S t M a r y ’ s C o l l e g e Sent to Proclaim the Gospel

Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

From the Principal

I am conscious that since the last newsletter you have received the Board of Directors’ communication regarding my resignation as Principal of St Mary’s

College. While my end date is still 7 months away, I would like to share the sentiments I expressed to the Board in my own letter.

Extract of letter to St Mary’s College Board of Directors

“It is with a considerable degree of sadness, but clear sense of inevitability, that I write this letter of resignation from the position of Principal of St Mary's

College, Franklin Street Adelaide.

The decision has been clearly influenced by the privileged appointment as Trustee/Director of Dominican Education Australia (DEA). The ability to continue to

work within the world of Dominican schools and in the area of governance is a gift to an educator and leader whose life has been consummately shaped by the

Dominican Charism, the Dominican Sisters and the spirituality Dominic himself has presented to us.

I hope I leave St Mary's College in a well-positioned place as a highly respected and leading Catholic girls' College. What I have been able to vision and

achieve has been the result of excellence of leadership personnel and teams within the College, a holistic community development of a school culture of

wellbeing and learning excellence, supremely supportive and collegial College Board of Directors and Council of parents and the nurturing company of

congregational mentors among the sisters.

Above all has been the presence of wonderful students during 12 years at St Mary’s who seek to emerge from our school as strong young women poised to

create the significance and meaning of their life.

As I end my time at the College, I am confident that the future is bright and challenging as the Master Plan for new buildings propose exciting new landscapes

for St Mary's, the Year 7 transition implementation offers increased enrolments and at Executive, teaching and support staff levels, the College is well

positioned to engage and flourish in the time ahead.

While there are many months still to go I wish to express my deep gratitude to all within the College, CESA (Catholic Education SA), the Dominican Sisters of

the Holy Cross Congregation and APCSS (Association of Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools) for the experience and privilege of leading this school

community.

I have been blessed by the company of friends, supporters, advocates and colleagues who share a passion for the work we are charged with - enriching the

lives of young people, influencing their learning and leading them to a fullness in Christ of their faith and spirituality.”

Yours sincerely

Eileen Young

A Community Vibe

While these two photos were taken during the Staff Student Debate in Book Week, they epitomise for me a critical aspect of life at St Mary’s College – namely

the engagement with school that students manifest, the relational strength of student-teacher interaction and - that we have FUN!!

The huge and very vocal audience that gathered in the Susan Sullivan Library voted the Student Team in as winners but soaked up every moment of the

Teacher Team “exhibition” – and with good reason, it was a tour de force of entertainment.

Similar community events in the past weeks have further reinforced the strong relational foundation of our school. The Years 9,10 and 11 Course Counselling

nights for 2017 and Junior School Father’s Day BBQ and games night were events that also emphasised the value of coming together to share the love of your

daughter and your hopes for her future.

………...Continued page 2

S t M a r y ’s C o l l e g e 253 Franklin Street

ADELAIDE SA 5000

T:8216 5700 F:8216 5730

W: www.stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au E: enquiries@stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

From the Principal: Continued

Book Week delivered another great result – Year 6 student Jamie Robb

entered the Book Week Council Competition and in winning first prize,

won for her school a collection of books shown here being appreciated by

her home class.

As the term draws to a close, we send Years 10 and 11 students out into

the world of Work Experience and Community Service in Week 9 and

prepare for the always celebrated Social Justice Week at the end of term.

Eileen Young

Principal

St Mary’s College Absentee Phone Line

8216 5716

Please telephone before 9.30 am if your

daughter is absent

St Mary’s College Uniform Shop

8216 5719

Opening times - Monday 8.00 am - 11.00 am

Wednesday 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm

Thursday 8.00 am - 11.00 am

St Mary’s College OSHC : 8216 5743

A big congratulations to the Year 10 students who competed in the 2016 Science and Engineering Challenge final. The girls had a successful day finishing 5th overall out of 8.

St Mary’s College – Social Justice in Action

Every Wednesday during Term 3 the Reception and Year 1 classes have been making muffins for Moore Street. Even though they are very young and new to school life, they are developing an understanding of selfless giving and a sense of social justice.

The joy of the children during this activity is evident by the beautiful smiling faces and heart-warming comments. They truly love helping others.

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

From the Deputy Principal: Student Wellbeing

Cybersafety The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner has launched a revamped version of their iParent website, which will be constantly updated to be as responsive as possible to new online threats and trends.

A recent survey of 2360 Australian parents by the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner revealed that only 60% of parents thought their children were at risk online, and a third of Australian parents don’t know how to keep their children safe on the internet. Only one in five parents set rules for internet use.

