Over the past and coming weeks, students in the Senior Years have engaged in a variety of school visits to promote their own self-development as learners.

While engaging with our students, it led me to reflect on a reading that I engaged with recently, 'The Tools' by psychotherapists Phil Stutz and Barry Michels. Five key quotes that stood out to guide my engagement with students are:

• “A sense of purpose doesn’t come from thinking about it. It comes from taking action that moves you toward the future.
• “We like to think we react to the world as it is, when really we react to a world that exists in our own minds. This inner world is so powerful, it overwhelms our ability to see reality.
• “There’s a hidden, inner strength that you cannot find unless you push yourself through adversity.”
• “Humans beings are only happy when they are reaching toward their full potential.”
• “Instead of seeing problems as an expression of a “condition” whose cause was in the past, we needed to see them as catalysts for developing forces that were already, present, lying dormant inside us.”

In discussion with students, often the future in unclear and they struggle with a way forward. The greater we push ourselves to meet our own goals, the greater the success we find comes our way.

Year 11 RAAP Program

Our Year 11 students will take part in the Queensland Fire Services Road Attitudes and Action Planning Program (RAAP) on Monday 20 March.

This an initiative of operational firefighters. It is designed as a preventative strategy to provide information to young people about road safety so that they can make an informed decision to mitigate risks and consequences by planning ahead.

RAAP is presented in the school environment by operational firefighters who have experience with the trauma involved with vehicle crashes. They bring the credibility of someone who experiences dangerous situations and incidents on a regular basis with continual exposure to the consequences of road crashes.

Purpose

The program is educational, designed to:

• Use the trusted status of firefighters in the community to provide young people with information so they can make informed decisions.
• Reduce the number of injuries and deaths in road crashes in the 17-24 age groups which is over-represented in the statistics.

Objectives

The program addresses the contributing factors putting young drivers at such a high risk including and not limited to:

• Less developed visual and perceptual skills
• Inability to accurately identify and respond to risks and/or hazards when driving
• Overconfidence
• Inattention caused by inexperience coping with distractions while driving
• Tendency to drive at high risk times (e.g. at night with a number of other young people in the car)
• Alcohol, illicit substances, prescription medication or a combination of these
• Deliberate risk taking (e.g. high speed driving and/or tailgating. 

Year 12 RACQ DOCUDRAMA VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

As a trial for rural Queensland, RACQ will be delivering RACQ Docudrama Virtual Classroom, an online road safety initiative. The program is designed to educate and inform senior secondary students, about the potential risks of travelling in a vehicle as both drivers and passengers.

The program will be conducted virtually and will consist of a series of online lessons, classroom conversation and an interactive, livestream event. Students began engaging in these lessons this week during Year Level connect classes. The livestream event will occur on Monday 27 March during the Period 1 A & B lessons.

Students will explore the Fatal Five; Drink and Drug Driving, Fatigue, Seatbelts, Speeding and Distraction which are the leading causes of incidents and crashes on our roads. They will discuss preventative and reactive strategies and will be encouraged to use these if, and when, they find themselves in a potentially dangerous driving situation.

Participation in this program will provide road users with valuable information and skills that will help them make safer choices as drivers and passengers. Students will benefit greatly from continuing conversations at home regarding the importance of safe driving practices.

Alongside these great opportunities, assessment and classes are continuing to run with students applying themselves well.

A reminder that if your child is involved in SBA’s or TAFE or other external courses, they are expected to attend school for all examinations here at the College on the day it is scheduled.

All assessment and exam timetables can be located on our College website, Our Lady of the Southern Cross College (dalby.catholic.edu.au)

If you have any questions about the assessment, please contact your child's classroom teacher in the first instance.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross College is responsible for gathering evidence of student achievement on or before the due date for internal assessment instruments.

Students are responsible for planning and managing their time to meet the due dates. Teachers are not able to grant extensions directly to students and parents/carers.

Our Lady of the Southern Cross College is required to adhere to QCAA policies about due dates accepting assignments only on or before the due date unless an extension through our College processes has been approved. For example, a student who is absent due to family holidays or sporting events can not be granted an extension for an assignment as this doesn’t meet the AARA guidelines set by QCAA.

I look forward to all the success these next three weeks will bring to our students.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Benjamin Franklin

Rodney Spain

Assistant Principal Senior Years