath, Sophie Lambert and Matthew Higgins for receiving Positive Behaviour Cards. This card is awarded by college staff for consistent displays of positive behaviour in the classroom or in the college community.
• Congratulations to Matthew Higgins and Kaitlyn Newley on their work with Lions Youth of the Year.
• Congratulations to Mr Bruce Logan and our Year 12 Leaders for kicking off Café 112 (senior café) with milkshakes and iced drinks. This was a huge success and we are hoping to continue this on Fridays and create a lunch time space for our seniors.

NOTES & REMINDERS

• Reminder about uniforms and importance of wearing these correctly and with pride.
• Senior Jerseys can be worn on Thursdays according to school uniform policy.
• ATAR and interested students can attend the University Showcase next week if permission slips are returned.
• The need to demonstrate appropriate behaviour at lunch times and those in breach of this will have lunch detentions or behaviour management consequences applied according to college policy.
• The importance of consistent attendance at school. Absences, including late starts and early leaves can mean that students are missing important learning and set them behind in their studies.
• Students have been reminded to check their QCE learning accounts to ensure that data in the account is correct and up to date. This is important so that students can see how many QCE points they have already ‘banked’ and monitor their progress towards achieving their QCE.