Volume Five, Thursday 1st April

In the southern hemisphere it is somewhat difficult at Easter time to comprehend the sense of anticipation, hope and new life that one does in the northern hemisphere where days are getting longer, spring is in abundance, and the long summer holidays are temptingly close. In Australia, Easter comes as days are shorter and the trees more barren. Easter reminds us, as does nature, that we cannot experience the joy, hope and light of new life, without some pain and darkness. Easter Sunday is preceded by Good Friday. Maybe in our consumerist, affluent society, we believe that we can buy or invent our way out of disappointment or some form of suffering. The message of Easter is that suffering, disappointment, loss or diminishment have to be faced and not turned away from – because it is through suffering that we can experience the redeeming love of God; we learn that we have to depend on others; on hope. In an age where we are charged with ensuring that children’s well-being and happiness should be paramount, are we in danger of misleading them into thinking that life will be problem-free? Our young people need the gift of hope that comes from Christ’s resurrection, but they also need to realise it occurred only because of some form of loss, or struggle, or disappointment. We all need help to gain the resilience required to live fully. We need each other; we need strong supportive, consistent communities such as family and schools, such as Oakhill College.

Thank you to all students, staff and parents for being that community for each other this term. You are all amazing and together we achieve amazing things. Oakhill College is family. Have a wonderful holiday break and I look forward to seeing students returning happy and ready for some hard work in Term 2 and our parents and friends at the fields and courts and theatres.

Happy and Holy Easter.

Br Steve Hogan fsc
Principal

This Easter if in our busy world we can make time to: Be still and know that I am God. Ps. 46:10.

We pray for Mr Thomas Magee, father of Mr Andrew Magee grandfather of James (Year 10), Dan (Class of 2017) and Joel (Class of 2019), who had been ailing for some years.

Our prayerful condolences to his wife and extended family.

Let us pray:

Eternal rest grant to Mr Thomas McGee, O Lord.
May the perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in the loving Lord’s eternal peace.
Amen

To kick off our winter ISA season, Mission@Oakhill will be holding our annual 'Show Your Colours Day' on Friday 30th April [Week 2, Term 2].

This year we are raising much needed funds for our friends at Baabayn. This community provides Aboriginals in Western Sydney a place to meet and reconnect with their spiritual identity. We are raising money to update and renovate the children's playground and build a 'Gunyah' shelter. In a collaborative project with the elders Baabayn we will utilise the talents of our Construction classes and Lasallian Youth Leaders to make a real difference in our local community. 
https://www.baabayn.org.au/

To show your colours, students may wear their favourite team jersey instead of the College blazer. This will be worn over your College uniform on Friday 30th April. The minimum of a gold coin is the 'fine' for wearing a jersey and this will be collected during Tutor class. We will also be holding fundraising BBQs and cake stalls to help our friends.

Thank you in advance for your support of this worthy cause.

Chris Goodman and the Mission@Oakhill Team

Following the devastating explosion in Beirut, Oakhill organised fundraising activities to assist our Lasallian schools and raised over $5,300.00 to help with the cleanup and replacement of vital teaching aids and equipment. Elliott Prasad, one of our Lasallian Captains has produced a video to show our solidarity and support for our brother and sister schools. This has been sent to our Lasallian schools in Lebanon Mont La Salle, Notre Dame, De La Salle, Ecole St Vincent de Paul:

Kids Helpline was founded by Br Pat McCarthy at Boystown (now Yourtown) in Brisbane in 1991. It is one of the many Lasallian organisations that offer assistance to young people in need throughout Australia. The 30-year anniversary of Kids Helpline, the only free, 24/7 online and phone counselling service marks a significant milestone for the service, and decades of support with more than 8.4 million telephone and online contacts responded to over that time.  

Kids Helpline took its first call in Brisbane on 25th March 1991. On its first day, 3,200 young people called Kids Helpline, two-and-half years later Kids Helpline was operating as a national service available 24x7 in every Australian state and territory.

Within a year of opening, Kids Helpline had answered 75,000 calls and by 1993, its calls numbered over one million.

