Message from the Principal – Christine Harding

Welcome to the community of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College Burraneer. Striving for excellence, we are the only specialist all-girls school in the Sutherland Shire.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Term 4 is certainly moving at a fast pace with great learning and a number of extra curricular opportunities given to our girls. Our staff often talk about the importance of being kind. We aim to inspire and cultivate kindness in our students. By doing this, we are doing so much more than teaching them but are developing a strength that will positively affect theirs and others mental health and wellbeing over a lifetime. Last week, 13 November was World Kindness Day.

The following prayer is on a wall in one of Mother Teresa’s Children’s Homes in Calcutta and one that we could live by:

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centred; forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies; succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you; be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight; create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous; be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten; do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough; give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.

St Aloysius Parish Centenary Celebration

On Friday, November 8, 2024, four schools that are part of the St Aloysius Catholic Church Parish in Cronulla marked their 100th anniversary with a special Mass. The schools, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College Burraneer, St Aloysius College Cronulla, St Aloysius Primary School Cronulla and St Francis de Sales Primary School Woolooware, celebrated the milestone with a Mass led by our Parish Priest Fr James McCarthy. 

The event was attended by students, families, staff, and community members, including the Member for Cook Mr. Simon Kennedy MP.

Fr. James McCarthy reminded us that “everyone here makes up the parish” and emphasised that it is this shared connection that truly defines and strengthens our sense of community.

Following the Mass, the celebration continued with a picnic at Gunnamatta Park, bringing together the school community for a day of reflection, enjoyment and unity.

This centenary milestone is a testament to the legacy of education and faith that has been nurtured by St Aloysius Catholic Parish over the past century.

Camps and overnight learning experiences

At OLM, we believe in developing the whole person, spiritually, academically, socially, and emotionally. This is why we place such a strong emphasis on providing a wide range of opportunities for growth that go beyond the classroom. Our dedicated team of teachers continually go above and beyond to ensure that your daughters not only receive a rigorous education but also have the chance to bond with their peers and develop lifelong skills through a variety of enriching experiences.

From overnight trips and retreats to team-building activities and outdoor adventures, these experiences are designed to nurture curiosity, resilience, and personal growth. They allow our students to form deeper connections with one another, build confidence, and develop the character traits that will help them thrive in the world beyond high school.

Between Weeks 4 and 8 of this term the following overnight opportunities were afforded to your daughters:

Week 4 (4 – 5 November)

• Senior Retreat – The inaugural Senior Retreat held at the Benedict XVI Retreat Centre provided our Year 11 students with a chance to reflect on their lives as Mercy Women of Heart and explore their developing roles as Mercy leaders. This retreat provided a wonderful uninterrupted time to reflect and get to know Christ better.
• Year 9 Camp – This camp provided our Year 9 students with the opportunity to engage in team building activities, students learnt to collaborate, work together, and support one another’s growth.

Week 5 (11-12 November)

• Marine Camp – The inaugural Stage 5 elective Marine camp offered students the chance to deepen their understanding and knowledge as well as enhance key skills, such as day and night snorkeling. This experience offered practical opportunities that reinforced the key outcomes of the Marine Studies syllabus.

Week 7 (25 – 27 November)

• CAPA Camp – The CAPA camp at Galston Gorge offers a wide range of creative experiences, including participation in the vocal ensemble, dance and chamber music groups. These activities will allow students to further develop their artistic skills and collaboration in a dynamic, hands-on environment.

Week 8 (2 – 4 December)

• PASS (Physical Activity and Sports Studies) Camp at Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation, Narrabeen – The Stage 5 elective PASS Camp enables students to gain a deeper understanding and build on key skills and syllabus outcomes, allowing students to deepen their understanding of the PDHPE syllabus through hands-on experiences. Some of the sports that our girls will be undertaking include stand up paddle boarding, sailing, kayaking and abseiling.
• Duke of Edinburgh Hike with DLS Caringbah at the Blue Mountains is the second hike to attain the Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. This Award challenges participants to develop personal skills, engage in physical activities, and contribute to their community through volunteering. It encourages young people to step outside their comfort zones, build resilience, and work towards achieving a sense of accomplishment and self-growth.

