From the Principal

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Catholic College

Deo Duce - With God as Leader

Coming Events

2 Cross Road

Cronulla NSW 2230

Phone: 8522 1500

De La Salle

Cronulla

Newsletter Term 3 - Week 6

28 August Parent Forum 6.30 pm - 7.30pm 28 August VET Awards SCVCC Burwood 5.00pm - 6.00pm 4 September Student Leadership

(2020) training day 12-26 September Yr 11 End-of- Course Exams 26 September Graduation Assembly & Mass 27 September Pupil Free Day

Term 4 14 October School Resumes 14 October - HSC Examinations 11 November 15 October Year 12 2020 Parent Information

Evening 7pm 12 November Year 12 Formal

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Reflection

As we journey together in the footsteps of faith

may we never lose our sense of direction,

keep eyes focused upon our destination,

drink from the well and eat of the bread

that will bring us life,

and hold out our hand to any who may falter

or stumble along the way.

Dear Parents/Guardians

Each year a student is chosen from each Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Sydney to re-ceive the Archbishop’s Awards. This award is given to a student who participates in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community, gives witness to Christian values and vol-unteers both in school and in the wider community. Six students from year 12 were nomi-nated and three names were forwarded to the Archbishops office for selection. The recipi-ent of the Archbishop’s Award for 2019 is Michael Hughes. Michael will attend an awards ceremony next Friday at the Cathedral. Michael is a deserving recipient of this award and we congratulate him. Year 12 Last week our year 12 students completed their Trial HSC examinations. Mr Ginestra and I spoke to them upon their return about post trial’s school life. Now is the time for students to be working collaboratively, encouraging and supporting one another, sharing resources, peer tutoring, finalising their study notes and attempting HSC style questions that teachers can feedback on. Students were presented with statistics of students from previous years and the learning growth they achieved between the trials and HSC. It is important that we en-courage every student to achieve their personal best and maximise their options post school-ing. Students were also told that at this time they need to ensure they seek help if not travel-ling well and let family and teacher know so that we can be of support. We at the College are extremely proud of year 12 and the efforts they have been putting in over the past months. Year 11 Year 11 students have only two weeks left before they commence their first set of major ex-aminations. These exams will give them a taste of what to expect in year 12. It is crucial that they are revising and making summary notes in preparation. We are extremely proud of the way they are progressing and wish them well in the upcoming examinations.

Cont.

St John Baptist De La Salle … Live Jesus in your hearts...

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Attendance Rates 2019

Attendance rates of High Performing Schools are in excess of 98% Miss a week: you miss 3.3% of the course

Year 12 students have completed their HSC Trial examinations and can now reflect on the experience with their teachers and fami-lies. They should be proud of their successes in each subject and they are certainly wiser for the experience. Now comes the time to work both as an individual and a member of a ‘course’ team to consolidate the knowledge and skills involved in the course work. This is a time for sharing notes, peer teaching and working closely with teachers using the valuable feedback to improve marks as they work towards the final HSC examinations. The College will continue to support students study in the Learning Centre which is open from 7am – 5pm each day. Year 11 students are currently working towards the completion of their courses and will have final exams in Weeks 9 & 10 of this term. The timetable for these exams was released last week and emailed to students and parents. A reminder with the increasing number of our students driving to school, to be careful and courteous when driving and parking in the local area. We have had a number of complaints from local residents and those dropping or picking up their children from local Primary schools in the area about excessive speeding. Many of our local streets are restricted to 50km and include school zones requiring 40km restrictions. A reminder that students are not to be loud as they drive from school this includes honking on horns and revving loudly, especially as they line up in Cross Road. A reminder we do NOT park in Grosvenor Cres due to its narrow access. Please exercise patience and courtesy to fellow drivers, and pedestrians alike.

Installation Mass for Fr James McCarthy Installation of Father James McCarthy as St Aloysius Parish Priest took place at mass on Friday evening 23 August 2019. Thank you to the many students and staff who showed their support of Father James. Thank you also to Lucy Vella, who provided entertain-ment at the supper that followed. Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist On Wednesday, 21 August 2019 Michael Hughes, Varsha Jojo, Cooper Savides and Carly Spedding successfully com-pleted the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist course at La Salle College, Bankstown. Thank you to Jake Wede-sweiler for supporting them on their faith journey. As a result, our students will be able to minister the Eucharist both in our College community and in their own Parishes. Catechism Program Year 11 students have been invited to be part of the Catechism Program in Term 4 and into Term 1, 2020. This is a long held tradi-tion, delivering a lesson to students at Burraneer Primary School each Tuesday afternoon. I encourage you to ask you son/daughter about this initiative and to support those interested. Further detail available from Ms Gamsaragan or myself.

