FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear members of the Mary MacKillop Catholic College community,

Welcome back to MMCC for 2017. College spirit is alove and well as you will see from the events celebrated in this newsletter. On Monday the 13th of February we invited back students from Year 12 in 2016 to share with the students their wisdom, which led to such outstanding HSC results.

Below are just some of the students and their destinations this year who were recognized for their consistent efforts and growth as they go forward into their future careers as confident young women.

I also warmly congratulate Isabella Sammour who received an award for first place in the Sydney Archdiocese for Community and Family studies and Athena Yousif who was recognized for first place in the Archdiocese of Sydney for Senior Science. Wonderful achievements from all our students! I congratulate them for their efforts. They are all very special young women who I hope will take some of the essence of MMCC out into the world to make a difference.

New Staff to MMCC

We welcome to our staff this year many dynamic and eager teachers who will contribute their gifts to the great community we have at MMCC. I know you will make them welcome as they settle into the community.

Open Evening

Just as this year gets underway we are already planning for 2018. The upcoming Open Evening will be a showcase of the special opportunities available at MMCC which have led to such successes as were celebrated this week and also contribute to forming faithful young women with the confidence to go out successfully into their future.

If you have friends who may wish to find out more about our College please bring them along to join us at this event. Also, please remind them that we are enrolling this year for Year 7 2018 and Year 7 2019.

It always surprises me how quickly we are thinking of inviting the new members into the community for the following year when we are just settling into the present one.

On the following pages Mr Grana has detailed the changes to College structures and processes that have been put in place this year. I thank all the staff for their positivity and resilience as these changes have commenced. It has been a positive and life-giving start to the year for the staff and students. I look forward to working with the MMCC community throughout 2017.

God Bless

Mrs Narelle Archer

Principal

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Congratulations on the Great Start

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate your daughters on the great start they have made to the 2017 school year. The College celebrated it’s first 25 years in 2016 and now we move into the next chapter of the growth of our great College. This year has seen some changes to structures, policies and procedures.

Below is a summary for parents/carers:

 New College Diaries

No doubt your daughter has come home excited about her new College Diary which is the centre of all learning organisation and communication with home. Years 7-10 students have been given a Junior version diary whilst our Year 11 and 12 students have been allocated a Senior Diary.

Timetable

From 2017, we are now running a six (6) period day timetable with (50) minute lessons.  This ensures your daughters have more consistent access to their teachers by increasing the amount of face to face lessons for each subject area across years 7-12, whilst reducing lesson time by 10 minutes per lesson ensuring lessons are focused and allow students to have more breaks between lessons to recover their concentration levels.

Pastoral Structures and Connected Learning Circles (CLC)

As parents were made aware last year, our Year 11 and 12 students have now moved into their own separate CLC classes. Whilst Years 7-10 students have remained in vertical CLC classes. CLC now runs four times a week first thing in the morning ensuring students are prepared for learning as soon as the 8:50am bell rings for the beginning of the school day. Students will be provided with a focus on literacy reading and writing activities through a growth mindset approach.

Mobile Phone Policy Update

After careful review of our updated 2016 mobile phone policy, we have made some further amendments to ensure continued safety for students in regard to mobile phones during the school day. We also remind parents and students that the purpose of this policy is to promote appropriate and safe use of mobile phones within College grounds and encourage interaction and communication without distractions.

On the following page are the amendments:

• If students have persistent confiscations, the following will apply:

– 2nd confiscation – Phone Call to parents by CoL (Year)

– 3rd Confiscation – Wednesday Afternoon RAP and parent pick up of phone

• Any further confiscations will require that the student register the phone with the College daily or for more serious issues, being banned from bringing a phone into the College

• Continued abuse of this policy or ICT policy can result in further consequences.

Commendations and Matters of Concern

The College is committed to communicating with parents on a constant basis. As part of our updated student learning management processes, parents will have faster access to information on how your daughters are progressing on a week-by-week basis. Teachers will be giving students Commendations or Matters of Concern and recording these at the back of the diary (Communications TAB) at the back of the diary. Parents are required to sign this page on a weekly basis.