According to Ms Adams CEO, Kids Helpline has become a crucial part of the child protection and mental health systems and works to not only support young people but to normalise the concept of help-seeking. The complexity of issues reported to Kids Helpline over the past 30 years has grown substantially, as has the number of children and young people using the service in an ongoing way. 

What started as phone service has become so much more with support available via phone, email, webchat, and information and resources available via social media and the website. In recent times the service has also evolved to include KHL@School taking counsellors in primary school classrooms via virtual means and introduced counsellor moderated peer-to-peer support via MyCircle.

“Many may not realise that Kids Helpline also works as an important public advocate for young people, using non-identifying data we give voice to the concerns, needs and aspirations of your people.   

“Kids Helpline continuously listens and seeks to understand youth perspectives. We believe it is an important part of our role to use every means at our disposal to effectively support and promote the protection of young people,” says Ms Adams. 

Our Easter Liturgy today was centred around our theme of service: ‘It all starts with you, each and every Lasallian at the College. We are the light, we are the city on the hill’. Br Garry and Matt Murrie relayed a personal story of volunteering in Papua New Guinea and serving others and the huge changes that they made. They spoke of the positive impacts each individual can easily make in their daily life. Our challenge was set – how will you be at the service of others? Small actions x lots of people = big change!

As we near the end of this Easter season, we also reflected on the time of Lent and what it means to us and what changes we have made and what changes we will continue to make. Our Drama students performed the washing of the feet, symbolic of Jesus serving other's and our band and choir raised the roof with their musical talents. 

Mrs Gabby Russo
Marketing and Community Liaison Co-ordinator

This is a reminder that all students are to return for Term 2 in their full winter uniform – blazer and junior or senior tie for boys; stockings, blazer and tie for girls. A reminder also that students need to return appropriately groomed, this includes appropriate haircuts.

Ms Deborah Gillis
Assistant Principal Pastoral Care

There are many opportunities for leadership at Oakhill College. Some of those leadership opportunities are ‘badged’ leadership positions. However, it is evident from those who took on the challenge of running for Year 8 Tutor Group Captain, that there are also many ‘unbadged’ leaders within the Year 8 cohort this year. 

Being a Tutor Group Captain is a leadership opportunity that gives boys the chance to be elected by their peers to represent and lead their Tutor Group. This year, speeches and voting for Year 8 Tutor Group Captains were undertaken in Week 7, with numerous boys from each Tutor Group making passionate speeches to their peers about why they should be elected as their leader. Some of the votes were extremely close and all of the boys should be proud of the way they represented themselves in that process.

From the voting results, the Year 8 Tutor Group Captains for this year are:

8BEN01 – David Mitchell

8BEN02 – Jarvis Hemmings

8LAS01 – Jaden Pather

8LAS02 – Joshua Foo

8MIG01 – Rhys Webster

8MIG02 – Henry Abood

8MUT01 – Cruz Adams

8MUT02 – Lachlan Diaz Brand

8SOL01 – Christian Attard

8SOL02 – Radheen Wettasinghe

8TUR01 – Nathan Colaco

8TUR02 – Jacob Tomaro

These boys will be meeting as a leadership group every fortnight. Their main responsibilities will be assisting the Tutor Teacher in Tutor Group, setting a high standard in behaviour/uniform/attitude, relaying messages to their Tutor Group about Year 8 activities and initiatives and encouraging their Tutor Group peers to get involved in the Oakhill Community. 

Keep an eye out for some new Year 8 activities and initiatives coming from this leadership group in Term 2!

Mrs Kim Robertson
Year 8 Assistant Dean

We hope you can join us for the annual Oakhill College Sports Lunch. Tickets are now on sale. To book, please click here.

A friendly reminder that Flexischools orders are not be processed during the school holiday break.

The College Uniform Shop will be open on Thursday 15th April from 8.00am-11.30am.

All students are reminded to return in Winter Uniform in Term 2.

La Salle house has had a very busy and exciting Term 1. We had the pleasure of taking home the Championship trophy for the 2021 Swimming Carnival. 

Naomi Wong from La Salle represented Oakhill in the swim team, breaking multiple records at Sydney Olympic Park in the ISA Carnival. Naomi was a key element to the success of our Oakhill girls’ team.

