From the Principal – Ms Pussich

October is the month of the Rosary. Please take the time to pray to Mary, the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven.

Regina Coeli (Caeli)

O, Queen of Heaven, rejoice! Alleluia.
For He whom thou didst merit to bear, Alleluia,
Hath arisen as He said, Alleluia.
Pray for us to God, Alleluia.
Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary. Alleluia.
For the Lord hath risen indeed. Alleluia.

Oremus (Let us pray)
O God, who, through the Resurrection of Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
Didst vouchsafe to fill the world with joy; grant, we beseech Thee,
that, through His Virgin Mother, Mary,
We may lay hold on the joys of everlasting life.
Through the same Christ our Lord, Amen.

Welcome back for Term 4

It is so exciting to have our students return to school. We welcome back Year 12 students on 18 October and Year 11 students on 25 October. During the Week beginning 1 November, we welcome back students from Years 7 to 10. We are taking a staged approach to keep our students safe, ensure that HSC Examinations can proceed and as a measured response to our school being located in a former LGA of concern.

Please contact your daughter’s CoL Year if she cannot return to school.

Return to School

Students return to school under Level 3 restrictions:

• No singing, sport, assemblies, school performances, excursions, community events, inter-school activities, emergency drills, parent groups
• Masks required for all students indoors and staff in all indoor and outdoor school settings
• School supplying MMCC masks to staff and students
• School supplying sanitiser – accessed at sanitiser stations
• Minimise mixing of cohorts / shared spaces
  • Recess/Lunch – designated Year Level areas during staggered return
  • Separate bathrooms for Year groups
  • Spaces, such as changing rooms, libraries and halls may only be used by one cohort at a time
• Canteen and Uniform Shop – closed at least until start of Week 5
• Students and staff should maintain personal hygiene and physical distancing
• Extra cleaner onsite cleaning high touch points i.e. table tops and chair, door handles, railings, light switches and bathrooms
• Sport continues within existing PDHPE classes or by cohort
• Sports equipment cleaned after use
• Dance and Drama are permitted in outdoor spaces.
• Parents and Visitors Onsite:
  • Follow the Public Health Order i.e. wear masks and check in using the Service NSW app, and check in through our Compass Kiosk
  • Parent drop off only do not get out of the car and pick up outside the school gates
  • Limited access to parents and visitors come onsite with contactless being the preferred process
  • Non-essential visitors not permitted, however, workers (including building/maintenance contractors), allied health and other critical service providers are allowed
  • Prior to entering the gates, parents and visitors will be asked COVID questions
• Vaccinations:
  • Only double vaccinated staff onsite
  • Students have been encouraged to get vaccinated
  • Thank you to the Year 7-11 students who completed the anonymous survey last week; we had approximately 65% of students respond; the data is reassuring

Enrolling Now 2022 & 2023

We have begun enrolling for Year 7 2023 and also have very limited spaces in nearly all year groups for 2022.

If your daughter has not yet enrolled, please contact the College for an enrolment package. Please let your family and friends who are interested in having their daughters attend MMCC to contact the College.

From the Assistant Principal – Mrs Harding

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope that your daughter has had a positive return to Term 4 and was able to enjoy a restful and relaxing holiday. Once students do return onsite there are procedures that will need to be followed to ensure the safety of all students and staff.

Term 4 School Day Procedures

When on the College site all students must abide by NSW Public Health Orders. This includes:

• Any student who is unwell, even with mild symptoms, must not attend school
• Students with flu-like symptoms will need to be tested and provide a copy of a negative COVID-19 test result and be symptoms free before returning to school
• Parents are not permitted on the College grounds
• Masks are compulsory
• Maintain 1.5m physical distancing
• No sharing of food

Year 12 Term 4

This time in the immediate lead up to the HSC examinations is an invaluable period of preparation which we know supports students in maximising their successes in the HSC Examinations. Equally, it is a time of great joy and celebration as Year 12 students prepare to graduate and finish their schooling journey. Please find below some important calendar dates for Year 12:

• Tutorials at school: Monday 18 – Wednesday 20 October, periods 1-6 (lunch provided Wed 20 Oct); can wear mufti
• HSC Examinations: Tuesday 9 November – Friday 3 December (must wear uniform)
• Graduation practice at school: Friday 3 December afternoon; 1.30-3.00pm
• Graduation at school – Monday 6 December
• Formal at Oatlands House – Tuesday 7 December; 6.00-11.00pm

​We hope that our students are preparing well for the upcoming HSC examinations and if they require any assistance please contact the College.