The research also found:

70% of parents monitored what their children did online;

A little more than half watched what their children did;

37% checked the browser history;

Only 19% ‘friended’ their children on social networking sites

Go to the website: www. esafety.gov.au, where you will find new resources such as seven ways to make a home cyber-safe and facts on the latest popular apps. The seven ways include a step-by-step guide on setting parental controls for tablets, gaming consoles, streaming services including Netflix and Youtube, web browsers such as Google, smartphones and laptops.

If you’re not already doing this, perhaps ask everyone in your household to hand in their phones/ipads/ipods (anything that allows communication with people outside of the house late into the night) by a certain time each night. This will ensure young people are getting to sleep and staying asleep, and not waking when their phone ‘pings’ and thus engaging in online conversations in the middle of the night. Don’t presume that this is only a problem for secondary students, as students as young as nine or 10 years of age are engaged in Group chats with their classmates and sending messages late at night as well. It might also be a great way for us as adults to switch off as well! Emotional Wellbeing/Mental Health Support Services: As we move into school holidays in another week or two, please find below some helpful services for young people experiencing emotional wellbeing and mental health issues:

Kids Helpline - 1800 55 1800 www.kidshelp.com.au/

Kids Helpline is Australia's only free, private and confidential, telephone and online counselling service specifically for young people aged between 5 and 25.

Counsellors talk with more than 6,000 kids each week, and help with all sorts of problems, big and small.

Beyondblue - 1300 224 636 www.beyondblue.org.au/

Chat online: 3pm – 12am

Beyondblue is the national initiative to raise awareness of anxiety and depression, providing resources for recovery, management and resilience.

Headspace www.headspace.org.au

Information and advice for young people, their parents and carers, and professionals working with young people. Term 4 - Uniform: On a completely different note, a reminder that next term students are expected to wear the Summer uniform: College summer dress, school

shoes (black flat lace-up) and white socks. If an additional garment is needed for warmth transiting to and from school or at school during these terms, only the College jumper or blazer may be worn.

A College hat must be worn during recess and lunch in Terms 1 and 4 if outside in the direct sun.

PLEASE NOTE: The Uniform Shop is closed Week 9 this term, 19—23 September. Lorna Starrs Deputy Principal: Student Wellbeing

Uniform Shop - Holiday Opening Times The Uniform Shop will open on the following days during the October School holidays: Wednesday 12 October: 9.00 am - 1.00 pm then 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm Thursday 13 October: 9.00 am - 1.00 pm then 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm The Uniform Shop will then reopen normal times during Term 4.

During the term, as SMC College Leaders we attended the Catholic Youth Forum held at the Catholic Education Office. This forum was an opportunity for us as student leaders to engage in activities with other Catholic leaders in South Australia. One of the activities was to design a political party and establish a list of core values important to Catholic youth. There was also an opportunity to listen to and engage in topical conversation with Archbishop Phillip Wilson. Overall, this experience was insightful and further developed our understanding of our faith as the youth of today. Tayla Conroy, Caitlin Hegarty and Isabelle Haklar

St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

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From the Deputy Principal (Curriculum)

Professional Learning Recently Ben Chambers, Lorna Starrs, Jo Livingstone, Giovanna Iannicelli and I were fortunate enough to attend the IontheFuture conference in Sydney. Held on a Saturday, the Conference serviced over 700 teachers and leaders from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand. It was the first time that St Mary’s teachers had accessed this growing conference.

What appealed to us as educational leaders were the wide variety of quality international speakers coming to present in the one place at the one time. St Mary’s College highly values high quality professional learning. The international speakers included Professor Eric Mazur, Ron Berger, Kim Bevill, Dean Shareski and more. A variety of topics were covered including:

‘unleashing the power of innovation’;

Rethinking the place of assessment;

Beautiful work through effective and various modelling of student

work;

‘What we must prioritise for school as we head for 2020’;

‘Whatever happened to the Joy in Schools?’.

Despite the wide variety of speakers’ experiences and topics, there were some dominant themes across the conference which both challenged and inspired us:

Jobs reliant on ROTE learning will disappear in the near future;

Memorisation of content is not contemporary or future learning;

The biggest change in learning is to get all students as individual

learners to the next level- but what is the next level?

Ranking students is no longer the main purpose of a school:

Appropriate and timely feedback is to be promoted instead;

Importance of destigmatising ‘failure’ in the classroom; the learning

from this is vital;

Learning should be a joyful experience.

