MSPC Newsletter - Term 1 Week 2, 9th February 2023

Principal

Dear Parents\Caregivers,

Welcome
Welcome to the 2023 School Year to our new families and to those returning. We are excited to begin 2023, hoping that it will be a year of success in its many different forms for our Mount St Patrick Community. We began this celebration of success at our opening assembly where we acknowledged the 2022 HSC High Achievers. This is a moment for our students to see what can be achieved by hard work and diligence to studies. I am very grateful to those 2022 graduates who made themselves available for this assembly.

Be the Good by Being Kind
Upon reflection of my interactions with people from many different backgrounds and nationalities during the summer holidays, I can see that how we act towards people is reflected back at us. As a result, at the opening assembly, I made a simple request to the students, please be kind to each other. Smiling, saying good morning, asking people how they are, being patient and considerate in our busy hallways and at lockers are all ways we can show kindness and be the good. It will help to make the school a nicer, calmer place to be, which is good for us all.

Swimming Carnival
The College Swimming Carnival kicked off our year and new house structure last Friday and it was a great success. Despite the heat we had probably the best attendance we have ever had. Mrs Sherrah and I took turns supervising the waterslide and I know students welcomed the combination of competition and fun that was on offer throughout the day. Mr Whitney, as ever, ran an excellent carnival, implementing the changes to the houses without fuss. This is a fantastic response from the students to the work the Leaders of Wellbeing and captains from each house had done in Term 4 2022 to build House Spirit. I hope this is just the beginning over many events across the whole gamut of College life that the house structure will enrich.

Opening Mass
Our new leaders were inducted at the opening College mass on Tuesday 7^th February. I am very grateful for the outstanding young people who are our College and House leaders for 2023. We squeezed into the Sacred Heart Church which is a special place for the Murwillumbah Catholic community. Many parents attended and we shared a morning tea with the leaders and their parents afterwards.

New Staff
We welcome new staff members to our community. I know they will uphold the College traditions and their skills and experience will add richness to College life.

Teaching Staff - Mr Sam Priddis, Mr Ben O'Brien, Ms Caitlyn Barone

Counsellor - Ms Jessica Godfrey

Learning Support - Ellen Hall, Dominic Bailey, Bradley Connor and Lucy Johnston

Student Support Officer - Mr Harry Sherrah

Youth Ministry Officers - Halle McClymont and Eliza Blunn

Trainees - Sidney Willis (IT) and Emma Loughman (Sport)

Opportunity in the CommUNITY
The College theme for 2023 is Opportunity in the CommUNITY, encouraging all of us to seize the opportunity we have within Mount St Patrick College to work together for the betterment of all.

Be the Good and God Bless,
    Paul Reidy
    Principal

Assistant Principal - Mission

Welcome
Welcome to Mount St Patrick College community to all Year 7 students, new students in Years 8 – 11, new staff and parents. Welcome back to 2023 to all of our continuing students, staff and families.

We’ve begun the year with heat and gusto! The Opening College Assembly on Wednesday 1^st February, the College Swimming Carnival on Friday 3^rd February and the Opening Mass and Induction of Leaders on Tuesday 7^th February and we’re only the end of Week 2!

Thank You
To parents and carers for the way you’ve presented your student/s in uniforms and with the appropriate books, pens, hats, aprons, etc. that help make a good start to the year. It is an expensive time so thank you for your sacrifices. Thanks also to those families who made monetary donations or made cakes and slices for the Swimming Carnival. We used the money that was raised to fund each year level having access to the water slide which was greatly appreciated by every student present!

    Mary-Anne McShane
   Assistant Principal: Mission

MINISTRY

A warm welcome back to a new school year! There will be lots of exciting things happening this year in Ministry. I would like to welcome our 2023 Youth Ministry Officers, Halle McClymont and Eliza Blunn. The girls are very much looking forward to walking beside our MSPC students on their faith journey.

YEAR 12 RETREAT
The Year 12 Retreat to Camp Bornhoffen in the beautiful Springbrook National Park is fast approaching. It is next week, Week 3 from Wednesday 15^th to Friday 17^th February. Parents should have received a letter and the COMPASS event, which is now live to fill in. I have extended the date for the consent on this form to be completed to this Friday 10^th February. PLease ensure you fill out all medical information for your student, including medications. Year 12 has been emailed a dietary requirements form to fill out. If there are any issues, please let us know. This is a compulsory school event and non-attendance will still be billed.