Commendations: Students can earn a commendation at any time both in and out of class, based on the listed criteria. Based on the number of commendations received at the end of the term, CLC teachers will nominate students to receive specific College merits.

Matters of Concern: Students can receive these at any time, in and out of class and indicate that a change of behaviour or attitude are required. When students receive 5 matters of concern, a phone call will be made to the parent by the CoL (Year) or CoL (KLA) to alert you of the fact that if they receive any further matters of concern will result in a Wednesday Afternoon RAP detention.

College Dress Code

To continue our commitment to high standards in presentation, updates to our College Dress Code are below:

• Henna tattoos are not acceptable
• Hair must be one natural colour and must not be shaved or step cut. All instances will result in the student being sent home to rectify the situation.
• If a student has extra piercings these cannot be covered by “clears”

Growth Mindset

Mrs Archer has been introducing the Growth Mindset approach with all students, below is an inspirational summary of this approach we are taking with your daughters this year. Take some time to discuss this approach with your daughter and use the language below when discussing challenges they may be facing outside of school.

May we continue in our partnership of “Forming young women called to life to make a difference in the world.”

Mr Pablo Grana, Assistant Principal

STUDENT LEARNING MANAGEMENT STANDARD LEVELS OF REFERRAL

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT NEWS

A happy New Year and a warm welcome to both old and new members and friends of Mary MacKillop Catholic College.

As Mrs Archer, our College principal, stated at the Opening Mass, and our first College assembly, 2017 is the year for “Growing Together”.

With these words being the theme for this year, I am very excited to share with you the following events and opportunities we have planned for both students and parents in these first weeks of Term 1.

The Helping Hand – Homework support group has recommenced for newly arrived to the country students from an Arabic-speaking background with classes running from 3.30 – 5.00pm every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. We are pleased to have Mrs Meslon Matti facilitate the support group again this year, thanks to the generosity of Cabra-Vale Diggers and ClubGRANTS.

Leonie Fernando and Emma Burton from the Strong Minds team have trained our Year 11 Vice Captains in Teen Mental Health First Aid. Last November they generously provided the training sessions to the Year 12 captains which means that all of our twenty-eight Senior Leaders have been taught the skills to recognize signs of stress and anxiety and ways in accessing support. Our Year 10 CLC leaders will be instrumental in ensuring that the Year 7 students settle in quickly and happily into our community. They will be trained to be the “Big Sisters” to the Year 7 students in the Peacemakers program which is run by our school counsellors, Carol and Christine from Psychlinx.

The transition from Primary school into High school can be a daunting experience even for the most confident student. Having a “big sister” to talk to in CLC every day, is one way of getting advice on sorting out issues that may concern the new students. What may seem like a big problem to a twelve year old, may not be as bad and can be easily solved by an older student who has had a similar experience. Talking to someone – a parent, an older sibling or others they trust, is very much encouraged in order to reach some problem-solving options to rectify the concern.

Raising teenagers is not easy. We have managed to secure a 6-week program for parents, “Tuning into Teens”, here at the College. Woodville Alliance and Catholic Care are delivering this informative, beneficial course, which was offered to our parents two years ago.

The flyer below contains all the information for those who are interested in attending. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to getting to know as many new parents as possible this year.

Natalie Gesson, Leader of Learning, Community Engagement

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

It has been an eventful start to Term 1, 2017 with our annual College Swimming Carnival being held on Wednesday the 1st of February at Prairiewood Leisure Centre. We had fantastic weather and all staff and students who attended the event had fun. Students had the opportunity to gain house points by participating in both main pool events as well as novelty races.

