College Principal

Happy International Women’s Day!

This year the UN Women’s International Day theme is Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future. This focus puts the spotlight on redefining innovation to create new social, economic and cultural codes for a gender equal future. This year’s theme draws our attention to how we use technology to leverage power and effect social change. Access to technology for all women matters. Technology has become critical for education around the world; we only need to reflect on the role it played during the pandemic in educating our students to appreciate its importance. When used well, it also empowers through raising awareness and inspiring action about issues that matter to women. 

The digital gender gap perpetuates inequality for women and girls as the UN estimates that women’s lack of access to the online world will cause $1.5 trillion loss to gross domestic product for low and middle income countries by 2025 if action isn’t taken. We also recognise that women in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine have been fighting for their rights amidst war, violence and policy changes. In Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban has halted developments in human rights with women and girls now banned from tertiary education, unable to work most jobs outside of the home or travel long distances without a male chaperone and they are instructed to cover their faces in public. 

At Santa Sabina, every day is International Women’s Day because we are constantly striving to put the needs of girls front and centre and we are the strongest advocates for ensuring our girls are empowered, inspired, motivated and educated to advance gender equality for themselves and for women globally. Our girls are well aware that they have the privilege, power and responsibility to raise awareness and take action to protect the earth and its most vulnerable people and many of them are already taking action through various roles in the community to play their part for gender equality. 

Today we also launch our second Santa Dialogues Podcast – Active Girls are Healthy Girls – Playing for Life.  The need to engage girls in a more active lifestyle has never been more urgent; there are worrying mental health issues, teen girls are reportedly less happy, more anxious and increasingly dissatisfied with their appearance. To discuss this important topic, I was joined by past pupil, Morgan Baxter, Santa Sabina alumna 2011 and elite athlete who represented Australia in the Women’s Polo Team. Morgan is a physiotherapist and business owner of Physiolocal Mortlake.  She is passionate about Women’s Health and believes movement is medicine. We were also joined by our Sports Captain, Lily Carr, and Year 12 student Frances Doyle as well as Year 5 student Valentina Dal Pra, all passionate about sport and the role it plays in their lives.  Our new Director of Sport and Activities, Mr Luiz Ramalho, also participated in our discussion to highlight the ways in which we are working to engage more students in sport to form healthy habits for life. Our podcast discusses the benefits of sport for life, the programs and underlying philosophy at Santa to engage more girls to participate in sport and activity and the important role parents play in encouraging their children to be active. Movement jump starts the brain by jump starting the body, it improves cognitive function, improves strength and reduces stress, improving mood and self esteem. Sport and being active are important for life. We hope it inspires our listeners to get moving because active girls become healthy women. 

Paulina Skerman
College Principal

Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care

Service Learning at Santa Sabina

At times my position, which crosses both Mission and Pastoral Care, can prove to be problematic when I am writing a VV article. I am often asking myself ‘Which area should I cover this week?’ However, when writing about service learning and volunteering I do not encounter this problem because this aspect of your child’s education at Santa Sabina is comfortably covered by both Mission and Pastoral Care.

As a Catholic School, we ensure that our students understand the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching through their learning and by providing opportunities for students to authentically live these principles in the opportunities they are offered.

Catholic Social Teaching Principles underpin our Salamanca Service Learning and Social Justice Model. This model proudly embraces the Catholic mission of service to others and states:

• Service learning should be committed to forming young people of love, compassion and justice.
• It should be Gospel-driven because a Gospel-centered life is a response to Christ’s call to live a life of service.
• It should be influenced by the core messages of Luke’s Gospel in particular. The Beatitudes and verses such as that below help to situate students in the knowledge that Christ stood beside the marginalised. 

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

         to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Luke 4:18-19

• Pope Francis has said ‘We will discover the real joy of the Gospel, when we give it away, giving of ourselves’.
• As a Catholic School we should ensure that we provide service learning within a Catholic context and provide specific faith-based Catholic service learning opportunities. 
• The programs should be grounded in Christian values, and prayer should be an integral part of the developmental and reflection process.

There are, of course, also well documented and researched benefits of service and volunteering for our wellbeing. An article published by the University of Sydney, in consultation with their Psychology and Pharmacology Departments, identified five ‘feel good’ benefits of service and volunteering:

1. It provides a sense of belonging.
2. It can improve your physical health.
3. Generosity leads to greater happiness.
4. You can lift the mood of the people around you.
5. It increases your sense of satisfaction with life.

The Salamanca Model involves students in individual service learning throughout their time at the College. For students in P-4 we love to acknowledge any service children may have been involved in with their families and communities and we offer opportunities at school in a safe and inclusive environment for our younger students to be involved in service learning. At Gioia House we encourage our students to be involved in individual and small group service opportunities and to record these in their e-portfolios as part of their Las Casas Service Record. This prepares our students for Years 7-12 where there is an expectation that all students will be involved in some kind of service or volunteer experience that they will record in their Las Casas Service Record on VO. 

Aristotle wrote ‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.’ Service learning and volunteer action is central to the vision of mission and pastoral care that we have here at the College.  

Melanie van der Meer
Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care

Deputy Principal Teaching and Learning

Student Parent Teacher Conferences

We started our first Senior School Student/Parent/Teacher conference of the year this week with our Year 12 students. These are great opportunities for the students to lead the conversation on their learning. Articulating their successes and the areas they wish to focus on. On the Senior Campus, these evenings are as follows 

Year 7 – 24 May
Year 8 – 22 March 
Year 9 – 10 May
Year 10 – 3 May
Year 11 – 29 March

Experiential Learning Opportunities on the Senior Campus 

There has been a lot happening already this term on the Senior Campus. While our teachers value each moment in the classroom, we offer many opportunities outside the classroom to support their learning. This Veritas Voice has many articles that will expand on these experiences. Below is a snapshot of what has occurred on the Senior Campus in the first six weeks. 

Year 7 Camp, while it may look like lots of fun, there is lots of learning: resilience, independence, measured risk and getting out of their comfort zone. It also includes many of our learning objectives from the PDHPE course. 

This week the Year 7 students are travelling to Taronga Zoo for Science. This is tied to their unit ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ on classification, habitat and adaptation. 

Earlier in the term, Year 7 attended an incursion during their RE and History lessons exploring Santa Sabina College as a historical site incorporating the Dominican elements and their relevance to Dominican Charism. This was in preparation for their interdisciplinary assessment task between RE & History.

The Biting Truth presented an informative nutrition session to our Year 9 PDHPE students. This will undoubtedly help them with their Biathlon Unit – Get Fit, Feel Great.

Year 9 Food Technology students are studying the Food in Australia unit of work. Last week the students embarked on a ‘food trail’ around Bankstown, exploring the culinary delights of Lebanon and Vietnam. 

This year we have revamped our Senior Library with several new initiatives. One of which is to empower the students to have a voice in the purchases for the library collection. Mr Paul McDonald from the Children’s Bookshop recently visited the Year 9 students in an English class. He introduced the students to the joy of reading and discussed possible book purchases.

Music students from Year 10, 11 HSC and 12 HSC attended an evening show of Encore at the Opera House recently. Encore showcases some of the outstanding performances and compositions from the 2022 HSC. 