We have again started House competitions after last year’s events, where La Salle 5 won. We began this competition with a classic egg and spoon race, with La Salle 8 finishing in the lead. This competition is important in building spirit and new friendships within our House, with the bonus of the winners receiving a pizza lunch. Overall, the competition has started off strong, and we can’t wait to see what the winners bring to the table in the weeks to come!

Noah and Paige
La Salle House Captains

On a wet and dreary Monday, we were pleased to welcome the NSW Swifts to Oakhill for a training session, including Coach Briony Akle and ex-student Tayla Fraser (Class of 2017).

These dedicated elite athletes are gearing up for another successful season and we wish them well for 2021.

Oakhill has commenced the enrolment process for girls for Year 11, 2022. Our Girls Enrolment Evening will be held on Thursday 29th April at 7.00pm in the Miguel Lecture Theatre. Please register for this event here: https://oc-au-nsw-340.app.digi...

Please pass this on to any families who are interested in applying to Oakhill College.

Important dates for the enrolment process:

• Thursday 29th April - Girls Enrolment Information Evening 
• Friday 7th May – Online Expression of Interest form closes
• Friday 7th May – Complete an Online Application
• Friday 21st May – Attend an interview at Oakhill College
• Early Term 3 – Offers of Enrolment will be made.

Congratulations to our Year 10, 2021 for our best achievement ever in the NESA Minimum Standards Tests in Reading and Mathematics held this week. Minimum Standards Tests were introduced in NSW in 2018 as a requirement for the issue of an HSC. This week 100% of our Year 10 boys achieved the Minimum Standard in Reading and 99% achieved the Minimum Standard in Mathematics. The Writing results will be received after the holidays. This affirms the hard work and the self-motivation of the students themselves to do well in their learning and also endorses the College initiatives in regard to improving reading, writing and numeracy. These include the ‘Writing Across the Curriculum’ program; Read to Succeed program; and our newly introduced Wednesday Reading program where all staff and students stop everything for 25 minutes and read for leisure. I refer to it as a health and wellbeing activity as reading can calm and soothe, can solve problems, can stretch the imagination; it can develop vocabulary, improve understanding and articulation, and increases the level of success in learning, therefore, an all-round lift in mental wellbeing.

Congratulations to the Year 10 students. Congratulations to our teachers.

Br Steve Hogan fsc
Principal

Many students find it really difficult to cope with the memorisation that can be needed for tests and exams. Of course you can’t just rote learn and regurgitate, you need to be able to apply the skills of what you have learnt. However there is also a certain amount of memorisation of content, formulas and definitions for example that will be necessary. So how can students make this process easier?

Make your notes as brain-friendly as possible, point form, tables, diagrams and no big long sentences or paragraphs.

Start the memorisation process of your notes early, don’t wait until just before the test or examination.

Memorisation involves testing yourself over and over and over and over. So read a section, then see what you can say or write down without looking. Then go back and see what you got wrong or didn’t know.  Put a pencil mark next to these bits.

Now focus on the bits you didn’t know. Say them out loud, repeat them to yourself, write them down a few times. 

Then test yourself on those bits again and see if you remembered more this time. 

Do this over and over and over again. Then do it one more time again. 

Make flashcards or use a flashcard App on your phone to create flashcards on the parts you find hard to remember. Review these every day before the test.

Make a list of the key concepts you find hard to learn and each night read through them just before you go to sleep and first thing when you wake up as these are powerful memory times.

Do lots of practise questions without looking at your notes or the answers to see if you can a) remember and b) apply the information. Review the things you did not remember again. 

Your job is to keep testing yourself in order to find out which bits have not stuck in your memory yet so you can review these until they do. 

Learn more this year about how to improve your results and be more efficient and effective with your schoolwork by working through the units on www.studyskillshandbook.com.au . Our school’s access details are: 

Username:        foroakhillonly
Password:         41results (the 1 is a number)

Ms Rose Garofano
Assistant Principal Curriculum

For parents of children who are new to the College this year, particularly new students in Year 7 or Year 11, do you have any diagnostic paperwork or report(s) for your child that have not yet been submitted to Oakhill? 

