Last night we were indulged with the display of the HSC projects. The various works represented many, many hours of attention, consideration, research, processing and fine tuning. Once again, the quality of the work was outstanding. All the girls can be justifiably proud of their final products. My thanks go to their teachers and their families as they supported the girls through the journey. We enjoyed the service of the Year 11 Hospitality class throughout the night. Thank you to all who contributed to such an enjoyable evening.

This Friday we will again kick our heels up at the Father Daughter Dance. It is always a very enjoyable evening, with dads and daughters out of their comfort zone as they negotiate the various barn dance steps. An adolescent girl doesn't often have time with her father in a social setting, so times like this are rare and very valuable. I hope to see many of you there tonight.

The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne released results of a poll they undertook which surveyed parents in relation to the household use of screen-based devices. Their findings indicated that almost all teenagers and two-thirds of primary school aged children now own their own tablet or smartphone. Teenagers spend most of their time on screen-based devices at home and they spend almost 44 hours, on average, a week on the device. Parents were found to spend almost 40 hours a week on their device. Three in four teenagers have their own social media account. Almost half of all the children regularly use screen-based devices at bedtime, with one in four reporting sleep problems.

I don't think these results are surprising to you, even if they continue to alarm us as parents and educators. The recommendations continue to say that there should be no screen time one hour before bed and that the best scenario is that devices are kept out of the bedroom. Devices are here to stay and whilst they can be great assets to our life, they can soon control and dominate our lives. It is always difficult to be the parent, however, this is one area where parents would do their children a great service if they could hold firm on the use of screen time and location of  the devices at night. When your children have grown up into healthy adults, they will thank you for your strong stand.

Next Sunday is Father's Day. Wishing all fathers, fathers to be and father figures, a lovely day.

I will finish with a prayer to our Father.

Blessings

Sue Lennox - Principal 

Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.

SAVE THE DATE - EMERALD DINNER DANCE - 17 MARCH 2018 

Walking from Central Station, down Broadway to Central Park Mall, then onto the interesting architecture of the University of Technology, followed by Chinatown and Darling Harbour, it was a beautiful but smokey day. Due to hazard reduction in the Blue Mountains, a thick haze blanketed most of the city. This actually added some interesting effects to the images the girls took.

A big thank you to Mr Nash, who joined us on the day and provided valuable technical support and advice.

I look forward to seeing what the girls submit for their assessment task.

Louise Glase - CAPA Teacher

We acknowledge the efforts of all our students and staff who are participating so positively in these initiatives, which have included:

The gift of a bookmark for use with the College Diary, which displays the PEEL paragraph, STOP editing and CUBES scaffolds we use across KLAs from Years 7 to 12;

The launch of the ‘Free Rice’ campaign, which encourages students to complete online literacy and numeracy quizzes to support the provision of free education and rice for communities in need all around the world;

The introduction of the ‘Countdown’ website to all students, enabling independent and class practice in working with letters and numbers under timed conditions;

The Human Calculator Challenge, to test our mental computation skills;

A guessing competition to exercise our skills in estimation;

The ‘Amazing Race’ Literacy and Numeracy lunch time challenge, to be held on Friday 1 September; and

Our Middle School Assembly on 29 August, which had a Literacy and Numeracy Focus and was led by our Year 9 student leaders.

We were honoured to welcome guest author, Yvette Poshoglian, to speak to our Middle School students about her passions for reading and writing. She shared with us the journey she undertook to research and write her book, ‘Escape from Cockatoo Island’, and inspired us to look at the world with inquisitive eyes and listen to the stories that surround us every day.

With thanks to Mrs Tanginoa, we learned the Dharawal verbs for sitting, standing, making and walking, and we celebrated the wonderful worlds of literacy and numeracy in Music with Mrs Samyia’s rap.