It is affirming to hear that many of our beliefs and practices in our school were reinforced by the speakers. There was also a focus on the rapid period of educational change in which we find ourselves. St. Mary’s College is committed to learning more about and embracing future approaches in education. We are currently working through discussions at a variety of levels as to how we can create some time and space, as a staff, to critically reflect on these important themes and where they may continue to apply to us and, ultimately, benefit student learning.

Online Curriculum & Learning In the last newsletter, I briefly outlined the journey of our Learning Management System (LMS- Seqta) in the context of our school. I wish to expand upon this as to how your daughters will access the ever expanding resources of technology in 2017.

At St Mary’s College we are currently operating in, and next year will further explore, two main online learning environments: Seqta and Office 365. As previously mentioned, Seqta allows for lesson planning, content and delivery to supported and facilitated online, with provisions for students to be able to submit, have work assessed, receive and provide feedback online. It promotes itself as a ‘one-click paradigm’, in the sense that information, interaction, resources and lessons are only one click away.

Office 365 is a ‘product’ available at no charge through our school’s status as a Catholic School. At its most basic form, it provides online access to Office ‘apps’ (like Word, Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, etc.). It allows for five free installations of a ‘local’ version of Microsoft Office which can be installed on any computer, tablet or phone. It also provides access to new apps and programs such Sway and OfficeMax, and facilitates online file storage through OneDrive which means files are available 24/7 and from anywhere with an internet connection.

While we are increasingly operating in both of these environments, we are still learning more about these features and more are coming online as we progress. The true exciting element is that, from next year, more students than before will have direct access to more of these features.

As has been the case in previous years, Year 9s-12s will continue to access these features through the provision of a school laptop through our Mobile Device (MDP). This program will continue for 2017 where Year 9s will be provided with a school device.

For the first time, from 2017 onwards Year 7 and 8 students will have similar direct access to these environments through a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) program. These means that all of our Middle and Senior School students in 2017 will have direct, 1:1, ‘just in time’ access to these learning tools. Through the year we will also look to trial a BYOD program in the Junior School, initially in Year 6.

CESA sector-wide research from ICT solutions company RTG earlier this year indicated that, by the end of next year, it is anticipated that 89% of Catholic Schools will move to a BYOD program. We believe our approach at St. Mary’s to be a wise and opportunistic one, in the sense that in 2017 we are continuing access to learning through our MDP in year levels where they have previously existed (and with systems in place that work with them), while also introducing new provisions through BYOD in Years 7 and 8 where previously there was not a 1:1 access. We are excited that our Middle and Senior students will now have two ways through which to access our teaching and learning platforms.

As a synthesis of the two elements discussed here, reflective of elements of the IontheFuture Conference above, it is important that the designing of our learning programs capitalises on this proliferation of devices and access to online learning. For example, learning activities which focus on knowledge acquisition through remembering will give way to promote more advanced skills like applying, creating, analysing and evaluating. Put simply, education is moving away from knowing things to acting on, trying

and revaluating things. These are higher order thinking skills which our access to online learning will hopefully promote more of.

Enjoy the last few weeks of the term as they come,

Corey Tavella Deputy Principal: Curriculum

Tuition Fees Due 30 September 2016

As detailed in the St Mary’s College Fee Schedule and Policy, all families are reminded that fees are due to be paid in full by 30 September 2016. Exceptions to the rule are those families who have established an alternative arrangement with the Business Manager acknowledging their unique circumstances. If any family is in a position where they seek to establish such an arrangement, they are asked to arrange a time to discuss possible options with the Business Manager. Non timely payment of tuition fees invariably applies pressure to the resources available to deliver curriculum to students.

If you have any queries regarding your statement of fees, please contact Mrs Nuala O’Donovan (8216 5709). I ask that you ensure that your payments are up to date by the end of Term 3.

Payments can be made by Cash to front office, Cheque, Eftpos, Credit Card, Direct Debit, BPay and Qkr!

Information on using Qkr! on a mobile device or online via your computer is available on the St Mary’s College Website.

http://www.stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au/qkr--payments.html Click the link above to visit the web page and learn how to set up and use Qkr!

Richard Watson Business Manager

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

On the Thursday and Friday of Week 5, Year 10 Students travelled to Mylor in the Adelaide Hills, for their Retreat. Robert Napoli had again assembled his team of proud, talented and knowledgeable Aboriginal facilitators, who dramatically advanced the students’ understanding of aboriginal spirituality and culture, through a range of ceremonies, seminars and workshops.