I am incredibly proud of the way our staff continues to find new and innovative ways to engage and inspire your daughters. I am deeply grateful for the care and time they put into each and every experience, from planning to execution.

Christine Harding, Principal

Principal’s Post on Empowering Young Women

Since 1935, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College has held a legacy of instilling the values of leadership, excellence and service, nurturing confident young women. We empower our girls to make their make on society with confidence and compassion.

As we explore the creative journeys of our girls, it’s essential to realise that many girls feel anxious about making mistakes. This concern raises important questions about the expectations we place on them.

The article below highlights several strategies to assist our girls in feeling comfortable making mistakes and actions that we can all do to assist our girls in feeling comfortable in not being perfect.

Issue 16 | September 2024 – ICGS eBriefs 

Two Thirds of Girls Fear Making a Creative Mistake: Are we pressuring girls to be perfect?

How often do we praise our children? Or encourage their creative efforts? The benefits of creative play are immense, and how we engage with children can have a significant impact on them – not least young girls aspiring to be creative. Three quarters of girls have goals to work in creative industries. A global study released by LEGO this year has shown that girls as young as five feel intense pressure to be perfect. But when girls feel free to play, their creativity soars. So, what can we do to support girls’ creativity? Researchers talk about ‘creative confidence’, the ‘power of play’ and ‘everyday language’. LEGO breaks this down to show how we can support girls’ creative confidence and challenge the pressure of perfection that is impacting girls. And it’s as simple as changing the words we use.

The statistics are concerning. Girls as young as five are not reaching their full creative potential. As they get older, they become more afraid of sharing their ideas with others. Many parents have affirmed their own concerns about this issue, saying that they feel girls are less likely to share their ideas because of perfectionism and anxiety about making mistakes. The problem is that this can carry on into adulthood. And with more than three in five girls saying they feel pressured by ‘society’s messages of perfection’, we need to act now to support young girls as they explore their creative potential (LEGO Group, 2024b).

We can change things simply by changing our language. The power of the words we use around girls is vitally important. In fact, LEGO’s study found that girls aged between five and 12 repeatedly said the ‘language they hear makes them worry about making mistakes, feel like they shouldn’t experiment, or reinforces this need to be perfect’ (LEGO Group, 2024c). This is about more than just the language we use when talking to our own children. It’s also about the language society uses, and the gendered way the creative outputs of boys and girls are described.

Words such as sweet, pretty, cute and beautiful are often attributed to girls’ work. In fact, society is seven times more likely to use these words when discussing girls’ creative outputs. In contrast, boys are twice as likely to have their work described as brave, cool, genius or innovative. More than half of the girls in the LEGO study felt that adults will listen to boys’ creative ideas more than girls. When combined with the fact that 68 per cent of parents surveyed in the study also said that society takes male creative figures more seriously than females, this is highly concerning. 

The language that we use around young girls is critical. Even without realising, we could be unintentionally reinforcing traditional gender roles. Challenging this bias is crucial to support girls and allow them to become who they want to be. Parents in the study said that they have seen girls become reluctant to share their ideas, with many seeing the impact of societal pressures for perfectionism on their daughters. And the opportunity to play is just as important as the language we use. Parents from 36 countries included in this study reported that their daughters had more confidence to experiment, better self-expression, and better creative confidence when playing. 

So, what do girls want? They want mistakes to be recognised as learning. They want to know that progress is more important than perfection. They want adults to recognise more than just the final output of their creative work. And they want to hear that they can be just as imaginative, brave and inspiring as boys. Girls themselves said that they feel like they can be their true selves when they play, and don’t feel like they are going to be judged. They also report feeling more confident about sharing creative ideas when playing.