This week we also celebrated our achievements in Literacy Planet’s Word Mania Challenge, which ran for a month and tested our vocabulary skills. Over three thousand schools participated around Australia and New Zealand and we acknowledge these fantastic results:

Overall School Results

Year 7 ranked 7^th nationally

Year 8 ranked 40^th nationally

Year 9 ranked 14^th nationally

Individual Results - Highest Scores and Most Games Played

Yr 7 Jessica K, Christabelle A, Layla E

Yr 8 Alana P, Marissa K, Ashley E

Yr 9 Angelique H, Wintana G

We are thankful for the opportunities we have to run these Literacy and Numeracy initiatives, in addition to all the valuable programs and supports we always deliver to foster the development of these vital skills in our students.

Claire McGillicuddy - English Teacher and Michelle Parker - Mathematics Teacher

We wish Siena the greatest success in her career path.

Joshua Combes - Creative and Performing Arts Coordinator

This topic was very interesting as it required us to open up about who we are on the inside, rather than focusing on physical beauty. Strangely enough, this process was at the same time confronting and enlightening, in the sense that we were encouraged to acknowledge the fact that our inner beauty is what defines us as a person and makes us unique.

We then turned to the Bible to uncover what it has to say about ‘true beauty’. The Bible revealed to us that our God sees our inner beauty and urges us to be true to ourselves, so that we can become the person that we are meant to be. In the Letter of St Peter, we read that, “your beauty should consist of your true inner self, the ageless beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of the greatest value in God's sight.” After thoroughly exploring several Bible passages, we all entered a time of personal reflection and reconciliation. This prepared us for acknowledging our true selves.

Next the groups went away to individually create a link to a chain, that included a word and a symbol representing our greatest gift or quality. The individual links were then joined together to create a Chain of Giftedness, which symbolises the best characteristics of our year group. It also symbolises our interconnectedness as a year group, our endless support for each other and our ability to strengthen each other through our shared giftedness.

After a lunch break, the year group was introduced to a Community Service Program which we will be participating in as Year 10 students. The day was concluded with a prayer and a small overview of the day in the chapel.

I want to thank all of the Year 9 girls, who participated in this reflection day, for being open about their thoughts and ideas, for being non-judgmental and for making this day memorable, in the sense that we will all be able to continue drawing on the learnings of the day.  On the grade’s behalf, I would also like to extend thanks to Mr Gattone, Mr Ashkar and the Year 9 Pastoral teachers for helping to facilitate the day.

Ruby D - Year 9 Student

Shonan Shirayuri Gakuen is a prestigious all girls Catholic high school in the Tokyo region. They have a longstanding relationship with our College and we have conducted student exchanges between our schools over the past few years.

The students from Shonan thoroughly enjoyed their stay this year and this is mainly due to the hospitality of the hosting families. I would like to express my gratitude to these families because without them, this program would not be a success.

We look forward to the next exchange in 2018.

Julian Nash – LOTE Coordinator

Our week in Bacolod was incredibly rich and we were treated with the greatest sense of hospitality. From arriving at Mass on Sunday morning at the Conception Church in the mountains and being greeted with a lavish morning tea, to the excited faces of the children upon our arrival at the Kinder School on Monday – everywhere we visited we were surrounded by a wonderful sense of welcome.

The children and the staff at the Kinder School are full of a great zest for learning and life. We witnessed a joyous love of play and friendship every day we visited and were most lucky to be in Bacolod for the Kinder School Benedict Day Celebrations. This was the day that the Kinder School also marked their 14^th Foundation Day and to be a part of such a happy occasion was a privilege. The countless hours that the teachers, Sir Joffrey and Miss Jean, had put into creating costumes and dances and songs, to mark the day, and the utter joy of the children who performed for us and their parents, was truly something to be witnessed.

Amongst the joy were moments of complete disillusionment, sadness, anger and helplessness. Our visits to The Boulevard and an orphanage that the Sisters regularly pay visits to, were places that will stay with me forever. Weeks after my return, I am still left with multitudinous questions about fairness in life, equitable distribution of wealth and resources, but mostly, how in our world, which is so full of everything we can ever ask for, are there so many people who are living in complete poverty? And yet, while having so very little, the people we had the privilege of meeting were so very rich in joy, hospitality, pride and a love of Christ.