This is the 10th year the Retreat has been run under the current format and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Rob on all the time and effort that has gone into creating and sustaining this unique program. It is pleasing to reflect that there are now over one thousand young women in our community who value and cherish the culture of our

First Australians, having had this experience.

Some student reflections illustrative of the power of this retreat can be seen below:

Sam Bartram

Year 10 Coordinator

In Week 5 of Term 3, the Year 10s went to Mylor Baptist camp, which is a two-day retreat with a focus on Indigenous spirituality. Our guest speakers, Pilawuk and David, gave us an insight into their lives and culture. As well as this, we participated in many activities such as silk painting, weaving, spear throwing and dancing. By joining in these activities, we were able to deepen our understanding of Indigenous culture, along with our understanding of connectedness to traditions and land. Whilst at retreat, we also watched a movie called Kanyini, which focused on Bob Randall and his life during the time of the Stolen Generations. It was an enlightening experience. Overall, this retreat helped to enhance our understanding of Indigenous spirituality, which we have been studying in Religion class at school. It was an eye opening experience for everyone involved, as we were able to develop stronger connections with the Aboriginal culture, and also our own personal spirituality. Olivia Mori 10R

This retreat gave us the opportunity to open our eyes to Indigenous culture. We were welcomed with a traditional water ceremony hosted by our guest speaker, Pilawuk. This ceremony is a traditional welcoming for new people into country. Many workshops were held where we got a chance to expand our Indigenous knowledge further. Hearing first hand from Pilawuk, Niwili, David, Alan and the other presenters really helped me to understand what challenges Indigenous culture has faced and how amazing their 60,000 year old culture is. I took home a more developed respect for the Indigenous people and their culture thanks to this retreat. It was an amazing experience. Holly Ellul 10R

Retreat for me was a connecting, relaxing, spiritual and interesting experience. On

retreat I did silk painting, and went on an Indigenous information walk.

The silk painting was where we drew on silk in chalk, then we got hot wax and

traced over the chalk. The wax helps the dye not mix with the rest of the painting

and colours. Then, we painted it with the colours we wanted, and some of us added

salt to make lighter parts of the painting around your story.

The Indigenous information walk was very interesting. David talked about the

different tools females and males used. For example, only men would use the

digeridoo, and women would only use collecting bowls. We also went on a walk

down to the creek and looked at the trees. In some of the trees there are scars

which could be for creating small bowls. As the tree grew, the scar stretched, which

now shows us where the bark was taken from.

These opportunities were such a privilege to be able to do. This retreat really

opened my eyes and heart towards Indigenous Australians. I appreciated having

this wonderful time with some amazing people including Pilawuk, Niwili and

David. The weavers and dancers were also immensely lovely and talented.

I would definitely recommend this retreat to everyone in Year 10 next year!

Emily Dyson 10R

St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

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Junior School Father and Daughter BBQ With great excitement, over 130 junior school students along with over 100 dads, grandfathers, uncles, step-dads and brothers flooded Veritas Lawns to celebrate St Mary’s first Father & Daughter BBQ. This evening was marked with an opening prayer acknowledging and thanking Dads for the positive

contributions they make to their daughter’s lives. With table tennis, basketball, paper plane making, finger printing craft, chicken throwing, a photo booth and a BBQ Dad’s enjoyed spending some one-on-one time with their daughters. Congratulations to Adam and Olivia West (Year 6) on winning the inaugural three legged race. A wonderful community event for the Junior School! Jo Livingstone Director of the Junior School

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

Sports Wrap up Term 2/3 Terms 2 and 3 has had many sporting highlights with many of our interschool and Knockout teams experiencing great success.

Our Open Badminton team, coached by Ms Sharon Clements, were the runners up in the Southern Zone girls badminton competition. The girls remained undefeated until the last round of the minor rounds, losing to Seaview High in a very close match. Congratulations and well done to all of the girls in this team and thanks to Ms Clements for coaching the team. Our Primary Knockout Netball Team was narrowly defeated by Nazareth College in the Semi Finals of the Primary Knockout Netball tournament. Congratula-tions to all of the girls on a wonderful season and thanks to Amelia Rundle for coaching. The Year 8/9 Knockout Netball Team capped off a wonderful season of netball, winning the Southern Zone Open A Netball Division and finishing runners up in the SA State-wide Knockout Netball Competition. Congratulations to the girls on a wonderful season and thanks to Rachel Bisset and Amanda Shattock for coaching the girls. Our Open Football Team enjoyed another great season of Twilight football. Many thanks to Mr Huw Channing and Mrs Rosie Petrilli for coaching the team. Earlier this term the Year 11 / 12 Netball Program Students played against CBC in the annual CBC vs SMC netball game. Unfortu-

nately, the girls were narrowly defeated in what was a tight tussle. Congratulations to Kasey Bauer (8Y), pictured right, for winning the Level 6 Open State Championships in Gymnastics. Kasey won on the bars, floor, vault and beam which placed her in first position overall. Well done Kasey!

