Last Sunday was Father's Day. I hope all of our Father and father figures had a fabulous day and were truly spoiled and appreciated throughout the day by family.  

Fathers hold a specific role in every family. Apart from being the person who delivers those sad and often forgettable 'dad jokes', fathers can offer stability, security and set appropriate boundaries for all members in the family group. For girls, dads are the first men to provide some feedback and encouragement on how she will be perceived as a young woman in a social setting. Girls long to receive affirmation and advice from their fathers as they grow and develop into the young women they ultimately will become. It is the interactions she experiences with her father that will prepare her for her interaction with subsequent young men.  It is unfortunate that as girls move into high school and adolescence, dads can be less confident to get involved in their lives and may tend to be more comfortable taking a backstage position. Whilst their daughter's relationship with their mother is very important, it is better this is not done at the expense of their daughter's relationship with their father.  Adolescent girls can be emotional, unpredictable and at times irrational, which can strike fear into the hearts of the most seasoned father. These fluctuations in the emotional development of a teenage girl  are tempered by the wisdom and guidance of a loving father.

At a recent meeting, a presenter introduced the audience to the fathering project. The website http://thefatheringproject.org/  has some wonderful resources and tips on how to remain connected with your children, deal with stress and improve the health and wellbeing of your child through warm and loving relationships. I encourage you to look at this website and use the information to your advantage.

By the time you receive this edition of the Inside out , the College reception will have moved to a classroom (Room 11) situated near the carpark through the first site entry gate. Reception will remain here until Term 4. The noise of the refurbishments at reception became a work hazard through the week, which necessitated an earlier than expected move for the ladies. If you are visiting the College in the coming weeks, you will not be able to access the old reception as it will be locked up. We thank you for your cooperation during these building works.

Last week we commissioned the new student leaders of the College. It is always a very moving ceremony as the outgoing girls are acknowledged for their wonderful leadership and the incoming girls are excited and energized with the service they will provide. I wish the new team the very best and look forward to the initiative and support they will give the College. I hope their work will enable the College to continue to be a place where people can take the risk to become the best they can. To the outgoing team, I say thank you. They have been active in their work and diligent in their endeavours to build our community. They now can focus on their studies and the finishing weeks of their 13 years of school education.

Through the week we held the Alumni AGM. Thank you to those who sent their apologies. It was heartening to see that many of our alumni were interested in the meeting. I am thrilled to inform you that Sara Barnes (2003) is our new President. We were unable to fill the Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary roles, so if you would like to assist Sara, I ask that you contact her or the College for further information. This marks a new and exciting era for our alumni and I am very grateful for the interest and support the College has received from alumni over the last months.

As we prepare to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our annual Father Daughter Dance, I will leave you with a prayer of gratitude for the kind and loving fathers in our lives. I hope to see you on the dance floor with your daughter on Friday night.

Blessings 
Sue Lennox 

The visit to the Mosque was a first for many of the grade. Our guide was knowledgeable and engaging, and led us through the mosque whilst explaining the way in which the faith is practised and celebrated in their house of worship.

Our presentation at ISRA was incredibly in-depth and personal, allowing us access to first-hand information and experiences about what it means to be a part of the Islamic religion, especially the practice of the five Pillars: Shahada (creed), Salat (prayer), Zakat (almsgiving), Sawm (fasting) and Hajj (pilgrimage).

The eye-opening experience was extremely beneficial to our understanding of the nature of the Islamic faith. We were all able to take away with us a new perspective that we are willing to share with the rest of the school, our families and our outer community. 

Thank you to the staff that organised the opportunity for our grade, the experience was one that will be remembered. 

Lindsay C - Year 11 Student

Image courtesy of Joshua Combes - Creative Arts Coordinator

Bring your assessment tasks, homework, class notes or questions. Dedicated English teachers are available to help. All students from Years 7 to 12 are welcome.

Image courtesy of Joshua Combes - Creative Arts Coordinator

All are welcome to join us for "The Pi Club" every Friday at lunch time in Room 33.

I would like to bring to your attention a popular app that is being used by many young people.  The app is called Musical.ly and it is intended for creating and sharing short videos. It is a social networking site that makes it easy to create music videos by allowing users to ‘dub’ over their voices with songs from popular artists. It has been described as a fun karaoke style app where users can follow and comment on others' video creations. 
Although iTunes rates this app suitable for persons 12 years and over, a number of Cybersafety commentators have grave concerns over content that is available through this app and several of its features. These concerns are summarised below:

1. Even when teenagers enforce privacy settings to allow only users approved by the account holder to view videos, teenagers’ Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, Facebook account details remain public in the ‘Bio’ part of the user account.

2. Musical.ly asks for location settings so that you can view what people who are close to you have uploaded. It would be very easy for predators to find the location of teenagers singing and dancing in their bedrooms, especially when links to Instagram and Facebook enable easy click-through to find out more about a person.  

3. The iTunes store, itself, includes the following disclaimer regarding content:

• Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humour

• Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References

• Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

• Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity

Leonie Smith (The Cyber Safety Lady https://thecybersafetylady.com.au) has recently written an excellent blog-post on this app and she outlines her concerns and dangers for young users of Musical.ly. A Google search reveals that many cybersafety commentators share her view that this is not an appropriate app for children.  

At St Patrick’s College, we consider this app as a cybersafety risk due to the explicit content available, the potential for private information to be shared and its popularity among teenagers. Here is a link to the Musical.ly iTunes page where you can see the app icon to look out for.