Percentage Attend-ance

Term 1 Term 2 Term 3 Year Count

Year 11 95.67% 92.86 % 93.45% 244

Year 12 95.13% 93.15% 96.23% 208

School 95.4% 93.0% 94.84% 452

From the Principal (Cont.)

Craig Mooney Principal

From the Assistant Principal

Michelle Morrison Assistant Principal

From the Religious Education Coordinator

Maree Cullen Religious Education Coordinator

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LYL gathering at ACU took place on Tuesday, 13 August 2019. Mrs Hughes, Jake Wedesweiler and Monique Bova were able to support Lara Keir, Cooper Savides and Carly Spedding. The evening involved asking students to engage in brainstorming ways in which our District and our local Sydney Lasallian community can engage in Lasallian based initiatives in our schools. Homelessness Awareness Day On Friday, 16 August 2019 representatives from the College facilitated the day in-forming our local primary students of the plight of homelessness. Activities included discussion around what it means to be homeless, different types of homelessness and creating an art installation to help raise awareness within the primary school. Thank you to Aashna Binoy, Sienna Gates, Kayla Hensley, Varsha Jojo, Amy Munns, Elyse Riordan, Cooper Savides, Carly Spedding for taking on this role and providing leadership to our primary students.

Year 12 Congratulations to all Year 12 students for their hard work and continuing commitment to their studies in the last few weeks of this term. Major works by our Visual Arts and Design and Technology students, and performances by our Drama and Music students are now being marked on site by NESA HSC markers, and our Language and Dance students have also completed their practical examina-tions off site. Marking and feedback from the Trial HSC examinations is taking place, and reports are being collated. These will be distributed in week 10. I encourage all students to ‘take on board’ the information provided in their final reports, and at the recent parent/teacher/student interviews as part of the overall teacher feedback to students. School based assessment final marks and ranks are now being finalised, collated and sent to NESA. This mark will be used to form part of the students final HSC mark. In the lead up to the HSC written examinations, I encourage all students to work together, in a spirit of collegiality, collaboration and cooperation. Now is the time for solid revision and consolidation of work. It is the time for students to reaffirm their commit-ment to the HSC and to strive to achieve their personal best. The College will continue to support students in many practical ways, from extended library hours during the school holidays, to one on one ‘tuition’ early next term. I wish all students the very best in their HSC examinations and beyond.

‘Never underestimate what you can achieve and never, ever give up!’

From the Religious Coordinator Cont.

Maree Cullen Religious Coordinator

From the Curriculum Coordinator

Tony Ginestra Curriculum Coordinator

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Release of HSC results – time for students to update their details 2019 HSC results will be sent to students via email and text message from 6.00am on Tuesday, 17 December 2019. Students will also be able to access their results at the same time via Students Online.

It is important NESA has accurate student contact details. So please log into Students Online and check that your email addresses and mobile phone numbers are correct. If a school email address is recorded, students should consider changing it to a personal one, as they will have left school when results are released.

Students will be able to download all their NESA credentials as a PDF from Students Online in late December. Eligible students will receive their HSC testamur in the post in late January 2020. Students will be able to order another copy of their testamur or a printed Record of Achievement and course reports at a cost of $17.00. Alternatively, they can print all of the documents them-selves from Students Online. The HSC Results Inquiry Centre (1300 13 83 23) will be available from 8.00am on Tuesday, 17 December 2019 followed shortly after by other HSC results services for students including the HSC Results Check, HSC Raw Marks Report or HSC Examination Response. For further information, go to Students Online, or call 1300 13 83 23. Release of ATARs 2019 ATARs will be released on the UAC website and the My UAC app at 1pm. Year 11 I wish all Year 11 students well in their Yearly Examinations, which take place in week 9 and 10 of this term. I encourage students to continue their preparations for their exams by undertaking a solid study regime in the lead up to and throughout the exam peri-od.

Absence/Illness/Misadventure A reminder that if students are absent from an assessment task (exams), they must ensure that they abide by the College Assess-ment policy. This is located in the student diary, as well as the College website. Students were also emailed a copy of the policy at the beginning of the year. If absent from an examination the following procedures MUST be followed:

A parent/guardian must phone the College and leave a message for the Curriculum Coordinator. This should be done on or before the day of the task. Failure to do so will result in a zero.

Arrange a time to complete the task or a substitute task, during the examination period/block (this would occur on the stu-dent’s first ‘gap’ in their examination timetable )

On the day the student returns to school they should:

Report immediately to the Curriculum Coordinator

Complete an Assessment Task Absence/Extension form provided by the Curriculum Coordinator.