Year 10 students study Geography or History in Semester 1 and will swap in Semester 2. In Week 4, the Geography students participated in a field trip to Barangaroo and Newtown, experiencing first-hand how Sydney suburbs transform and change. Concurrently the History students visited the Sydney Jewish Museum and continued their research into the Holocaust.

Year 11 Visual Arts HSC and IB Artist in residence for a day. Abdul Abdullah is a renowned portrait painter who has exhibited in the Archibald and has a well-established artmaking practice and worked with the students for a day this week. 

Japanese HSC Extension students attended a Saturday session by the Japanese Teachers Association. This ensures the students gain a deeper understanding of the prescribed text they are studying for this course. 

The Year 12 Legal Studies and Year 12 Global Politics students attended a talk at Rosary Lodge by the Geneva Franciscan-Dominican team on the UN and Civil Society’s role in protecting Environmental Human Rights in the Solomon Islands. 

Year 12 IB Spanish students have experienced a culinary evening at Mas Tinto Café in Stanmore. The students tasted Latin American food hosted by native speakers in the Spanish language. 

Year 12 students recently visited the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque and the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy (ISRA). This excursion supports the HSC Studies of Religion students’ Depth Study into Islam and for the IB students, it enhances their studies in the Theory of Knowledge (TOK). 

Enrichment

The finals of the International Middle Years Ethics Olympiad were held recently. Kate, Isabele, Emily, Edith and Mia represented the College proudly. They performed well in all of their individual heats and placed 14th out of 40 teams with a special commendation from the judges.

Year 10 

We are running an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Information Session for Year 10 parents and students. It will be held on Tuesday 28 March from 6:00pm to 6:30pm via the MSTeams. Parents have been sent information with the login. 

Jacqueline Pugh
Deputy Principal Teaching and Learning

Deputy Principal Operations

The rollout of new features in Parent Lounge continues with families now able to access the Parent Teacher Interviews when available and update student medical details. As the year progresses, we will continue to increase the features available to parents.

The first round of Parent Teacher Interviews has been completed using the new feature in Parent Lounge.  Parents will be able to book, move and cancel appointments, print an interview schedule, and access Online Meeting links from the Parent Lounge. When Parent Teacher Interviews are scheduled for your child’s year level, information on how to use the Parent Teacher Interview component in Parent Lounge will be provided.

Families can now update the medical details of their children via Parent Lounge. It is vital that correct and updated medical details are available to the College in the event of a medical emergency. Details can be updated at any time or when invited to attend an excursion. Parents are provided with a summary of the medical details on record, and should there be any information missing, I urge all families to update the records of your child. A confirmation email will be sent from the College to confirm that the details have been checked and updated in the system.

The College calendar can be accessed in several ways to ensure that families are able to access all the happenings within the College from Prep to Year 12. The calendar can be accessed via the Calendar tab on Veritas Online, by checking the calendar on the College App and by subscribing to the Santa Sabina Google calendar. Details on how to subscribe to the College Google calendar are available under College Information in Veritas Online and clicking on the Timetables and Calendars tile.

It would be remiss of me to finish my article without mentioning the traffic in and around the College.  There have been numerous reports of late, on both Carrington Road and Jersey Road, of incidences of drivers performing three-point and U-turns over the double lines to exit the Kiss and Ride zone. This manoeuvre is not only illegal, but it puts students and other pedestrians in these areas at great risk of harm. I urge all parents using these streets during drop-off and pick-up to demonstrate patience and consideration to all users of the roads. Council Rangers and the Police are often present patrolling these areas, both in the morning and the afternoon to ensure that drivers are complying with road rules.

John Gilmore
Deputy Principal Operations

Head of Gioia House

Gioia House update

Time flies in Gioia House with our students learning, forming new friendships and having fun. Students have much to learn, whether they just crossed The Boulevarde to come to Gioia or moved from another school. Our goal is to ensure that in two years, our students are ready for high school, and everything we do has a strong emphasis on preparing them academically, socially and emotionally. To succeed, we must teach our students to become independent learners who are organised, motivated and willing to take calculated risks. I ask that you empower your children by making them accountable for organising their bags the night before school and accessing the Veritas Online pages for any announcements, homework or class revision work. Also, encourage your daughter to ask their teachers if they have any questions without relying on you too much. We know it will take time, but if we work together in supporting and empowering our students, we have a better chance of setting them up for success. 

At the beginning of the year, students were introduced to the co-curricular program in Gioia, and last week, they had the opportunity to apply for various activities. Teachers presented an introductory session for their respective programs, and it was wonderful to observe enthusiasm and curiosity in students’ participation. Please visit the Gioia House VO page to learn more about the Gioia House co-curricular program. We look forward to sharing photos and stories from our co-curricular clubs with you.

NAPLAN

Earlier this week the Year 5 parents were sent the information about NAPLAN. The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. 

All students in Year 5 have been working on NAPLAN-like questions in Maths, focusing on one strand each week. The students have been exploring narrative and persuasive texts in English. Teachers used the NAPLAN public demonstration site to familiarise students with the types of questions and tools available in the NAPLAN Online tests. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN Online is not recommended. 

2023 Gioia House Leaders

Last week we commissioned the newly elected Gioia House leaders at our induction liturgy. Congratulations to 2023 student leaders and we wish them a great year ahead. Embrace every opportunity and enjoy your journey. 

Gioia House Student Leadership Team – 2023

Gioia House Colour House Leaders – 2023

Our leaders, along with Del Monte Captains and St Patrick’s College leaders, participated in the GRIP Student Leadership Conference at the Quay Centre Sydney Olympic Park. The theme for this year’s conference was We Lead Everybody. This was a unique experience that focused on training student leaders for their role as SCHOOL LEADERS. The style, topics, and content of this conference all aimed at what the students can do RIGHT NOW.

On Wednesday, the Gioia House leadership team had the immense privilege of representing Santa Sabina at a conference in the Quay Centre. We were amongst the other 172 schools attending the conference, where we played fun games with meaningful messages to show what a good leader is. My day’s highlight was always thinking of others and leading by listening to and serving your community. We need to be motivated and committed to our roles as leaders. It was great to spend some time getting to know our counterparts from St Patrick’s College and establish connections with boys. A highlight of mine was when I got to go to the front of the audience and participate in a challenge. The challenge was to recite the alphabet backwards, and on the board, there was the alphabet so that you could look at it for some help. The point of the challenge was to show that it’s ok to need assistance and you don’t have to do everything alone. Overall, I had an amazing experience, and I thank the College for providing us with this incredible opportunity.
Sienna Pirina
Gioia House Captain

My highlights for the day was knowing how to put others first and not only thinking about yourself. It’s natural to think of self first but leaders need to shift their thinking to others first. That was the focus of the day. I learned how to make my actions speak louder than words. The hosts helped us understanding about leadership and shared some practical ideas with us. We had the chance to interact with all 172 schools when we played games that focused on others first. 

We had the opportunity to interact with the Saint Patrick’s boys. and learn about them. I made a couple new friends and listened to what they are doing as a leader.  