We have blocked the internet features of this app whilst students are on our network, but we do not have the capacity to block this app from opening or being installed on student owned smart phones and tablets. Parents are asked to be vigilant in checking family owned devices and the apps that are installed. In addition, parents are strongly encouraged to establish clear rules about media and phone use and monitor adherence to those rules, with clear consequences if the rules are not kept. Further advice regarding managing iPads at home is outlined in the College iPad Use at Home document (http://goo.gl/CckLex).

The PDF version of this notification is available here. 

St Patrick's College Campbelltown uses the School Stream mobile school app to deliver information, announcements, event notifications and more, directly to parents and students on their mobile devices. Stay connected and communicate even through the school holidays. An additional service offered through School Stream is the ability to notify the College of absences, avoiding the need for hand-written notes or phone calls. 

The instructions and links to downloading the app are here. It is a very simple process to connect to our College. If you would like any further information, please contact Debra Bourne, the eLearning Coordinator (elearning@saintpatricks.nsw.edu.au).  

While the team is still very young and have a number of years to grow and develop as a team, the amount of talent amongst the girls is quite overwhelming. Another highlight was the way in which they came together as a team and the sportsmanship they displayed throughout the day. Added to this, under the guidance of super-coach Mr Michael Mayo and the leadership of senior players Lauren M and Emma O, the girls went into the competition with an air of confidence due to the experience they gained last year when they finished in second place overall. This confidence was evident from the start of the day when they took a 1-0 lead over a very strong St Benedict’s team, however a short lapse in concentration in the last eight minutes of the game saw their 1-0 lead turn into a 2-1 loss. This loss would ultimately hinder our progress come finals time. Fortunately, the girls were able to bounce back and won their next three games convincingly against St John’s, Mt Carmel and Corpus Christi. These results meant the girls finished second in their pool and would have to play the first placed team from pool A, which happened to be an extremely strong St Mary’s team.

Unfortunately St Mary’s were just too strong across the park and defeated the girls 3-1 to progress to the final, which they ended up winning quite comfortably against St Benedict’s. Our girls then had to regroup and play off for 3rd position overall against St Josephs, which they were able to win 2-1 in what was a very intense and exciting game.

It was an absolute pleasure to accompany the girls on the day and the way they conducted themselves was exceptional.  I would like to thank the parents that were there to support the team, Ms Kay Cornett for assisting on the day and a big thank you to Mr Mayo for giving up his time to coach the team.

The team consisted of Lauren M, Emma O, Eden G, Ellie F, Amelia C, Lauren D, Emilee O, Charlotte M, Georgia M, Ashley F, Taylah M, Rebecca S, Piper L, Zoe V and Caitlyn S. Unfortunately Brooke D was selected in the team but was unable to attend due to illness.

Scott Ashcroft - Sports and Activities Coordinator

Gallery

We played a total of six games. Each game nerve racking but victorious. With a four straight win, we soon saw ourselves heading towards the final rounds. Our game against Magdalene was a very tight match, but we managed to claim another win by 1 point – Magdalene 24 St Patrick's 25. A 1 point win only meant that we were heading straight for grand final against Mount Carmel. With a strong team like Mount Carmel, we knew they would give us a challenging match. With one set won by both St Pat's and Mount Carmel, it all came down to the last set. With our strong defence and communication, we claimed the last set and the title of the Wollongong Dioceses Volleyball champions. A special mention has to go to the all the girls in the team for all their efforts and sportsmanship. However our victory couldn’t have been possible without the support and encouragement from our coach Mr Ghanem. 

For further details and to access the application form please click here 

For terms and conditions of the grant, please click here 

Hard copies of the application form can also be obtained from the College Reception.

Image courtesy of Joshua Combes - Creative Arts Coordinator

9 September - Father Daughter Dinner Dance
12 - 16 September - Year 11 Preliminary Exams
14 September - Year 7 and 8 Aboriginal Education Excursion
16 September - Aboriginal Education Excursion
20 September - Year 12 Assembly, Year 12 Graduation Dinner
21 September - Year 12 Graduation Mass and Awards
22 September - Year 12 Formal
23 September - STAFF AND STUDENTS FINISH FOR TERM 3
10 October - STAFF AND STUDENTS RETURN FOR TERM 4
12 October - Year 11 First Aid Training
13 October - Year 11 SLR Recreation Day
14 October - Aboriginal Education Excursion
17 October - 4 November - HSC Examinations
18 October - Years 7 - 10 Parent Teacher Student Evening
24 October - Year 9 Italian Excursion
26 October - Year 12 Parent Information Evening
31 October - Year 11 Studio Play Performance
3 November - Music "Count us In" Excursion
7 - 10 November - Year 10 Examinations
7 - 9 November - Year 8 Camp Group 1 
9 - 11 November - Year 8 Camp Group 2
9 November - Year 7 RE Excursion
11 November - Year 10 Social 
15 November - Year 7 2017 Pre-Orientation Day
17 November - Year 7 2017 Orientation Day
18 November - Middle School Dance, International Games Day
25 November - Year 9 Forensics Incursion, Year 10 Community Service Incursion, Aboriginal Education Excursion
28 November - Year 10 HSC Preliminary Readiness "All my own work"
30 November - PACMAN
1 December - Year 7 Vaccinations (HPV)
2 December - Year 10 Mathematics G/T Excursion, Creative Arts Night
6 December - End of Year Awards and Assembly, End of Year Mass, Students Finish for 2016
8 December - Staff finish for 2016