St Benedict's Catholic College
Newsletter 25 August 2017
PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
The reading at last Sunday’s Mass was from the Gospel of Matthew and centred around Jesus’ interaction with a Canaanite woman who asked for His help. In the discussion that followed, Jesus did not automatically give her what she asked, but instead enabled her to plead her case and in doing so, justify her sincerity. At the end of this passage, Jesus finishes with the words; “woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.”
There is an encouragement when we read this passage that things may not happen just because we want them to or just because we ask. When we have a sincere desire for something, work hard to achieve this and pray for guidance and assistance, we are more likely to be successful. Whilst this is obviously only one simplistic message from this passage, it links to the message given to our students at our last College assembly. At each assembly, I have introduced two new words to encourage the students to consider what they need to do to improve themselves and provide for growth. The words for the last assembly were ‘work’ and ‘wisdom’. It is not sufficient to simply want something to happen and then become upset when it doesn’t. It is necessary to have the discernment (or wisdom) to know what is in our best interests. Assistance in gaining wisdom can come from research, consultation and contemplation and should involve prayer. The component that needs to be included to assist this in happening however, is work. These two things were beautifully phrased by St Mary of the Cross in one of her best known quotes:
“Do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God”.
I encourage all students to set clear and valuable goals, seek assistance in achieving them and then do all you can in working toward them.
With these thoughts in mind, I would like to congratulate our students and staff on the NAPLAN results that were distributed at the end of last week. Whilst there is always room for growth, and these results provided a great deal of valuable information for us to focus our Learning and teaching, the number of students who achieved growth beyond expectations was encouraging. There will also be many students in Year 9 who have already achieved minimum standards required for the HSC and so will not need to complete further tests for these prior to attempting their HSC.
With future NAPLAN tests in mind, NESA has asked schools to run an online test to check systems and processes for the possible introduction of these in the future. St Benedict’s, along with hundreds of other schools, will be included in this testing and so Year 7 and 9 parents should have received this information. The students will have an opportunity to experience these tests in an online setting with no pressure on them, as results will not be distributed to either parents or the College. Please look out for this information.
There have been some changes around the building program over the last week. Students have begun using the lower level of G block (our Stage 5 buildings) with some demountables being removed from site. Over the next few weeks, temporary fencing will be erected around the new compound for Stage 6 to commence. We look forward to the College’s completion in the near future.
At the P&F meeting this week, I summarised the many events that have occurred over the last term and sought input on a number of issues. I thank the parents who attend these meetings as it provides a valuable opportunity to consult and share our direction. I encourage parents to attend these meetings when they are on. Future dates are listed on the College calendar.
On Tuesday night, five students represented St Benedict’s at the South Coast Public Speaking competition held at Holy Spirit College at Bellambi. All represented us proudly and had an outstanding impact. Our two senior students came first (Maddison Crawford) and third (Anthony Conlon). This is a great effort. Congratulations also to Rhiannon Essex, Michael Pavey and Harrison Gomes on their proud achievements. To give up an evening and travel so far to represent us is a testament to their commitment and effort. Thank you and congratulations also to Ms Settineri who accompanied these students and has worked with them to gain these great results.
Steve Lo Cascio
Acting Principal
LEAVE DURING TERM TIME
Students who will be absent from school during term time for 10 days or more must notify the College at least 2 weeks in advance in writing and complete an Application for Extended Leave form. Once this completed form is received, along with copies of other documentation required, a Certificate for Extended Leave will be supplied. Approval must be sought in advance for leave between 3 and 9 days although no forms need to be completed in these cases. A letter from the Principal will be supplied.
Students who have not been granted this Certificate of Extended Leave from the Principal may have their absences recorded as Unjustified.
Please note that travel and holidays outside of the normal vacation period is counted as an absence for statistical purposes. This is under the direction of the ACARA National Standards for Student Attendance, as approved by the Minister for Education.
STUDENT ABSENCES
Students who are absent from school, either for whole or partial days, are recorded as Unjustified/Unexplained until notification from the parent/carer is received with the reason for the absence.
Notification can be by phone call to the school, by email to the College info account, in person to an Office staff member, or by replying by email to the College generated email. The reason can be a simple explanation but should indicate whether your child is: sick, has a medical appointment, due to family matters, missed the bus or similar.