I walked out of the conference having a better understanding about leadership and some new ideas we can incorporate for the upcoming year.  The 4 H’s Hear, Help, Happiness and Humility is how you can be a better leader to your peers.
Verona Di Santo
Sports Leader

I enjoyed going to the Leadership Conference with other Gioia House leaders and the St Patrick’s College Junior school leadership team. I learnt that leaders need to shift their thinking to others and be attentive to needs of others. In the first session, we played a game to find the answers to some questions. After every session, we got to write what we needed to remember from the session. We did a lot of activities with the boys and I really enjoyed getting to know them. We got to do activities in the book such as a find a word and a number-letter game. 

Overall I had the best time ever. I’m very grateful for this learning opportnuty and collaboration with others.
Chloe Wahbe
Mundawora House Leader

Together with 170 other schools, all the Gioia House, Del Monte and St Patric’s College leaders had the wonderful opportunity to visit Sydney Olympic Park on the 8 of March to learn about being effective leaders. During this time we received information about how to be productive role models and all the attributes a great leader should posses. I am confident that we all gained a great deal of advice and knowledge from this conference and will work together on implementing some ideas and cherish this opportunity for many years to come.
Audrey Williams
Kurrawa House Leader

I really enjoyed the great opportunity of the leadership conference. It was very informative and taught me a lot while still making the learning fun and interactive. I loved how the hosts made games to learn about leadership, which made the lessons that they taught easy to remember and a day that I will take a lot from. 
Alegra Cencigh
Gunagulla House Leader

Analogies

In Philosophy lessons, Year 6 students have been learning to think conceptually, ask philosophical questions and interpret analogies. They worked across the grade, discussing the questions and thinking outside of the box, presenting unique answers.

How is a friendship like the weather?

We make new friends in different places like there is different weather in new places.

There are different levels of friendship like there are different levels of rain.

How is a friendship like dancing?

You need to keep your balance.

You need to work together with your friends just like in a dance.

How is a family like a mobile phone?

There are different phone companies like there are different family beliefs.

Everyone has different backgrounds on their phone just like every family has a different background.

How are feelings like Luna Park?

Sometimes you win at Skill Testers and sometimes you don’t. You need to know that life doesn’t always work out the way you want.

When you are on a ride you may not enjoy it but you have to deal with it just like feelings.

Mood swings are just like on the rides.

How is learning like music?

Learning is like music because it has high and low notes. In music, there are different instruments and they all make different sounds and are all unique. We are all unique in our learning and learn in different ways.

Lent

 In Week 4, we celebrated Ash Wednesday, the first day of one of the most important seasons in the Church’s liturgical year – Lent. As we explained to the students at Wednesday’s liturgy, Lent is a time when we try to get closer to God. The girls were encouraged to think of things they could do to achieve this by doing good deeds and giving to Project Compassion. It’s a time to think about Jesus’ life and how he continually showed compassion and forgiveness to those around him. As adults, we understand these acts to be Fasting, Prayer and Almsgiving. 

God our Father, 

Help us to see that your merciful love is with us always, even when we wander far from you. 

With the help of your grace, may our prayers and sacrifices over the next forty days lead us closer to you and to each other, the poor, the sick and the lonely so that together, 

we can fulfil your promises for all who live in your love. 

AMEN

Stella Azizian
Head of Gioia House

Head of Primary P-4

The Primary campus has been a hive of activity so far this term with many learning opportunities for both our students and staff. Some of these exciting initiatives you will read about in this edition of Veritas Voice and some in the next one. 

They include:

• Curriculum information ­– Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (Pearson and Gallagher (1983) 
• Our campus theme this year: Kindness
• Year 4 Student leadership
• Friendology program
• The Kindergarten tradition of Dancing on Dom’s Plot 
• Initial Lit Program expanded to include Year 2

Friendology

This year our theme is kindness which links perfectly to our new initiative URSTRONG Friendology. Relationships are at the heart of social and emotional wellbeing. Friendology is a whole-school strategy that empowers students with friendship skills to create communities of kindness and belonging. Last week the teachers began the training in this program which will be implemented fully in Term 2.

Friendology explicitly teaches children how to develop healthy friendships and manage conflict in a respectful way. Managing friendships and conflict effectively is key to creating safe, caring learning environments. The program inspires students to feel empowered, and develop a strong sense of self, while learning to manage one of the most important things to them…their friendships. 

In professional learning sessions, teachers are receiving training in the unique language, skills, and strategies to implement the lessons. Teachers also study the science and research supporting social-emotional wellbeing. We look forward to implementing this program in the coming weeks and sharing the learning that is happening in our classrooms with our families. Below is an overview of the core concepts of the program. Below is a brief overview of Friendology and I look forward to sharing more information as the program is implemented.

School Captains

Last week we commissioned our 2023 school leaders. All Year 4 students have a leadership role on the Primary campus. In accepting a Leadership position, the students are making a commitment to live the mission and values inherent of our rich Dominican tradition, in both their words and actions. The Leadership teams the students serve in throughout the year are based on our four Dominican Pillars.

Students learn about the qualities for effective leadership and the significance of action and service. Service to fellow students, and to the larger community, both in and outside the school. As such, students are able to grow both personally and socially, developing skills such as cooperation, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and creative and critical thinking.

Our two Primary Captains for this year are Esther Chiew and William Kategiannis. As a community, we congratulate these students and their families. Our new captains have been very busy already since their commissioning and have led an assembly and will be attending a Leadership conference at Sydney Olympic Park this week. This will be a combined learning opportunity between Gioia House captains and St Patrick’s College Strathfield Junior School captains.

Lost Property

The lost property box has been relocated to an area outside the office. This allows parents easy access to the box to claim missing items after school. I hope that parents find this useful. 

Parent Helpers

A huge thank you to all of our parents who have volunteered to assist in our Reading and Library parent helper programs. Your generosity of time is greatly appreciated as we work in partnership to support our students learning. 

Joanne Gianinni
Head of Primary P-4

Director of Mary Bailey House

Out of School Hours Care (OOSH)

With the next school holidays just over four weeks away, we have planned a vacation care program that will excite and engage all children. The vacation care program begins on Thursday 6 April and ends on Monday 24 April. Vacation care is closed on public holidays.

The program begins with an Easter egg hunt with the children making their own baskets and searching for eggs and ends with a pyjama party with children coming in their pyjamas and dancing the day away. It’s then jam-packed with incursions that focus on science, technology, physical activity, and games. We’ve even included an excursion to the children’s favourite, Strathfield Park.

Bookings for vacation care are open now. If you book before the end of term, you will pay the permanent vacation care daily fee of $75 per child plus incursion and excursion cost. If you book during the school holidays the daily fee is $77 per child. Several families still have BASC Voucher credit that can be used to pay vacation care fees. BASC Voucher credits need to be spent by June 2023.

If you would like your child to attend vacation care, please contact OOSH Coordinator Jessica Azzi or OOSH Administrator Carmela Famularo at ooshmail@ssc.nsw.edu.au or call OOSH on 9745 7790 between 2:00pm and 6:00pm.

Vacation care is always an enjoyable experience for children. With a focus on leisure and fun children always make friends and come home with stories to tell about their day at OOSH.

We look forward to seeing your child at OOSH during the next school holidays,

Jackie Baxter
Director of Mary Bailey House

Director of Tallong Campus

Last week Tallong had the pleasure of hosting our Year 7 students on their outdoor education program.