As LEGO says, let’s support girls’ creativity. We can challenge the societal stereotypes and biases that can impact girls. We can change our language to recognise their creativity and potential, and encourage a healthy, positive, growth mindset. We can do this by celebrating the effort girls put into a task, regardless of the outcome, and using positive language when talking about both mistakes and successes. Emphasising playfulness and encouraging girls to reflect on what happens when they step outside of their comfort zone and take risks can also help, as can celebrating all wins — including the small ones. Ultimately, by refocusing how we think about girls’ creativity, we can remove the pressure of perfectionism and the fear it creates, and instead allow girls to explore their own creativity and become the best version of themselves possible.

Reference:

LEGO Group. (2024a). 10 steps to fostering creative confidence. Retrieved September 16, 2024, from https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/blt0e6cff41e3af61d9/LEGO_Play_Unstoppable_Fostering_Creative_Confidence_Guide.pdf.
LEGO Group. (2024c). The impact of perfectionism and language bias on girls’ creative confidence. Retrieved September 16, 2024, from https://www.lego.com/en-us/play-unstoppable/creative-confidence.
LEGO Group. (2024c, March 5). Girls as young as five are having their creativity impacted by pressure of perfection and language bias. Retrieved September 16, 2024, from https://www.lego.com/en-au/aboutus/news/2024/february/lego-play-unstoppable. 

Dean of School – Paul Hughes

Thursday Sport

A reminder to all families that Thursday afternoon sport is a compulsory activity. Students are expected to remain at school and participate in sport. I would ask that any appointments such as doctor, dentist or physiotherapy not be made on a Thursday afternoon during sport and always outside of school hours.

Sun Smart

Students are highly recommended to be sun smart during all outside activities by using sunscreen and wearing a hat for protection against harmful ultraviolet rays that can cause sunburn, skin damage and skin cancer.

School Shoes

Many parents will be purchasing new school shoes for their daughter prior to the start of 2025. A reminder that College school shoes are required to be hard, black, leather lace up. Ballet or soft leather shoes do not comply with WHS requirements.

Thank you for your continued support of the College.

Traffic Reminders for OLM Campus

We again need to remind parents and family members that all road rules need to be observed and followed when dropping off and picking up students each and everyday. In particular stopping in ‘No Stopping zones’. Those spaces are assigned to ensure drivers can see students when they cross roads or enter/leave the site. Student safety is always the most important consideration for any school community and we ask that our OLM members contribute positively to this.   

Please, if at all possible, refrain from driving up Dominic Street to drop off your daughter/s as there are very limited legal and/or safe places to stop.

Paul Hughes, Dean of School

Dean of Mission – Marg Marriott

Our OLM community joined with St Aloysius Primary School, St Aloysius College and St Francis De Sales for the Combined Schools celebration of the Centenary of St Aloysius Parish on Friday 8 November. Fr James McCarthy celebrated the Mass and our Vocal Ensemble contributed beautiful music to add to the joint commemoration of such an historic moment in the history of the parish. 

The inaugural Senior Retreat was held at Benedict XVI Retreat Centre recently and was a powerful celebration of our young Mercy Women of Heart. The theme was:  We are Mercy Women of Heart:

Loved, Worthy, Courageous, Hopeful, trusting, connected and authentic.

As OLM: A Mercy community reflecting the Heart of Jesus in the world, we made our way through an exploration of the Journey of the Heart, the Heart in the World, the Heart and God and the Heart Dreams. The second day we reflected Mercy leadership and the Authentic Heart.  It was an intense couple of days with a beautiful Communion Service led by Amelia Buhagiar and Sofia von der Hocht who undertook their training for ministry as ExtraOrdinary Ministers of Holy Communion last year. We were incredibly proud of them both as we witnessed students ministering to each other and staff. 

Four Year 12 students participated in the The Archbishop’s Leadership Forum last week at St Mary’s Cathedral and the Cathedral Hall. His Grace was keen to listen to the voices of our young women and address some of their questions. 

