Last Friday night the College hosted the 10^th annual Father Daughter Dinner Dance. Once again it was a very festive event with dads, grandfathers, uncles and older brothers escorting the girls. With over 200 participants on the night, all had a wonderful time dancing and enjoying each other’s company. It can be difficult for these men to sometimes find time with their growing daughter and this evening offers an opportunity for all to reconnect. We cannot underestimate the significance a father or father figure can have on the development of a young girl. He offers her an insight into the mind of an adolescent boy and supports her as she grows into a young woman. Thank you to the P&F for their hard work, Jeff Pollard (president) did a fabulous job on the night and thanks to Julian Nash and Deb Renshaw for all their efforts as well.

You may have read recently in the newspapers an article by Dr John Collier, Principal at St Andrew's College, about the bullying and harassment his staff have been subjected to by a small number of their parents. In his article he outlines how he has had to protect his staff from the approaches of these parents as he maintains a work place for them that is safe and supportive. All schools will have situations arise where staff are inappropriately spoken to or approached by parents. Whilst these are not the norm, it is a phenomenon that can and does happen at times. The danger is when a parent sends an email whilst they are angry or unhappy about a situation prior to gaining all the information at hand. Whilst we are not in a situation that I feel I would need to send a message to our community as Mr Collier has had to do, I do believe it is worth sharing with you as a cautionary note when sending an email to anyone. An angry email is a weapon that cannot be retracted and causes much pain and damage to relationships and opportunities to resolve and clear misunderstandings and judgement that may have been made in error.

I am delighted to share with you the new student leadership team. We are currently changing the leadership team model, and this is a transition model. The new model was discussed at the parent forum and comes out of 12 months' research and development. The successful girls are listed below. Congratulations to those girls who are incoming and thank you to Natalie M and the leaders of 2017-2018. They have been wonderful ambassadors of the College and can now be confident the new girls will carry on the baton.

Recently we received the recommendations of the Royal Commission into institutional responses to sexual abuse relevant to Good Samaritan schools. The recommendations are particularly clustered in recommendation 6.6. There are a number of standards that schools need to comply with. We are working through these and ensuring we have evidence in our practices and policies that meet these standards. It is essential that all students are safe in our College and that should there be any situation that impacts on a student safety, they have the support to report the situation and the College has the procedures and policies in place to act on this. The standards are:

1. Child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture
2. Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
3. Families and communities are informed and involved
4. Equity is upheld, and diverse needs are taken into account
5. People working with children are suitable and supported
6. Processes to respond to complaints of child sexual abuse are child focussed
7. Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training
8. Physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse to occur
9. Implementation of the Child safe Standards is continuously reviewed and improved
10. Policies and procedures document how the institution is child safe

If you have any concerns with any of this material or a situation at the College, please contact the College so we can respond and act.

There are a few changes for term 4 this year. Mr Chris Power will be leaving at the end of the term to begin a position at another school. We thank him for his work as a Year Coordinator and an English teacher and wish him the best in the future. With a number of staff taking leave, the following acting positions will be in place. Mrs East will be acting HSIE Coordinator and Mr Bacca will be acting Year 8 Coordinator. Mr Ashkar will be acting AP Students and Ms Boulatsakos will be acting Year 11 Coordinator. Mrs Wright will be acting Principal for the term, as I am on Long Service Leave and Mr East will be acting eLearning Coordinator. Mr Combes will be acting Mission Coordinator and Mrs Tannous will be acting CAPA Coordinator. We are very fortunate to have such experienced and qualified staff who are keen to have the opportunity to try positions of greater responsibility. I thank them for their support.

Finally we were approached by Madonna King’s publicist who asked if we would be happy to host the launch of her new book "Fathers and Daughters". This will be on Tuesday 20 November at the College. Whilst we already have Maggie Dent in a few weeks (24 September) and would only have one presenter per year, the opportunity to host Madonna’s launch was a great opportunity for our community so please keep the night free.

In keeping with this theme, I will finish with a quote for all the fathers and father figures who are present in the lives of the girls.

“To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.” –Euripides

Blessings

Sue Lennox - Principal 

2019 Student College Leadership Team

College Captain – Stephanie E
Vice Captain – Liturgy – Kate R
Vice Captain – Communications – Payton I
Social Justice Captain – Abby M
Sports Captain – Amy S
Environment Captain – Rhiannon K
Performing Arts Captain – Sierra M
Chisholm House Captain – Amelia A
Gilmore House Captain – Natalie S
Kenny House Captain – Julia P
Lyons House Captain – Nicole D
Middle School Councillor – Samantha J
Senior School Councillor – Jasmin H

To support this crucial and considerate venture, we took a stand as a community to launch our second ‘Dignity Drive’ for this year. This involved inviting students to purchase and donate sanitary pads, tampons and other personal hygiene items. We wish to thank the College Library staff for allowing the Library to be the collection point for the donations. All donated items are then collected by Share the Dignity organisers for distribution to their partner charities. Every donated item makes a real difference in the lives of women within our local community and beyond. This organisation exists to show women they are not alone, they are cared for, and that self-esteem and confidence can be regained when they are provided with the materials they require. On average, there are over 85,000 women nationally who need help of this kind and our donations go some way to making life better for them. I am pleased to say that the great generosity from many of our girls has delivered a boot full of donations to this important cause. 