This year the program was a four-day experience where the students’ comfort zones were challenged and they learnt important life skills of leading self, leading others and stewardship for our natural world. In previous years the Year 7 Outdoor Education Experience has been three days, so this year an extra day allowed for further learning sessions to be built into the program. which from all accounts were received very well. The extra day also helps build the students’ resilience and allows for deeper relationships to be developed across their cohort.

In the last Veritas Voice article I was able to talk about the success of the Tallong open day and highlight the opportunities for the Santa Sabina College community to engage with Tallong this year. We can now announce that we are holding dates for the well-established parent/child camp at Tallong. A camp that has been running at Tallong for almost 20 years. The dates for this year’s parent/child camp are 11/12 November 2023. So please put a placeholder in your diary and more information will be forthcoming later this year.

Kendal Hann
Director of Outdoor Education and Tallong Campus Manager

Director of Community Relations P-12

This week we marked International Women’s Day at our annual dinner at Le Montage celebrating the exceptional women from all generations in our community – a sisterhood of diverse talents, journeys, and achievements. We acknowledged and were inspired by the tenacity, strength and ability of each woman, all of whom are making a change in the world for women and for others. Our panellists included Johanna O’Rourke (1994), Katie Stevenson (2001), Michleen Daud Geagea (current parent), Peta Magee (2001), Emma Duxbury (2000) and Paulina Skerman (College Principal).

Having both the Parents and Friends’ and Ex-Students’ Associations working together created an outstanding event that engaged everyone present.

Yvette Graniero
Director of Community Relations

Director of Development

In my role as Director of Development at Santa Sabina College I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet and engage with students, parents and ex-students along with our staff to explain what has gone before us, what our vision for the future is and how we can support the College for this and future generations of boys and girls.

I was very lucky to have been invited to attend the International Women’s Day dinner held on Wednesday night at Le Montage. How lucky we are to have many inspiring women in our midst who are articulate, engaging and passionate about a gender-equal future. The theme for 2023 ‘Cracking the Code’ emphasised the importance of bold, transformative ideas, inclusive technologies and accessible education in combating discrimination and the marginalisation of women globally. Our students at Santa Sabina are encouraged to continue to break down the boundaries of discrimination and courageously go out into the world to influence change.

Ms Skerman and I recently met with Ms Bridget Sakr, mother of Veronique who sadly passed away along with her three cousins in 2020. Ms Sakr has been an inspiration and leader in her work in helping those in grief while also being a great supporter of Santa Sabina College.

This support has culminated in Bridget’s desire to assist a young girl to attend Santa Sabina College who might not otherwise be able to afford a Dominican education. We are so pleased to announce that a Scholarship in Veronique’s name is being provided for a student entering Year 10 through to Year 12. Further information about this scholarship can be found here.

If you know someone who would like to apply for this scholarship please share this information with them.

In my recent readings, I stumbled upon a wonderful quote from an inspirational woman, Mother Teresa, who gave her life to helping the underprivileged and marginalised in society.

We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.

Mother Teresa

I mentioned in the previous Veritas Voice that we will be providing information on how you can support us in providing much-needed funds for our College. Our Veritas Annual Appeal will be launched late in April, so I urge all members of our community to get behind this appeal for the benefit of our students.

I am looking forward to speaking with as many families in our community as possible during 2023.

George Ayoub
Director of Development

Taste of Migration excursion

Year 9 Food Technology

Our students enjoyed authentic Vietnamese dishes including an aromatic Pho soup from Huong Xua, and steamed rice paper rolls and mini savoury pancakes from Banh Cuon Kim Thanh. We also tucked into some wood-fired zaatar and cheese pizza from Khalil’s Lebanese Pizza and the freshest baklava from Chehade El Bahsa & Sons Sweets. This was all washed down with a fresh lychee and watermelon juice from Flying Zebra Cafe.

In between all the food tasting, students also explored a range of Asian and Lebanese food grocers. They discovered some very interesting ingredients including pickled jellyfish, frankincense and black limes. They also found some more familiar ingredients that we have discussed in class such as Chinese celery, pomegranate molasses and dragonfruit.

Each business owner shared their personal story of migration to Australia and the challenges they faced in opening their own restaurant/shop. Our students listened intently and kindly embraced the hospitality offered from the restaurateurs…and more importantly, they have a newfound appreciation for how migration has influenced the way multicultural Australians eat today.

Samantha Walker
Technology Teacher

Learning in the Library

On Friday 3 March, Year 9 students took the opportunity to shape the Library Fiction collection by selecting books to be purchased. Students listened to a presentation from Paul Macdonald from the Children’s Bookshop to learn about current trends and top reads. This was a great opportunity for students to challenge and expand their thinking about their reading. 

Mr Macdonald talked about contemporary themes of diversity, wellbeing and sustainability currently trending in YA literature. Making the important connection between reading and writing, Paul challenged the students that the average person will write around 45 million words in their lifetime and that reading a wide range of texts can help develop more sophisticated writing skills. 

Students were encouraged to read for pleasure from texts encompassing a range of voices and narrative structures. Whilst romance has remained strong, dystopian texts and stories drawing on experiences from the pandemic are on the rise. The pandemic also saw many people return to the classics as they read texts available in many homes.

Students were then given the opportunity to decide which books were purchased for the library collection by placing post-it notes and voting for their favourites. We look forward to Year 9 students borrowing these new books.  

This visit also coincided with the announcement of the 2023 CBCA Notables Older and Young Readers list celebrating high quality Australian literature. Paul left us with this quote from Neil Gaiman:

Susan Lombardo
Head of Library 5-12

Year 10 History Site Study

In HSIE, authentic learning supports classroom learning as it provides students with the historical skills of empathy, the application of historical knowledge, and builds the development of 21st century skills within a real world context.

To support the classroom study of The Holocaust and World War II, students were given the opportunity to engage with Sydney military history and then compare and contrast the Australian experience with that of the Jewish community through an investigation of artefacts and memorials. Students had the privilege to hear oral history and begin to empathise with the experiences and perspective of a Holocaust Survivor.  A huge thank you to the Year 10 History teachers Ms Blake, Ms Jenkins and Mr Prestifilippo and Mrs Di Ciaccio from the Diverse Learning Team for supporting student participation and historical inquiry of these site studies.

Brigida Zagora
Head of HSIE (Humanities and Social Sciences)

Teacher reflection:

On Wednesday 1 March, Year 10 History students undertook a site study of Sydney and the Sydney Jewish Museum. Students met at Sydney Town Hall where they participated in an historical walking tour of Sydney, visiting significant sites and landmarks and learning about the rich history of the CBD. Many students were surprised to learn about the old burial ground beneath Sydney Town Hall. They also enjoyed the walk through to Chinatown and Haymarket where they saw art installations and sites linked to Sydney’s migration history. The tour then led to Hyde Park, where students learnt about the Anzac memorial and took some time at the installation in commemoration of Indigenous soldiers.

After a lunch break in the shade of the trees at Hyde Park, the group moved on to the Sydney Jewish Museum. There, students experienced a guided tour of the museum where they could see historical artefacts from the time. Many students were saddened by the Children’s Memorial which commemorated young people who were victims of the Holocaust.