Tayla Petrilli Student Coordinator of Sport

Primary Knockout Netball Team

Year 8/9 Knockout Netball Team

SMC Open Football Team

Year 11/12 Netball team with CBC team Year 11/12 Netball team

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

Gold Coast Netball 2016 On 9 July, 28 students headed to the sunny Gold Coast, representing St Mary’s in our 10th year, competing in the World Sport Netball Carnival. As the week went on, there were many special bonds formed by the girls and the staff which made the week so enjoyable and unforgettable. All three teams played outstanding netball throughout the week, showing true determination and proving all those early morning trainings were worth it.

Two out the three teams from St Mary’s College made it into the grand final. The Year 8 team, coached by Felicity Pearce, unfortunately missed out on reaching the grand final; however they came third in their Junior division which was an outstanding result. The Junior division was won by our very own Year 9 team who had an absolutely wonderful week of netball wining every single one of their games. They are such an amazing team who played slick netball with all the skills they learnt from their coaches Rachel Bisset and Amanda Shattock. Their defensive pressure right down the court was just one of the many highlights of the week. It would only take this team two passes to get it from the centre pass and into their star goalies who stole the show with their quick accurate goals. These are the things that made this team wonderful throughout the week in Queensland. With this talented team, the Netball Program will have some great role models to look up and admire for years to come. Queensland better watch out for these super stars next year because they will be aiming to win two in a row!

The Year 9/10 team made it through a tough week of competition with determination to win the grand final. The team got into the final. However, after lead-ing in the first quarter, their opposition came back to beat them by a small margin of two goals. Although the loss was emotional for the girls, the team did exceptionally well to come second overall in the intermediate division. They overcame a rough start, not only improving their ball game but strengthening the bonds with one another. Thanks to Lucy Reynolds and Hannah Schwarz for the support and encouragement of their team who had a great week of netball.

The week didn’t just consist of netball but also enjoyable day trips to Dream World, Harbour Town, Sea World, and how could we forget the famous bad taste outfit night that the surf club look forward to every year, as well as the “meet and greet” dinner on the first night and meeting all of the New Zealand girls as well as the many teams from all over Australia competing in the World Sport Netball Carnival. It was an absolutely wonderful week and we couldn’t have done it without ther staff by our sides. A big thank you goes to: Rosie Petrilli, Amanda Shattock, Laura Heinrich and Jo Surman. We could not have come this far without our amazing coaches Felicity Pearce, Rachel Bisset, Lucy Reynolds and Hannah Schwarz. On behalf of the whole netball squad we

would like to say thank you to these amazing people, because without them the week wouldn’t have been able to go ahead. It was because of them that the week went so smoothly and we would like to thank them so much for their support, encouragement and hard work. Being able to go to Queensland for netball is an absolute privilege and I hope that SMC continues the tradition for many years to come.

Sinead Horsnell Year 10

St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

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It is always exciting to welcome exchange students from overseas and this year we were fortunate enough to host 4 girls from France, Spain and two from Italy.

They have enriched our classes and have made many wonderful friends. Arianna and Elodie returned home at the end of August and we say farewell to Rita and Elena at the end of September. We hope they have

enjoyed their time with us and hope to visit them in their home countries one day or see them back here in Adelaide in the future!

Also, a big thank you to the Winter family (Aruna and Ashwini) for hosting Arianna from Italy.

Mrs Catrina Tridente Languages Coordinator

My name is Elena Lazzarin and I am 16; I am an exchange student from Italy. I come from Rovigo, close to Venice and there are four people in my family. I have an older brother who is studying at university. I will be staying here for three months with Jessica Gauci and her family. I am here because I want to see new places and experience new cultures. I am interested in learning a different lifestyle and meeting new people and improve my English, of course!

This is an experience that will change my life and I am very excited and happy to be here. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time here with my family and the people here. I’m also looking forward to exploring Australia and Adelaide – all the typical features of Adelaide. I love Australia a lot already and don’t want to leave! I hope to enjoy my time here and meet lots of people and have lots of fun.

