LOVE OF GOD - LOVE OF LEARNING - HOSPITALITY - STEWARDSHIP - PEACE

Newsletter 8 2011 ~ 2 June

Dear parents,

The college community was delighted towelcome the Congregational Leader of theGood Samaritan Sisters, Sr. Clare Condon, tothe college on Friday 27 May. Sr Clare, whois a former student of St Mary’s attendedour assembly to thank the girls for theirvery generous support of Sr Rita Hayes’work in East Timor. The college has focusedmuch of its fund raising effort over the pastfew years on building a well to provideclean, freely available water, to the peopleof Railaco in East Timor.

Sr Clare spoke to the girls about the workthat it is happening in Timor and how theircontributions are making a great differenceto Sr Rita’s work. Using photos and storiesof the work being done in Railaco, Sr Clarecaptivated the girls, providing them with asense of life in East Timor and the manyhardships people face in satisfying themost basic of needs. We heard of childrenwalking two hours each way to school overrugged mountains and doing so, veryhappily as they greatly value theeducational opportunities on offer.

We also gained a sense of how fortunate weare in Australia where education, cleanwater, electricity and access to high qualitymedical care are freely available. For me, SrClare’s visit highlighted the good that wecan do by making even a small contributionto the work being done in places such asEast Timor. However, even more than this, itshowed how lucky we are to be living in acountry where health services, educationand support for those suffering hardshipare freely available. While we can often seethe difficulties of life in today’s consumersociety, in many ways we are blessed andwe should take time to appreciate ourblessings.

Wot Opera

St Mary’s College has been fortunate to havebeen chosen to work with Wot Opera, aneducation project set up by Opera Australiato introduce school students to opera. Thegirls are working with professionals fromOpera Australia to create their own operafrom scratch. The project involves the girls

developing their own characters for theopera, plot creation, writing the libretto(script), composing the music andcasting right through to directing,designing set and costumes andperforming the work.

The girls chosen for this project will beworking with Opera Australia for fivedays over five weeks, culminating in theperformance of their opera at the collegeand at the IPAC on 22 June. Furtherupdates of this great initiative will beincluded in upcoming newsletters andon the college website.

Registration and AccreditationVisit

St Mary’s was visited by representativesfrom the Board of Studies on Tuesday 31May for our five yearly Registration andAccreditation visit. Board inspectorsviewed all of our documentationfrom teaching programs through toassessment manuals, student worksamples and teacher evaluations.The inspectors also visited ourfacilities and ensured that we werecompliant in all areas necessary forregistration as a secondary school inNSW. The visit was both pleasant andhelpful as the inspectors commentedon the quality of work that washappening at the college andadmired our facilities. I am delightedto report that we are compliant in allareas and we have been registeredfor the next five years.

Strategic Plan

The new college strategic plan isclose to completion and we arediscussing both the launch date ofthe plan and a commencement dateto begin the implementationprogram. This plan has been a realcommunity project, with studentfocus groups, surveys of students,parents and staff and great supporton a variety of levels from theCollege Board. I believe the plan willprovide vision and direction for thecollege into the future; however, it

has also given us an opportunity to reflecton where we have come from, what ourcurrent needs are and where we as acommunity believe we must focus ourenergies in coming years.

I thank the College Board, our StrategicPlanning Committee comprising of parents,students, staff and Board members, and ourentire college community for the work thatthey have done and the time they haveinvested in creating a vision for our future. Iwill report in more detail on the progress ofthe plan as it nears completion.

I thank you for your ongoing support of thecollege and its staff and I wish you a peacefilled and happy weekend as we begin toembrace the cooler weather.

Yours sincerely, Frank Pitt, Principal

Rachel Bate, Frank Pitt and Melissa Sullivan at theMother’s Day dinner at Villa D’Oro

Mrs Brenda Wilson, Chair of St Mary’s Board, with herdaughter at the Mother’s Day dinner

Uniforms

Thank you for your patience with thedelay of our winter uniforms. I realisethat this has not been an optimumsituation, but unfortunately the delayhas been out of the control of the collegeand uniform shop. I understand that themajority of girls now have their winteruniform and should have made thetransition. The uniform shop is keepingme updated with the arrival of the finalpieces.

With the onset of the colder weather Iencourage you to ensure that yourdaughter is wearing the blazer to andfrom school. The college scarf andjumper should be worn if required.Please be aware that non-regulationscarves are not permitted and studentswill be asked to remove them.

A reminder also that uniform length ismid-calf. It is expected that short hemsare adjusted in a prompt manner andany delay is notified to the YearCoordinator by a note.

Communication

Parents are reminded that the StudentDiary is the primary tool ofcommunication. These should be signedweekly and monitored for yourdaughter’s progress. The diary is avaluable indicator to you as parents andI encourage you to take time to review itand discuss the week’s events with yourdaughter.