YEAR 10 RETREAT
The Year 10 students will be offered the experience of a three day retreat at Camp Bornhoffen from Monday 20^th March to Wednesday 22^nd March 2023 (Week 8). This year the retreat is earlier in the week. It is an expectation that all students are present at school for the remainder of Week 8 for normal lessons. Parents have been emailed a letter and some special instructions regarding the retreat. Please check your emails. Please let the College know if you did not receive an email regarding the Year 10 Retreat. You are asked to complete the COMPASS online consent form by today Thursday 9^th March at the very latest! The event will appear on Compass very soon. Further details about the retreat (eg: student requisites) will be sent home closer to the date.

INAUGURAL MASS
On Tuesday 7^th MSPC celebrated our first mass of the year. It was wonderful to be in the church together. Congratulations to our new School Captains and Co-House Leaders and our new Eucharist Ministers. We also lit each of the new house candles for the first time. A special thank you to Fr. Peter Wood for saying mass for us on the day.

God bless and all the best for a wonderful 2023.

Grace Molloy
Leader of Evangelisation

Assistant Principal - Learning & Teaching

Welcome back to the 2023 school year. All students have settled back into classes and started learning with the goal of achieving growth. We commenced the year by celebrating the successes of the 2022 HSC cohort. Mt St Patrick College once again achieved excellent results ranking at 162 in the top 200 schools, The students achieved 57 distinguished achievers awards which is amark over 90 in an individual subject. Lincoln Taylor was ranked 13th in the state in Standard English and Anna Dubois was ranked 5th in the state in Standard Mathematics. This is an exceptional effort for our little school in our little town.

At the opening assembly Amelie Ogg was announced as Dux for 2022. Congratulations to Amelie! 2nd aggregate was Lucy Jones and 3rd aggregate was Anna Dubois. We would like to wish the cohort of 2022 all the best for the future and we look forward to hearing about their exciting adventures after school.

Last night parents of the 2023 Year 7 cohort were welcomed into the community at an information meeting where parents met with the teachers of each learning group. This is the commencement of an important partnership between the school and home aimed at supporting each student in their learning and development.

Tomorrow in the Learning Hub there is an exciting event to celebrate Women and Girls in Science at lunchtime. Ex-students from Mt St Pats forging brilliant careers in Science will be presenting to the students about their adventures.

I hope all students enjoy learning at Mt St Pats in 2023.

   Narelle Sherrah
   Assistant Principal: Learning and Teaching

LITERACY AND LEARNING

Literacy is an essential part of everyday life. It is the foundation of how we communicate with each other, how we learn and understand, and how we achieve success in all areas of our lives. According to ACARA:

“Literacy encompasses the knowledge and skills students need to access, understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions, present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their lives beyond school. Success in any learning area depends on being able to use the significant, identifiable and distinctive literacy that is important for learning and representative of the content of that learning area.”

(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority)

The role of the Leader of Literacy is to support staff and students to develop and practise literacy skills in all learning areas. There are many ways this happens including through the collection and analysis of learning data, implementation of evidence-based teaching and learning strategies, and targeted intervention programs.

Literacy at school
Students at Mt St Patrick College are constantly exposed to literacy learning and opportunities to practise these skills throughout the school day including, but not limited to:

• in Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8) a whole school focus on sentence construction strategies, to help improve the clarity and cohesion of students’ writing;
• targeted, evidence-based, literacy intervention programs for students in Years 7, 8 and 9;
• fortnightly DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time for all students in years 7-10, if not more frequently when time allows;
• fortnightly literacy lessons for students in Years 7 and 9, to develop and practise fundamental literacy skills;
• supporting students in Years 10-12 through their senior studies and HSC Minimum Standards Tests on an as-needed basis;
• literacy coaching and professional development opportunities for all staff to be better placed to support students in their learning areas.

Literacy at home
Parents can support students to develop and practise their literacy skills at home in many ways. In future newsletters, I will share with you some resources and strategies to assist you to make the most of these opportunities, but in general terms, parents and caregivers can:

• share an understanding that literacy is important and has lifelong benefits and implications;
• model effective and appropriate communication, including the use of mobile phones and social media;
• read with/alongside their children and take opportunities to discuss their child’s reading interests;
• encouraging children to choose age-appropriate reading material that is relevant to their interests for DEAR (this can include non-fiction and magazines).

If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s literacy development, please do not hesitate to contact me by email or phone.

