Absentee Line - Text 0417 596 611 or Phone Primary 8150 2397, Secondary 8150 2323 or Email student.reception@smc.sa.edu.au

Secondary Campus

PARENT SEQTA ACCESS

For those parents who are new to the College or have not yet activated their account on SEQTA, you should have received an activation email from SEQTA which will permit you to create a username and password to access this system. You have seven days from when you received this message to follow this process.

For existing parents who are experiencing problems with your SEQTA Engage password, please contact SEQTA@smc.sa.edu.au from your registered email address and our IT team will assist.

Please note that SEQTA provides an App on both Apple and Android. Simply search for ‘SEQTA Engage’ and log in with the credentials received in the email. Major advantages of the App include push notifications and fingerprint security.

Mr Ashley Morrison, ICT Manager

 

Fee Information is now on SEQTA Engage

To further enhance communication to our parents/caregivers we have added your Fee information to SEQTA Engage, our Community Portal.

If you have not previously accessed SEQTA Engage, there are 2 ways to access, and instructions can be found here

https://smc.sa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Letter-to-parents-re-Fee-information-on-the-Community-Portal-30_01_23.pdf

 

Youth Environment Council 2023

South Australian students in Years 7 to 11 who are passionate about sustainability are invited to apply to be in the Youth Environment Council. Eligible students, in both regional and metropolitan South Australia, are invited to apply.

Why join the Youth Environment Council?

  • To share your passion for the environment and sustainability with other like-minded students across the state.
  • To develop leadership, team building and public speaking skills at camps, workshops and forums.
  • To take action for the environment and make a difference,
  • To share your views and actions with government.

Applications are now open, and places are limited. Applications close Week 5, Thursday March 2. Students who are interested in environmental issues, sustainability, or youth voice, and who would like to nominate for the Youth Environmental Council, should come to an information session next Tuesday, 14 February.

Where: The Garden

Time: Start of lunch. Bring your lunch and join us for a chat.

Students who are not able to attend the information session need to contact Miss Pearce at catherine.pearce@smc.sa.edu.au.

For more information, visit the YEC website, https://www.yecsa.net.au/

 

Lasallian Student Leadership Seminar

Towards the end of their last summer holidays our College Captains and Vice Captains were able to attend the Lasallian Student Leadership Seminar in Sydney. Joined by student leaders from New South Wales, Victoria, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, the Captains immersed themselves in this once in a lifetime experience. Over the five days I was privileged to witness first-hand our four Captains grow, learn, and build relationships with people from around our Lasallian District.

Isabella Agnos shared her experience in the first address as College Captain at the Welcome Assembly last week.

“It is impossible to encapsulate this seminar in words. Personally, my heart was touched by the meaningful relationships that I formed over just five days. There was a pivotal moment, on the final evening of the trip, where the attendees had access to an ‘open mic’, to share their vulnerable thoughts and thanks. Despite being from different places and different schools, with varying leadership roles, cultures, and interests, this moment taught me that we are all united. In our diverse community we are more connected than you can imagine. All of us are vastly different, and uniquely special.”

Isabella Agnos

Year 7 Transition Toolkits

Students in Year 7 were welcomed to the College family with a Transition Toolkit, intended to support them in positioning themselves and their wellbeing to be the best they can be!

Together with some staff, some parent volunteers also came in on one day during the holidays to pack the kits. Students from EcoSquad began to nurture the potplants distributed as a part of their Toolkit at the end of 2022, and Junior School and Year 12 students helped with final preparations.

Each item in the toolkit was selected for its symbolic value:

A Transition Toolkit for each special Year 7 student:

A Key to organisation; to help you navigate the school and organise your materials to support your learning and success.

A pen to  remind you that you are the writer of your own story. Make it a story you can look back on with pride in the future.

A planner reminds you to use your time to advantage and to look for the good things in life, all the time.

A highlighter to remind you to focus on what is important.

A bookmark to remind you to read as much as you can for your own growth, and to play to your strengths, always, being the best you possibly can.

A medallion of St Michael and a prayer to remind you that St Michael is always with you. He is the Saint of Protection and Invincibility.

A stress ball, that you can squeeze if you’re having a bad day, reminds you that you can bounce back if things are a challenge.

A Tiny Habits card to  point out the areas in your life that can support your wellbeing, and some easy tips to follow.

A letter from a staff member to remind you that you are wrapped in the good wishes of staff around you.

A tiny plant to remind you that you are also on a journey of growth. The care we show for each other and for our environment will help us all to grow and flourish.

YEARS 7-9 WELLBEING CHARACTER STRENGTH FOCUS
Week 1: Love

Welcome to 2023!

Love’s power is very clear; it really is one of the most empowering character strengths of all. They say it can ‘move mountains’, and energise us towards objectives like no other catalyst. Saints and philosophers have grappled with it; Shakespeare and Dante are famous for their takes on it. Our strong faith role models are great affirmers of the importance of love:  Jesus encourages us to ‘Love one another’, Mother Teresa shows us that Love can help find solutions to the world’s problems; Mary MacKIllop sustains ‘in all things Love’and St John Baptist de La Salle speaks of touching hearts.

None of us can live well in isolation. Recent times have really brought this home as we found alternative ways to connect when the physical was not possible. Love drives this too.

Love helps to create positive emotions which are fundamental to our wellbeing. It helps us to overcome loneliness, anxiety, and depression.  It provides a sense of meaning and purpose and is linked to good physical health and a long life. Without Love, the strong relationships with our families, friends, or communities are not as easy to achieve.

College Captain, Luis Consalvo plays table tennis with new members of the College community.

Year 12 students from Ms Pearce and Ms Kearins’ classes getting into the spirit of the strength of the week, Love, by helping to add labels to the tiny plants created by EcoSquad last year, given as part of the Transition Toolkit for Year 7 students.

Week 2: HOPE

We can’t eliminate the challenges in life that sometimes give hope a run for its money. Sometimes bad things happen, and they are out of our control. It doesn’t help that we often instinctively look to the negative- thank you negativity bias. The last years gave us some strong examples of events out of our collective control, but it’s also true that hope can prevail, even in the darkest of times.

Researchers have identified that if we have stronger hope we have better physical health, better health behaviors, better social support and stronger relationships and we usually live longer. Hope also leads to fewer chronic health problems, less depression, less anxiety and a lower risk of cancer.

Hope really can help us to be empowered to explore our curiosities and be the people, learners and leaders of the world.

We can nurture hope by:

  • being determined, building our perseverance, identifying different steps to fulfilling our goals and even listening to great podcasts or motivational talks around this subject!
  • engaging with faith has worked to enhance hope for millenia. In a faith community, people can find strength, peace and a sense of elevated human spirit as a result of the connection to something or someone much larger than us.
  • forgiving ourselves and others for issues of the past can help us to find the will and the way to pursue hopeful change.
  • Looking for champions of hope in those around us and to try to be a champion of hope for others! Being a beacon of hope can seemingly create amazing change, as Nelson Mandela and so many others have taught us.

Classes are working hard to determine SMART, hope-filled goals at the moment. I hope we have a healthy and rewarding week and year ahead!

Tonia Carfora

Year 7-9 Wellbeing Initiatives Leader

Co-Curricular Sports

One of our Year 11 students, Lilli Heijkoop has been selected in the Under 20 Australian Junior Basketball Championships which will be in held in Geelong, Victoria from February 14 – 19

20 players have been selected and SA will field 2 teams of 10.