One of my strongest learnings from my immersion experience is the greater understanding and deep appreciation of the endless work that the Sisters are doing and have done for so long now in Bacolod and further afield. In every conversation that I had with Sister Leonie, Sister Grace and Sister Anne, there were more and more things that I could not have even thought of, that the Sisters are working on, helping the community with and searching to make a difference. The Outreach Centre is an exceptional example of this. What a wonderful resource and community the Sisters have created for the people of Bacolod. The Feeding Program at the Boulevard is faith and community in action. This is a program which seeks to feed about 300 people five times a week, while also teaching the local women about nutrition and cooking and simultaneously building community and friendship. It was here and all the many places we were visitors of that week, that I truly saw Benedictine work in practice and found the face of Jesus in so many that I met.

Katherine Power - Year 8 Coordinator

One of the highlights of the service was during the reception, where we witnessed the healing relationship between Vietnam veterans and the South Vietnamese community here in Campbelltown in the form of a gift presentation.

All in all, it was a very moving and memorable day, and we recommend for other girls to attend if they get the chance.  

Georgia W - Year 12 Student

While still very young, the amount of talent amongst the girls is quite overwhelming as is the spirit, confidence and tenacity with which they play.

Under the guidance of senior players Emma O and Eden G, the girls started the day very strongly, accounting for Magdalene and Holy Spirit quite convincingly. The girls then took on hot favourites and 2016 overall champions, St Mary’s. The girls surprised their opposition with some strong play and took an early 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, a second St Patrick’s goal was disallowed, which gave St Mary’s the opportunity to hit back, which they did with only minutes remaining in the game. The final result was a 1-1 draw. In the final pool game, the girls accounted for St John’s in what turned out to be a very fun game, and left St Patrick's in equal first position with St Mary’s. Final positions were then determined by a countback, which saw St Mary's finish in first place and St Patrick's second. This second place in pool A allowed St Patrick’s to progress to the semi-final against St Benedict’s, who finished first in pool B.

In what turned out to be a very exciting and nerve racking game, neither team could find the back of the net, resulting in a 0-0 draw. Unfortunately for St Patrick's, the team that finishes higher in the pool round is the one that progresses through to the grand final and, in this case, it was St Benedict’s. The girls were then left to play off for 3^rd place overall against Mt Carmel, a game they won quite easily.

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 and to Mr Dyet for giving up his time to umpire on behalf of the team.

The team consisted of Emma O, Eden G, Ellie F, Amelia C, Lauren D, Emilee O, Ashley F, Taylah M, Piper L, Zoe V, Emersyn G, Caitlyn S, Bridie L, Katie B, Elizabeth D, Ruby D, Ana C, Julia P and Amy W.

Scott Ashcroft - Sports and Activities Coordinator

As always, the girls represented themselves and the College with distinction and culminated with St Patrick’s finishing 3^rd position in the girls division, closely behind St Mary’s and Holy Spirit.

Many students achieved outstanding individual results and personal bests throughout the day and some of the highlights included:

Mercedes S – 1^st 200m, 1^st Long Jump, 1^st High Jump, 2^nd 100m.

Katarina S – 1^st Shot Put, 2^nd Long Jump.

Sarah P – 1 Javelin.

Amy S – 1^st 1500m, 2^nd 800m.

Ruby D – 1^st 800m, 1^st 400m (New Diocesan Record).

Piper A – 1^st High Jump, 2^nd Long Jump, 2^nd Shot Put.

Joanne S – 2^nd 800m, 3^rd 1500m.

Debra M – 2^nd Javelin.

Elizabeth D – 2^nd Shot Put, 3^rd Discus.

Minduli T – 2^nd Discus, 3^rd Shot Put.

Jayden B – 2^nd 100m.

Natalie S – 3^rd High Jump

Tavara S – 3^rd Discus.

On top of these excellent individual results, we also had Piper A awarded 14 Years Diocesan Age Champion, Mercedes S awarded 17 Years Diocesan Age Champion, as well as Ruby D 2^nd Place 15 Years Age Champion.

Eight students will now go onto represent the College as part of the Wollongong Diocesan Team at the NSW Combined Catholic Colleges Championships at Homebush. The students that qualified for the team were Piper A, Jayden B, Ruby D, Sarah P, Katarina S, Amy S, Mercedes S and Amadee T. We wish the girls the best of luck.