Rebecca Brown, Sports Coordinator

SCIENCE

SAFETY GOGGLES FOR SCIENCE

This is a gentle reminder that all Year 7 – 10 students and any Year 11 -12 students doing a Science subject MUST have a pair of safety goggles with them for science. It is Work, Health and Safety legislation that mandates all students have their own pair of safety goggles when they do experiments with chemicals, using glassware or when doing dissections, for their own protection. Parents of older students are asked to find out from their daughters whether they still have the goggles that they have bought when they were in Year 7. Any student who wants to purchase a pair, may get one from the College Uniform Shop or from Bunnings. Students are given until the end of Week 2 to get their safety goggles. After that, students who do not bring in a pair when they are told to do so, will be getting a note of concern in their diary, and will be allowed to borrow a pair from the Science Department for a small fee of 50 cents. This fee goes towards sterilising the safety goggles after use.

BRAIN BEE

All Year 10 students in the Newman classes are reminded that they will be doing the Brain Bee competition, which is a Neuroscience competition. Any other Year 10 students who are interested must email Mrs Hamama to register your interest.

Please go to the site: http://www.ans.org.au/abbc and read the requirements. You will also need to download the pdf on this site: http://worldseries.educationperfect.com/brain-bee-challenge—registration-2016-aus.html. The online competition will be held at school on a day to be decided from the 13 – 17 March.

Ms Mathieu, Coordinator of Learning – Science 

HEARTS FOR VIETNAM

COMING EVENTS

MASS TIMES

Smithfield:

Saturday Vigil 6.00pm;

8.00 am (Italian); 10.30 am; 6.00pm

Fairfield West:

Saturday Vigil 5pm (Vietnamese); 7 pm (Spanish); 7.30am & 9.00am; 11am (Spanish); 6pm (Arabic)

Smithfield 9.15 am. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday;  6pm Wednesday 

Fairfield West Monday – Friday 7am Saturday 8am

Fr Jarek Zan, Fr Richard Green, Fr Josue Moran

Vigil: 6:00pm Sat   

Sunday 7.30am (Polish) 9.00am 10.30am 4.30pm (Vietnamese) 6pm

Fr Michael de Stoop, Fr Francisco Regala

Saturday Vigil English: 6pm Vietnamese: 7.30pm

Sunday English 8.30am, 10am & 6pm Vietnamese 6.30am, 4pm, 7.15pm Polish11.30am

Monday – Friday 7.00am, Wednesday 7.30pm Saturday 9.00am Vietnamese – Tuesday & Thursday 7pm

Fr Liem Duong, Fr Nen Dang

Monday 7.00am  Tuesday 8.00am Thursday & Friday 8.00am Wednesday 7.00pm Saturday 8.00am

Saturday Vigil 6.00pm Sunday 9:00am

Fr Jerry Prindiville

Monday-Friday:  8.30am Saturday Vigil: 5.30pm Sunday: First Mass 8.30am  

Solemn Mass 10.30am English Mass: 5.30pm

Monday-Friday: 5.30pm Saturday Vigil:    5.30pm Sunday: Solemn Mass 9.00am Arabic Mass: 5.30pm

Saturday English Mass: 5.30pm Sunday Mass: 9.00am

ST GERTRUDE’S PARISH – CONFIRMATION 2017

Dear Parents & Guardians,

We will be holding an information evening for the Sacrament of Confirmation, on Thursday 23^rd February at 7:30 pm, in the Montefano Hall.

If your child is in Year 6 or above, and has received First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion, they may be eligible to enrol in the Confirmation Sacramental Programme. Due to a number of changes, it is vital that you attend this meeting if you wish to enrol your child in the Confirmation Programme for 2017. Enrolment forms will be handed out at this meeting. No enrolment forms for Confirmation will be distributed through the schools.

If you have any questions, please contact the Sacramental Office on 9725 4317. Office hours: Tuesday and Friday 10am – 4pm.

Alternatively, you can leave a message on the answering machine or send an email to sacraments@stgertrude.org.au.

Halina Vanolini and Helena Anna Mertin

Sacrament Coordinators

St Gertrude’s Parish, Smithfield