Please send a digital copy of any diagnostic reports to:- Monica Watts, Academic Head of Learning Support at mwatts@oakhill.nsw.edu.au.

If you have concerns about your child’s educational performance that cannot be explained in the normal context of school, please make contact with the Oakhill College Learning Support team before considering external testing (mwatts@oakhill.nsw.edu.au).

When to Test?

If required, we recommend you organise psychometric testing before or around major transitions e.g. Year 6 into Year 7 or Year 8 into Year 9 but then hold off on any further testing until Term 4 of Year 11 (as testing to inform HSC Disability Provisions must not be conducted until this time). However, if you have concerns and have consulted with the Learning Support team, it is best to organise testing sooner rather than later.

We have a list of recommended providers who can look more closely at your child’s academic abilities and performance. We also suggest that you consider the following points when choosing an external provider, particularly for psychometric testing:

• Is there a conflict of interest, in other words, does the clinician provide more than assessment services, an intervention perhaps that might purport to ameliorate the symptoms of a diagnosis?
• Does the provider use DSM-V coding to reference the diagnosis?
• Does the provider discuss all costs up-front?
• Does the provider ask for a comprehensive background history and access to previous reports?
• Does the provider ask permission to approach the school for additional information or for a contact to pass on behavioural screeners to?
• For psychometric testing, will the provider be administering the most up-to-date versions of test instruments?  For example:

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fifth Edition (WISC V)
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Third Edition (WIAT III)

Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Learning Support team for further guidance around educational testing for your child.

Mrs Monica Watts
Academic Head of Learning Support

Last Wednesday 24th March, the HSC Advanced English cohort went into town to see some real live maskless theatre – a rarity over the last year or so! We took part in a symposium on The Shakespearean play Richard III conducted in person by the artistic director of Sport for Jove and a small troupe of his finest actors. The students had a great and informative time with one of Australia’s leading Shakespearean companies and the pages of notes they walked away with providing a real boost for their current study of the play.

Mr Rogan Jacobson
Academic Head of English

On Thursday 18th March, Year 9 Food Technology classes were given the opportunity to go to a Teppanyaki Restaurant in Chatswood.

The Teppanyaki branch of Japanese food involves the chefs cooking and serving the customers food in fancy ways, and often requires the customers to catch their food with their dishes, which could potentially end up messy, as in a quite literal mess. The reason for the Food Technology classes to go on this excursion was for the sole purpose of informing us about the ways of preparing Japanese food by allowing us to view the preparations with our own eyes. This term we have been covering multicultural foods, in particular aboriginal foods and bush tucker, which is what a fair proportion of our assessment is based on.

We finished off the day with an informative presentation from Mrs Isaac, our Co-ordinator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We were able to discover the variety of bush foods we have growing at Oakhill College.

Thank you to our teachers for organising the excursion. We had a wonderful time.

 Isaac Tocher and Dominick Taborek, Year 9

We thank our families for participating in our Tutor Day on Monday 29th March. This is an important day to strengthen the connection between your son / daughter, the College and your family. All families have been sent a link to complete a short survey about the day. Your responses are appreciated in planning for this event. The survey link will close on Monday 5th April.

The Walk the Talk education initiative has been part of Oakhill College’s Boys to Men programme for five years. Year 10 have now embarked on this year long programme, beginning with Jack Ellis from Enlighten Education who came and talked to the boys about stereotypes, busting myths, generalisations of genders and positive masculinity. Jack spoke of respectful relationships, domestic violence and how young men are rising to #choosetochallenge the negative behaviours and attitudes that are toxic.

Following the workshop, Oakhill will begin raising money from an array of initiatives over the coming year and donate them to our women’s shelter partner, The Sanctuary. This is a tangible way that the boys can work and become involved in helping others and seeing first-hand the difference they can make to women’s lives who are escaping domestic violence or are homeless.

Mrs Gabby Russo
Marketing and Community Liaison Co-ordinator

To further support our Year 11s in becoming emotionally and mentally prepared for the HSC, we invited two Guest Speakers to workshop with students last week.

