It was wonderful to welcome back some of our High Achievers to a special assembly this week! To celebrate with them and recognise their considerable achievements through a very difficult HSC year.
We heard from Mr Broadbent in his student address that striving to achieve your personal best in your schooling can give you greater access to opportunity in your life after school and these returning students were living proof of this. It was great to hear from them about which courses they were studying and why. Perhaps the most powerful part of the occasion was the session that the graduates had with our Year 12 students, where they could impart some of their wisdom and tell of their experiences in the last few years of study. Tips and advice for success abounded.
Daniel Sobbi writes ‘I enjoyed gaining an insight into the various methods the former Year 12's took to study and revise for exams. I am definitely going to try to revise past terms, in order to have pre meditated study notes for the HSC, as suggested by one of the students.’
Erika Pearl writes ‘Personally, the most useful piece of advice I received was to continually practice past papers or HSC questions and hand them to teachers. I think this will be a great way to get feedback and track improvement, all while building up the skills needed in the HSC. Another piece of advice I found useful was from Aya, saying to keep your part-time job. It gave me solidarity, knowing that I can keep my job and have an income while also achieving my goal ATAR... I heard a group of students talking about an App called Flora. You set a timer on and it grows a tree, if you touch your phone during that time your tree dies. Personally, my phone is a big distraction when I get to studying and I think that Flora is a great way to manage that. I plan to apply the advice I heard but also set aside more time in order to attain the goal ATAR for the course I want to study. This means fewer distractions and trying new ways of studying to develop a habit that works for me.’
It was marvellous to hear of the creative ways students found to have study groups. Not having the opportunity to visit local libraries, several students would instead use Facetime calls to hold each other accountable, remaining on the line but undertaking silent study for 30 – 45 minutes and then asking each other questions that came up during the session. What resourceful young people we have in our community!
I want to really thank all of our returning students for imparting such thoughtful advice and we look forward to setting up more opportunities throughout the year to have them connect with our Senior Students.
You can see some pictures, as well as an interview excerpt, later in this edition of The Way.
