Year 11

Year 11 student spent this week on retreat in Katoomba. The week was a wonderful experience full of laughter, a few tears, joy and challenges. Being away from home is a big learning curve and not easy for everyone but is a valuable lesson on the path to independence and formation as a young adult. Also, we had lots of fun! A big thank you to the teachers who gave up their time away from families to share this experience with Year 11: Sarah Papachristoforou, Jo Cilia, Helen Kondos, Jake Morrissey, Robyn Langford, Dani Rodrigues, Liz Gilberthorpe, Andrew Simos, James Larsen, Dexter Rodriguez and Joseph Pfeffer. Each group were also privileged to be welcomed to country on our retreat site.

There were two big highlights of the week – the events run by our captains on Tuesday and Wednesday night. The Tuesday night party and games night had a cool dress up theme with a parade, catwalk, lots and lots of dancing and games. Wednesday night was a House challenge organised by Sima Tebbutt and the House Captains, with each Luminary group competing for prizes on musical chairs, tug of war, floor soccer and table challenges. Abbeythorpe emerged as the winner. During the day, the girls went on bushwalks, did rock-climbing, made damper,  worked on team games and problem solving. Rev Vinnie and myself worked with the girls on their affirmations, where they create special messages for each other to take away from the retreat. The girls wrote letters to their future selves, outlining their dreams and hopes for 2025 and beyond, and to finish the experience, we had a beautiful chapel service.

Year 11 have voted on their theme for the year – Thrive in 2025! On retreat, the girls created an individual artwork to decorate the common room. The Year 11 Textiles and Design class, including Anika Springford, came up with the idea and Robyn Langford and Jake Morrissey helped the girls bring the project to fruition. Our image this week is from Anita Mohanan, with her interpretation of the theme.

If you would like to discuss pastoral issues regarding your daughter’s progress, please initially refer to your daughter’s Luminary. For academic issues, please check in with your daughter’s subject teacher. We are available for meetings via phone, email, on site and virtually.

For issues related to your daughter’s wellbeing and support, I am available Monday to Friday on sconnolly1@mlcsyd.nsw.edu.au or 02 8741 9736. Meetings can also be on site or on Teams.

– Sharon Connolly
Head of Year 11