Dr Prue Salter from Enhanced Learning Educational Services (www.enhanced-learning.net) ran a study skills session with Year 11. The session focused on helping students identify changes and improvements they could make to their approach to their studies in order to maximise their results in their final years of school. The main areas covered with Year 11 were setting up an effective home study environment, managing resources for school (both paper and digital), working effectively at home and dealing with distractions, managing time efficiently, using the diary as a planning tool, making brain-friendly study notes and using a wide variety of active study techniques to suit individual learning styles. Parents are encouraged to review the handout from the session with students and discuss the main areas identified where changes need to be made. Parents can also find extra study skills tips on the following website: http://studyskillstoptipsparents.com/ .  

Students also attended a session with Natalie Vella from Human Connections (www.humanconnections.com.au). The main points of this session were how to get into the best mental and emotional state for peak performance. The students were presented with a range of techniques and strategies to help them manage stress and overwhelm, learn how to refocus on priorities and minimise mental focus on disappointments and set-backs, how to access motivation and deal with procrastination. The students also constructed a vision for HSC Success and implemented core "success" principles by using the 4 step process to set and achieve goals.  All secondary students at our school also have access to a great study skills website to help students develop their skills. Go to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au and enter the username: foroakhillonly and the password: 41results and start improving results today!

Ms Deborah Gillis
Assistant Principal Pastoral Care

Last week Year 7 went on a 3-day Camp trip to Camp Toukley. Tutor Groups 1 through to 7 were the first ones to arrive at camp.  Despite the heavy rains throughout NSW, we were lucky to have only a light downpour whilst we were there, but it was very muddy and messy.

Upon arriving we were briefed with the camp policies and we all headed to our respective cabins and had to choose our roommates. This was followed by lunch at the main auditorium. Food was fine, but the chicken schnitzel on our last night was arguably the best meal at camp. 

Some areas of the site were flooded and so activities had to be modified, but we still had plenty to do. l was able to do crate stacking, bmx riding, the giant swing, archery, team initiatives, coastal walk, beach games and the flying fox. Most of these activities were something new to us and pushed us outside of our comfort zones. Throughout the day's peers and teachers encouraged us to try our best and do something we never thought we could do.  The camp was fun and provided us all with opportunities to meet new friends and strengthen relationships with each other.

Liam Conlin, Year 7

The Year 7 Camp was the most awaited event of the year. Everyone has been excited and has eagerly waited for days to pass by for this event. I was in the second group of Year 7 so my group went from Wednesday 24th to Friday 26th March. Despite the severe weather conditions and mass flooding all over NSW, the bus trip was smooth. On day one we had our meals and got our cabins. I did the initiative games and the walking from the tyre to other tyres with planks. My cabin had all of my friends and the dessert was one of the things I loved the most. Another thing I loved was the plank and tyre game. We had to go to bed at 9:15pm and wake up at 7:30am the next morning.

On day two we did the coastal walk, beach games, crate climb and flying fox. I loved the crate climb and flying fox activities. After the coastal walk was morning tea and we played soccer during that time and my team won. There was a rocky area with small bodies of water next to the games that were happening during beach games, so I and the other half of my Tutor Group explored the area and I also loved this activity. On the last day, I did BMX riding and the giant swing. I loved both of them and I wish I could do It again. I went to the very top of the giant swing and felt the adrenaline rush, it was indeed a thrilling experience. The camp was an amazing experience. So much so that when I got home, I wanted to be back at the campsite. I wish that I can do It next year and re-live that experience.

Prithvee Mathad, Year 7

Our Show Team have been preparing for some months for The Royal Easter Show and were pleased to be able to attend this week. Since arriving, staff and students have been busy preparing, parading, showing and cleaning the animals, and have all enjoyed this experience immensely. To date our results are:

• 4th Place in the Middle Weight School Steer, led by Cooper Boffo

For Poultry:

• Aiden Fahey was awarded Overall Reserve Champion
• Cooper Boffo was awarded 4th Place for Hard Feather and Reserve Champion for Soft Feather
• Harry Mayhew was awarded 3rd Place for Soft Feather
• Jack Kenchington received 3rd Place for Hard Feather

Congratulations on these results.