Thank you all very much, 

Rachel N – Social Justice Captain

At St Patrick’s College the Parent and Student Portal is a part of Sentral, our student administration system. During Semester 1, letters were sent to all parents with instructions for Parent Portal access.

Parents were asked to register for access to the portal  at https://sentral.saintpatricks.nsw.edu.au/portal/register. Once registered, parents use their unique access key to connect their portal accounts to their daughter’s details. Contact the College if you need to retrieve access keys (sent home during Semester 1). The URL for continued access to the portal is: https://sentral.saintpatricks.nsw.edu.au/portal/login. There are links to the portal on the school website at the very top under the Portals drop down menu.

Once logged in parents can see their child's Term 3 Progress Report by selecting the reporting link on the left menu. In addition, parents have access to timetable, school documents, attendance reports, NAPLAN results, as well as family contact details you have supplied the school.

Last week, Year 11 Progress Reports were published to the Portal. Year 7 to 10 Progress Reports will be published later in the term. In Term 4, Parent Teacher Interview bookings will be made through the Parent Portal.

Parents and students may also notice a small button (top right) linking to Portal V2. Parent Portal Version 2 is a trial of a new version of the portal and is part of the College Communication Roadmap where we are working towards a Portal App to streamline access to this important resource. Parent feedback is highly valued and any comments, challenges or suggestions can be forwarded to elearning@saintpatricks.nsw.edu.au.

Debra Bourne - Leader of Library/eLearning

We received a wonderful insight into the life of a writer from our guest award-winning author Jane Catherine Burke, otherwise known as JC Burke. She shared an anecdote about her beginnings as a writer and overcoming her voice of doubt. JC also spoke about drawing on her life experiences as an Oncology nurse as the inspiration for her debut novel White Lies. Her novel The Story of Tom Brennan won the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers and is currently being studied by our Year 12 Standard English classes as part of their HSC Course. After the assembly presentation, JC Burke held a workshop with our Year 12 students.

Other highlights of the assembly included the video presentations of Literacy and Numeracy Raps by the Year 7 Music classes. Stella B and Tavara S shared with us their compositions from Year 8 Aboriginal Studies. Tavara read her Acknowledgement of Country and Stella shared a poem about the importance of Land to Aboriginal people.

Over three weeks of this term, we competed in Literacy Planet’s Word Mania Competition, along with 2,000 schools across Australia and New Zealand. The following students received a certificate at the assembly for their performance:

Year 7: 2nd place in the region, 18th place across Australia/NZ

1st  Alyse A
2nd Zoe W
3rd Hayley C

Year 8: 1st place in the region, 2nd place across Australia/NZ

1st  Jessica K
2nd Olivia S
3rd  Christabelle A

Year 9: 3rd place in the region, 26th place across Australia/NZ

1st  Chantelle D
2nd Katrina B
3rd  Marissa K

Congratulations to these girls and all who competed in the Word Mania competition.

Michelle Parker - Maths Teacher

This is a monumental task which has involved all members of the library staff as well as the maintenance team and a few of the College bus drivers, Jo and Paul. We appreciate the assistance from those outside the library as many hands truly make light work.

As the KLA Coordinators and their respective staff members comb through their titles, we are able to ascertain where we have gaps in our collection and reorder or replace as needed.

All deleted books will then be offered to staff and students, with any remaining books donated to Lifeline.

This has allowed the staff to move the shelving and remaining collection around, creating a larger space for Year 12 to study in and opening up the library space in general.

The College Library

The answer, there is no best way. An important lesson for students to learn is that everyone learns in different ways, everyone has different approaches and preferences, and what works well for one person may not work well for another. This truth applies to all aspects of effective learning – time management, research skills, writing skills and so on.

There are certainly good techniques and strategies available in all of these areas, and also approaches that work well for the majority of students. However it is essential that all students try different techniques to see what works best for them. Preferences could also change over time, so it makes sense to at least once a year stop and reflect on approaches to learning. What did you do, what worked, what didn’t, what should you change, what should you keep, and what new things could you try? This is what ‘metacognition’ is all about. It means taking the time to try and understand more about the process of learning and your role as a learner. Students who take a metacognitive approach to their learning are much more likely to improve their results.

