Term 1 is in full swing and in a perfect world, all our students should be settling into a routine that helps them achieve overall growth and success in all aspects of their schooling.  Sometimes, adolescents can find it difficult to establish a balanced routine that works for them. To support students on achieving success leading directly into exams, on Tuesday 5 March Year 11 and 12 students will undertake sessions run by Elevate Education, Home | Elevate Education. The Year 12 students will work through Memory Mnemonics, Elevate - Memory Mnemonics and the Year 11 students Ace Your Exam, Elevate - Ace Your Exams sessions. These will be followed up by staff throughout the semester with follow up sessions presented by Elevate locked in for semester 2.

Some hints parents can use to support students heading into assessment across all grades are:

1. Create a study timetable. Understand what commitments you may have over the course of a week - work, family time, training, rehearsals, performances, games, socialising. Your study time is just as important as all the other activities that you commit to. Commit to blocks of time where you will study.
2. Set a goal/s for each session.Know what you would like to achieve in the dedicated study session and start working toward that. Some students might like to make this time bound and work in blocks of time.
3. Avoid distractions. There are many obvious distractions in any household but the most difficult one to remove is a mobile phone. The mere presence of a mobile phone, even if turned off, reduces available cognitive capacity. Mobile phones should be completely removed from the room for the most effective study to occur.
4. Start with the most difficult topics first.It can be tempting to start with the subjects you are confident in but in doing this you run the risk of tackling the challenging subject when you are more fatigued or worse, run out of time altogether.

Assessment Calendars

All Semester 1 assessment calendars have been published on our college website and the Parent Portal, Year 11 and 12 Exam timetables are now also available. Year 9 and 10 exam timetables will be published in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions about assessment, please contact your child's classroom teacher or Curriculum Leader.

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.

All students have electronic access to their assessment, and it is their responsibility to adhere to these due dates.

Students are responsible for planning and managing their time to meet the due dates.

Students and parents can contact teachers and Curriculum Leaders via Phoning or emailing to help with communication. Teachers are not able to grant extensions directly with 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 AARA processes has been approved. For example, a student who is absent due to family holidays will not be granted an extension for an assignment as this doesn’t meet the AARA guidelines set by QCAA.

YES! – Youth Entrepreneur Summit

Last week students from across Years 9 to 12 attended the Youth Entrepreneur Summit in Chinchilla with the support of the Western Downs Regional Council.

Students were empowered to focus on creative thinking and applying this to business and personal goals.

Two of our students. Evelyn Schrag(Year 10) and Amy Cartwright(Year 11) were award Best Pitch of the day as part of the challenge experience.

Mr Rodney Spain

Assistant Principal – Senior Years