Year 11 Term 4

All Year 11 students are to be onsite from Monday 25 October to Friday 29 October. Students are to follow their regular school timetable and meet on Monday in the Central Courtyard for Homeroom. Students are expected to be punctual for normal Homeroom on Tuesday through to Friday. On Thursday 28 October, lunch will be provided for all Year 11 students, we will introduce On Target and have activities in after lunch. We look forward to welcoming Year 11 back to onsite learning.

In welcoming our families to Term 4, the challenges of remote learning will become part of our past and I would like to acknowledge and thank the tremendous efforts of our staff and teachers in ensuring that your daughters have engaged with online learning. I would also like to congratulate our girls on showing their resilience and working hard to engage in this remote learning.

Learn & Thrive @ MMCC

Catholic Life @ MMCC – Mrs Flanagan

October – The Month of the Rosary

The month of October (Overview – Calendar) is dedicated to the Holy Rosary.

On 7th October, the Church celebrates the feast day of Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary. The feast day was established by Pope Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the victory at Lepanto on 7th October, 1571.  The naval victory was attributed to the Virgin Mary whose intercession was entreated through the recitation of the Holy Rosary.

The Church then proceeded to dedicate the entire month of October to the Holy Rosary so that individuals, families, and communities would pray the Holy Rosary, if possible, on a daily basis for peace in the world. “Not only do we earnestly exhort all Christians to give themselves to the recital of the pious devotion of the Rosary publicly, or privately in their own house and family, and that unceasingly, but we also desire that the whole of the month of October (in this year) should be consecrated to the Holy Queen of the Rosary” (Pope Leo XII; On Devotion of the Rosary, September 1, 1883). https://stjosemaria.org/october-month-of-the-holy-rosary/

No form of extra-liturgical devotion to Mary is more widely practiced among the faithful or found by them to be more satisfyingly complete than the Rosary, which has come to be regarded as the very badge of Catholic piety. The authentic Rosary is a happy combination of vocal and mental prayer, each of which is essential to the devotion. It is incorrect to say that meditation is “the very essence of the Rosary devotion,” for vocal recitation of the prayers is also of the essence.

Rosary – Praying Daily

Ways to integrate the Rosary into your daily life during the month of October:

# 1: Say one Hail Mary every day.

# 2: Say one Hail Mary a few times a day (every time you eat is a good reminder).

# 3: Say one decade every day.

# 4: Say the one decade at different times during the day (work your way up to five).

# 5: Say an entire Rosary a few times a week.

# 6: Say the entire Rosary every day. Pray the Rosary Online (Text)

# 7: Going for a walk while you do the Rosary

#8: Find a prayer partner or group who could say it with you.

#9: Listening to the Rosary – The Rosary Online

The Rosary with Fr Robert Galea on YouTube:

Joyful Mysteries – Mondays and Saturdays

Sorrowful Mysteries – Tuesdays and Fridays

Luminous Mysteries – Thursdays

Glorious Mysteries – Wednesdays and Sundays

Rosary for the Family

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life have collaborated to create the “Rosary for the Family” to help families to pray and to pray as a family. Praying the Holy Rosary is a special time to share with family members and other families.

In the Year of St. Joseph, praying the Rosary as a family is also a concrete way of obtaining a plenary indulgence. In any case, “prayer can do immense good for our families”. (AL 318). “Rosary for the Family” is intended for the spread of Mary’s love throughout the world and is a resource made available in this special year dedicated to the Family,  to help families enter into the mysteries and meditations of the Holy Rosary.

Download the Rosary for the Family

Bishop Robert Barron – Australian Talk Series

The highly acclaimed evangelist Bishop Robert Barron, from the USA, will personally kick off a new series of talks to inspire people and parishes across Sydney and beyond. His new monthly talk series called ‘Reclaiming Evangelisation: How Jesus’ Great Commission Will Renew Our Parishes’, in support of the archdiocesan mission plan Go Make Disciples. It will feature eminent international Catholics who will make the case that Catholic communities are renewed when we seek to live more fully the mission given to us by our Lord to call disciples, baptise them, and teach them. For updates about Reclaiming Evangelisation sign up for the e-newsletter at gomakedisciples.org.au

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/bishop-robert-barron-to-launch-aussie-talk-series/

Sunday Mass Live Streams

During this time of retreat  let us take time each Sunday to meditate upon what Holy Communion and gather as a family for Mass. Please utilise the links below to access live streamed Masses from our local parishes and parishes within the Archdiocese of Sydney

