On Tuesday we celebrated our Patron’s Feast Day and in our College Assembly William Findlay, our Goold House Captain, spoke about Augustine’s growth into manhood and his reliance on his mother. With Father’s Day this weekend, it allowed me to reflect on the relationship between father and son – it is one of the most potent relationships we can form. For Augustine this relationship between father and son was with God as his father.  It is an easy correlation to draw, that whilst powerful this relationship can and sometimes is, the most challenging of relationships; the tension of a son moving to manhood and also because communication between father and sons – the boy thing – can be tense, awkward or largely absent. For many people the same tensions and awkwardness are found in their relationship with God.

Like all things that are challenging we encourage the boys to make small improvements each day, to try more, do more, make more and give more; Jack Berne, the young Year 4 student at St John the Baptist Primary School Freshwater, who coined ‘A fiver for a farmer’ that has now raised an astonishing $530,000; the two young men at the Patron’s Day celebrations that collected four enormous bags of cans and bottles for recycling; or the young man at the centre of this Friday’s Jersey Day; a day, where his gift of life to others, is held to raise awareness about organ donation.

Students enjoying the Patron’s Day Walkathon.

Brian Burke, Goold House Formation Leader, promoting Jersey Day in support of organ donation.

Each of these examples has action and commitment at its heart. A critical condition of a boy growing into a man is that the lines of communication are kept open between an adult and a teenager, and that sons have a genuine sense of being listened to; the practical expression of feeling loved. Boys need fathers to father them, to guide their development. It has been wonderful to see how many Dads have been at our subject selection nights as their son makes choices in Year 8 and Year 10.  It is commonly understood that girls talk face-to-face, and boys talk side-to-side.  

Our families and schools are generally busy units. The challenge is to find time. For fathers especially, it is about making that time not just rationalising quality time but real quantities of time whether it be around a common interest or passion, or in some other way, where time together is built into the week.  

Happy Father’s Day to all of our dads and father figures, enjoy the socks, jocks and for those lucky few the new golf clubs.  

Jonathan Byrne
Principal

Marcus Oates, College Prefect  

Preparation for Exams  

Can you ever be truly prepared for an exam?  

Even though I had tried to prepare as early as possible for the trial HSC exams, there still was a feeling of uncertainty, perhaps even fear, that the questions would seem impossible to answer; especially when they include three directive verbs, six sources and a quotation.  

Malcolm Gladwell would argue that it would take 10,000 hours to master each subject, which would amount to an impossible 135 hours of study a day! And Mr Bruce would tell you that, in this frame of reference at least, that isn’t possible.   

Luckily, Mr Laforest provides (as always) an intuitive solution, “Understanding boys. Understanding is key.”  

Students who rote learn memorise the basics, and how to do specific questions will struggle when faced with something that undermines their understanding. However, the student who understands the content, who learns from their mistakes and enjoys being challenged will apply what they know to the unknown and will find a solution. Doing past papers is only part of the solution. It’s great to get stuff right, a bit of a confidence boost if you will, but the magic happens when you understand how or why you made a mistake.

Furthermore, some questions will seem impossible. A classic example is the last question of an extension Maths exam. Even for someone who loves Maths, seeing half a page of binomial expansion is quite daunting, and some would happily leave the question and focus on other parts of the exam, which is a smart exam technique. Get the easy stuff right and try to work on the hard questions if you can. These are the definitive ‘Band 9’ questions, as Mr Ornelas aptly described them, meant to separate those who are good from those who are extraordinary.  

However, Mr Laforest comes to the rescue once more, “They can’t test you on something you haven’t learnt.”  

Therefore, these impossible questions aren’t actually impossible. All you must do is look for something you know; the examiners are not trying to trick you, they’re trying to test your knowledge. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two hardest topics, and you have to show how well you understand how well they connect. Or perhaps it’s applying what you have learnt to some question that has never been seen before yet follows the same principles.  

Also, you should always be pressed for time in exams, whether that be because you struggled on the last question or wanted to have time to check all your answers at the end. Time management is key, having a plan for how you are going to attack the exam, leaving enough time to address errors.

The HSC seems like this big obstacle, some formidable boss fight that you are unlikely to succeed in, even in the junior years, when you wonder how some genius managed to drop 0.05% on all his exams. But, if you work hard and do your best, by the time Trials have ended, its half over. If your rank is what you wanted that’s awesome, and if it isn’t, there’s still time to show everyone what you’re capable of. In the endgame, you’re not competing against your mates, but every person in the State. Understandably, everyone in your Year Group could seem like public enemy number one when it comes to Trials, as you want that rank to be as high as possible. However, rank shouldn’t matter after the Trials. If everyone helps each other and you all achieve high marks, everyone will succeed. In the HSC it’s you and your mates versus every other school, even if you do want Rank 1 for bragging rights.