Regular reports of Unjustified/Unexplained absences are sent home to parents. Could you please indicate the reason for each date listed on the report?
Please be aware the the class rolls are taken electronically from the start of Academic Care at 8:10 am. If your child is not present in homeroom at that time they will be marked absent. Parents and students are reminded that the first bell at 8:05 am is for students to move from their lockers to their homerooms. Delays in this area could lead them to being marked as absent.
Please note that notification of a student absence via the SkoolBag app is not acceptable.
TAP ON - TAP OFF
Transport NSW use the data obtained from the OPAL system to determine the number of students who are catching buses to and from schools. This data will then be used to decide on the number of buses allocated to school services. If students are not using their OPAL cards correctly, tapping on and tapping off the bus for each trip, this may mean a reduction in the number of buses that are supplied.
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MISSION AND VISION
The last few weeks have again seen many opportunities for students to be involved in the religious life of the College.
The prayer focus this week has moved from Hospitality to the Benedictine notion of ‘Community’. The importance of community life is another great theme of Benedict's Rule. Prior to Benedict, religious life was the life of the hermit, who went to the desert and lived alone in order to seek God. Benedict's genius was to understand that each person's rough edges – all the defences and pretensions and blind spots that keep the monastic from growing spiritually – are best confronted by living side by side with other flawed human beings whose faults and failings are only too obvious. St Benedict teaches that growth comes from accepting people as they are, not as we would like them to be.
Year 7 Reflection Day
Last week our Year 7 students experienced their first Reflection day at the College. This was a great day for our students as they undertook a program titled ‘Ways People Pray’. The program began at school with the students busy making their Rosary Beads in class. This activity – although a lot of fun – provides our students with a chance to more fully understand praying the Rosary. We started the day therefore, with a communal praying of the Rosary. This was followed by a variety of sessions, including: Music, Art, Spontaneous Prayer, a Prayer Wall and prayer card sessions. Students enjoyed the activities and were able to experience prayer in a variety of rich ways. The community building aspect of the program enabled students to reinforce and forge new friendships on the day.
Year 8 Reflection Day
The Year 8 reflection day is on Friday 1 September and this program will be aimed at helping the students see the value in themselves and others. I know that both myself and the staff are looking forward to this day, as I’m sure the students in Year 8 will be.
Religious Literacy Assessment
This week students participated in the Religious Literacy Assessment task, commonly know as the RLA. This task provides valuable feedback on our Religious program. Over the last few years we have seen some great growth in our results and we hope that this can continue. The second part of this task will be held next Monday morning and will be an essay response in class. Good luck to all in the RLA this year.
Australian Catholic Youth Festival
The Australian Catholic Youth Festival is coming up soon and the lead up to this day, the ‘Live’ Wollongong Youth Festival, will be held in Week 9 of this term. The students will be involved in activities leading up to this and these all promise to be very rewarding. Good luck to our students who have chosen to be a part of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival; you are in our prayers.
Mr David Costin
Acting Assistant Principal / Director of Mission and Vision
NEW CLASSROOM BLOCK
On Monday, August 21, the new G Block opened its doors for students for the first time. Consisting of 6 general classrooms at this stage, a further 5, including a specialist Languages Laboratory, are scheduled to open in the following weeks. The new classrooms replace many of the demountables which have serviced the College since its early days at the Oran Park site.
Andy Lundy
Parent and Community Engagement Coordinator
SCIENCE WEEK
National Science Week was celebrated at the College last week. Every year thousands of people across Australia celebrate Science Week. The celebration aims to raise the profile and increase public understanding of science, innovation, engineering and technology.
This year the theme for Science Week was “Future Earth” to specifically raise awareness about global sustainability.
Some of the key challenges to attaining global sustainability are:
· To deliver food, water and energy to all
· To reduce carbon dioxide levels and hence reduce global warming
· To improve human health and
· To encourage sustainable consumption and production patterns
We had a number of activities taking place around the College. Every morning during home-room we held a Future Earth trivia quiz. It was great to see all year levels participate and it was even better to see that there are so many students who are aware of the issues surrounding global sustainability. The outstanding winners were Homerooms 8.1 and 12.1.
During several lunch-times, students had the opportunity to make plastic out of potatoes. Students had to grind up the potatoes to collect the starch which was then reacted with various chemicals to produce a flexible piece of plastic. Students were quite astonished at how easy it was to produce a biodegradable plastic from a renewable resource.