My name is Rita Rodriguez. I'm 16 and I'm from Barelona, in Spain. I arrived the 7 July and I'm leaving at the end of September which makes me really sad because I just have a few weeks left. Here, I'm staying with a couple and with Elodie, a French girl, and we are staying in Burnside. I have decided to come for three months to Australia because It's a great opportunity to see and enjoy this amazing country as a real Aussie person. I also wanted to learn a lot more about a new culture, learn a lot of English and live a lot of new experiences with new friends. Since I have arrived here I've just been amazed at how nice people are, how much green land you have everywhere and I just have fallen in love with your way of life.

My name is Elodie, I am 16 years old. I’m an exchange student from France and I live in Grenoble, it’s next to the Alps. I have one twin sister and one little sister. In Australia I live with a host family in Burnside; they

are an older couple and I’m in this family with Rita, she’s from Spain. I wanted to come to this country to discover a new culture, a new way of life, new people and to improve my English! I’m leaving on 28 August. I’m sad because it’s a beautiful country. I enjoyed my trip and I’ve met nice people. I want to stay longer. I’ve been in Australia since the 4th of July, it’s been two very long months away my family, my friends, my house but it’s passed very quickly. I wasn’t bored!

Coming to Australia it’s been a real opportunity because there isn’t enough time to do everything, it’s very far from France though. I wish everybody would experience a trip as I have, because I think it’s important to know how the people live in another country and it’s different and very interesting culture!

Australia is a wonderful country and I hope I can come back!

Ecommit Indigenous Garden Many weeks of planning and preparation have gone into creating the first stage of our Indigenous Garden. Researching and designing began in Term 3, 2015 and a successful grant from Natural Resource Management enabled the process to commence. During Week 5 this term, a group of Year 10 and 11 Ecommit students planted the garden near the Franklin Street gate entrance to the school.

The aim was to revegetate the garden with endemic species to simulate the types of plants that flourished here before urbanisation. Thus creating further links to our country’s environmental past and traditional land owners the Kaurna people.

The next stage will involve the creation and installation of Aboriginal totems designed by Year 10 Art students. These totems are of spiritual significance and will add further layers of meaning and relevance to what

will become a sacred space here at St Mary’s College. Classes are looking forward to using the area as a focus study as the garden will be a treasured feature of our school for years to come. Brianna Leach Ecommit

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

From the Music Coordinator

Sunday Soiree Sunday 11 September saw the last of our special concerts for family and friends of the Music Department at St Mary's College. In the beautiful acoustic setting of St Patrick's Church, 10 vocal and instrumental ensembles performed to a large audience for a concert lasting nearly two hours.

We were also very fortunate to have choirs from Christian Brothers College and Young Adelaide Voices join our Senior Concert Choir to perform two movements of John Rutter’s choral piece, When Icicles Hang. The addition of these male voices created more colour, texture and depth to our students’ sound – we thank them for joining us at the concert.

The girls performed wonderfully well and we should all be grateful for their talents and dedication and what they bring to the fabric of this great educational community. Thank you must also go to the fantastic music staff in preparing these ensembles to perform such quality repertoire of substance and meaning, extending the potential of these great young musicians.

Be sure to book your tickets for the Catholic Schools Music Festival to see our students perform on stage at the Festival Theatre from September 27 - 29! Ben Chambers Music Coordinator

Over the last two terms, Batol Jawad, Gursim Hundal, Ruby Sellick and Victoria Moore have been participating in the Debating SA School’s Competition, held on Tuesday evenings at Pembroke.

The girls have had the opportunity to argue many interesting topics against various schools. Some of the topics included: “That there should be a sugar tax”, “That the government should hang up on public payphones”, “That modern parenting is out of control”, “That tattoos are not body graffiti”, as well as several others.

During the season, the girls developed many skills, such as researching, organising and presenting information in a compelling way, to form balanced and informed arguments through reasoning and evidence. But more importantly, with each debate, their confidence and self-esteem increased.

The girls demonstrated wonderful team spirit in the way they supported each other during each debate, and throughout the season. They are to be commended for their effort, enthusiasm and commitment in attending the evening debates, as well as the endless lunchtime meetings.