Provide documentary evidence, e.g. a Doctor’s certificate, explaining the reason for the absence

Complete the task for which they were absent

Students have completed their final Confirmation of Entry forms which are now being processed by NESA. Year 12 2020 Parent Information Evening Finally, please be aware that the Year 12 2020 Parent Information evening will take place in the first week of Term 4, on Tuesday 15 October 2019 at 7pm in the Carmody Hall.

From the Curriculum Coordinator Cont.

Tony Ginestra Curriculum Coordinator

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“Aim high, challenge your limits and move forward together with strength and active faith”

The pastoral focus over the past few weeks has been on Leadership skills, motivation and preparation for final examinations. Students have been challenged to look at what they have to offer each other and the College over the next year and there has been an impressive group of students who nominated for Leadership. The College will be completing voting this week and the Student Leadership team for 2020 will be participating in a training day on Wednesday, 4 September 2019. Year 11 recently completed a survey on study skills and the feedback from students has been that they struggle with motivation and question if they are putting the right study skills in place to prepare for their final exams. We challenged students to discuss specific details with their teachers and parents and review their routines to make sure they are on track. On Wednesday, 28 August 2019 half of the year group will be participating in an Exploring Futures Workshop that will be held at the College. This will be repeated in term 4 for the second half of the group. At this workshop, students will be creating their own unique CareerHQ Compass Report that includes their interests, skills and 4-6 careers that they are directly interested in learning more about. The rest of Year 11 will be completing a range of activities that focus on developing resilience and growth mindset.

We thank parents for their support of our College behaviour and uniform policy and ask that you continue to remind students at home of their responsibility to respect our expectations. There have been a number of students who have been given warnings or detention in relation to skirts, earrings, facial hair and extra clothing that is not part of the school uniform. It is important now for Year 11 students to lift and challenge themselves to achieve more, be strong and strive to reach their goals.

On Tuesday, 20 August 2019 our Year 12 students returned back to school from their Trial HSC exam block. An assembly was held by Mr Mooney and Mr Ginestra who congratulated the cohort on their effort in the lead up to the exams as well as how well they used the Library, and the mature way they entered into the Trial HSC exam period. The focus on the Year assembly was looking towards the future in terms of the remaining few weeks of school, explaining the HSC and most importantly these upcoming weeks are for our students to reflect on their results. One crucial point is the HSC is a journey and all the students have the ability to keep improving on their marks in the lead up to the exams. The Trial HSC has given the students an insight into what to expect for the HSC. It is the first time that all our students have sat a 3hour exam. There will be many lessons to be learnt from the last 2 weeks of exams so please look at this as a time to continue to learn from this experience. Now is an extremely important and challenging time in the life of our students. Results are now being handed back and all stu-dents need to reflect on their marks and feedback that they have received. Teachers are more than happy to help any student moving forward. Many classes are still teaching HSC content, at the conclusion of the final units of work. All subjects will be revis-ing and going over practice HSC papers. Therefore this period of time is not a time to take extended days off school or holiday breaks as students to focus on the preparation of the HSC. In the coming weeks there are a number of things that the students will need to complete such as College references, Graduation events, school sign out procedures and the Year 12 Formal. Students and families need to regularly check communication from the school as the term progresses. These final weeks will be rewarding for our students especially if they remain focused, follow the College expectations and contin-ue to make the most out of every opportunity that the College has to offer.

From the Year 11 Coordinator

Rachel O’Connor Year 12 Coordinator

From the Year 12 Coordinator

Danielle Fuller Year 11 Coordinator

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduation Ceremony On Tuesday, 20 August 2019 Max Jory and Samantha Szafranek attended the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduation Ceremony at Southern Cross Vocational College. This event is held every year and celebrates the achievements of our indigenous students who will graduate, having completed their HSC Courses. Dignitaries from Sydney Catholic School attended this event, presenting keynote addresses and distributing awards to over forty graduating students. Both Max and Samantha were accompanied by family members, who were justifiably proud of their efforts in reaching this land-mark. The students were presented with a certificate, a traditional message stick and a citation noting their achievements. Both students were impeccably attired and were fine ambassadors for our College.

Cross Country Congratulations to Bevan Lord and Tiahna Woodger of Year 11 who were recently were selected in the NSW ALL-SCHOOLS Cross Country team to compete in the Australian National All-Schools Championships. Well done to these two hard working athletes.

Greg Breen English

Congratulations

Patrick Robinson Indigenous Liaison Teacher

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