North Star Commendations
Recognising Student Achievement
North Star Commendations recognise the participation of students in all areas of College life throughout the school year in the cocurricular and extracurricular activities.
We use engagement and connection as the vehicle for students to navigate to their North Star so they are given the opportunity to utilise their God-given talents, to strive to be the best they can be so as to make a positive impact on the world.
Studies have shown that student resilience is influenced by both internal attributes and external factors. Schools can therefore play a vital part in creating protective factors to build a positive sense of wellbeing for students.
Some school protective factors include:
- A sense of belonging/connectedness,
- A positive school climate,
- Positive peer relationships,
- Positive teacher-learner relationships,
- Opportunities for success and recognition of achievement and effort,
- Opportunities for participation.
Students are awarded commendation points for their participation in the six categories of:
- Academic Achievement,
- Art/Performance Achievement,
- Christian Leadership,
- College Representation,
- School Community Building,
- Sporting Achievement.
Some of these commendations can represent participation in a ‘one-off event’ such as the Maths Comp, conducting a school tour, writing an article for the College newsletter or doing a reading at Mass. Other commendations can be awarded for sustained achievement in an activity such as SIS sport for the term, the College Production or holding a position of student leadership. Either way, receiving one North Star Commendation represents a commendable effort and achievement. Every one of these commendations will be recorded in the semester report as a recognition of this achievement.
This year we have had over 13,700 commendations awarded in different categories with this figure increasing from the previous years. The number of students participating at some level is also included below and is a fantastic endorsement of the program, students and staff we are blessed with at Padua College.
| Year Level | Number of students receiving at least one commendation on their school report |
| 7 | 383 |
| 8 | 442 |
| 9 | 428 |
| 10 | 342 |
| 11 | 305 |
| 12 | 162 |
Annual North Star Award
We congratulate the leading North Star recipients at each campus, who were acknowledged at the recent end-of-year assemblies.
ACER Social-Emotional Wellbeing Survey 2023
All Year 7-11 students completed this Social-Emotional Wellbeing Survey toward the end of the school year. The Social-Emotional Wellbeing Survey for secondary school students explores nine aspects of student social and emotional wellbeing, which are divided into three key domains:
- Feelings and Behaviours,
- Internal Strengths, and
- External Strengths.
Feelings & Behaviours Domain
The feelings and behaviours domain explores student levels of happiness, self-identity, behaviour and relationships with others by surveying the following two aspects:
- Positive Feelings and Behaviours
- Negative Feelings and Behaviours
Internal Strengths Domain
The internal strengths domain explores student levels of self-awareness and self-management of social, emotional and learning skills by surveying the following four aspects:
- Social Skills
- Emotional Skills
- Learning Skills
- Values
External Strengths Domain
The internal strengths domain explores the impact of positive influences, particularly adult influences, on students by surveying the following three aspects:
- Home
- School
- Community
Preliminary analysis of the data has shown an increase in the overall social-emotional wellbeing from the corresponding time in 2022. This is a tremendous result for our students and a true testament to the hard-working teachers and leaders who have worked tirelessly this year in very challenging circumstances to build resilience and live by our motto Omnia Perseverantia Vincit - Perseverance Conquers All.
I have taken the liberty of summarising each of the Domains and placing the real values into a table with an emoji included for ease of interpretation!
| 2022 | 2023 | |
| Year 7 | 295 | 363 |
| Year 8 | 367 | 377 |
| Year 9 | 311 | 379 |
| Year 10 | 301 | 262 |
| Year 11 | 273 | 219 |
| Total number of tests | 1547 | 1600 |
Overall Social-Emotional Wellbeing
Overall, the social-emotional wellbeing report provides a comparison of all students from your school and all schools, as distributed across each of the five developmental levels.
Negative Feelings and Behaviours
The Negative Feelings and Behaviours domain investigates student perceptions and experiences of negative emotions (such as anger, loneliness, being depressed or anxious) and behaviours (such as rule-breaking, bullying or being mean to others and underachieving).
Positive Feelings and Behaviours
Positive Feelings and Behaviours investigates students’ perceptions and experiences of positive emotions (such as happiness, self-regard and feeling safe) and behaviours (including participation, good behaviour and forming positive relationships with family, teachers and peers).
Emotional Skills
Investigates students’ perceptions of their emotional capabilities such as resilience, coping skills and positive, rational attitudes.
Learning Skills
Investigates student perceptions of their learning capabilities such as work confidence, persistence, organisation and work co-operation.
Social Skills
Investigates students’ perceptions of their social capabilities (such as friendship-making, solving problems without conflict, managing anger, understanding how people feel) and pro-social attitudes (such as demonstrating a willingness to follow rules and showing tolerance of others who do the wrong thing).
Values
Investigates student dispositions towards important social values such as respect, care for others, honesty, responsibility and good citizenship.
Community
Investigates students’ perceptions and experience of the positive actions of adults outside of school and home who show they care and who communicate the importance of responsible behaviour and doing well at school. It includes the availability of programs that accommodate a student’s individual interests and opportunities for students to contribute to making the community a safer and better place.
Home
Investigates student perceptions and experience of the positive actions of parents. This includes parents who praise their children, discuss acceptable behaviour and show an interest in their children’s education.
Question 68: “I have a parent who talks with me about my feelings and how to cope with stress.”
Overall % agreement with this statement
Question 69. “I have a parent who discusses with me what is acceptable behaviour and what will happen if I behave badly.”
Overall % agreement with this statement
School
Investigates student perceptions and experience of the positive actions of teachers. This includes teachers caring about students, helping students be successful, discussing values and social and emotional skills, as well as involving students in decisions about classroom rules and interesting school activities.
Vaping Update
Unfortunately vaping and e-cigarettes continue to pose a challenging problem across Australian schools. While we instigate a number of measures, both proactively in the sphere of education and reactively in the way of consequences, the easy and unvetted access to these devices makes this work extremely difficult. Without being too political, there is finally some welcome relief from the Government about this all too popular and disgusting pastime, which will hopefully assist in addressing this problem.
Full article available here:
School TV
In a bid to help parents over the festive season I have decided to re-publish the vaping presentation from school tv as well as the alcohol one as well.
PADUA COMMUNITY > Padua Parents > SchoolTV or follow the link below
Link - School TV https://padua.catholic.schooltv.me/launch
Having the Alcohol Discussion
With the impending festive season and end-of-school celebrations, some teenagers may be feeling ready to party, wanting to put the disruptions, frustrations and disappointments of this past year, behind them.
To ensure our young people stay safe during this time, parents and carers are encouraged to have the alcohol discussion - no matter how difficult or overwhelming it may be. It is important to outline the rules and boundaries around age-appropriate alcohol consumption and what the legal implications may be.
Young people are at greater risk of alcohol-related harm than adults because their brains continue to develop until their mid-twenties. The safest level of alcohol consumption for teenagers is no alcohol at all, but this may be difficult to enforce and may not prevent them from experimenting. However, parents and carers can influence sensible drinking habits and help minimise the risks.
In this Special Report, a series of discussion points are offered to help make the conversation about alcohol consumption a little easier. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.
If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to your special report https://padua.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-having-alcohol-discussion-au