Meanwhile, in the library, the Disney movie Wall-E was played during lunch. This movie is a computer-animated science fiction film set in the future where Earth has been abandoned due to contamination by loads of garbage. Watching a movie during lunch-time was a nice change for some students.
And finally, the Education Perfect Catholic Cluster Championships got underway last week. We had many students and classes vying for the top spot. The class with the most number of points received a pizza lunch whilst all students who gained more than 500 points have gone into the draw to win a trip to Space Camp in the USA, to be held later this year. Good luck to those students!
All in all, it was an enjoyable Science Week and hopefully it made more of our students aware of sustainability issues facing our planet.
Maria de Lima
Science Coordinator
FACULTY NEWS-HISTORY
For the last five weeks, Year 7 has been taking a journey across the world and across the centuries, to Medieval Europe. Their studies have shown them the very different and at times harsh and cruel world of the Middle Ages.
One of the topics studied was Knighthood, and how this class of people was crucial to Medieval society. Some students were fortunate enough to recreate a knight in the classroom! (see below)
The unit is culminating with the students completing a major assessment task on a medieval personality of their choice.
MEDIEVAL HISTORY COMES TO LIFE
Daniel Sharkaway, of 7G, dressed as a Crusader Knight, armed with a genuine broadsword from Toledo, Spain.
BENNIES GOES POP! HISTORY WEEK COMING SOON!
Year 9 Commerce Market Day 2017
During this term, Year 9 Commerce has been learning about "How To Run A Business" and what it takes to have a successful business in the real world. All the things we have learnt during this term in class has help us prepare for running our own business, which was part of our assessment task for this term. We were asked to work in groups of 4-5 people to engage in planning and organising a small business and to also develop the skills and strategies to overcome any complications that occurred throughout this whole process. This was then demonstrated, by creating a stall and selling a product or a service at a lunch-time in the COLA, on Monday, August 21.
The whole school got extremely involved during this day as people were buying the products and services that were available. Groups even had the option to presell their product during Week 5 to help gain more customers and to give the them an idea on how much stock to purchase, as one of the aims was not to have too much stock by the end of lunchtime when selling was over.
During this topic of ‘How To Run A Business’, we learnt many things. One main section of this topic, which coincides with running our own business, was how to calculate profit if there was any made on the day. The money collected on the Market Day was to pay the cost of the business and any money left over was considered as a profit. The profit made on the day gets donated to a charity chosen by the College.
By Chloe Billinghurst
Year 9.2 Commerce
Simulating Reality in Education: HSIE
Year 9 Commerce Market Day
Simulating Reality in Education: HSIE
Year 9 Commerce Market Day
SOUTH COAST PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION
Congratulations to the students who represented the College at the South Coast Public Speaking Competition at Bellambi earlier this week. They were outstanding representatives of our College. Each one of our speakers presented expert knowledge about various topics and established an admiration and appreciation for the art of speaking.
The opposition was of a high calibre with some schools entering up to ten students. We entered this particular competition for the first time with five students and made an outstanding impact. Of the five students, our two senior students were successful in gaining places, Maddison Crawford in first place and Anthony Conlon in third place ! Our Year 7 students (Rhiannon Essex and Michael Pavey) and Year 8 students (Harrison Gomes) were provided with thorough feedback and were highly commended on their efforts.
Thank you to Mr Limbrey and Mr Bombardiere, who both took time away from their sons (who were also competing for other schools) to offer support to our students. The students really appreciated it!
Mrs Grace Settineri
Diocesan Athletics Carnival
It was a cold start to the morning on Friday 19 August when over sixty students and three teachers made their way to Campbelltown Stadium to compete at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival.
The students were eager and were straight onto the track to warm up. There were some great achievements on the day with students coming from first to fourth in their respective events.
The first event for the day was the 1500m events, where Connor Price and Jared Madsen both came first in their respective age groups. Nakeisha Brimble came first in her age group for the long jump, breaking the record on the day with a jump of over five metres. These three students have been selected for the Wollongong team for the CCC Athletics in September.
Thank you to Mrs Heather Brown who managed the team and to Mr Matt Limbrey who spent the day at the long jump pit.