    Simon Holder
    Leader of Literacy

Welfare

Welcome back to 2023. This year will be an exciting year for students because of the introduction of our new house structure. We now have eight houses. Each house has a Leader of Wellbeing and four Homeroom teachers. Each House group has approximately one leader per 100 students to try and give the best care to the students. Together, the staff and the students form a group, who we hope will work together to support each other and our broader community in a manner which is based on service and spirit. 

The student leaders, the whole student body and the staff, have started with the bar raised high. Our swimming carnival had our highest attendance and participation rate ever. House Spirit was on show with lots of colour and fun.

Each Head of House (Leader of Wellbeing) will be in touch with you soon, if they haven’t already, to introduce themselves as a key person in the social, emotional, spiritual and academic wellbeing of your child/ren. This will hopefully be the start of a positive relationship that will build over this year and beyond, to create a productive partnership to best assist your students. 

Please view the table below to identify your child's Homeroom teacher and Head of House. Please contact them if you have any issues at all.

   Louise Shields
   Leader of Welfare

Curriculum

Dear students, parents and carers

The start of a new year is always an exciting time. We commenced the year with a wonderful College assembly which celebrated our 2022 Year 12 cohort on their excellent HSC results. We are so proud of their efforts, resilience and their many sterling achievements. 

‘The philosopher Will Durant once sagely observed, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  A tribute publication entitled, ‘Year 12 Excellence’ has been uploaded to the College website under the ‘Year 12 Excellence page’. The publication aims to acknowledge the breadth of excellence our Year 12 students have consistently demonstrated. We are so very proud of each and every one of our Year 12s and wish them every happiness and success for their future endeavours. We encourage them to always “be the good”.

Last week we warmly welcomed back our Stage 4, 5 and 6 students. Starting the year in a positive manner is very important and we encourage students to be organised and ask questions  if they are unsure of expectations.

A helpful checklist to assist students being organised includes:

* using the online diary on a daily basis 

* ensuring the right books and materials have been packed for each lesson

* keeping track of deadlines and important dates 

* ensuring that assessments are planned for. Using the assessment and study guide planners on the Assessment Portal

* reviewing notes after class

* finishing any incomplete work studied that day 

* established a workable home study routine

* completing homework as it is due in a quiet designated space 

Assessment Notification

In the next newsletter I will publish a fortnightly overview of assessment tasks. Students can access assessment tasks and their assessment calendars via the Assessment Portal from the main MSPC page (see screenshot below). 

Year 7 and new students to the College will be shown how to access the Assessment Portal, once they have settled in. Students use their school email account to access it

On the Assessment Portal students can access:

• Assessment Rules in their Handbook. A summary of this can be found on the main page of the Assessment Portal
• Assessment calendars
• Assessment tasks in subject folders
• Handbooks that contain important information: eg. homework and assessment policies
• Exam timetables
• Study planners
• Assessment Variation Application Forms.
• Important weblinks for seniors.
• Senior Subject Change Application Form

I wish all of our students an exciting and focused start to their 2023 learning journey.

    Jo McDonald
    Leader of Curriculum

Faculty News

FROM THE SPORTS DESK

COLLEGE SWIMMING CARNIVAL

What an amazing day! I promise not to mention that heat! 

New traditions were made, 8 new Houses competed against each other for the first time, with Nagle proving it really was a “Gold Rush”.

There was so much colour at the start of the carnival it was truly an assault on the senses. Each House had an opportunity to ‘strut their stuff’ with confidence with the first ever “March Past” conducted. Houses selected a team song and walked the length of the pool showing off their costumes and House spirit (not to mention some very ordinary dance moves).

Races got underway shortly after and there were back to back races until our presentation ceremony at 2.40pm.

With the introduction of 8 Houses, there are now fewer competitors per House which means that more students need to take the opportunity of contributing to their team and possibly joining a relay team. This was one aspect of the day that really does need to improve for the upcoming carnivals. Houses that had relay teams (and participation numbers) topped the carnival.

Congratulations to all our age champions and winning teams - well done all.

AGE CHAMPIONS

DIOCESAN SWIMMING CARNIVAL

The 2023 Diocesan Swimming Carnival is to be held in Kempsey on Thursday, March 2^nd. Members of the team are asked to make their own way to this event. The College will not be sending a bus as it would mean an overnight stay. This next level of competition is the selection trial for the Lismore team to go further and compete at the NSWCCC Championships later in the year. Successful team members will be sent a compass notification this week and for preparation for the Diocesan carnival can I ask families to indicate if your child intends to attend the carnival in Kempsey. Successful team members can also submit more times (must be verified times) for the following events: 100 butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and 200 free. Registrations are now also open via the Lismore sport web page (see below) for 400m events.