The highlight of the day for all students was the sobering survivor testimony of Lilly Wolf, a 96-year-old Hungarian Australian who survived the Holocaust as a teenager. While all legs were weary from the walk that had been undertaken in the morning, this was soon forgotten as Lilly shared what she called ‘The Death March’ where she walked for 25kms each day for over two weeks as part of her treatment at the hands of the Nazis.

Students found the experience invaluable for their studies and for their appreciation of the study of history.

Kate Blake
Year 10 History Teacher

Student reflection:

The excursion for History was a combination of walking and exploring to view historical monuments in the city. My monument was the last one for the tour. I shared information with the class about the sculptural artwork ‘Yininmadyemi – Thou didst let fall’ by indigenous Australian artist Tony Albert, which was located in Hyde Park.

After exploring the city, we set off and arrived at the Sydney Jewish Museum, where we observed historical artefacts regarding the Holocaust. We went on a discovery tour and learned that the ‘pyjamas’ Jews wore in the camps were actually a uniform and they weren’t allowed to remove them from their body.

Then we ended the tour with a survivor testimony from Lilly Wolf. This was a very intriguing experience as we physically heard someone’s story about their journey in the Holocaust. I was personally flabbergasted with how much information she presented us with considering she was 96 years old and remembered every single little detail.

Marina Orlovic, Year 10

Islamic Sciences and Research Academy

Studies of Religion and IB students visited the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy – ISRA, in Auburn this week. ISRA is an Islamic education institution that serves the Muslim community in Australia in areas of identity, faith, knowledge and service. ISRA plays a pivotal role in equipping NSW Studies of Religion teachers, providing support in addressing issues and topics in the Preliminary Course and HSC course. It also serves IB students by providing thoughtful perspectives on different ways of knowing, and deeper understanding of Islamic diversity and expression in diverse cultures.

Students were informed of the formation of Islamic Jurisprudence by significant jurists and scholars, including Imam Al-Shafi, who played an instrumental role in Islamic history and theology. Students also visited Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, providing them with firsthand experience of Ottoman inspired architecture, including the artistry of Arabic calligraphy, and a presentation of the nature and significance of the Hajj pilgrimage.

Year 12 students are commended for demonstrating full respect and courtesy to our hosts and the sacred spaces they visited. Santa Sabina’s visit to both ISRA and Auburn Gallipoli Mosque forms part of the philosophy of equipping our students to be informed global citizens.

Charlotte Burton and the SOR Team

IBDP update – International Mindedness

On 2 March the Year 12 IB Global Politics and the Year 12 HSC Legal Studies classes attended a series of talks at Rosary Lodge entitled The Effects of logging on the environment and people living in rural Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. 

The first presenter – Br Christopher John – a member of Franciscan International, explained the UN procedures surrounding the Universal Periodic Review conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Council. This unique process reviews the human rights records of all UN Member States and provides an opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. The ultimate aim is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.

The second two presenters were Dominican Sisters – Rose Mary Kinne and Marie – who explained the environmental and human rights impacts that both logging and more recently mining are having on the rural communities and villages in the Solomon Islands.

In both Global Politics and Legal Studies the students have to evaluate the work of the UN in relation to peacekeeping and human rights. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to listen to the work that Civil Society Organisations do with the UN in making countries accountable for improving their human rights through this process of consultation and review. Given current events such as the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine we tend to dismiss the UN as less than effective and as such it was enlightening to see the extent to which it is still an invaluable body with a key role in protecting and promoting human rights and in giving smaller nations a much needed voice in International Affairs.

Julie Harris
Dean of IB and Global Politics Teacher

Year 10 History Elective – Experiential Learning

archaeological excavations through experiential learning through a mock archaeological dig. Students were then led to reflect on their experience to understand the scientific process used by archaeologists to locate, unearth, examine, and hypothesise about past societies using material culture as evidence. A huge thank you to Ms Janssen for preparing the archaeological dig boxes and providing students with this creative and rich history learning experience.

Ms Zagora

Head of HSIE (Humanities and Social Sciences)

Student Reflection

Continuing our topic of Discovering Ancient Worlds, students from Year 10 Elective History engaged in an archaeological excavation. We learnt the connection between the work of archaeologists and the construction of the ancient past, and this is helpful as we get a first-hand experience in the process, assisting us in our studies. On a broader level, understanding ancient history to this level is so important as it helps us understand the modern world, how it came to be, and how we should live in the future. 

To begin, we sorted through tools as archaeologists would, and set up our excavation site using an archaeological grid system. We then worked in teams to excavate the area, starting by removing the top layers of soil and then when we began to find sources, used tools to remove sand around it. When we got close to the source, we used brushes and toothpicks to remove sand, acting delicately to not damage the artefact so it could be studied in situ, drawing the artefact and recording details about where it was found. We learnt it was important to establish a system to study artefacts in context with one another so archaeologists can develop an understanding of the history of the area. We then analysed sources, and my group analysed 3 different artefact replicas. 

This connected to our in-class learning of ancient Egyptian digs and modern archaeological work. Overall, this learning experience was a fun way to allow us to learn about Ancient Egyptian digs, and about modern archaeological work. I really enjoyed this because it allowed us to understand the archaeological field in an exciting way. I found it to be a valuable learning experience because it allowed me to put what I had learnt in the classroom into practice, and made me consider archaeology as a field to go into in the future. 

Claire Carroll (Year 10)

IWD lunch and assembly 

On 3 March, the leadership team alongside Ms Skerman and Ms Granerio, were fortunate enough to attend the United Nations IWD lunch. The lunch followed The United Nations theme for International Women’s Day this year, Cracking the Code. Cracking the Code highlights the role that innovation, inclusive technologies, and accessible STEM education can play in combating the marginalisation of women globally. We heard from amazing guest speakers, most notably Tarana Burke, the creator of the #MeToo movement. She shed light on the importance of International Women’s day as an opportunity to highlight the struggles and achievements of those women who are often on the margins of society. She noted that this day should be utilised to give a platform to those women who are not on the main stage and in the spotlight.  

In addition, we hosted an IWD assembly featuring an amazing panel that explored the ideas of the United Nations theme cracking the code and the Year 12 theme breaking free. We welcomed guest speaker, Maryam Popal Zahid, an award-winning Afghan-Australian human rights champion, diversity and inclusion practitioner, self-taught artist and social commentator. She shared insights on her journey as a young girl, navigating through a life that restricted her liberty and her ability to attain an education. Maryam emphasised to all of us, the vitality of education as a tool to develop our worldview and shape us into strong, confident young women. Her immense involvement in multicultural Australian communities has allowed her to share this story firsthand in the hopes of strengthening other women and girls to break free from the boundaries that seek to confine them whether it be the culture they grew up in or the environment they are exposed to. 

