Secondary Campus
YEAR 8 RETREAT
As an integral part of the College Religious Education and Pastoral Program, all Year 8 Students will be participating in a one-day Retreat on Tuesday 7 September 2021.
As the word ‘Retreat’ implies, it is a time for students to reflect on their experiences of Year 8 so far and examine their relationships with family, peers, self and God. The variety of small group activities will involve group discussion, reflection, relaxation and prayer, focusing on the theme of “The Hero Within”. St Michael’s Year 10 and 11 Lasallian Youth Leaders will run programs at designated venues supported by Pastoral Teachers, Year Level and Assistant Year Level Directors and the Director of Mission.
Students will return to the College after having lunch at the Henley Football Club and engage in an activity connected with healthy relationships and see Mr Mosca play some music.
Parents/Guardians are reminded to complete the “Consent2Go” permission via the email sent from the College. Students are required to bring their own medications and have personal medications with them at all stages of the Retreat.
Mr Robert Dempsey, Director of Mission
YEAR 11 LASALLIAN RETREAT DAY – THURSDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2021
This Year 11 Lasallian Retreat Day will be presented by our Old Scholars with the assistance of Pastoral Teachers and the Director of Mission. The team will be trained by the Lasallian Mission Council in Sydney to present the day.
The day will focus on “Service, Opportunity and Sacrifice” as key requirements to be great citizens and leaders in the world. As the word “Retreat” implies, it is a time for students to reflect, learn more about themselves, and explore the ‘big picture’ in their lives, both in a pastoral and spiritual sense. They will also be challenged to reflect on how they can make a positive difference in their communities.
The Year 11 Lasallian Retreat Day will take place at the Henley Campus. Students can wear neat casual clothes and will need to bring a pen. They will be provided with a pizza lunch. Students will begin the day in pastoral classes and then move to Founders Hall. The day will finish at 2.30 pm. Students can remain in the LEC if they need to catch a bus at 3.30pm.
Mr Robert Dempsey, Director of Mission
ST MICHAEL’S COLLEGE PHYSICAL EDUCATION WEEK 2021, WEEK 9
Physical Education Week 2021, celebrates the importance of Health & Physical Education in supporting the development of physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. As an essential component of the Australian Curriculum, Health & PE provides students the opportunity to learn how to lead active and healthy lives.
Throughout PE Week 2021, students (and staff) will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that will involve being active and having fun! The PE Week program will be distributed to pastoral care classes and put into SEQTA notices.
The current recommendation for adults is 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity on most days. Our children need even more!
Have a look at Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines here
As parents/carers, we can be positive role models for our children – increase activity levels by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, get off the bus one or two stops earlier, park the car further away from the shops, or go for a walk after dinner with the family.
As the days are becoming warmer it’s a perfect time to enjoy being active!
Mrs Sally Nicholson, Head of Department Health & Physical Education
YEAR 7 AND 8 READERS CUP CHALLENGE
The Readers’ Cup Challenge is a great way for reading enthusiasts to compete whilst enhancing their reading life. For both Year 7 and Year 8 students, competition fever ran high! Claiming victory was the Year 8 team, ‘The Revengers’ (8GPC-02) and the Year 7 team, ‘Burnsy’s Boys’ (7BPC-02). Well done teams!
Ms Beverley Coleman, title
YEAR 7 POETRY CAFE
On Monday and Thursday this week 7GPC5 and 7GPC3 participated in the third annual Year 7 Poetry Café. This marks the end of a 5-week unit of work whereby students’ begin to develop an understanding of various forms of poetry and poetic devices. The café enables students to engage with an authentic audience that promotes confidence building skills, public speaking and a love of language. The hot chocolate and biscuits also sweeten the deal as well! Overall a great lesson spent!
Ms Rhiannon O’Hara, Teacher
YEAR 7 GIFT MAKING IN ITALIAN
This term in Italian, students in 7GPC2 learned about the ‘Casa del Cioccolato’ (House of Chocolate) in Perugia, Italy, which is renowned for their Baci chocolate. The Baci chocolate typically contains a message about friendships, family and love, and is translated into four different languages.
Inspired by this idea, the students wrote a message about a person who inspires them in Italian and made a dessert to pair with their note. They also wrote about why they love this family member and expressed their gratitude.
I am extremely proud of the hard work demonstrated by the students during this project. It has been a pleasure to observe students using their language in a meaningful and purposeful way.
Ms Olivia Andreula, Italian Teacher
YEAR 12 WELLBEING WALK
The Year 12 Wellbeing Walk has continued to grow in numbers. Every Tuesday morning, at 8:00 am a group of our Seniors visit 303 by the Sea as a way to connect, relax and start the day in a positive way. This week we added breakfast to our coffee orders. We also had a special addition to the group…Mr Viz. We look forward to welcoming more staff and students each week.