Notes relating to absence or latenessshould be provided on the first day ofreturn, or on your daughter’s arrival tothe college should she be late. Inrelation to Friday Sport, participation iscompulsory. It is disappointing to seewhen parents have arranged othercommitments during this time. Althoughit may seem practical this is not anappropriate time for medicalappointments or other events whichimpact on attendance.

Punctuality

Unfortunately, it has come to myattention that a number of girls arearriving late to school on a regularbasis without a valid reason. Schoolbegins at 8.45am and it is expectedthat students are ready for TutorGroup at this time. Please be awarethat if your daughter is regularlylate for no reason she will faceappropriate consequences to makeup for the time missed.

Emma Magill

Quota Student of the Year

Rosie Gardiner and Tayla Howard of Year 11recently competed against students fromother Illawarra schools. The girls were firstinterviewed by a panel of judges on theirknowledge of current affairs, citizenshipand community involvement and leadershippotential. This was followed by a speechnight where they presented a prepared fourminute speech on a topic of their choiceand delivered a one minute impromptuspeech.

The standard of competition was very high.Rosie spoke about “what makes youngpeople tick” and Tayla spoke about “herhero, her younger sister”. Both speeches wereclearly delivered, well organised andmeaningful.

Although neither of the girls were placed,both gained valuable experience andenjoyed this opportunity. Congratulationsto Rosie and Tayla for being excellentambassadors for our college.

Thank you to Annalise Farrugia, from Year12 and the 2010 winner of this competition,for mentoring both girls, Mrs Morris andMrs Pulford for helping the girls with theirspeeches and Mr Selby for his support.

Liz Davis

Mother’s Day Dinner

The annual Mother’s Day Dinner was heldat Villa D’Oro this year and was a greatsuccess. Gifts of all sorts were donated bymany generous sponsors for our silentauction and raffles.

The food was delicious, the companyscintillating and the entertainmentprovided by our special guests Rachel Bateand Melissa Sullivan was a real treat.Rachel sang a number of songsaccompanied by Melissa, both of whom areex-students of the College and extremelytalented in their fields. We look forward tonext year’s celebration and hope to see youthere! Marie Pulford

Lee Bate and her Mum Elaine

Debutantes wanted

St Mary’s Gerringong 129th Annual Ball –Saturday 13 August – Gerringong TownHall.

Girls over 16 years of age from theMunicipality of Kiama, who would like totake part in this year’s Debutante Ball areasked to contact Diane Allison atallis4@bigpond.net.au or phone after6pm on 42342 664 for furtherinformation. Expressions of Interestrequired by Friday 10 June. Dancepractice to begin late June.

From the Dean of Pastoral Care…

Mrs Liz Davis and Mr Scott Selby withRosie Gardiner and Tayla Howard

Our college mums having a wonderful timeat the Mother’s Day dinner

From the P&F…

Formal Fashion Parade and Expo 8 June

The P&F committee is pleased to

announce that tickets have gone on sale

for the Holy Spirit and St Mary’s second

formal fashion parade and Expo to be

held at Holy Spirit College, Bellambi.

Doors open at 6.30pm - tickets are $5

each and are available from the Student

Office and Senior students.

For more information, see advertisement

that accompanies this newsletter.

(See college website for P&F minutes)

Helen Bow (President P&F Association)

From the Dean of Studies…

Students in all year groups have recentlybeen involved in assessment tasks. Year7 students are partaking in a continuousmodel of assessment in their subjects,Years 8 to 10 students have justcompleted their half yearlyexaminations and Year 11 and 12students have completed theirscheduled tasks. As students receivetheir results, I encourage them to reflecton their experiences: What did I dowell? What did I find hard? What am Igoing to do about it? What will I dodifferently next time?

Students need to use the feedback fromthe task and their teachers to helpnarrow the gap between what theyunderstand and what they need tounderstand. I encourage students tospeak with their teachers about theirlearning. Feedback is not justinformation from teacher to student; itis most effective when it is also fromstudent to teacher. Professor John Hattieis a leading researcher on what makes adifference to student’s learning andpromotes feedback as a positiveinfluence. He also claims that feedbackhas its greatest effect when a learnerexpects a response to be correct, and isnot. As students receive their results,there will be some who will be happyand others who will be disappointed. Iencourage students who aredisappointed with their results to turnthat disappointment into a positivedetermination and seek assistance onimproving their understanding of theconcepts. This will enable them todevelop new learning strategies andmake better connections with theirlearning.

Year 8 families are reminded that theYear 9 2012 subject information eveningwill be held on Tuesday, 7 June at 7pm inthe SGN hall. Gerry Sozio

Year 12 Biology Excursion

Starting the day at 7am can be a challenge. However, Year 12 Biology girls were alreadypreparing themselves for sights that had to be seen at the University of NSW Museum ofHuman Disease.

