Marian Catholic College 185 WAKADEN STREET, GRIFFITH NSW 2680

TELEPHONE: (02) 69692400

WEBSITE: www.mccww.catholic.edu.au

No 22 Friday 22 July 2016

Dear Parents, Students and Friends,

Welcome back everyone to another school term. Term Three is the final academic term for our Year 12 students and they will soon commence their HSC Trials. All year groups have now had formal academic feedback with all reports for years 7-10 emailed home over the holidays. Parent/Teacher/Student conferences are planned for Tuesday 2 August from 4-7pm in the Marcellin Hall and parents can book appointments on the SOBS website https://sobs.com.au/pt/parent.php

This week the Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, announced reforms to the HSC, which will be implemented for Year 11 students in 2018 and Year 12 students in 2019. The Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW (BOSTES) website states, “At the heart of the reforms is the establishment of a minimum literacy and numeracy standard to be eligible for the award of the HSC. The minimum standard underpins the two main other areas of reform: revised course structure and content, and streamlined assessment. These changes will provide a flexible HSC that caters for the needs of all students, with options to extend students in their studies.” Assistant Principal, Ms Scoble has included a link and more information on these important changes.

Not only does the term have a strong academic focus but our Representative Soccer teams are also doing extremely well. Sports Coordinator, Mr Seers mentioned at Wednesday assembly that we already have four teams that are Riverina Champions, both Open Boys and Girls soccer and Year 9/10 Boys soccer in the NSWCCC, as well as our U/15 Bill Turner Cup Boys, while our U/15 Girls Bill Turner Shield team are playing rain delayed rounds in the Riverina division. This shows how strong our teams are as they are now in the top 32 schools at the state level and may go further. Best wishes go to everyone involved with these teams. Congratulations also to ex-student Eliza Ammendolia who yesterday was announced as a member of the Australian Young Matildas squad to play in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Women’s Championship 2016 to be held in Mandalay, Myanmar later this month. Eliza has been a regular in the Western Sydney Wanderers and Australian U/17 team.

Pilgrims from Catholic Schools and Parishes on the Wagga Wagga Pilgrimage to WYD:

“From the Eternal City to the City of Mercy” 15 July – 6 August 32 pilgrims from 7 parishes, 13 schools and the Catholic Schools Office will be on pilgrimage to WYD in Krakow with the Holy Father Pope Francis and an estimated 2 million pilgrims from around the world and Marian teachers Mr James Moore and Mr Heath Neville will be amongst them! Please pray for our pilgrims. Watch for social media posts about the Wagga pilgrimage to WYD at the CSO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CSOWagga/ and on Twitter at #WYDWagga. The main events from WYD Krakow will be streamed live at www.XT3.com/live

New staff at Marian and other staff changes include Mrs Dumbleton as Acting Science Coordinator, Mr Seers as Acting VET Coordinator, Mr Dal Broi job sharing with Mrs Sparkes and Mr Mason is Acting Year 11 Coordinator whilst Mr Neville attends WYD Poland.

Peace and Best Wishes

Principal

Learning and Teaching News

ANNOUNCEMENT OF REFORMS FOR STRONGER HSC STANDARDS

On 19 July the NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli, announced reforms to the NSW Higher School

Certificate (HSC) which are intended to support all students achieving a minimum standard of literacy and

numeracy, to reduce excessive student stress, to remove opportunities for plagiarism and pre-prepared responses,

and to motivate and challenge students to achieve at their highest possible levels.

MINIMUM STANDARD

The NSW Government has announced that all Year 12 students must reach a minimum standard of literacy and

numeracy to receive the HSC from 2020.

WHO HAS TO MEET THE NEW REQUIREMENT OF A MINIMUM STANDARD OF LITERACY AND

NUMERACY?

Any student who wishes to receive the HSC from 2020 will be required to meet the minimum standard. Students

with disabilities undertaking Life Skills courses, and students from a non-English speaking background who have

been learning English for less than one year will be exempt from meeting the standard.

HOW CAN A STUDENT MEET THE STANDARD?

Students can demonstrate they have met the standard by achieving:

a Band 8 in each of their Year 9 NAPLAN reading, writing and numeracy tests; or

a pass in the online literacy and numeracy test in Years 10, 11 or 12. A demonstration test indicating the level

of skills required is available at hscliteracynumeracy.bostes.nsw.edu.au.

CURRICULUM

BOSTES will release draft new syllabuses for public consultation in English, Maths, Science and History for Years

11 and 12. The draft syllabuses focus on students developing mastery of skills and understanding, rather than a

broad overview of content. Syllabuses will be kept up to date through a more efficient review cycle. A new one-year

extension course in science is proposed, starting for Year 12 students in 2019.

ASSESSMENT

School-based assessment will be capped to reduce excessive student stress from over-assessment and allow a

greater focus on teaching and learning. HSC exam questions will be redesigned to reduce the opportunity for

formulaic responses and cheating. Stricter guidelines will be issued to assure the authorship of take-home

assessments and projects. A common scale will be introduced for the maths courses, giving students in advanced

courses better recognition of their efforts and encouraging students to study the level of maths best suited to their

ability. This removes the incentive for students to take easier courses in an effort to gain higher marks.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Frequently asked questions

Board of Studies website - Stronger HSC Standards

We will be unpacking these reforms with parents and students over the coming months.

