MSPC Newsletter - Term 1 Week 10, 1st April 2021

Principal

Dear Parents/Caregivers

COVID UPDATE

Covid-19 has given us cause for concern right at the end of term. It is a reminder that we need to be careful, not complacent. If there is any change to restrictions that will impact the beginning of Term 2, they will be communicated to you via email and our social media pages. Any urgent messages will also be sent via text message.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY

Term 2 will begin with a Professional Learning Day for staff. Thank you for your understanding. These days are important to ensure that we can provide the best possible education for our community. Therefore, students will return to school on Tuesday 20th April which is Day 7 of the timetable with sport (the cross country event) in the afternoon.

HARMONY WEEK

Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity.  It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.  Madison Van Rosi created a video highlighting some of the varied backgrounds of staff and students. This was shown during our assembly which included both indigenous and islander traditional dancing. Our Indigenous Education Workers, Tayah Logan and Brandy Atanasoff-Baker organised the celebration. I spoke to students about the positive influence people from many cultural backgrounds have had on my life. It’s another way that our College theme for 2021, Journey Together is apt.

EASTER MESSAGE

Christians believe at Easter Jesus dies on the cross and rises three days later. Jesus depicted in our Sacred Heart Parish is the risen Christ - which is quite unusual, mostly we see the crucifixion depicted. It is a harsh death that most of us could not really understand. What is it about? It’s about love. Christians believe that God loved us so much that he sent his Son to be among us. Linking back to our Harmony Week celebration, we are all made in God’s image, regardless of our ancestry, regardless of colour, we are all equally important. That dignity of the human person is what it is all about.

Have a Holy Easter and a happy and safe holiday.

Be the Good and God Bless.

Paul Reidy

Principal

Assistant Principal - Mission

HOLY WEEK LITURGY ON HOLY THURSDAY

As I write this article we are on our way to a liturgy as a school community to reflect upon the real reason for the Easter Season. We were posed the questions “What did Jesus do over 2,000 years ago? and “What would Jesus do if he was in our world now?” Mr O’Donohue, and his Year 10 RE class, cleverly related the latter question to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which the Catholic charity, Caritas, raises funds for via Project Compassion. During the liturgy two girls brought up the donations, totaling $1500, made to Project Compassion by all homerooms during Lent. Thank you to parents who provided some funds for this generosity. Some of the students and teachers involved in reading and presenting the Liturgy are pictured below.   

INAUGURAL PARISH WELLBEING BREAKFAST WELL ATTENDED

Year 12 SRC members and Mrs Shields provided breakfast for parishioners of Sacred Heart following the 8am Palm Sunday Mass. This initiative was well-received and parishioners said that ‘the bar is now set very high’ for the next ‘wellbeing’ breakfast!

Mary-Anne McShane

Assistant Principal- Mission

Welfare

STUDENT WELLBEING

Thank you to everyone for your efforts this term. It has been a busy but productive one!

This fortnight’s Wellbeing lesson has focused on the definition of consent and how it might apply to a young person’s life - both now and as they grow older.

The link to the clip that the students viewed is below if you would like to discuss this with your child.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGoWLWS4-kU

This week our wellbeing focus is on meaning and purpose and the character strength is - sense of meaning. Below are some tips for parents.

Enjoy your holiday and I wish everyone a holy and safe Easter break.

Louise Shields

Leader of Student Welfare

Assistant Principal - Learning & Teaching

As Term 1 comes to an end I hope all students feel that they have settled into their learning groups and are successfully gaining the knowledge, skills and wisdom to be able to grow in their ability to live life to the full. Mt St Patrick College runs many successful academic programs to ensure students grow at their own rate and reach their individual potential. One such program we offer our students is acceleration in certain subjects. Recently on assembly the 2020 HSC accelerants were acknowledged by receiving an academic medallion to recognise their dedication to academic pursuit. Sixteen students attempted the HSC Chemistry Exam as Year 11 accelerants and nine students attempted the Mathematics course.

ACCELERATED CHEMISTRY 2020

NOT JUST A CHEMISTRY CLASS

I had the pleasure of teaching this amazing class who made a very mature decision, as Year 8 students, to compress the Year 9 and 10 Science course into one year and then complete the HSC Chemistry course one year ahead of their cohort. They now have multiple free periods, one less assessment task and exam to prepare for, hence more time to focus on their other subjects. This has been an important ingredient in our recipe for success as consistently being the top academic school in the area.

Each student in the class has now donated one of their free periods to work as an assistant in the classroom to help students in the younger years. This is very generous offer and they will be great role models for the younger students. 