How can you find out different study techniques to try? Talk to the people around you – friends, siblings, parents – ask them what techniques they have used. Also ask your teachers what they would recommend for their subject. You can also visit the unit on the Study Skills Handbook that covers how to study for tests and exams. You will find lots of active studying strategies and grids to help you plan for exams. Just remember – there is a worst way to study – just reading your notes over and over and hoping the information stays in your head!

Access to all the study skills can be found in Destiny Discover.  All you need is your school username and password.  

Happy Studying 

Michelle Feely - College Librarian

Electronic personal log submissions by eligible Premier's Reading Challenge participants closed last Friday, with the logs currently being verified by library staff. 

Relevant certificates and/or medals will be distributed in term 4. 

Congratulations and thank you to those students in Years 7-9 who participated.

The College Library

Have you always wanted to create a card or design a scrapbook page?

If you answered yes, then come along to the library and try your hand at just that. We have all the materials you need, so all you need to bring with you are your ideas.

Card designing/scrapbooking will happen during lunch break each day in the library.

As Year 9 2019 information night required teachers to remain at the College, they were invited to be our dining guests.

The girls worked tirelessly throughout the day in their teams to bring together an amazing three course meal.

Entrée was a choice of either:

Deep fried pumpkin ravioli with a sage cream sauce

or

Mushroom risotto with a parmesan crisp

Main was a choice of either:

Lamb fillet, pumpkin bark, goats cheese curd, jus

Or

Crispy skin salmon, pea puree, prosciutto

Dessert was a choice of either:

Deconstructed sticky date pudding, salted caramel, brown sugar meringue, vanilla bean ice cream

Or

Fruit tart, custard, toffee bark

The girls enjoyed the challenge immensely, as did the staff who complimented the girls on their wonderful achievements.

Maree Durrington - VET Coordinator

The teachers (Mrs East, Mrs Ibbett, Miss Lansley, Mrs McDonald and Mrs Wilson) led the girls along the beachfront walkway, onto North Cronulla Beach stopping at the North Cronulla seawall, visiting the sand dunes and completing a beach observation at Wanda Beach SLSC. The girls gathered primary data from field sketches, photographs, constructing tables, fauna identification, observing the effects of longshore drift and identifying management techniques to support conservation of the coastal environment.

In all, an excellent and informative day was had by all reports. I’d like to thank the teachers for giving of their time in support of the deeper learning of the girls in the subject of Geography.

Nathan East - HSIE Coordinator

Report by Tayla and Natalie, Year 11 students

During the July school holidays three of us from Year 11 (Natalie W, Tayla D, and Kayla M) took part in the required 15 hours of Community Service by offering our service at St Gregory’s Junior School. We chose to go to St Greg’s Junior school as we felt they would have many jobs available for us to do due to the school being new. The three of us also agreed on this type of Community Service due to our similar interests in working with children. When we first arrived, the staff were very welcoming and flexible about our availability. During this experience, we took part in various activities such as assisting the children with their writing, spelling and colouring in. With Father's Day fast approaching we organised presents for the Father's Day stall. Along with organising the books for the upcoming Book Week, we also assisted with preparations of the Premier’s Reading Challenge, organising all new sporting equipment, and rearranging their temporary sports shed. From day one of volunteering, the staff showed much appreciation for the time and effort we put into each allocated task. We were very grateful for the opportunity to volunteer at the school as each of us girls found the time rewarding and beneficial. This experience gave us a better appreciation for the challenges that staff can be faced with; for example, handling the many tasks, keeping the students engaged in their learning, and ensuring the students are safe. Overall, our attendance at the St Greg’s Junior School was greatly valued by both staff and students which made our experience there much more enjoyable.

Below is an e-mail from a member of the St Gregory’s Junior School staff:

Dear Sue,

I wanted to take a moment to send a note of gratitude to the three Year 11 young ladies that carried out their volunteer hours at St Gregory's Junior School last week during their holidays.

Natalie, Kayla and Tayla were punctual, polite, and worked at double speed! They assisted with a large number of jobs and never stopped. In addition, they did extra hours because they said "you needed more help and we wanted to finish the job we started." They have already organised our whole Father's Day stall gifts! As Junior school teachers we never have enough hands to complete all the fiddly tasks we have. They were an amazing help and we are most grateful. They are welcome back here any time. 

Kind Regards

Diana

The student performances and projects were outstanding. The presentation of the food by the Year 11 Hospitality team and their service was also amazing. It was a wonderful event. 

The attached document is for Year 12 students leaving the College. There is important information about the return of library resources such as textbooks and electronic devices. Additionally, there is information about your Google Suite accounts including strategeis for porting data to a hard drive or another cloud service. Additionally, the article outlines cut-off dates for email access as well as access to Office 365 subscriptions. 

If students have questions or concerns about these processes, please come and chat to staff in the Library.