Congratulations to all students who represented the College.
Yours in Sport,
Miss Liska
Diocesan Hockey
The sun was shining as 15 girls represented our College at the Diocesan Hockey on Wednesday 23rd August. Once again these girls demonstrated what great talent we have within our College with their outstanding ability on the hockey field.
The start to the day was a bit nerve racking with our goalie falling ill. Thankfully our water girl, Jayde Bermingham, was eager to help the girls out and took on the position as goalie for the day. Although this was her first time playing hockey, she did a great job. All the girls were able to give Jayde advice about hockey and were constantly encouraging each other. It was great to see all the girls coming together as one unit and helping each other out.
The girls played a total of four games in their pool and were undefeated. They scored a total of 16 goals with only one goal being conceded against them. This saw the team competing against St Patrick’s in the semi-finals. Although the game ended in a nil all draw, St Benedict’s proceeded into the grand final, playing against last year rivals, St Mary’s. The girls played exceptionally well, and had the game at nil all until the last 6mins of the game, when St Mary’s scored to win the match 1-0. This was a great improvement from last year’s results. The girls played with dedication, commitment and pride in every game and it was a delight watching them work together.
I would like to thank all the girls that represented the College with great spirit and committed effort: Jayde Bermingham, Demi Connell, Olivia Fenech, Ella Fielding, Georgia Fielding, Hannah Fielding, Ruby Hadfield, Charlotte Manny, Madelyn Manny, Lyndsay Robinson, Jessica Rocchetto, Karley Schonell, Annalysse Stevens, Ashlee Stevens, Elysse Stevens and Jorja Urso.
A very big thank you to our two Year 12 students, Karley Schonell and Georgia Fielding, who provided constant guidance and support to the team. Lastly, thank you to Mrs Stevens who came to support the girls on the day and assisted me with the coaching.
Yours in Sport,
Miss Liska
TUESDAY SPORTS NEWS
Congratulations to the following students who were nominated as MVPs for Week 6:
MILO Cricket:
Jeremy Potts
Swimming:
Georgia-Blu Chetcuti
Soccer:
Amy Crisante
Taeknowdo/NRL:
Riley Hinton
NRL/Taeknowdo:
Jacob Monier and Anthony Ellul
Martial Arts:
Jochobed Nyamadzavo
Netball:
Harrison Gomes and Jackson Rootes
Barefoot Bowls:
Joshua Meadows and Alexandra Zadrozny
Beach Sports:
Lukkas Marrapodi and Morgan White
Bowling A:
Diego Castro-Eastman
Bowling B:
Annalise Jennings
Crossfit:
Julian Di Giovanni and Emily Murdoch
Golf:
Jason Connell
Spin Class:
Madelyn Manny
Tennis:
Natasha Molloy
MISA Sport
Our MISA teams had their first week of competition against Magdalene Catholic College
Year 7-9 Girls Soccer Loss
MVP: Sarah Soloman
Year 10-12 Girls Soccer Loss
MVP: Madeline Bell
Year 10-12 Boys Basketball Draw
MVP: Isaac Hobman and Marlon Font
Year 10-12 Girls Basketball Loss
MVP: Alex Wark and Angelique Pallar
Year 7 Girls Netball Loss
MVP: Emily Chanter
Year 8 Girls Netball Loss
MVP: Amelia Kubecka
Year 7-9 Boys 12’s AFL Loss
Year 9-10 Boys Rugby League Loss
MVP: Joshua Sharkawy
Yours in Sport
Miss Liska
REMINDERS
Good luck to the Year 8 MISA Debating team for their next competition on Monday.
The first of the MISA Public Speaking competitions is on next Wednesday 30 August. Good luck to all involved.
The second in the series of MISA Public Speaking competitions is on Friday 1 September.
Don't forget the World of Maths day on Wednesday 30 August. A truly fun day for all.
Careers News
AHG (Automotive Holdings Group) NSW are holding an information night regarding mechanical apprenticeships and interested students are invited to attend with their parents.
Location: AHG – Corporate Office
Address: 402 Hoxton Park Road, Prestons, 2171
Date: 6th September 2017
Time: 6:00pm
RSVP: jobs@ahg.com.au or (02) 9854 8835
Light refreshments will be provided on the night.
If you have any questions or require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact their HR Department on (02) 9854 8835.