A big thank you must go to our team official Mr Sovilj and team manager Ms Cornett for their excellent work with the students throughout the day and also to the loyal band of parents who came along to support the students.

Scott Ashcroft – Sports and Activities Coordinator

Many of the schools had teams which play together in regular weekend competitions, which only added to the excitement and anticipation the girls were experiencing. All teams played extremely well, with the Year 9 /10 team finishing in 3^rd place overall and just missing out on the Grand Final playoff. The standout performance came from the Year 7/8 team that finished Overall Runners-Up in the Championship Division after a narrow loss in the Grand Final.

Year 7 / 8 Team : 2^nd Place Overall

The team consisted of Katarina S, Piper A, Kassandra S, Evana S, Hannah S, Maya B, Briana C, Charlotte F and Chantel S.

Year 9 / 10 Team : 3^rd Place Overall

Paris H, Eva B, Natalie S, Amy S, Olivia F, Emily A, Stephanie E, Elizabeth C, Rhani W and Alysha B

Year 11 / 12 Team : 3^rd Place in Championship Pool A

Megan B, Samantha J, Jessica S, Monique P, Analysa R, Ana C, Halle P, Georgia K, Tegan F and Gabrielle M.

A big thank you must go to Mrs Arena, as well as former students Maddison and Emily Kirk, for the role they played as coaches, as well as a special mention to all the parents who made the journey out to Penrith and supported the girls all day.

Scott Ashcroft - Sports and Activities Coordinator

The team consisted of Anita P, Esther M, Dryandra M, Elena P, Astes A, Lyliann V, Eva B, Florence V and Alysha B.

As the defending Diocesan Champions, the team entered the competition extremely confident and early results suggested it was going to be a very successful day. The girls were able to win all of their pool games and even managed to win some impromptu games against the boys at the venue during the breaks.

The girls were able to maintain this momentum heading into the semi-finals, where they easily accounted for Magdalene, securing themselves a place in the Grand Final. The Grand Final saw the girls go up against a very strong Mt Carmel team, however, they were no match for the St Patrick’s girls, winning the final two sets to nil.

I would like to congratulate the girls on the way they conducted themselves throughout the day and acknowledge Ms Cornett for coaching the team, as well as all the girls who assisted with the refereeing and scoring.

Scott Ashcroft - Sports and Activities Coordinator

Heart Women’s Conference

Date: 19-21 October 2017

Venue: Fairfield RSL, 14 Anzac Ave, Fairfield NSW 2165

A time to come together as women to be refreshed and renewed in our busy

lives. Spoil yourself. Dream again. Feel loved, honoured and cared for. Invite

your daughters, mothers, sisters and friends!

Men – What women in your life can you spoil by sending them to Heart 2017?

Register:  heart.thecatholicguy.com

Email:  heart@TheCatholicGuy.com

Phone: 1300 734 880

1 September - Father & Daughter Dinner Dance, Years 9, 10, 12 AIME Excursion
4 September - Student Leaders Commissioning Assembly
5 September - Bandemonium Concert
8 September - Middle School Dance (St Gregory's College), Year 11 SLR Excursion
9 September - Polynite Performance
13 September - NSW Oztag State Championships
15 September - NSW CCC Athletics
19 September - Year 12 Assembly, Year 12 Graduation Dinner
20 September - Year 12 Graduation Mass and Awards, Years 7 & 8 AIME Excursion
21 September - Year 12 Formal
22 September - Year 11 SLR Excursion, Year 9 Geography Incursion
22 September - STAFF AND STUDENTS FINISH FOR TERM 3, 
23 September to 2 October - Year 11 Philippines Immersion, Japan Language and Culture Study Tour
9 October - STAFF AND STUDENTS RETURN FOR TERM 4
10 October - Performing Arts Assembly
11 October - International Day of the Girl, Years 7-10 Parent,Teacher,Student Night
13 October - DIO AFL (Years 7-9)
17 October - Year 12 2018 Parent Information Evening
18 October - Year 11 SLR Excursion
21 October - 24 Hour Walk for Cancer