St Gertrude’s, Smithfield – Sunday Mass and Weekday Masses, live streamed

https://www.stgertrude.org.au/

Sacred Heart, Cabramatta – Sunday Mass and Weekday Masses, live streamed

http://www.sacredheartcabramatta.org.au/

Our Lady of the Rosary, Fairfield – Parish Information

https://www.olrfairfield.org.au/

Syriac Catholic Church – Parish Live Stream service

https://www.syriac-catholic-church.org.au/

St Thomas the Apostle, Bossley park – Parish Live Stream service

https://www.stthomaschaldean.org.au/

Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney – Sunday Mass and Daily Masses, live streamed https://www.sydneycatholic.org/live-masses/

The Catholic TV Network – Sunday Mass and Daily Masses, live streamed 

The Catholic TV Network

Weekly Reading & Reflection

My Catholic Life: Daily Reflection on the Readings of the Day

Catholic Prayer

Catholic Prayer Hacks Even “Experts” Use by Becky Roach – Click here to view the article

The Catholic Weekly

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/

Catholic News

https://cathnews.com/cathnews

Word On Fire

Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire

Online videos, homilies, articles, lectures, blogs, podcasts, bible study programs and more for theological and faith. Link – https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/video/

Plenary Council 2021

Clear proposals have emerged from Members attending the First Assembly of the Plenary Council this week, including moves to better embrace the rich liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church in Australia, especially its Eastern Rite churches, a renewed focus on vocations and on strengthening partnerships between Catholic schools and parishes. https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/clear-proposals-emerge-from-first-assembly-of-the-plenary-council/

Plenary Council 2021: Plenary members present final reports of first assembly

Summary of Proposals

• Establishing small groups in parishes that meet for an annual synod and that each diocese should have a synod at least once every three years; studying and learning from the synodal journey that resulted in the Uluru Statement of the Heart
• Encouraging small ecclesial communities (home/family groups) with learnings from the early Church; and establishing forums for open dialogue and discernment especially with those groups who feel excluded in the Church.
• The gifts of First Nations Catholics are fully embraced through the inclusion of Indigenous leaders as partners in decision-making at every level of Church – parishes, dioceses, Catholic education, organisations and agencies.
• Encourage full understanding and appreciation of the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Christ – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – being in a state of decline in Australia.
• More organised and coordinated approach, at a national level, to the inclusion of the Eastern Churches, rites of the Latin Church and culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the Catholic Church in Australia.
• formation for mission leadership and renewed focus on vocations could be assisted by a Year of Prayer for Vocations.
• Research project into international models of seminary pre-ordination formation programs and lifelong formation that have had proven and demonstrated successful outcomes that could be adapted for the Church in Australia.
• Using the governance report The Light from the Southern Cross and responses to this report from various groups to develop a governance framework that would be adopted by the Plenary Council in the second assembly.
• Key agencies connect more frequently with leaders within the dioceses, allowing for shared leadership for a shared mission, and listening to different voices, including those who feel excluded, as welfare agencies, underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching, and are often the public face of the Church.

Year 7 English Newman Project

Recipe Poems

In the Year 7 English Newman class, students have been learning how to write different types of poetry in a unit called ‘Introduction to Poetry’.

During our time in lockdown, Miss Mokdassi set a Newman project for the class, which allowed students to engage in a complete experience of poetry writing. This task was called ‘Recipe Poems’ and it was a very entertaining activity! The goals for this activity in lockdown were to create a learning experience away from their devices, be creative, engage in some bonding time with a family member and then write about their experience in the form of a poem. 

Students had to follow a recipe with the assistance of an adult in the household and then write a poem explaining the steps of the recipe, including their overall emotional experience of creating something with a loved one. Along with this, students needed to submit a picture of the dish.

I was ecstatic to make this recipe because It was a completely new experience. I made jelly towers and this task allowed me to bond with my mother by making us interact with each other and challenged us to try something new. Building the jelly towers at the end was my favourite part, since I got to choose the shapes of the jelly. From the poetry writing, I learnt how to effectively write a recipe description, while still making it amusing to read by applying the skills I learnt in poetry writing within this unit. This activity also allowed me to extend my writing skills by learning how to convert one text type into another. 

This was a fantastic learning experience and I am looking forward to engaging with more Newman activities in the future. Here is my recipe poem.   By Amanda Dawoud, 7 English Newman

Miss Mokdassi, Newman Teacher

Year 9 Design & Technology – Mrs Ryan

CHOOSEY CHOCOLATE

Have you gained a Covid kilo from eating chocolate during lockdown? Join the club! However, did you ever ask yourself where the chocolate came from?

Year 9 Design and Technology students researched into the supply, production and marketing of chocolate to discover some interesting facts. Most chocolate is made from cocoa beans sourced from endangered rainforests by children who are paid beans to collect the precious ingredient.