ACCELERATED MATHEMATICS 2020

HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL MATHS CLASS

The Accelerated Maths class, taught by Mrs Bevan, were highly successful and very collaborative. The students worked diligently as a team to assist each other to achieve exceptional results. These students have now challenged themselves to complete the Extension Maths course this year. I wish them well and hope they enjoy the challenge.

INDIGENOUS EDUCATION HIGHLIGHT

Indigenous Education continues to have a prominent profile in the College this year. At the Harmony Day Assembly a group of Aboriginal students wowed the assembly with some cultural dancing which they have been learning this year. A South Sea Islander dance then highlighted the cultural diversity of our College. Thank you to the students, Brandy and Tayah for the excellent presentation.

PARENT/STUDENT AND TEACHER INTERVIEWS

An important event in the academic year is Parent/Student/Teacher Interview night. This is an excellent opportunity for Parents, Teachers and Students to meet and discuss ways to ensure students experience growth in their learning. We all know that education is a partnership between the home and school. We need to be on the same page to ensure the best educational outcomes for the student. Please make yourself available for the following dates. An online booking form will soon be available on the College website.

Year 7- Thursday May 27 from 3:30-7pm in the Gilbey Hall

Year 8,9 and 10- Thursday July 22 from 3:30-7pm in the Gilbey Hall

Year 11 and 12- Thursday May 13 from 3:30-7pm in the Gilbey Hall

Wishing you a peaceful Easter Break

Narelle Sherrah

Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching

Curriculum

Term 1 has been a very busy time for students and this past fortnight has seen their learning culminate in a range of assessment tasks. It has been wonderful to witness students hard at work in their classrooms and the pride they take in showcasing their work. 

At MSPC we actively support students in their reading through our DEAR program (Drop Everything and Read).  With the holidays fast approaching, students are encouraged to use this time to enjoy reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is associated with numerous benefits — “from improvements in reading achievement and comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and general knowledge to improved empathy, understanding of oneself and others, and wellbeing. The more you enjoy reading, the more you read. The more you read, the better you become at reading. The better you become, the more you read — a virtuous cycle.” - J. Buchan: https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/keeping-teens-reading

A reminder students can access all information regarding their assessments via the Assessment Portal which is found on the MSPC Moodle Site: https://moodle.mursclism.catholic.edu.au/ 

PLEASE NOTE: The following is an assessment overview for Weeks 1 and 2 of Term 2. Students should check their assessment calendar for accuracy and to ensure that changes have not been made since publishing this guide.

Jo McDonald 

Leader of Curriculum

Faculty News

FROM THE SPORTS DESK

NSWCCC SWIMMING

Four of our finest swimmers made the long trip to Homebush Aquatic Centre, Sydney on Monday 29th March. They were part of the 70 strong Lismore Swimming Team to contest the NSWCCC Swimming Championships.

Sashi Wills, Yr 12, attended her last NSWCCC meet. Sashi has been swimming at a high level now for too many years to remember and has been an exceptional sporting role model to all in the MSPC sporting community. She has  displayed dedication and commitment to her chosen sport across her years here at the College. Congratulations on a fine achievement to make the Lismore team one last time. Sashi tucked under her wing the next wave of MSPC swimming talent. Year 7 students Willa Hoffmann, Kieran Forsyth and Alexander Wellm all swam exceptionally fast. Willa came away with a Bronze medal in the 50m Butterfly

https://csnsw.sport/ArticleDocuments/191/NSWCCC%202021_Full%20event%20results.pdf.aspx 

Results:

Sashi Wills

6th 200m Freestyle 2.17.51

8th 400m Freestyle 4.53.17

9th 200m Individual Medley 2.48.25

10th 50m Backstroke 35.56

11th 100m Freestyle 1.04.91

12th 100m Butterfly 1.15.68

Willa Hoffmann

3rd 50m Butterfly 34.20 

4th 50m Backstroke 37.21

5th 50m Freestyle 31.41

11th 100m freestyle 1.12.85

Kieran Forsyth

9th 50m Breastroke 49.14

11th 50m Backstroke 48.79

Alexander Wellm

6th 50m Breastroke 38.69

BILL TURNER TROPHY

On Monday 29th March the Junior Girls Bill Turner Trophy football team played against Kingscliff High School. The team came up against a very strong outfit and the result did not go our way. However, the attitude and the application of the whole team was fantastic and did the school very proud. 

In the first half we played well and went into the break 3 Nil down and the team was feeling good, however the opposition were just too strong for us in the second and we eventually lost 12 Nil. 

Well done to the team for never giving up and playing in the right spirit of the game. Let’s hope next year we come back stronger.

