Years 5 and 6 Program Leader | Mr Brendan Ganley

Mentoring is best when it's early and often.

Week 3 was such an exciting week for the College as we celebrated a record number of medal winners, not just for results but also for those from their respective year levels who had made the most improvement in studies. The week past also was an opportunity for Student/Teacher mentoring to take place. Mentoring is a significant component of the pastoral system for our young men at Terrace. Through all our year levels, academic mentoring took focus with tutors and class teachers taking the time to work through each student’s results and to plan ahead with strategies for progress in mind.

This particular mentoring exercise may have been specifically academic but having in place constant mentoring in all areas of school life for young men that takes place each and every day is a special feature of the Terrace community. Edutopia argues that ‘mentoring is best when it is early and often’. The culture in place at Terrace is that there is constant communication with our young men to provide them with skills and knowledge that can used in the days and years to come. These skills may be in the classroom, the school yard or even in our interactions on the sporting field.

Last week, Year 5 had the opportunity to visit and volunteer at Food Bank. Twenty students experienced being a volunteer and to help pack food and supplies for families where food security is not high. Next week, Years 5 and 6 students will be beginning their annual Food Bank Drive and families are asked to donate non-perishable items, such as canned food. These items can be brought into your son’s core classroom or to the boxes in the Billet St Offices next to the Tuckshop. There has been a fantastic response for the past two years and this year is being well supported already.

Next Wednesday, Year 6 will take part once again in the annual Gerard Butler Shield. Students from Year 6 will make their way to Tennyson to take part in the touch/rugby matches to continue honouring the life of Gerard Butler who died while a student here in Year 7 in 1994; a special tradition of this College.