It has been an absolute pleasure coaching the girls and we congratulate them on making it to the finals. We would like to wish them every success in the weeks ahead as they prepare and face the finals rounds. Liesl McPeake & Angela Caporaso Year 8 Debating Coaches

Congratulations to the following Junior School students for being elected SRC and Social Justice Reps for Semester 2:

SRC Rec – Paris Tziavrangos & Toris Byone Kinsley Year 1 – Yen Bahn & Georgie Hewitt Year 2 – Chloe Lockley & Alexandra Siavelis Year 3 – Jacinta Dela Rosa & Kiara Didyk Year 4 – Ava Dennis & Tehya Bird Year 5 – Sophie Payne & Stephanie Radice Year 6 – Olivia Kelly & Scarlett Kalamaras

Social Justice

Rec – Alyssia Rechichi & Annie Lagozzino Year 1 – Jessie Gaylard & Larah Jones Year 2 – Isla Jarrett & Phoebe Mammone Year 3 – Danika Neylon & Cleo Panagopolous Year 4 – Ezriella Jones & Ioanna Antoniou Year 5 – Olivia Tremelling & Amelia Rechichi Year 6 – Charlotte Southam Clark & Lucy Palmer

St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

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From the English Coordinator

Award winning short story – ‘Young Writer’s Award 2016’ As mentioned in the last College newsletter, a number of our secondary students excelled in this year’s SAETA Young Writer’s Award. The first of these short stories and poems to appear in the next few newsletters is the

Year 9/10 first prize entry “Cursed” by Emma Margrison (10 W). This highly imaginative and original story of the impact of ‘teenage love gone wrong’ incorporates vivid imagery and floral symbolism, while blending the styles of realism and fantasy in a most creative manner. Bernie McInerney English Coordinator

Cursed by Emma Margrison (10W) A shudder spreads violently throughout his body as he throws his head forward, hands gripping the once unfamiliar cold that is the sink. Petals fall gracefully, like snow on a winter’s day, from somewhere deep within his throat. Picking up the petals and himself, he walks over to the bin. He wants to drop them into the bin, wants to scream and break things and burn all of those god damn petals and flowers that remind him of what he can’t have. But that’s why he can’t do it, do any of those things. That is why instead of throwing the petals away and never seeing them again, he places them in an empty jar. Adding it to his collection of varying colours. They remind him of her.

The first time it happened, he panicked. Didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand. He is cursed and it is because of her, because she lives and breathes and takes up space. He can’t hate her though. No matter what she does, he can never hate her. That’s why he has a garden growing in his body, taking root in his throat and spreading through his veins and maybe, one day, growing into his lungs and slowly suffocating him. Death by unrequited love. What a way to die.

The walk to school is painful, the wind bites at his nose and he has to pull his tattered and well-worn scarf up, trying desperately to trap the heat and failing miserably. There is a simple solution to his problem, purchase a new scarf, one with the ability to keep him even slightly warm. She gave it to him though, and that’s explanation enough. How could he replace something she gave him?

Arriving at school isn’t much better. The walls are all brick, the only paint in the school peeling and the roof contains cracks that can keep any bored teen amused. The students’ chatter fills the air, broken only by the ear-splitting sound of the bell. The groaning received as a response, echoes through the corridor. The lazy shuffling of feet that don’t really care if they are late to class or not, follows. Making his way to his locker he sees her. Stopping his movements, he directs his attention towards whatever she deems important enough to be occupying herself with. The corner of her mouth moves upwards and she lets out a rare soft chuckle, showing off her dimples and increasing his heart rate. He goes to move towards her, but stops suddenly. She has company. Of course he knew she had company, she wouldn’t laugh like that to herself. Still, he had assumed it was her friends, not him. It takes so much for her to smile like that, but she does it so effortlessly around him. Of course he knew she liked him, it was hard not to. She was painfully obvious, but it had never really hit him until now. His heart clenches and an uncomfortable feeling spreads throughout his body, rising like bubbles from his stomach and making its way into his throat. He knows the feeling all too well. Experienced it too many times and was doomed to experience it many more. Quickly he runs to the bathroom. He can hardly go to class vomiting out petals. Damn, he was going to be late. Again.

He heaves, but nothing comes. Trying again and again, he stops. It was strange, normally they came of their own accord. If it wasn’t for the painful feeling in his throat that only increased when he swallowed and his lack of ability to breathe through his mouth, he would think it was a false alarm.

With the way he was going, he would never be able to go to class and eventually someone would walk in on him, and then it would be all over, everyone would know. Desperate, he sticks two fingers down his throat and heaves and heaves and heaves. A flower spews out of his mouth and into his waiting hand. It’s different this time. Not the foxglove he has become so familiar with but a rose, covered in something sticky. Realisation only hits him when he’s leaning over the stink and coughing up the sticky substance. A violent red. Blood. Panic comes at him in full force and he is scrambling to pick up the rose, dropped during his unannounced coughing fit. The rose is covered with thorns and, by rinsing the blood off, he learns it is red. A red rose. A passionate love. Another cough takes him by surprise, and then it’s happening again. The pain ends with five red roses, a sink full of blood and a day of school that he ends up skipping.