                                                                                                                                      Coach: Ed Hodges

BILL TURNER CUP

On Tuesday 30th March the Bill Turner Cup Boys Soccer team First Round game finally went ahead after three failed attempts due to rain. The weather held off while the boys were warming up and getting ready to get out on the field and tear it up. Of course right at the start of the game the rain bucketed down. The boys played extremely well despite this. Wollumbin HS started strong on their home pitch and put an early goal in the back of the MSPC net. Our midfielders played a controlled game and managed to have a couple of good breaks from the centre of the field. They played it out wide for the strikers but unfortunately we could not convert.  Billy John managed to score a great goal making the score 1 all at half time. Unfortunately the win went to Wollumbin High School with a score of 3-1, our boys played an intense, high quality game but could not match it with Wollumbin HS.

                                                                                                                          Manager: Shakyra Gillard                                                                                                                                 

CROSS COUNTRY CARNIVAL

Our Annual Cross country event is due to be held on the first Tuesday of Term 2 20th April. This will be the first day back for students as Monday is a pupil free day. With the recent COVID developments in Queensland and Northern NSW I will ask that no parents come to watch in the interest of safety for all involved. Students will run the event during normal sport time. 3,4 and 6 kilometre events will be run around the grounds of the Murwillumbah Showground.

TERM 2 SPORT

Students in Year’s 9 – 11 selected their sports choices for Term 2 last week. They have had all of this week to make changes to the published sports rolls. Arrangements will be made over the holidays and so I will be unable to change any students out of the sports they have selected next term. 

Students in Years 7 and 8 will compete in the Jubilee Cup. Which is an interhouse competition where all students compete in Soccer, Netball, Touch Football and Volleyball. Points are awarded for winning games but also for sportsmanship and cooperation. Points are accrued throughout the term and the winners announced at our final assembly of the term.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR TERM 2

Week 1

20th April – MSPC Cross Country (no parent attendance please)

21st April – Dio North Open Socce,r Lismore (rescheduled event due to washout)

Week 2

27th April – Girls League Tag Murwillumbah (rescheduled event due to washout)

28th April – NRCC Rugby League and Netball, Casino

Week 3

4th May – NRCC Netball, Arkinstall Park

6th May – Country Cup Open League Gala Day, Mullumbimby

7th May – U14 Cochrane Cup Rugby League, Lismore

Week 4

12th May – CCC Opens Rugby League, Lismore

Week 5

19th May – Open Basketball, Coffs Harbour (Rescheduled event due to washout) Leaving Tuesday 18th

19th May – U13 & U15 Country Rugby League Gala Day South Tweed

21st May – Diocesan Cross Country, Grafton

Week 6

27th May – NRCC Hockey, Lismore

Week 7

2nd June – Diocesan Junior Football, Coffs Harbour

Week 8 

8th June – NSWCCC Cross Country, Eastern Creek

Week 10

22nd June – NRCC Touch Football, Ballina

ATHLETICS CARNIVAL 2021

The decision has been made, for a number of reasons, to move our College Athletics Carnival to Walter Peate Oval in Kingscliff. Walter Peate is a dedicated Athletics area which will allow a fuller, safer Carnival for our students. It will, of course, provide many logistical obstacles which we will overcome between now and our new date of Tuesday 20th July. 

Our traditional home of Athletics has for the last 40+ years been the oval of Murwillumbah High School, unfortunately this is no longer available to us and so the change has had to occur.

Tim Whitney 

Sports Coordinator

VISUAL ARTS

Pop along to the Town Library to view a selection of artworks completed in 2020 by Year 8, 10 and 11 Visual Art students.

This exhibition will be on show until Monday 26 April, 2021.

DRAMA

SENIOR DRAMA WORKSHOP AND OPEN EVENING FEEDBACK SESSION

On 18th March the Year 12 Drama class undertook an all day workshop in order to gain vital playbuilding and ensemble experience. The morning session involved Zeal Theatre actors working with the class on exploring and structuring a variety of stimuli to create cohesive, original and theatrical pieces. The afternoon session was devoted to providing time and feedback to the students on their individual projects. The day was a highly productive and worthwhile experience.

Following this, a number of the students either performed their individual pieces or presented their Scriptwriting or Costume Design concepts at the College’s Open Evening. This proved to be a wonderful experience as the various audience members provided constructive and affirmative feedback.

The Year 12 Drama class are producing a fine standard of work and we are all excited to share the evolution of their Group and Individual Projects in the lead up to their Trial HSC Showcase on Saturday 7th August.