Ms Elli Nicola, Teacher
CAN YOU SPOT THE DIFFERENCE?
Check out our Year 10 Computer Aided Design students ‘Spot the Difference’ creations using Photoshop. Can you spot the difference?
Ms Tess Morcom, Design & Technology Teacher
YEARS 7-9 LEARNING AND WELLBEING CHARACTER STRENGTH FOCUS
Week 7: PERSPECTIVE strength,
If perspective is one of your strongest character strengths, chances are you may not think of yourself as wise, but your friends may see you that way. They may value your point of view on different issues and turn to you for advice, often.
Perspective recognises and attributes weight to many sides of an issue before decisions are made. People with this strength can see the bigger picture and can make sense of the world in a broader context. They can see the gist of difficult matters; seeing the “woods and the trees”. It allows people to address questions about the meaning of life, and allows us to work well in teams, communities and societies. People with this strength help their group to navigate challenging circumstances, as they are rational and perceptive in identifying opportunities.
Last Monday morning, at our weekly Staff Briefing, Ms Casserly shared a prayer which discussed the importance of perspective. She spoke about her family’s awe at the accomplishments of the Paralympians and how their conversations at home had led to them viewing the competition and following the journey of many of the Olympians, and the remarkable feats they managed to accomplish, just to be present.
Coincidentally this morning when my alarm rang, I awoke to the story of Ahmed Kelly a two-time Paralympian. A quick visit to the Paralympics Australia site[1] reveals that Ahmed once lived in an orphanage in Baghdad, Iraq, with his brother Emmanuel. The brothers were born with underdeveloped arms and legs and humanitarian worker Moira Kelly adopted them and brought them home with her to Australia in 1998.
A keen footballer, Ahmed made his Paralympic debut at the London 2012 Paralympic Games – where his sisters, Trishna and Krishna, the Bangladeshi conjoined twins who were separated in 2009, cheered him on. He recently won a Silver Medal for the 150m Individual Medley in Tokyo.
These remarkable stories, and so many like them, create an opportunity to view life from perspectives which consider the grit and perseverance needed to chase dreams, despite the most difficult of challenges. It leads us to imagine just how inspiring that goal can be, and how much we can all achieve with a positive mindset. The view from another perspective can inspire all of us to reach for the stars and to persevere, regardless of how impossible the odds might seem.
Whilst not quite on the same scale of awesomeness, but still pretty awesome ?, in Year 8 Pastoral Care, girls’ classes utilised perspective when they looked at myth-busting body image myths and working towards suggestions for making our community a place where each of us feels comfortable and safe in their skin; happy to be themselves. This work, during extended Pastoral Care, was a lead in to the Taryn Brumfitt (Embrace) session they will attend next week. In a similar way, boys’ classes worked on related body image discussion with their pastoral care teachers, in preparation for further pastoral care experiences next week.
Some student leaders in Years 7-9 also joined older brothers and sisters in a Focus Group meeting on Monday following Dr Nagel’s presentation on safe device use last term. This exceptional group of young leaders viewed Dr Nagel’s data from a range of perspectives and formulated some outstanding suggestions on how we might work with peer presence to create safer device habits in our community. They were able to work collaboratively engaging not only perspective, but also leadership and teamwork!
At Wild Wednesday lunch this week, College Leader, Morgan Cooper, was truly inspiring to her younger brothers and sisters in Year 7-9. Speaking from the heart, Morgan spoke about how important the opportunity to be a Leader was to her, how much this had allowed her to grow and work outside of her comfort zone to extend herself. She also spoke about her role models in Mr Smith and Mr Foley, whom she admired for their kindness and their clear humanity in the way they embraced each student and cared for them. Morgan also discussed how to manage stress and nervousness and the importance of her goals and sharing them with people who were a support to her. I’m sure the students present viewed Morgan’s perspective with admiration and that they walked away, after a delicious lunch, thinking about nurturing similar opportunities in the future.
Whilst we view these impacts at a College level, on a professional level, Linked In asserts that there are many work-related benefits to leveraging perspective. These include:
- Increasing the ability to regulate our emotions and practicing more empathy
- Expanding our open-mindedness to respect differences
- Improving our analysis of people’s personalities so we can better relate to them and employing different parts of our own personalities to foster more positive and effective relationships[2]
Wishing you a happy and healthy weekend ahead, with abundant opportunities to view life from many perspectives. ?
Mrs Tonia Carfora, Year 7-9 Learning and Wellbeing Initiatives Leader
1 Paralympics Australia viewed at https://www.paralympic.org.au/athlete/ahmed-kelly/ 1 September 2021
2 Pollit, I (2018) Perspective: Use The Force of This Strength to Increase Your Success. Viewed at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/perspective-use-force-strength-increase-your-success-polit-di-paola 31 August 2021