Along with Maree Sialepis, Ruby Bron, Emilia Sradonovic and College Principal, Ms Paulina Skerman, all leaders raised the central theme of female empowerment, segwaying into distinct areas of discussion. A perceptive insight into the role of technology was made where panellists discussed how it can grant a voice to individuals but also pose dangers in its AI gender bias. The toxic representations as well as sexualisation of women and girls on social media was also reinforced as well as a critical point on the disproportionate effect that climate change has on women and girls and how this is exacerbated by a lack of access to both technology and education. But in addition to focusing on these significant issues which need to be critically addressed through platforms as such, the panellists also gave way to a discussion on key figures like Malala Yousafzai who embodies female empowerment and bravery in all its entirety. This was something that seamlessly aligned with the Year 7’s Malala Fund bakesale initiative which followed this very special panel discussion at lunchtime on Tuesday. This bake sale raised $1200 for the Malala Foundation. Congratulations to Year 7 for such a wonderful initiative. 

Strathfield Council Breakfast

This International Women’s Day, Sophie Way our Wellbeing Prefect and Lisa Haddad, the Faith and Mission Prefect were privileged to attend the Strathfield Council Breakfast alongside College Principal, Paulina Skerman. At the breakfast, they heard from Jana Pittman, Commonwealth nine times gold medalist and doctor specialising in Women’s reproductive health where she spoke on the importance for young women to continually create opportunities for themselves and other women. She also spoke about her personal life experience with failures and how she believes we should view them as opportunities to learn in disguise. She repeated the phrase ‘If you think you can’t, do it anyway’ which was enlightening, especially for the girls in their Year 12 year, heading into exams. Most importantly, Jana spoke to the idea that failure should be accepted as a motivator to improve. This was an excellent opportunity for our leaders to engage with members of the local community including Jason Yat Sen Li and newly apppointed Mayor, Karen Pensabene. 

Ocean Youth Breakfast

On 2 March, three of our student leaders, Sophie Way, Ruby Bron and Rosanna Cartwright, alongside six other students from Years 9 to 12 attended the Ocean Decade Youth Breakfast where they spoke with industry leaders on how to implement the Sustainable Development Goal set out by the United Nations. It was the first Youth event of the two-day Summit that heard from leaders such as Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek. It was an amazing opportunity to learn, firsthand, about sustainable ocean practices. 

Student Leaders

Pastoral and Wellbeing at Gioia House

Action Girls

We encourage all our Gioia House students to be girls of action in all aspects of their lives. Through our pastoral programs we provide the students with opportunities to learn about building positive and respectful relationships and look for opportunities to make a difference beyond the classroom. Last week at our Gioia House assembly, we awarded our first Gioia House Action Girls for the term. The students received their awards for their positive attitude, perseverance in learning, courage and ability to embrace change. Our Action Girls received an Award and we also introduced the new Action Girl badges which the girls wore with pride. 

Congratulations to the following Action Girls:

Year 5 Action Girls:
Maria Khoury
Ola Kochman 
Scarlett Matheson
Natalie Muratore

Year 6 Action Girls:
Charlotte Don
Annamarie El Hachem
Amelia Jabbour
Madison Taouk

Caritas fundraising

Lent is a time when we endeavour to become closer to God. It is a time when we FAST – PRAY – GIVE ALMS. This term the Gioia House students will be invited to take part in fundraising to raise money for Caritas who provide support and resources for communities and people who are less fortunate than ourselves.

We have asked the students to use some of their saved money, or canteen allowance etc. to donate to some of our Caritas fundraising initiatives. 

• Egg jar guessing competition: 50c per guess and the winner will win the jar of chocolate easter eggs
• Bake Sale 21 March 2023: If possible, students are encouraged to bring in some cupcakes or treat bags to sell (please only package the cupcakes/treats in disposable packaging).

Easter Hampers: We ask all families to bring in one easter egg/easter craft/bowl etc. to create hampers which will be part of our end-of-term raffle. Raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each or six tickets for $5.

Safe on socials

The use of technology, text messaging and social media apps can be a difficult thing to teach and navigate with our children. There are many useful websites for parents which provide tips to support their children during the ‘tween’ stage. The students also take part in an eSafety program at school to provide opportunities for students to be aware of their own digital citizenship responsibilities and how to be safe online. This term the Gioia House students will discuss and learn more about their digital footprint, being a safe online community member, cyberbullying and how to deal with online issues which may arise.

As a parent, it is highly recommended to regularly check your children’s devices, what messages they are sending, what replies they are receiving, who have they befriended in different online games etc. It is important to be proactive and guide our children during this online learning phase and maintain positive open communication, especially if your child experiences something they need to report or share with an adult.

The eSafety Commissioner regularly provides free online webinars to give parents information and strategies that can help us guide our children when using online platforms. Go to this website to register: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

Year 5 Interaction Day

We are looking forward to having our Year 5 Interaction Day on Friday 10 March. The Year 5 students will be taking part in a variety of team-building activities, team sports and be provided with opportunities to connect with new students and form new friendships. The Year 5 students are to come to school in their school sports uniform/hat and all activities will take part within the regular school day.

Marisa Maks
Assistant Head of Gioia House

POLAR BEAR ADAPTATION  

In Science, Year 6 students are learning about animal adaptations. Students are exploring the growth and survival of living things and how their adaptations evolve in their habitat and environment.

This week the experiment was exploring how polar bears survive in their habitat, in an icy cold environment. Students created a glove with copha to mimic the polar bear’s thick layer of skin and placed it in ice-cold water. Students were surprised at how the fat layer created insulation against the cold ice water.

Year 6 Taylor

HABITAT AND ADAPTATION – GROWING SEEDS

In Science, Year 6 has been examining how the environment affects the growth, survival and adaptation of living things. They recently focused on how plants respond when the amount of sunlight or water is altered. Each group was required to test the abiotic conditions for growing alfalfa seeds, using one of the following independent variables: Standard, Too dry, Too wet, Too cold, Too hot, Too salty, Too dark.

The girls monitored and cared for their plants each day, over a two-week period. They logged their observations and data, and evaluated their investigations.

The experiment informs the next steps in student learning, where students identify authentic examples of plant adaptations to their habitat.

Eamonn Dunphy
Teacher

FIRST CHAPTER FRIDAY

First Chapter Friday is a new activity for us this year. Each week, a student gets to have the opportunity to choose a book to read. Reading the first chapter of a student’s book request is like having a sneak peek into a new adventure. So far this term, we have read the first chapter of Matilda, Alice Miranda in New York, The Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. So far the class has been enjoying the first chapters. We will continue to do this throughout the year.

Georgia Magri and Lucinda Oong
Year 6

YEAR 5 VISITS THE COLLEGE MUSEUM 

The students in Year 5 had the opportunity to visit the school museum and examine some of the artefacts to learn about the history of the school and how this connects to its identity. 

Some new understandings I had were that I didn’t know there used to only be four colour houses and that the uniform used to be blue. 

Georgia

What stood out for me were the old desks and the old report forms. 

Amanda

What stood out for me were the old mass and hymn book, the many crowns worn by St Dominic, the recount of a school day in the past and the old report booklet. 

Annabelle

I wonder if there will be any pictures of my friends and me in the museum one day.

Ines

Year 5 Interdisciplinary Unit

Year 5 Kostakis completed a task called ‘Who am I’ as part of the integrated Unit of Inquiry, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’. Through this learning experience students explored their own identity and were able to understand themselves and their place within to develop a strong sense of self.