It’s a week later and the roses haven’t stopped. One a day, a dozen foxglove in between. The pain of the thorns familiar, his pockets stuffed with lozenges and a computer filled with saved tabs about coughing up roses. Tiredly, he wonders what he should do. He knows he will never be the affection of her love and yet he can’t bring himself to hate her. She is everything to him, she always has been. Years and years of love can’t just be wished away. A ding snaps him out of his thoughts and he scrambles to get his phone. It’s her. Dread spreads through him like poison. “I asked him out today and he said yes. Thank you so much for your help. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you, you’re the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“Anytime. As long as you’re happy.” He replies. He had helped, how could he not have? She had asked him for help after all.

Before he can even process what is happening, he is filling his lap with flowers. The blindly bright daffodils caress his damaged throat, falling along with a lone tear. As long as she’s happy... Once again, congratulations to Emma on winning her year level category in the 2016 awards.

Share the Dignity Often when we think of homelessness and domestic violence, our mind draws us to issues around access to food, shelter and basic human rights. However, for homeless women and women in domestic violence shelters, each month they also suffer the indignity of not having access to sanitary items. Often we complain about having our period, yet imagine not having sanitary items, having to make a makeshift pad from newspaper or having to clean yourself up in a public bathroom. This is a reality that these women face all too often.

Share the Dignity is an organisation which raises awareness about this issue and provides sanitary items to these women in Australia. No woman should have to choose between feeding their children and buying sanitary items. Join Mrs LP’s Year 12 Religion class to raise awareness and funds for local charity Share the Dignity. Shortbread biscuits, dream catchers and dolls will be sold on Social Justice Day and make a real positive difference to many disadvantaged women’s lives.

Thanks Mrs LP’s Year 12 Religion Class

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

This term the Junior School took a day out of their everyday to share, engage and participate in making and experiencing the Beauty of God.

The retreat activities provided opportunities for reflection, song and art. We were joined by Andrew Chinn whose workshops were celebrations of faith-filled music.

We finished our day with a community Prayer Gathering, with many families able to join us in a celebration of the Beauty of God.

Some reflections and conversations on our day:

“It was inspirational, really inspiring to sing with Andrew. I liked colouring in the mandalas. I liked it how everyone was quiet” Hailie, Year 5.

“I think God is everywhere. You can’t see him – you can feel him – you can feel him in your heart.” Yulahnia, Year 1

“It’s been a really calm and nice day. I really enjoyed it because I feel really comfortable. Some stuff has made me feel calm; some stuff has made me feel zest; some stuff has made me feel brave. I focused on everything – everyone’s been smiling and so happy.” Kahlia, Year 3

“You can never see beautiful things until you notice them closely. It was really relaxing.” Tyanna, Year 4

“It was really good – Andrew Chinn was really fun – I liked how he got all the classes to get up and sing. The colouring-in was calming because it’s good to have one day to reflect on God and calm down and not stress about anything.” Scarlett, Year 6

“Today was excellent, I like seeing everyone in casual clothes. I wore my special dress to school. I’ve been listening to Mr Chambers play the guitar. I’ve been thinking of nice stuff about God.” Tayah, Year 2

“It’s awesome – it’s fun colouring in about God.” Eloise, Reception Anne Soldan Junior School Retreat Coordinator

St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

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St Joseph's Old Scholars Centenary Dinner When: Wednesday 5th October. Time: 6.30pm for 7.00pm start. Where: Adelaide Royal Coach - 24 Dequetteville Tce, Kent Town. Cost: $43 for a 3 Course Carvery. Guest Speaker: Sister Marie Foale RSJ. Bookings Name and phone number bookings by 30th September Josie 82953667 or Margaret 8371 1527. Invitation for all former students/teachers (male and female) from any Josephite Schools/Colleges to attend.

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St Mary’s College, Issue 11, Monday 19 September 2016

ACCM presents

Little Big Shots: Australia's International Film Festival for Kids

Palace Nova Cinema, Rundle St, Adelaide Friday 7th & Saturday 8th October 2016

Don't miss out! All tickets $12

Soak up the festival atmosphere with entertainment before and after each film session with local youth circus Cirkidz performing, you will have the chance to vote for your favourite short film and win fabulous prizes, there will be giveaways and much more.

Suitable for kids 3 and over, Little Big Shots features short films from all over the world that kids (and parents) will love!

For more information of session times please visit www.childrenandmedia.org.au