In this Newsletter:
- Principal’s message,
- A message from Ms Dunn,
- Highlights from around the campus,
- Dates for your diary,
Principal’s Message
We can now proudly say that we’re Guinness World Record holders! You can see the official statement on the Guinness World Records website. What a fantastic way to celebrate our 40th anniversary!
Thank you to everyone who played a role in ensuring everything went well for the record attempt! Each staff member carried out their role exceptionally and our students’ behaviour and engagement was outstanding, so much so, that it was commented on by some members of the media in attendance.
The attempt involved more than 900 students being transported by bus from our Carramar and Padbury campuses to join their peers at Duncraig, where we formed a giant “40” before setting off our environmentally friendly, biodegradable confetti cannons.
It is truly a proud moment in the history of St Stephen’s School!
Take care and God bless,
Donella Beare
Ms Dunn’s Digest
A highlight these last few weeks is seeing the return of students, the amazing Autumn weather and the students enjoying walking and talking as they move to classes and the sharing of lunches on the Quad and around the campus.
This led me to reflect on the holiday break and how rewarding it was to have the time to have meaningful conversations with my own children. For each teenager this may look different. Although my daughters are now at university, I have learnt to factor one-on-one time differently for them both. For one of my daughters going to a café allows us to have a deeper conversation on where she is at any given time whereas for my other child a side-by-side activity such as cooking or dog washing works best for a conversation to occur. Taking time to truly focus on the individual and show genuine interest and gratitude for the little things that arise and being with there to listen to the unknowns, to acknowledge and understand without trying to fix it for them was a great reminder to slow down and be present. It is all they really needed from me, and the importance doesn’t diminish with age or time.
Resilient Youth Australia report that over 90 000 teenagers been Years 7 to 10 say they cannot identify an adult in their lives who listen to them. It is hard to substantiate if this is reality or teenage perception and it is not that we don’t listen as much as getting the conversation started.
In building positive relationships and communication, a key component to success is highlighting and amplifying the positives in our daily interactions rather than negatives or catastrophising. A shared interest is a great starting point and helps retain connection and positivity during those challenging times where life doesn’t always unfold the way we wish it to be. It makes a big difference when we listen just to understand.
Take care,
Rosemarie Dunn – Head of Campus
Pace yourself
We had outstanding team and individual performances in the ACC “B” Division Swimming Carnival and congratulations go to all of the 125 members of the St Stephen’s team. We came FOURTH!
- Junior Girls Runners up
- Junior Boys Winners
- Overall Boys Winners
These results are outstanding, and my thanks to the staff of our HPE Learning Area for their support of the team with intensive training sessions and outstanding motivation!
Our Interhouse Cross-country day was a stunning success and congratulations to all our runners, including the two overall champions Ben Hayes who is champion boy for the second year in a row, and Isabella Heathcote our champion female runner for a fifth year in a row. The staff race was hotly contested and well done to Mr Nicolson who placed first.
While I am congratulating our sports stars, I want to recognise all our students who participate in any way in the sporting opportunities and competitions in the school. Your personal best is important. Physical competitions are about both competing against others and competitiveness for yourself. You know what you can achieve and how far to push yourself to get to the next level of your next goal. This does not always mean sprinting a marathon though! We all need to learn to pace ourselves and get to those growth goals gradually. At the start of the term, I spoke to our teaching staff about my most recent attempt to complete a 10km fun run, where I started way too fast, spent the first few km slowing down, almost ‘expired’ halfway through, before finding my pace and finishing well.
This term, let us pace ourself, finding the energy and motivation to get to the end of each week and then the end of term. Recognise the sense of accomplishment for the small goals, and the big goals will follow.
Liz Criddle, Deputy Head of Secondary – Teaching & Learning
SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD
No-one could have missed the EXCITEMENT and achievement of the school’s attempt to achieve a Guinness World Record in our first week of term!
WE’RE IN OUR NEW SCIENCE BUILDING!
The Science staff have, with great excitement, commenced teaching in the newly refurbished Science building. This state of the art building includes new dedicated classrooms for our main subjects areas – Physics, Biology, Human Biology, Marine and Maritime, Psychology, Chemistry and Physics!
Dates for your diary
Remember you can always visit the St Stephen’s School calendar for key dates
14 May Careers Expo
We are excited to present our 2024 Careers Expo, where we’ll have more than 50 organisations at the Duncraig campus sharing information on the huge range of pathways available to students once they leave school. There’ll be something for everyone! Parents and students from both Carramar and Duncraig are welcome to attend this free event. We look forward to seeing you there! See the Facebook post
8 May Parent Series with Vanessa Kay
In partnership with Parenting Connection WA and Ngala, St Stephen’s School is proud to host Vanessa Kay as she presents “Understanding behaviour through a self-regulation lens” as our first session in the Parent Series, 2024.
Vanessa Kay is a self-regulation consultant with a diverse background that includes teaching, behaviour intervention and counselling. Vanessa is the founder of InnerWise Education and brings a unique blend of personal insight, professional expertise and a genuine passion to share this valuable knowledge.
This free presentation provides a comprehensive exploration of the intersection between parenting and applied neuroscience, with a particular emphasis on the crucial skill of self-regulation and understanding the impact of stress on the brain and body. By the end of the presentation, parents will walk away with a deeper understanding of how stress impacts behaviour and the long-term benefits of self-regulation skill development over traditional behavioural methods.
This session is suitable for parents and caregivers of all school-aged children. Tickets are free but booking is essential
20 May Year 9, 10 and 11 (2025) Subject Information Evening