Year 5 Religious Education

During the Religious Education unit ‘Our Sacred Scripture’, students in 5 Williams have been creating prayer services for the remainder of the class to be involved in. Students were able to show their understanding of showing reverence to the scriptures and enjoyed working collaboratively during this time.

Creative Experience Co-curricular 

Creative Experience is back!  We have so much fun in the art club, and do so many activities. One week it’s photography, the next is drawing the cutest chibi characters! Art club is really fun because it allows you to bring your imagination to life in an art form. We get to learn lots of amazing drawing tips.

Alicia BouAntoun and Olivia Hone

Religious Education

Ash Wednesday

Holy God, you are good and loving.

As we celebrate Ash Wednesday,

we pray that during this time of Lent.

we will try to turn our hearts in love and kindness to you,

by doing good to those around us,

so, that we may become more like Jesus, your Son.

We make our prayer in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

On Wednesday 22 February the Del Monte students participated in a liturgy to mark Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday begins our 40-day season of Lent that leads to Easter. On Ash Wednesday, we come together like the people of the Old Testament to remind ourselves that we don’t always follow God’s ways and need to ask God for His mercy and forgiveness. Like God’s people in the time of the prophets, we wear ashes to show that we want to turn away from whatever keeps us from God, and to have a change of heart, so that we can live in right relationship with God and each other. 

Ash Wednesday also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. 

The theme of Project Compassion 2023 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good that we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues. We are encouraged to put our compassion into action this Lent through our prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Each family will receive a Project Compassion box for their donations, or you can donate online via the Caritas Australia website at: lent.caritas.org.au

Opening School Mass and Commissioning Mass of our Year 4 Leaders

On Tuesday 28 February, the Del Monte campus celebrated our Opening School Mass and Commissioning Mass of the Year 4 Leaders. This Liturgy was celebrated by Father John Hayes and attended by many of our parents. The celebration concluded with the Kinder students dancing on St Dominic’s Plot. This tradition begins their Santa Sabina journey. 

Kindness counts

This year our at Del Monte theme is showing Kindness. We believe that every day can be a random acts of kindness day. Kindness is one of the easier skills to understand and make a part of our daily lives. Even a genuine smile counts! What will kindness do for my child? Doing good is not only beneficial for the person on the receiving end and those who witness the kind action, but also for the givers of kindness. When we are kind and intentionally perform acts of kindness, we get a boost in our own wellbeing and happiness. It feels good to help others and it helps us focus on the positive things in our lives.

Here are some photos of our children showing kindness.

Tina Nicotina
Religious Education Coordinator and Year 3 teacher

Primary Curriculum

Intentional, explicit and scaffolded

We plan for and provide differentiated support for new learning, skills and understanding. 

The Gradual Release of Responsibility (hereafter, GRR) is a model of instruction in which the teacher is responsible for designing learning experiences that moves the learner from a state of dependence on the teacher’s direct instruction to a phase in which students are able to perform a task independently. 

Pearson and Gallagher (1983) describe it as an instructional framework which purposefully shifts the cognitive load from teacher-as-model, to joint responsibility of teacher and learner, to independent practice and application by the learner. During this application phase students engage in the inquiry process. 

During the inquiry process students participate and become actively involved in the learning through investigating, questioning and collaborating with peers and the teacher. Students are exposed to a diverse range of teaching and learning materials to enhance the inquiry experiences. 

During this inquiry process the teacher monitors the ability of students to apply previously taught skills, scaffolds the learning, and assesses individual students through collaboration. 

Additionally, it is learner focused by the fact that we recognise that learners have different starting points and that learning is a highly individual process. We balance child-led and teacher-led learning in flexible ways. Through providing a diverse range of teaching and learning experiences students are able to engage in exploring, examining, inquiring, questioning, problem solving, investigating and discovering content across all key learning areas.  

Below are some examples of Term 1 focus areas: 

• Prep: Discovering how they belong in the different learning environments and delving into how to be a member a group  
• Kindergarten: Exploring living and non-living things: how different things get the cup  
• Year 1: Investigating descriptions of characters in high quality literature texts 
• Year 2: Exploring how to represent multiplication in different ways
• Year 3: Examining sophisticated language to enhance their imaginative and persuasive writing 
• Year 4: Inquiring about exemplary leaders in our school community  

Reneé Andrews
Instructional Leader Primary Years

Kindergarten dancing on Dom’s Plot

On Tuesday 28 February, the Kindergarten students were invited to dance on Dom’s Plot, following the Commissioning of the Del Monte Leaders Mass. This is a long-standing tradition at Santa Sabina, which was originally initiated with the Year 12 girls dancing on Dom’s Plot, and was later extended to the Year 4 boys. In recent years, Kindergarten students were invited to join this special tradition, to mark the beginning of their schooling at Santa Sabina College. The students cheerfully danced to the ‘Hokey Pokey’, and were joined by Ms Skerman and Ms Giannini. 

Both Ms Skerman and Ms Giannini did a wonderful job keeping up with the Kindergarten students’ groovy dance moves. Towards the end, Casper was spotted looking down from Ms Skerman’s balcony. He was eager to greet the students and join in the fun too. One Kindergarten student exclaimed, ‘This was the best day ever! We got to walk on the special grass, and see Casper, in one day!’ The students look forward to their next dance in Year 4 or Year 12. Perhaps they might dance to the ‘Hokey Pokey’ again…

Rebecca Saba
Kindergarten Teacher

Swimming Carnival

The 2023 swimming carnival was a fantastic day showcasing so much House spirit and talent. Here is what the House Captains had to say!

Kurrawa’s commitment to House spirit and putting themselves out there really shone through this year. We all had such a great time going ‘Kurrawa Undercover’, dressing up and cheering on our housemates regardless of whether they were participating in the novelties or the championships. 

Mundawora students were very enthusiastic throughout the day, cheering loudly in their amazing ‘Munda the Sea’ costumes. We were very proud to see how positive everyone was, uplifting each other and encouraging participation both in the pool and up in the stands for our cheers. 

We were so excited to see so many students challenging themselves and participating in championship and novelty events. Gunagulla went above and beyond in embracing this year’s theme ’Giddy up Guna’, and it was amazing to see the creativity of their outfits and the support they gave each other on the day.

We are so proud to have seen excellent House spirit and engagement from every student in Yetinga house. They were all dressed up for our theme, ‘red royals’, and they earned the title of Kings and Queens of the pool with their fantastic participation, cheering and enthusiasm. Above all, we are so happy with how they supported each other on the day!

In Teangi House we pride ourselves on team spirit and it was definitely apparent on the day, with students participating in multiple events and engaging in all of the cheers to support members of our House. Teangi adopted the theme, ‘Teangi tea party’, with great enthusiasm and it was great to see students get behind the theme.

It was great to see from the Del Monte students all the way up to the Year 12s such incredible House spirit and participation in the pool and in the stands. Our theme, ‘Weelya Wham,’ was a throwback to the ’80s, where our ‘winning winning winning’ attitude shone through. 

Lily Carr
Sports Prefect

Artistic Director

Elective Music Students attend ENCORE – Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Here are some of our students’ reflections on the recent concert showcasing the best 2022 HSC Music performances across NSW.