It was a proud moment to speak to our upcoming student leaders last week at the Training Day for Peer Support leaders from Year 9. These courageous young women nominated themselves for service to our incoming Year 7 Cohort for 2025. The current leaders from Year 10 have done a wonderful job in not only welcoming the Year 7 students but also facilitating the Year 7 Reflection Day. 

The Year 9 Reflection Day was held at the College on Friday 22nd November.  We focussed on sustainable living and hosted presenters from Sydney Catholic Schools and our local Vinnies Representatives from Cronulla Parish, John and Imelda O’Neil. 

OLM is proud to support our local Cronulla Vinnies Christmas Appeal and we are having a Christmas themed Mufti Day on Wednesday 4 December. As this is such a significant source of funds for the purchase of gift cards for those in need at Christmas, we ask that you consider donating $5 if possible, rather than a $2 gold coin as we know that cost pressures are really impacting those most in need at this time. 

In 2025 the College continues its volunteer program with One Meal Miranda. Students need to be supported by a parent for the service of food to clients at the Salvation Army Hall Miranda from 4:30pm – 5:45pm on a designated Tuesday. Participants need to complete an Application Form which requires a Working with Children Number. Please make a copy, complete it and return it to me at the address below. Previous participants do not need to complete the form again as we have them on file. 

In 2023 and 2024, the program was incredibly powerful especially to have students, parents and staff working together to serve those in need. The participants were very grateful for the opportunity to be of service in the Mercy tradition. 

The possible dates for 2025 if you would like to be involved are:

20 May

29 July

21 October

Thank you for your continued support.

Marg Marriott, Dean of Mission

Leader of Learning – Integrated Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment – Lisa Romberg

Academic Reports and Prize and Awards Presentation

Reports will be released to students and parents in Week 9 alongside our Academic Prize and Awards Presentation on Tuesday 10 December. 

Students and parents will be notified in week 8 if they are receiving an Award or Prize.

Congratulations to all students who have applied themselves to their learning this year, including all those who are formally acknowledged and those who are not. We celebrate with parents on your daughters’ application to her learning this year.

2025 Class Formation

Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College Burraneer is a school that is committed to ensuring that the learning needs are met for each student. This includes the specific learning needs, social/emotional and behaviour needs of each student.

Class construction will be based on the needs of each Year Group and is currently being reviewed and discussed. Consideration is based on:

1. Learning needs
2. Social/emotional needs
3. Behaviour needs
4. Number of classes in the cohort

To place students in the most appropriate classes for the following school year we use a variety of data including Course Assessment Data, PAT results, other external testing results, such as NAPLAN data along with feedback from class teachers.

For those students who are in the NEWMAN cluster classes we consider their performance in classes that are linked together.

For example, in Year 8, Science and Mathematics are linked together along with PDHPE. NEWMAN cluster classes are, for this group of subjects, based on a student’s performance in Year 7 Science and Mathematics.

Parent, Student, Teacher Conferences – Term 4

We value the partnership between school and home in assisting each student to thrive as a learner. As such we hold parent, student, teacher conferences after reports are published Semester 1 and Semester 2. 

In Week 10 of Term 4, an opportunity to meet is provided after reports are distributed. We encourage all parents to view this as a time for those parents who have specific concerns regarding their daughter’s progress.

These Conferences will be held at the College on Tuesday 17 December from 9am-10:30am and on Wednesday 18 December from 1:00pm-3:00pm. You will receive further correspondence regarding booking for these Conferences shortly.

Study Skills

Overcoming Roadblocks to Study Success

1. Find Your “Why”: Search for a meaningful reason to aim higher than the minimum. Whether it’s getting into your dream course, pursuing a career you’re passionate about, building your neural capacity as a learner, or just proving to yourself that you can succeed—use that as motivation to stop making excuses and invest extra effort.
   
