From the Leader of Learning and Curriculum

Year 12 – FLEX during Retreat Week

Next week, Year 12 students will attend Retreat for 3 days and engage in FLEX for 2 days. The FLEX program will run on Monday 27 & Tuesday 28 March and repeat on Thursday 30 & Friday 31 March.  

On these days, workshops will be offered either face-to-face or online via Google Classrooms to allow student choice in their preferred learning mode or focus on skill development areas. 

Year 11 – Study Skills Session with Dr Prue Salter

This week Dr Prue Salter from Enhanced Learning Educational Services (www.enhanced-learning.net) ran a study skills session with Year 11, titled “Achieving your Personal Best”.  The session focused on helping students identify changes and improvements they could make to their approach to their studies to maximise their results in their final years of school.

The main areas covered with Year 11 were working effectively in the evenings and dealing with distractions, managing time efficiently, planning for assessments, making brain-friendly study notes regularly and using a wide variety of active study techniques to suit individual learning preferences.

Parents are encouraged to review the handout from the session with students and discuss the main areas identified where changes need to be made.

Parents can also find additional study skills tips on the following website: http://studyskillstoptipsparents.com/.  

All students, parents and carers at our College also have access to an excellent study skills website to help students develop their skills.

Go to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au and enter the username: MSCW and the password:  93success.

There are lots of valuable handouts on the THINGS TO PRINT page on this site, and students can work through the units where they need additional help.

Is your daughter getting enough sleep?

What does blue light do to the human body?

Non-visible light has a lot of energy, and studies show that a lot of exposure to this type of light can impair your sleep cycle. During sleep, many essential physical processes take place, and it is also when learning from the day is consolidated in memory. This means that having enough sleep is vital for students.

Blue light is naturally generated only during the day from sunlight. When it gets dark, naturally occurring blue light ceases, signalling the body to produce melatonin, the hormone associated with sleep. Using artificial lighting and devices which emit a blue light at night confuses the body clock (the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle) by stopping the body from producing melatonin. This can result in disrupted sleep patterns, including difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep and shortened sleep duration.

Those at greatest risk from night-time exposure to blue light are those with existing sleep disorders and adolescents who often experience delayed sleep patterns as a result of biological changes.

What can students do to limit their exposure to blue light at night?

 Some suggestions include:

• Be exposed to sunlight during the day to assist in accurately setting your body clock.
• Stop using all electronic devices, preferably an hour before bed.
• Get a red or orange reading lamp, which does not emit blue light.
• Use blue light blocking glasses at night. 
• Install a program or app on your computer or device to change the type of light it emits.
• Invert the colours on your smartphone or change the device to the night-time setting.
• Turn the brightness down on your device for a few hours before bed (not perfect, but better than nothing!).

This article on College life meets The Archbishop’s Charter for Catholic Schools – Charter #1, #2