College Staff and Students gathered together early this morning for a BBQ breakfast to celebrate World Teachers' Day. Thank you to all of the students and staff who volunteered their early morning today.

Watch the St Benedict's All Saints Day visual here or click the image above.

Year 7 Visual Arts students are currently studying the unit Botany In Art. They have created artworks using watercolour and felt-tip pens, experimenting with different techniques and application of media. The works are inspired by the focus artist Erica Derum Lohan.

Here are some samples of finished works.

Year 9 Photography students have started to use Photoshop this term. This is their first time working with the program. Students created experimental digital works for their first learning experience, manipulating and layering images to create a double exposure effect. Students are now planning for their next work which will be based on the theme of 'Surreal Landscapes'.

Students in the High Performance class for English were provided with a CHOICE MATRIX that offered them a range of activities they could choose from to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of their dramatic text study of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

The creativity and effort that went into creating representations of the text were outstanding. From Love Blogs to Web Sites, from extensive Diaries of Love of intimate dreams and hopes of the characters, to news articles and even a series of love letters from character to character.

Students in this class are to be commended on the way they have worked together, taught one another, and actively participated in their own and their classmates' enrichment.

Mrs Holland

Year 8 High Performance Teacher English

On Wednesday 26 October, Year 9 Child Studies returned to St. Justin’s Year 1 to share their picture books. I am immensely proud of their effort and the end result. The task at hand was a challenging one. To create a picture book that contains the major storytelling elements in just 20 pages. To be engaging and consider the scope of the audience. Our students achieved all this and more.

The books were a hit at St. Justin’s and everyone enjoyed the experience. It was fantastic to see students take pride and ownership in their work and their efforts being appreciated so openly and lovingly.

Thank you to St. Justin’s for supporting our students

Ms McCorry

During Term 3 this year, the Year 11 Construction class committed to build picnic tables for the students of St Justin's Ctaholic Primary School as part of their "Plan and Prepare for Work" task.

Students worked in groups of three to produce a picnic table with a storage section underneath the table top. Students also screwed on laser cut perspex plaques that detail who made the table.

Students demonstrated a variety of skills in costing, preparing and producing the final picnic tables ready for the students at St Justin's to use.

We hope the community at St Justin's get a lot of use and enjoyment from the picnic tables in their playground.

Lorena Ghignone

VET Coordinator, TAS/VET Teacher

Visit the St Benedict's Catholic College Careers website here

Western Sydney University The BluePrint Business Idea Competition for Year 10 students

The Blueprint Business Idea Competition is a Western Sydney University initiative to engage with high school students from the Greater Western Sydney Region. The competition is designed to help students pursue new business ideas. It also empowers students through business education and enrichment opportunities and provides first-hand experience in entrepreneurship. The aim of the business idea is to solve a customer problem and students are required to conceptualise, build and market a business. The competition involves the creation, submission and presentation of original content that highlights the business idea.

There were a record number of schools entering the competition. Congratulations to our two Year 10 teams (im-help): Libby I, Elvina J, Anannya M, Riya S0 and Summer-Lili S and team (iMobile): Joseph C, Ryan H, Kiaran M, Savar N and Andre S who put in a huge effort to submit impressive Business ideas for the BluePrint Competition. Both teams had a Zoom meeting with University Lecturers from the WSU Business Faculty to guide them with their presentation and they collaborated with the WSU University Lecturers in a way that made them worthy ambassadors of St Benedict’s. The students are to be commended for the countless hours they put into their Business idea. The im-help team’s project has been selected by Western Sydney University to be one of 5 teams in the Competition who will compete in the finals at Western Sydney University in November.

There are exciting prizes on offer from WSU for this Competition.

1st Team Prize: $3000 JB Hi-Fi gift card

2nd Team Prize: $2000 JB Hi-Fi gift card

3rd Team Prize: $1000 JB Hi-Fi gift card

Winning School: $5000

Mr Mark Mustapic

Careers Adviser/TaPS

St Benedict’s students and staff have access to both a physical library and a digital library (Sora).

CEDoW has clear and consistent guidelines on text collections within our system of schools.

The St Benedict’s college library collection is balanced with print and digital resources that are diverse and informed by learning and teaching requirements. Resources purchased or made available by the college are carefully selected in consultation with college staff. College library text collections contain broad, general and specific selection criteria for education resources.

Library staff make decisions on age-appropriate resource suitability as texts are purchased by the college. This age-appropriateness is guided by author and publisher recommendations as well as bookshop and recommended website reviews. However, most importantly, library staff apply professional knowledge and experience to ensure resources are relevant and suitable, and that the collection as a whole is balanced. Junior students are sometimes unable to borrow texts in the library that are considered more suitable to older students at the College. However, a written permission note from the student’s parent or guardian giving consent to allow books catalogued as ‘suitable for Year 9+” may be submitted to the Library which will then be added to the student’s profile.

