Term 2, Week 3 Newsletter - St Josephs Nudgee College

From the Principal

From Mr Scott Thomson (Term 2)

Boarding

Learning & Teaching

From Ms Suzie Tjin

As we hit the ground running, I encourage our young men to first look back before they move forward, by asking themselves the following questions:

How do I identify as a learner?
What strategies did I use last term when concepts were challenging? Were they successful in moving my learning forward? Do I need to rethink these?
Did I own my own learning? How did I track my learning progress over the term? Did I know what my next steps for improvement were?
Was I using active study strategies?

During Term 1, I was blessed to have many conversations with students and their parents about what study looks like for our young men. A common trap that I see some of our young learners fall into is the false pretense that time spent studying leads to improved results. Of course, there is logic to this, but time alone is not enough.

In the sporting context, time alone is not a determinant of improvement. Embarrassingly, as a child, I could never master the javelin throw. Each time I threw a javelin, there was a 50% chance that the back of the javelin would hit my head on the way through, and a 100% chance that it would land the wrong way up, resulting in a foul. Regardless of how often I did it, this was always the end result. You see, I was practicing, but without precision, resulting in no measurable impact. I was simply repeating the same mistakes, and getting the same results.

In the study context, we may spend many hours engaging in revision-type activities, but are they effective in getting us the growth we’re after? For example, reading and re-reading notes, or even re-writing notes, are strangely alluring study strategies. But how many times have you read and then had to re-read something, because your mind has wandered elsewhere, not really paying attention to the text at hand?

My challenge to our young men this term is to be active in their study, by moving away from passive study techniques and considering the following study hacks:

If they prefer reading notes and re-writing notes, ensure this is accompanied by a strategy to test their recall. Covering their notes and attempting to re-write their notes from scratch will expose what is being committed to memory and what is not.
At the end of each day, our learners should consider developing Cornell notes to summarise their learning from each subject. A quick guide to Cornell notes can be found here.
At the end of each week, learners should reflect on what they have learnt and put themselves in the shoes of an exam writer. They should consider what they could be asked to do with the information they have learnt. Could they be asked to identify something on a diagram? Explain a concept? Link two concepts together? Analyse and evaluate information? Take a side and justify your argument? Learners should get in the practice of down possible exam questions to ensure they are comfortable using the information they have learnt in this way. This will help to alleviate the shock of exam questions that ask them to go further than simply recalling a definition.

By making small hacks to their study habits, the time spent studying becomes more precise, and ultimately, more effective. If our young men make these changes early in the term, and embed them as consistent habits, the depth of their understanding will increase, and comfortability and confidence with assessment will improve.

Best wishes to our entire Nudgee College community as we work together in the interests of our young learners this Term.

Learning Habits Awards

Congratulations to our young men who displayed outstanding learning habits over the course of Term 4, 2023 and Term 1, 2024. In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear states “Every action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.” Our Learning Habits Award recipients are certainly acting with purpose and developing consistent habits to set themselves up for success. Well done, gentlemen.

Year 10 Incursion | Shake & Stir

While the play may be some four hundred years old, the actors innovated upon the "misadventured piteous overthrows" to bring characters and plot events into the 21st century. Their use of technology to capture themes and significant moments helped our students to not only engage with the play but also see the relevance of themes such as loyalty, family, love and betrayal to our modern world. Very handy given the nature of their upcoming assessment! Our Year 10 students were exemplary with regards to their audience manners, and showed their appreciation to the actors with a hearty round of applause and a thoughtful Vote of Thanks from Year 10 student Tim Nash.

Hear from our students below:

"The play was performed exceptionally by Shake & Stir. The utilisation of 3 people playing many different characters on stage displayed the fact that they rehearsed frequently and could perform on the day. They used trust in one another typically in the fighting scenes in which one wrong move could cause them to potentially gain an injury. The use of props, clothing and the fast pace made it exciting for the intended audience of the Nudgee College Year 10 cohort and was enjoyable throughout the entire duration. From the original play, the change to being social media-based further reinforces that the play is for the targeted audience of students. Overall the play created by Shake & Stir of Romeo and Juliet was intriguing throughout the whole play and if they were to come back and perform again, I would assume myself and my peers would enjoy it very much." (Nick P)

"The Romeo and Juliet play held on Tuesday this week was quite eye-catching. The actors from Shake & Stir did a great job of doing all their roles and how they transitioned to each character very fast. It must've been a tough job, especially talking in front of 200 boys. Everything they did was perfect, from the fighting to the acting itself. The thing I quite liked was how they modernised the entire play and saw what it would be like if they were in our time. During the play, they showed most of the bits that were going to be important to the assignment we were given, from the fight at the beginning, and the fight at the end, showing that two wrongs don't make a right." (Henry M)

"I quite enjoyed Shake & Stir's performance of Romeo and Juliet and it surprised me how much I liked it. I came into the performance expecting it to be a play like the ones at QSAC but it ended up being enjoyable and interesting because of their take on the story and how it related to modern times. The use of social media and television as a way of advancing the story, introducing characters and adding some bits of comedy intrigued me into staying engaged in the performance. I would definitely recommend Shake and Stir for future grade 10 students to help understand the story in a more relatable way." (Sean W)

In Term 3 we will welcome the theatre company back to the College for a performance of Macbeth, the text studied by Year 12 English students for the external exam. Parents may also like to have their Year 12 sons view the film version of Macbeth that will be showing at Palace and Dendy cinemas at the start of May.

Term 2, Week 3

From the Principal

From Mr Scott Thomson (Term 2)

Boarding

The next few weeks in Boarding

Learning & Teaching

From Ms Suzie Tjin

Year 10 Incursion | Shake & Stir

Student Formation

You Are Not Alone Conference

Year 7 Mother and Son Luncheon

Giving Day

Giving Day 2024

Sport

Term 2 Week 3 & 4 Sports Recap

Performing Arts

From Mr Sam Smith

Careers Website

Nudgee College Careers Website

Coming Up

Weeks 5, 6 & 7