2. Tame Your Distractions: Distractions are everywhere—social media, friends, pets, hobbies can all pull you away from your studies. Implement strategies like turning off notifications, setting specific “study hours”, or using apps designed to limit screen time so you can focus and allocate enough time to your schoolwork. A distraction-free environment helps you stay on track and makes study sessions more effective.
   
3. Turn Mistakes Into Momentum: Don’t let mistakes discourage you; instead, see them as stepping stones to growth. Each error or setback is a chance to identify what you can improve. Reflect on what went wrong, adjust your approach, and focus on learning from your experiences. Mistakes are often the best teachers and can launch you toward greater achievements if you use them wisely.
   
4. Set Small, Achievable Goals: Break down big tasks into smaller, manageable goals. Rather than thinking about an entire semester’s worth of material, focus on mastering one chapter or concept at a time. This makes studying less overwhelming and gives you a sense of accomplishment with each small win, motivating you to keep going.
   
5. Create a Supportive Study Environment: Surround yourself with people who encourage your success—whether it’s classmates, friends, or family members who support your study efforts. Consider forming or joining a study group to share resources, discuss topics, and keep each other accountable. A positive support system can keep you motivated and make studying feel like a team effort rather than a solo challenge.
   
6. Develop a Routine That Works for You: Consistency is key to successful studying. Establish a study routine that fits your lifestyle and energy levels. Whether it’s studying early in the morning, after school, or late at night, find a time that you can consistently dedicate to your work. A consistent routine helps your brain recognise study time, making it easier to focus and be productive.
   
7. Reward Your Progress: Motivation is easier to maintain when you celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. Set rewards for yourself when you complete a study session, finish a chapter, or achieve a good result. It could be something simple like a snack, time with friends, or a short break doing something you enjoy. Rewarding progress helps reinforce positive habits and keeps you motivated to keep pushing forward.

You can learn more about this at www.studyskillshandbook.com.au 

Our school’s subscription details to this online study skills and well-being website for high school students are – 

School’s username is:  OLMBurraneer

School’s password is:  Mercy

Lisa Romberg, Leader of Learning – Integrated Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Wellbeing and Diverse Learning – Carolyn Burden

Carolyn Burden, Leader of Wellbeing and Diverse Learning

Leader of Pathways and Partnerships – Lisa Formica

OLM Careers Newsletter can be accessed here.

Western Civilisation Summer School Program

Our students are offered many different opportunities to develop and grow their understanding of where they might like to head post-school. One opportunity is to attend a FREE Summer Program at ACU North Sydney. Led by ACU’s Western civilisation program academics, students will engage in critical discussions about great books of the Western tradition, gaining invaluable critical thinking, communication and reading skills – all while having fun and meeting like-minded students. This is designed for high-achieving students in Years 10, 11 and 12 (in 2025) who are passionate about reading and Humanities. 

More information can be found here

Lisa Formica, Leader of Pathways and Partnerships

Creative and Performing Arts Faculty – Ciara Gabriele

Booking link: https://www.trybooking.com/CXHZT

Ciara Gabriele, Instructional Leader Creative and Performing Arts 7-8, HSC Music Teacher

PDHPE Faculty – Damien Trevillion

Our Child Studies Elective classes have had opportunities to work with young children at various schools or centres in our area this year.

It has been such a privilege for OLM students to interact with children at Little Shepherd Preschool, Our Lady of Fatima Preschool and Long Day Care Centre and with St Francis De Sales Kindy and Year 1 classes.

There has been significant learning as OLM students put theory into practice.

OLM students must also be commended for their respectful and enthusiastic interactions with the young children in various centres.

 A high level of engagement and enjoyment is certainly evident in our students’ faces as they support the children in their learning experiences.

The young children in these schools were delighted to have our OLM girls in their classes.

Here are just a few photos from our most recent visit to Our Lady of Fatima Preschool and Long Day Care Centre.

Mrs Alison Redman, Child Studies Teacher

Leader of Operations – Andrew Mackenzie

Andrew Mackenzie, Leader of Operations