Library and IT Exit Procedures (attachment)

Debra Bourne - Leader of Library/eLearning

This prestigious and challenging competition involves an interview about current world and local issues, along with a prepared speech. Both girls performed extremely well with Angelina taking out second place in a field of 17 top-notch contestants. Well done girls. We are all very proud of you!

Marguerite Pulham - Public Speaking and Debating Coordinator

This grant is to enable local community-based commemorative projects and activities that commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. There is a particular emphasis on remembering 'Australian service men and women from all conflicts and celebrate a just and secure peace'. These funds will go towards materials needed for the College's community Remembrance Day ceremony on the 9 November 2018, such as producing  a commemorative booklet, plaque, planting an olive tree, material to make felt poppies and lights for our Gallipoli Centenary Garden.

Since March, the History Club members have been working each Friday lunchtime creating paper poppies and making signage with the names of significant battles. Students who have identified Anzac ancestors are working on writing their ancestor's biography which will be published in the commemorative booklet.

If you have any queries please contact Mrs Musico Rullo.

Fran Music Rullo - HSIE Teacher

Our once ‘young’ hockey team is starting to grow up and the quality of their play is continuing to improve each year. Our once young players are now becoming leaders in the team and with some amazing talent coming through to support these older girls, the future of hockey at St Pat's looks very exciting.

The girls started the day with an unconvincing performance against Magdalene, winning 1-0, however the game never really appeared in doubt, the girls just needed some time to warm up and find their groove. Game two was a much better performance, easily accounting for a much-improved Holy Spirit team. Game three was always going to be a tough one against arch rivals St Mary’s, however, we went into the match with a solid game plan and executed it to perfection, walking away with our first ever win against the 2017 Champions. Game four was of little consequence against St John’s, who hadn’t won a game all day and this match provided the opportunity for some extra game time for some girls as well as let the girls have a bit of fun before the semi-finals.

In the semi-final we came up against a very strong and committed St Joseph’s team who challenged us all game. St Joseph’s took an early 1 nil lead and it wasn’t until the final minute that St Pat’s were able to get the equaliser. With the game ending in a draw, St Pat’s were able to progress to the final as a result of finishing higher in the pool games.

Heading into the final we knew it was going to be an extremely challenging game. St Benedict’s had been the form team all day and with an Australian rep in the side, it was never going to be easy. Unfortunately, St Benedict’s were too good on the day and were named overall champions for 2018, with St Pat’s named as runners up.

It was an absolute pleasure to accompany the girls on the day and the way they conducted themselves was exceptional.  I would like to make special mention of the parents that were there to support the team.

The team consisted of Eden G, Ellie F, Amelia C (injured assistant coach), Lauren D, Emilee O, Ashley F, Taylah M, Piper L, Zoe V, Caitlyn S, Bridie L, Katie B, Alexandra C, Kayleigh L, Elizabeth D and Amy W.

Scott Ashcroft - Sports and Activities Coordinator

This position is primarily an organisational role for the MISA weekly Inter-school Sporting Competition and other non-sporting activities

Hours: Flexible – average 3 days per week (41 school weeks per year). Equivalent to a 0.6 clerical support load

Rate of pay: The successful candidate will be paid for 41 weeks, plus 4 weeks annual leave, and will be paid at a rate similar to a Level 4.1 Administrator under the Independent Schools NSW (Support and Operational Staff) Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2017

Commencement:  Preferred commencement date is the week commencing 29 October 2018 (may be negotiated)

Applications close: Friday 21 September 2018

Applications to be addressed to:  Mr Ross Whelan, MISA President, c/- Thomas Hassall Anglican College, PO Box 150, Hoxton Park, NSW  2171

Applications may be emailed to: cklomp@thac.nsw.edu.au

Please refer to the attachment for a detailed role description

Macarthur Independent Schools Association (Inc)

7 September - Middle School Dance (St Gregory's College), Year 10 Recycled Dinner Dance, History Week Cemetery Tour, Year 11 SLR Excursion
8 September - Year 12 Japanese Beginners HSC Speaking Exam
11 September - Senior School Assembly
12 September - Year 8 Japanese Excursion, (including Year 9/10 Elective Japanese), NSW OZtag Championships
13 September - College Assembly (Studen Leadership Commissioning)
14 September - AIME Excursion Years 9 -10, Year 10 Dance Excursion
17 - 21 September - Year 11 Preliminary Examinations
18 September - Macarthur Max Potential Showcase
20 September - Year 10 D&T Library Opening
21 September - CCC Athletics
25 September - Year 12 Assembly, Year 12 Graduation Dinner
26 September - Year 12 Graduation Mass and Awards
27 September - Year 12 Formal
28 September - Staff and Students Finish for Term 3
15 October - Staff and Students Return for Term 4