Christie Scoble

Assistant Principal—Learning and Teaching

CANTEEN ROSTER TERM 32016

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

25 July 26 July 27 July 28 July 29 July S Schaefer J Lockwood E Caffrey

H Panarello Y Aloisi C Laurent

K Trimboli K Salvestro

D Zanotto M Marando J Sartor

S Royal C. Turner

CALENDAR OF EVENTS WEEK 9

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 25 July 26 July 27 July 28 July 29 July

White House Workshop

White House Workshop Tournament of the Minds Drama Day Year 12 Drama Evening @ 6pm Drama Studio

Ski Trip—Thredbo Westpac Maths Competition

Ski Trip—Thredbo Brainstorm Productions Years 7 & 8 Lesson 1 Sat 30/7 - Yr 11 English Excursion to Wangaratta to see Othello Sun 31/7—Ski Trip Returns

PRAYERS PLEASE

We keep in our prayers the family of Antonio Sergi former student of

MCC who sadly passed away.

We pray for any families in our community who have lost loved ones or

are suffering illnesses. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

LOST PROPERTY

The office has Blazers, Hats, Jumpers, Scarves and Sport Jackets all without

names.

If your child has lost anything please

ask them to come to the office.

Attention All Year 12

Do you want to improve your writing to maximise your marks in assessments and exams?

Writing Workshops are starting next week.

When: Every Monday

Time: 3.30 - 5pm

Where: The Marramarra

Please bring assessments you are working on and practice exam questions to personalise your learning experience at the sessions.

Stress down day Stress Down Day is to raise vital funds for lifeline.

Year 7 Students participated in a

mental health workshop to

destigmatise mental health.

Whole school activities were

held at lunch time with hand

messages, twister, bubbles,

music, cupcakes and popcorn.

Theme was Eat well Sleep well

Live well.

The Gospel this Sunday encourages us to pray. As the breathing is to our bodily health, so is prayer to our spiritual life. St Teresa of Avila speaks of prayer as an experience of taking time to be with God whom we know loves us very much. We may not say much or think much in that experience, but to open our hearts to experience God’s love in that encounter and to allow him to stir or move us to show love ourselves. This love is not great delight but the desire to please God in all things.

Careers News Taste of TAFE

Held Wednesday 29th June and Friday 1 July Students were able to spend the day at TAFE accessing hands on activities in the following areas. Beauty and Hairdressing, Automotive, Mechatronics, Business/Finance/Retail, Information and Digital Technology, Early Childhood, Nursing/Social Work,Engineering/CAD and Construction. This program gives students and opportunity to try TVET courses ahead of their subject selections and see where it might lead them. Those that chose to attend, gained a lot from the days.

Marian Student volunteers at the MIA Deanery

Carnival, after two previous attempts to hold the

carnival, the rain finally held off long enough for

it finally to go ahead. The students did a

fantastic job and received many complements

on their enthusiasm and hard work.

2016 MATHEMATICS WEEK CELEBRATION

The College will celebrate Mathematics Week from July 25-29. As in previous years, the whole week will be full of varied activities that will provide opportunities for each student to enjoy the many applications of Mathematics in their daily lives. Each student is encouraged to enter at least one of the activities set for the week.

The theme for this year’s Maths Week is : Mathematics is Fun!

On Monday, July 25, the Bake a Cake/Cupcake Contest will be on. Mathematics teachers will judge the entries based on the artistic aspect of decorating a cake with mathematical symbols/signs.

Tuesday lunch time, Ms Burton and Ms Blanco will hand out the Maths Treasure Hunt sheets for student with a partner fill in the information needed to win. The first three groups that hand in the information sheets, will win prizes!

Homework Sheets will be given to any student who wishes to solve Mathematical problems with their families. The family who get the most number of correct answers, wins a gift voucher. Collect the sheets from Ms Blanco on Monday.

During the whole week in Maths lessons, trivia questions and puzzles will be given out. This is an excellent opportunity for all students to participate in solving a variety of problems and see some applications of maths to real-life situations. Which will illustrate how maths can be a lot of fun too !

Other competitions during the week will include the Poster making competition for the art enthusiasts. For the culinary experts, we have the Bake a Cake/Cup Cake Contest as mentioned. And for a student or group who compose a poem or a song with mathematical content or include this in a well-known song – wins a prize!

The Spelling Contest of Mathematical words is for Stage 4 students only. Students in each class will compete to spell 10 Mathematical words chosen by their respective teachers. There will be 2 winners in each class in Year 7 and 8.

2016 AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICS COMPETITION

Marian Catholic College will participate in this year’s Australian Mathematics Competition, sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank, on Thursday, July 28. The Competition started in Australia in 1978, was the original, and is now one of the largest of its kind in the world. More than 40 countries participate in the AMC each year and is recog-nised as an international benchmark for mathematics performance. The Competition consists of 30 questions, 25 of which is a multiple choice questions, and 5 questions require a number answers. Duration of the test will be for 75 minutes. E. BLANCO Maths Coordinator