Further information on our Resource selections can be found on the CEDoW Library website found at https://libraries.dow.catholic.edu.au/resource-selection

There are many fantastic opportunities available for students at our College. Unfortunately many of those experiences are not photographed due to student permission to publish forms not being submitted to the College Office.

If your student has been involved in a sporting team or extra curricular activity but their photo has not been published in the newsletter please complete the permission to publish form and lodge the form at the College Office.

The permission to publish form is available to download here

For more information, please see our Facebook event pages “St Clare’s Fair” -

https://fb.me/e/3wXnMamyt

Most of you would be aware that Busabout started communicating with and visiting schools in our region last term to collaborate on ways to increase the amount of students tapping on & off, on our buses.

The results we have seen from the schools we worked with so far has been astounding, this goes a long way especially when we have such a rapidly growing community.

We want to continue to be able provide school services so ensuring your students tap on & off gives us and Transport for NSW the accurate data to enable this.

Transport for NSW has kindly provided a new poster that can be used at your discretion (see below and attached) within your school or digitally.

We will be continuing to liaise with schools over the coming months, however in the meantime if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Kind Regards,

Lauren Lebedevas

Operations Administrator

Tue 01 Nov - Year 11 Report Release via Compass 2:45pm

Wed 02 Nov - Senior Retreat

Mon 7 Nov - Year 12 Sign Out, Year 11 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews 3-8pm

Tue 08 Nov - P&F Meeting at 6.30pm

Wed 09 Nov - Year 12 Formal

Fri 11 Nov - 25th Annual CDF Sports Awards

Wed 23 Nov - Yr 7 2023 Orientation evening - 6.30pm - Hall

Fri 25 Nov - Yr 7 2023 Orientation Day for Students

Tue 13 Dec - Year 9 Academic Awards - 8:50am - Hall, Year 10 Academic Awards - 12:50pm - Hall, Last Day Year 10 and 11

Wed 14 Dec - Closing Mass and Yr 7-9 Academic Awards - Hall - 8:10am, Yr 7-9 Report Distribution via Compass at 2:45pm

Thu 15 Dec - HSC Results Released, Students Activities Day

Fri 16 Dec - Term 4 Ends for Students, Yrs 7-10 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews (all day)

Tue 20 Dec - Term 4 Ends (Staff)

End of Term 4

RANIER has advised that there may be significant delays with the college uniform. This delay is due to COVID lockdowns in China.

Orders placed for home delivery are despatched twice a week from the Uniform Shop. Orders placed for collection from college office will be available Mondays after 2:30pm, orders placed prior to 9am Monday will qualify.

TRADING HOURS DURING COLLEGE TERMS:

Monday 9am – 5pm

Tuesday 9am – 5pm

Wednesday 9am – 5pm

Thursday 9am – 5pm

Saturday 9am – 12pm

Collection from shop | Collection from College | Home Delivery

CONTACT:

Ranier Schoolwear Unit 5/6-8 Porrende Street Narellan 2567

Online purchasing and appointments visit: shop.ranier.com.au

Email: stbenedict@ranier.com.au

Phone: 02 4647 8942

Responses will be provided during opening hours

For more immediate assistance, Head Office details are

Online: ranier.com.au/contact

Email: custservice@ranier.com.au

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following a change to COVID-19 rules on Friday 14 October 2022, it is no longer mandatory for people who test positive to COVID-19 to self-isolate at home.

What this means for students and school staff

• If a student or staff member is unwell and has any COVID-19 symptoms, even the mildest of symptoms, they should stay home and test.

• Students and staff who are unwell with any cold, flu or COVID-19 symptoms (whether they have tested positive or not) should not attend school until their symptoms are gone.

• To limit the possible spread of illness amongst the school community, students and staff displaying COVID-19 symptoms at school will continue to be sent home until their symptoms are gone (students and staff with persistent symptoms, e.g. hayfever, will continue to be able to attend with a letter from their medical practitioner).

Steps we can take to keep our school community safe

• The most important step we can all take is to stay home when we have cold, flu or COVID-19 symptoms, and not return to school until the symptoms are gone.

• Please continue to notify the school if your child tests positive for COVID-19.

• We strongly encourage all students, staff and visitors to follow NSW Health guidance.

We will continue with the COVID-smart measures that have been in place over the last few terms. This includes a combination of encouraging vaccination, supporting mask-wearing (with masks still required in some settings), rapid antigen testing, ventilation, hygiene and enhanced cleaning. If you have any questions or concerns about this change or any other matter related to COVID-19, please contact the school by phone or email.

Sincerely

Kerrie Piatek

Principal