                                                                                                                            Michael Lill- Drama Teacher                                                                                                                           

TAS

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM AT MT ST PATRICK COLLEGE 

This year at Mt St Patrick College we are aiming to implement coding across the curriculum in Year 7 and 8. All students in Year 7 and 8 now own a Microbit, which is a mini computer that can be coded to do a variety of tasks. The Microbit is small enough to fit in a hard case and can be transported in either a student’s laptop case or in their pencil case. These are just some of the applications that students will code with their Micorbits this year:

Science: Battery Tester

Maths: Roll Dice

English: Word/Story generator 

Religion: Light Meter

HSIE: Compass

PE: Pedometer

TAS- Python language coding

MUSIC: Creating music compositions

In addition to the Microbit, the College has access to class sets or virtual reality headsets and software. The intention with this hardware and software is that students will use the headsets to explore 3d virtual worlds and also create their own virtual worlds. The two main softwares that we will be using are Google Expeditions for exploring worlds and Cospaces for creating virtual 3d worlds. The Cospaces software is very user friendly and will allow students new opportunities to display their work and ideas in an interactive manner. Cospaces utilises similar visual block coding skills that students are using with their Microbits. 

We also have access to class sets of the Tello drones, which can be coded using the block code (similar to that used in Cospaces and Microbits). There are many interesting ways that all KLAS can use drones to teach particular concepts, which is highlighted below.

• Coding the drones to do a sequence of movements choreographed to music. 
• Problem-Solving and Design lessons investigating how drones can be used for rescuing injured wildlife after bushfires, suppressing bushfires, dropping off care packages after floods/fires/cyclones or in agriculture plant pollination, weed eradication, and revegetation. 
• Drone attachments can be designed, 3d modelled and printed and attached to the drones for simulation. 
• Coding the drones to fly through an obstacle course, manually and/or coded. 
• The drone could capture images of a point of interest on the satellite map collecting data for analysis. 
• Drones could be used to measure flight speed, designing an optimal flight plan for a drone for a rescue mission allowing for modeling power to weight ratios to determine how much weight a drone can hold

MUSIC

College News

HARMONY DAY

Mount St Patrick College celebrated Harmony Day on theThursday 25th of March at the Assembly. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance group performed a local welcome dance taught by Aunty Aliesha Kane. A special thank you to Kloe Mills (Yr 10), Ava Browning (Yr 9), Dallas Browning (Yr 8), Denzel Browning (Yr 8), Bailey Buchanan (Yr 8), Reef Kidwell (Yr 8), Makaylah De Jonge (Yr 8), Kye Thierjung (Yr 7), and Taleishia Robinson (Yr 7) for showing such great commitment and connection to culture. We look forward to our next performance!

Brandy Atanasoff-Baker

Indigenous Education Worker

Awards

CO-ORDINATOR'S, PRINCIPAL'S AND COLLEGE AWARDS

LISIEUX CO-ORDINATOR'S AWARDS

Year 7    –  Jared Hall, Alexander Wellm

Year 8    –  Jed Ryan

Year 9    –  Ella Harman

LORETO CO-ORDINATOR'S AWARDS

Year 7    –  Grace Farrell, Clancy Greenbury, Maddison Shackell 

Year 9    –  Joshua Wharton

Year 10  –  Felicity Noble

Year 12  –  Chloe Hillcoat

LORETO PRINCIPAL'S AWARDS

Year 12  – Chloe Hillcoat

LUCAN CO-ORDINATOR'S AWARDS

Year 7    –   Brody Johnson, Olivia Northeast, Cian Nugent

Year 8    –   Freda Biles, Ewan Bourne, Lucy McTaggart, Zade Spratt

Year 10  –   Kirrily Leach

Year 12  –  Ailish Eppelstun, Bethany McTaggart

LUCAN PRINCIPAL'S AWARDS

Year 8    –  Ewan Bourne

Year 12  – Ailish Eppelstun

NAGLE CO-ORDINATOR'S AWARDS

Year 7 – Ivy Eadsforth, Jamie Garrett, Abigail Gilson, Tiarna Hall-Tosh, Cooper Leeson, Phansachon Phattharapraphakorn, Liam Thomas

Year 8    –  Sienna Peddle, Sienna Prendergast, Koby Skinner, Benjamin Wilson

Year 9    –  Amanita Barnaby-Bowe, Jaxon Booth, Harrison Bugg, Amy Quirk, Kiana Tyack

Year 10  –  Mitchell Grossman, Dylan Lewis, Jimi Wilson

Year 12  – Isabella Grigalius

NAGLE PRINCIPAL'S AWARDS

Year 8    –  Koby Skinner, Benjamin Wilson

Year 9    –  Amanita Barnaby-Bowe, Harrison Bugg, Amy Quirk

Year 10  –  Mitchell Grossman, Jimi Wilson

NAGLE COLLEGE AWARDS

Year 9    –  Harrison Bugg

Year 10  –  Mitchell Grossman

Canteen Roster

Community News