Mrs Gabby Russo
Marketing and Community Liaison Co-ordinator

We had yet another fantastic Performing Arts Showcase on Friday 19th March for our Greatest Hits night. Friends and family were invited to come to the College to see some of the wonderful students we have here at Oakhill across our Music, Drama, Dance and Entertainment subjects. It was a great opportunity for them to perform to a live audience and with a live band, particularly for our HSC students.

It was a great night for all and the students should all be very proud of their amazing performances.

Mrs Rebecca Madigan
Administration Assistant Performing Arts

Winter Sport

Oakhill College Winter Sport was back in action on the weekend with our annual Indigenous Sport round against Barker College. Barker got the better of us in the Football fixtures, but Oakhill won most of the Rugby matches throughout the day. All of the Oakhill 1st teams went well and while the final scores went Barker's way in 1st XV Rugby and both Girls and Boys 1st XI Football, it looks like Oakhill College will be very prominent across all the ISA competitions this season.

Student's Achievement

William Hopkins (Year 8) competed at the NSW Junior State Championships at Sydney Olympic Park last week. His achievements were outstanding: 

5th Place 50m Breaststroke 
Silver Medal 50m Butterfly 
Silver Medal 100m Freestyle
Silver Medal 100m Butterfly
Silver Medal 50m Freestyle
10th Place 200m IM

Well done Will.

Congratulations to Finn Watkins (Year 12) who has been chosen in the U20s NSW Touch State of Origin Team. We wish him well for his games in Coffs Harbour in June this year.

Oakhill College Sports Lunch - Friday 4th June 2021 - tickets on sale now!

Get your tickets now via www.trybooking.com/BPZUB

VENUE: Doltone House, Darling Island.

TICKETS: $175 each (table of 10 - $1,750) includes a 2 course lunch and drinks.

The 2021 Welcome Event went off with a bang on Saturday 20th March, despite the weather we still had a full house of over 300 people.

Thank you to Meggs and Phil from QandA Trivia for bringing their fantastic Interactive Trivia to Oakhill. There was a lot of competition, laughs, fun and music, with the ultimate winners of the night, Table 5 – Master Carpets and Vinyls – one of our Gold Sponsors for the evening.

Thank you to Mr Domars and Ryan for providing the musical entertainment at the start of the evening! Thank you to our MC, Neil Joseph whose enthusiasm and fun words kept the night flowing. Thank you to the P&F members and volunteers who helped. Thank you to Renee Chong, Gabby Russo and College staff along with the Maintenance department who worked so hard to get things right and, in many cases, went above and beyond!

A huge thank you to all our sponsors - without their support we could not have got this show off the ground. From the fantastic food to the wonderful raffle and silent auction prizes, our sponsors provided it all. 

Finally, thank you to all those who attended. It’s our hope that you made some new Oakhill friends and enjoyed a great night out.

All in all, the event proved to be a great way to welcome new parents and reconnect with existing parents to Oakhill College for 2021. Thank you to the Senior Leadership Team and Performing Arts staff for attending and representing the wonderful staff.

See you all at our next event, GALA DAY Saturday 29 May.

Carina
2021 Welcome Event Co-ordinator

In support of Jersey Day, the Nathan Gremmo (Class of 2019) Memorial Shield is on Sunday 18th April. All welcome.

Two of our ex-students are participating in the World's Greatest Shave in June, as Stefanie's grandfathers has been diagnosed with Leukemia. Here is her story:

My grandfather had been feeling off for about a week and one day, and I felt that something was wrong, so I took him to Emergency. The next day, doctors told us that he would not make it through the weekend. Time stood still and I couldn’t comprehend that I was about to lose my hero, my best friend, my idol. We started intensive treatment immediately, the doctors and staff worked around the clock to try to save my grandfather’s life. 

Today, he is still here and in partial remission. He was lucky, but not everyone is. That is why I decided to do the World’s Greatest Shave and raise as much money as I possibly can to try and rid the world of this horrible, heartbreaking disease. I will be shaving my head completely as the smallest sacrifice to show my support to those who are suffering. 

On Sunday 27th June at Benzin Café in Dural, my husband and I will be shaving our heads. I would love the support from the community and any donation, no matter how small, is appreciated. I hope to see you there!

My donation link is: my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/stefaniedeskovic

Mrs Stefanie Deskovic, Class of 2008