Diseased specimens such as clogged arteries, layers of skin damaged by melanoma anddissected lungs with emphysema were a confronting yet riveting experience. We certainlyhave improved our understanding of the theory covered in class. A big thank you to MsHarris for organising the day, and to Mr Quinn and Ms Redmond for taking us.

P.S. Eat well, stay out of the sun and don’t smoke – we’ve seen the consequences! Lauren Hanson & Jessica Costanzo

Year 12 Biology excursion to the University of NSW Museum of Human Disease

Zonta Club – biggest morning tea

On 26 May, the Zonta Club along with some extra helpers, took part in a nationwide event,and held the biggest morning tea at the college. The Zonta executive paraded top hats, whileselling scrumptious cakes and heart-warming hot drinks at recess and lunch. Overall theday was a great success and an astounding $1300 was raised. These funds will be donatedto the Cancer Council to help fund research, prevention, education and support servicesacross the country. A big thank you to students who baked cakes on behalf of their tutorgroup – they all looked amazing and tasted even better. The Zonta Executive wouldespecially like to thank Ms Fitzgerald, Andrea Theodore, the Zonta Club president, and allstudents and staff who purchased cakes and drinks. Congratulations to Mikayla Lilli andKelsey Hawkesby who won the best decorated cake competition. For any students whowould like to become part of Zonta, meetings are held every Day 9 at lunch in F205.Hopefully our next fundraiser at the end of term will be just as successful. Zonta executive

MUNA

On 14 May Meg Connell, EmmaHarrington and Zoe Vesey had thepleasure of attending the Rotary Clubsponsored Model United NationsAssembly (MUNA) at the Nan TienTemple. It was an all day event withstudents from 20 other schools from theIllawarra and Sydney representingvarious countries and debating on fivedifferent world issues. It was anenjoyable and enriching experience and,although we didn’t win, we learned agreat deal about other cultures and aninsight into a United Nations Assembly.

Zoe Vesey, Emma Harrington and Meg Connell

Top hats and delicious cakes were the orderof the day at our Zonta Club’s

biggest morning tea

Emma Harrington, Meg Connell and Zoe Veseyat the Model United Nations Assemmbly

Locked Bag 42 - Wollongong NSW 2500 - Phone 02 4228 6011 - Fax 02 4229 8555 - www.stmarys.nsw.edu.au

7 June Yr 9 2012 subject selections evening 7pm 8 June P&F Fashion Parade at Holy Spirit (from 6.30pm) 23 June Yr 7 immunisations 24 June Term 2 concludes27 & 28 June Yrs 7-11 parent/teacher interviews

For student enquiries and notifications, please ring Student Office direct: 4226 3959

Stage 5 Visual Arts

Excursion to Arthur Boyd’s Bundanoon

We recently had the good fortune to visit Arthur Boyd’s estate and participate in somewonderful workshops.

The education officers, Mary, Jim, Saskia and Randall welcomed us with warm smiles andcups of hot chocolate!

It was a beautiful clear day and we drew en plein air. Views included the iconic pulpit rockthat Boyd repeatedly painted in his own works.

We had a guided tour of Boyd’s home and studio and we viewed many original artworks. Weall enjoyed this day. It was a privilege to be immersed in Arthur Boyd’s world – his creativespirit was palpable! Margaret McMahon, Kerri Harrigan and Franca Barila

New translation of the missal

Information sessions

Cathedral Meeting Room: onWednesdays, June 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29from 10.30am to noon and Thursdays,June 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 from 7.30pm to9pm, there will be sessions to explorethe Mass in the context of theintroduction of the new translation ofthe Roman Missal. The DVD “Become OneBody One Spirit in Christ” will beexplored. There will be opportunity fordiscussion and questions.

Kulilla Corner

CHILLED Anxiety Program @ Headspace

This program is a scientifically testedcourse that teaches teens and their parentshow to better manage and overcome anxiety.

The program is run by two youthpsychologists and each participant andtheir parent/carer receives their ownworkbook and CD ROM. Research hasshown that 80% of those who attend thisprogram show significant improvement.

Topics include: What is anxiety? Me and myanxiety; learning about feelings; feelingbetter by thinking better, how unhelpfulthoughts make us anxious; slowly fightingthe fear by facing the fear.

Cost: free with a GP referral; for youngpeople between the ages of 12-15 (parentsare also encouraged to attend parts of theprogram). To register please call 4220 7660.

Stage 5 Visual Arts students

Visual Arts students viewing artworks at Arthur Boyd’s Estate

Congratulations...

to Eda Yakan on her representation inthe Wollongong Diocesan Open GirlsFootball team. Wollongong won asilver medal at the NSW CCC Carnival.

Belinda Sparks