DIOCESAN WINTER SPORT TRIAL REGISTRATIONS

Registrations close for all those students who wish to be con

sidered to attend trials for the following sports:

• Open Boys and Girls Football (registration closes Feb 17th)
• Open and U15 Rugby League Boys (registration closes Feb 17th)
• Open and U16 Rugby League Girls (registration closes Feb 17th) (must be playing or have playing experience)
• Open and U15 Touch Football teams (registration closes Feb 10th)

Use the link: https://sport.lism.catholic.edu.au/registration/

   Tim Whitney
   Sports Co-ordinator

All applications must be submitted by the closing date and they will be passed to the sports coaches who sift through and invite talented players to trial. Sports coordinators will be informed of all successful applicants

LOOKING AHEAD

Week 4

 - Diocesan Touch Trials  21/2 (students invited to attend after registration process)

- NSW ALL SCHOOLS Triathlon Penrith 23 & 24th Feb (registration closing soon)

Week 5

- NSWCCC Tennis 27/2 Sydney, online registration through CSNSW Sport https://csnsw.sport/

- Diocesan Swimming Kempsey 2/3

CRICKET NEWS 

NATHAN PRYKE  (Yr12)
During the summer holidays, Nathan Pryke, of Year 12 had the privilege of representing New South Wales in the U17 Cricket Australia National Championships

From Nathan himself:

“The Nationals Championships this year were held in Tasmania, so I was pretty excited to get down there and check out the sights as well as the cricket grounds. We played 6 games in total with a couple of rest days in between. I bowled in 5 out of the 6 games with figures of :

0/22 off 6 overs with 1 Maiden vs NSW Metro

2/18 off 6 overs with 1 Maiden vs Tasmania

2/19 off 7 overs with 3 Maidens vs South Australia

1/25 off 6 overs with 2 Maidens vs NT

1/22 off 5 overs vs Victoria Metro

We had a strong batting line up and only got two innings during the tournament.”

JACK O’SHEA (Yr 9)

Jack O'Shea has had an outstanding summer of cricket. He was selected to play in the  NSW Pathways Youth Challenge which was held in Raymond Tce the week before Christmas. From his outstanding performances at this carnival he was selected for Far North Coast in the Country Kangaroos side in the U14s State Challenge held in Dubbo over the summer. He finished the week with 9 wickets - second highest wicket taker in the competition. Big future ahead.

    Tim Whitney
    Sport Co-ordinator

College News

A NOTE FROM THE ENVIRONMENT DESK

OUR Journey to becoming a Sustainable School

In 2022, Mt St Patrick College started two new initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint. Our first initiative was Meatless Monday. According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation, the meat industry accounts for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If the world is to meet its target of limiting global warming to “well below” 2 o C, some degree of diet shift will be necessary. If the world is to strive for the most optimistic target of keeping warming to 1.5 o C, changes to diet are even more crucial.

On Monday’s, students are encouraged to bring a meatless lunch and the canteen will only be serving vegetarian and vegan lunches. Our canteen will be offering delicious choices, such as: haloumi soft tacos, Mexican bean soft tacos, vegetarian cannelloni, spinach rolls, vegetarian triangles, haloumi burgers, curried lentil burgers and falafel burgers. Flexischools have also come on board, changing Monday’s menu to meatless and the canteen ladies encourage you to order online. Details are on the Meatless Monday menu opposite.

Our second initiative was Nude Tuesday’s. Nude Food Day is a global initiative developed to encourage kids and parents to eat well and live well, and eliminate all unnecessary packaging and wrapping that goes into schools. Historically, Nude Food Day has been celebrated on a specified date, however in 2022, we are
promoting the event to run across the whole year, on Tuesdays. Essentially, kids bring their food – nude! This will reduce the amount of rubbish that goes into the bins, that goes into the ground, that pollutes our planet. Almost all plastic is derived from materials made from fossil fuels. 4% of the world's annual petroleum production is diverted to making plastic, and another 4% gets burned in the refining process. Re-usable plastic containers reduce our use of fossil fuels, and our carbon footprint.

  Jackie Tilsley

Community News