The students in Design and Technology aimed to create an original chocolate made by ethically sourced means and present it to the world. Forget a glass and a half of full cream milk, these recipes were tried and tested to incorporate a variety of alternative ingredients such as coconut oil, stevia and chia seeds.

These melt in your mouth delicacies, motivating marketing materials, SWOT and cost analysis are a few of the examples of what was produced in the magic of the students’ own homes.

Mental Health Week

In Week 2, the new Year 11 Student Leaders decided to plan a Mental Health Week for the College in line with World Mental Health Day which occurred on Sunday 10th October. Throughout the week, resources were shared with staff and students with specific focuses on different mental health issues.

Monday – Positive Affirmations

The student leaders created a video with positive affirmations and reminders about the importance of looking after your mental health, especially during lockdown. Facts about mental health were presented as well as relevant bible quotes which show how important our faith is in contributing to positive mental health. Click on image to view the video.

Tuesday – Women and Mental Health

Women face very specific mental health challenges which were presented to students in their year meetings and through google classrooms. These challenges include body image, media influence and self-confidence as well as finding positive role models.

Wednesday – Bullying

The student leaders recognise that the best defense against bullying is a good support network and knowing you are not alone. The leaders published an apology for bullying and a statement of support for any girl who needs help or friendship. Included in the apology were strategies and support services available to any young person who needs help. A survey was also sent out asking for personal strategies that girls had used to help with bullying as well as affirmations to people who had supported them during tough times which the leaders will distribute anonymously.

Thursday – Physical Exercise

Physical exercise is a great strategy to improve mental health and wellbeing. The College Community was challenged to get out and about with some simple at home exercises which provide an opportunity to step away from the computer, take breaks and get fresh air.

Friday – Support Services

Young people are very lucky to have a wealth of support services available to them. These services have ensured that support is available online as well as face to face to help with access. Headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, which provides early intervention services to 12-25 year olds. Headspace can help young people with mental health issues, alcohol and drug abuse, physical health issues and work and study support.

The Whiz-ards of Wakeley – Miss Brown

The Archibull Prize Update

The Archibull Prize students are still going strong. Since our last update, we have received an extension until Term 2 next year which will give us plenty of time to continue our research and art installation, Mary Moo-Killop.

Our Young Farming Champion, Franny Earp has been hard at work organising our second Women in Agriculture Forum which occurred on 12th October via Zoom. Once again, we gathered virtually to meet more women who are making a huge impact in the world of agriculture; Chloe Dutschke and Katherine Bain.

Chloe is passionate about wool. She grew up in Clare in South Australia before getting a degree in Animal Science from The University of Adelaide. Chloe has travelled to Indonesia to investigate the live export trade, and to Hong Kong to learn about wool’s final destination in the fashion market.

Katherine is a fifth generation sheep farmer. She grew up on the family farm at Stockyard Hill, Victoria, Katherine received her Bachelor of Business (Agribusiness) from Marcus Oldham College.

She has experience working for Paraway Pastoral Company and is now a farm hand at St Enochs Pastoral. At the age of 14, Katherine had established the St Enoch Coopworth Stud.

Both women spoke extensively about their pathways through education and the workforce including the ups and downs and all the changes that have occurred between what they thought they wanted to do and their agricultural work. It was great to hear their stories about travelling and working in places like Japan, South Africa and Laos as well as working with different animals including sharks, sheep and buffalo. They showed us the different opportunities available to women in agriculture.

These two women also emphasised the importance of not trying to be one of the boys even though they work in a male-dominated industry. They instead said we need to focus on what skills we bring to a situation and how our unique perspectives can make a difference and add more.

IMC Library – Mrs Devine

As we embark on a new term, it is a great time to reflect on our past performances and identify the skills we would like to improve. Obviously, being in lockdown brings many challenges and while some things may be out of our control, there is one thing you can do for yourself that will bring enormous benefits and that is to …

READ!

Reading is an activity that can be done anywhere, anytime. Even as little as 20 minutes a day can make a huge difference.

Research shows that reading each day:

✅  improves your vocabulary and comprehension – reading 20 minutes a day exposes you to 1,800,000 words a year!    

✅  reduces stress and enhances mood

✅ improves your focus and concentration

✅ helps to develop empathy

✅ develops creativity

✅ improves your writing skills

So why not challenge yourself this term and make it your goal to read a little each day. You will be amazed at the difference it will make and you never know, you may just enjoy it!

Remember, you have access to an amazing digital library through SORA.

Browse through the books on offer to find the one that is just right for you.

If you have any questions or need some help to kickstart your reading, please feel free to email the IMC Library team.

Study Skills – Asking For Help

eSafety’s Parent Guide to Digital Technologies & Mental Health