The Encore concert was a good experience and provided insight into all the different pieces people can perform for their HSC. I enjoyed the performance by the jazz band (guitar, saxophone, drums, keyboard) which heavily featured the Bass Guitar because the saxophone parts were very cool. The saxophone performance was also exciting because I hadn’t played or heard a piece like that before. I also found the jazz/blues piano enjoyable because it was different from what other people performed and reminded me of elevator music. Overall the night had many different and enjoyable performances, which were all amazing.
Monica Zhou
Year 10 Music Elective 

I was very grateful that I was invited to the great Encore concert. I liked the jazz song with the piano, I had never played a jazz song, so when I listened, it made me want to play jazz. There are differences between Australian and Japanese concerts; the audience’s cheering was great for me. The Opera House is an exceptional place, so during my stay, it is the second time I’ve been to the Opera House, so I feel lucky for the chance to go again. Thank you!
Miu Odagiri
Year 10 Japanese Exchange Student 

The Encore concert was a great experience, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I had a great time, and watching all of the performers was very insightful. I specifically liked some of the vocal pieces and was amazed at the sheer talent displayed by the performers. For example, the song ‘Run Away With Me’ created by Kerrigan-Lowdermilk, was incredibly moving for me. I liked how the performer sounded. The performer’s tone and vocal colour impressed me, and his performance stuck with me.
Grace Benedict
Year 10 Music Elective 

I was very inspired after seeing the 2022 Encore Showcase. The performances were varied, and all performers played well. They had put a lot of effort into their preparation and made me want to be on that stage too. I enjoyed the string performances, and I was moved by their musical expression! 
Minori Yoshimura
Year 10 Elective Music 

On 27 February, I was able to experience last year’s top HSC music students performing at the Sydney Opera House. The performances comprised various music genres, including classical, rock, jazz and Musical Theatre. These performances included either compositions or student performances. An MLC student had her composition as a double bass player using an exciting technique of slapping the body of her instrument while playing with her mates. This gave me an idea of how to compose my piece when I do the HSC, such as using a wide variety of creativity with sound and a wacky sense of playing the instrument. The student compositions were the most helpful as they inspired me in what I should be expected to write/compose in Year 12. Overall, I enjoyed all the performances, but I wish I could’ve been able to experience Santa Sabina students’ performance. It was a beneficial concert.
Shea Oh
Year 10 Elective Music 

The performances varied from jazz and classical and were incredible. I found that there are not many ‘standard’  instruments. I enjoyed the performances involving the drum, bass guitar, and singers. One of my favourite performances was by Joshua B, who played a duet on a drum kit with a bass guitar. The performance sounded like it was meant to be at a rock concert. The bass and drum kit fit well and created an exciting performance.
Sophia Wong
Year 10 Music Elective 

I enjoyed the jazz performances and there were a lot of outstanding percussion performances. Some of my favourite songs were; Birdlike, performed by Fredrick Stafford, Taylor Hawkins, Tribute Duet (Hawkins/Grohl) performed by Joshua Blythe, and Couldn’t Stand the Weather, performed by Ethan Cochran. I like how all the drummer performers were very invested and enjoying the performance; they were clearly into it. The second act was not as good as the first one. All of the performers were very skilful.
Hannah Gaul
Year 10 Elective Music

The Encore performances had an extensive range of styles, and I enjoyed hearing the variety!  The marimba item, ‘Violet’s Etude’, had a beautiful ethereal feel, which I liked, and the student was incredibly skilled. I also really enjoyed the performance of the ‘Taylor Hawkins Tribute Duet’ performance, as the performer had a lot of energy, and it was a great performance to watch and listen to. As someone who plays the piano, I found it interesting to watch the performance of ‘Birdlike’ as it was great to see a different style of the piano being performed; this inspired me!
Kavitha Vatatharajan
Year 10 Elective Music

Gioia House Mini Maestros Instrumental Program

Our Mini Maestros program is underway, with students playing a percussion, brass or woodwind instrument. They are in full swing, with Yr 5 playing together as a band only after four weeks of playing. This, of course, is only half of the year group. The other half is playing a stringed instrument next door!

Consort 8 – a concert in the Santa Sabina Chapel on Saturday 1 April

Consort 8 and Mr Tim Chung (countertenor) will perform a beautiful and reflective concert of Lent and Easter music in the Chapel on Saturday 1 April 5:30pm – 7:00pm.

Consort 8 is one of the College’s musical professional partners and is Sydney’s unique early music group. The Santa Chamber Choir performed with Consort 8 last December in their annual Christmas Concert.

All Santa students and parents are welcome to this concert – entry is free for Santa Sabina families.

For more information please visit: https://consort8.org/

Timothy Chung
Artistic Director

Careers Spotlight

Term 1 is well under way and students have engaged in the Careers Program through regular careers interviews, pattern of study discussions, connecting with tertiary partners and the Year 10 careers profiling process.

Year 12 key dates

Recently, Year 12 had a cohort meeting providing them with an overview of the year ahead with key dates and considerations mapped out for each term as shown in the table below. This is a helpful way to plan for the year ahead and keep a record of important dates and months for university applications. Some dates are yet to be confirmed for this year and as that information becomes available, it will be shared with Year 12. Students in Year 12 were encouraged to use Term 1 and 2 to explore a variety of career options and get involved in a range of co-curricular, service and social justice activities to bolster their applications for next year.

Year 10 careers profiling

As part of our program to support our senior students across the final three years of schooling, our students learn about themselves as learners, consider senior study options and plan for career options. One of the first steps in this process is the careers profiling testing and interviews that are presently happening with Year 10.

We engage the company Career Avenues to develop profiles for our students. The Career Avenues Profile aims to help students understand their personality, strengths, skills and interests, to help identify potentially compatible career ideas to research.

The Careers Avenue profile has five elements:

• Personality Profile
• Reasoning Strengths
• Transferable Skills
• Career Interest Profile
• Career Ideas

The reasoning strengths test reasoning skills in different areas, gives reassurance for different careers and promotes students to focus on their strengths. The components of the reasoning test are:

ABSTRACT REASONING

• Speed of learning
• Agility in problem solving
• Conceptual vs applied tasks
• Adaptability
• Flexibility

Important to careers involving ongoing problem solving e.g. pilot, diagnostic physician, systems analyst.

VERBAL REASONING

• understand complex English
• think and reason using words
• follow verbal arguments & logic

Useful for law, journalism, psychology and other areas.

NUMERICAL REASONING

• reason using numbers
• ability to solve problems using numbers
• to perform arithmetic tasks

Important for careers such as computer science, engineering, statistics, trades and others.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

• routine task comparing pairs of words and pairs of numbers
• speed and accuracy of processing

Important for office, administration, air traffic control, trades, building and accounting type roles.

PHYSICAL REASONING

• assesses interest and understanding of the world we live in
• understanding the principles of physical and mechanical forces
• operation of mechanical devices

Important for a variety of careers such as environmental science, engineering, some design areas, health sciences, building and other skill-based careers.

SPATIAL REASONING

• ability to visualise and manipulate objects in three dimensions
• to imagine a 3D object from a 2D plan

Important in design careers, engineering, architecture, fashion design, trades and visual careers

Congratulations to Year 10 for completing the first stage of the careers profiling process this week. In May, they will engage in a 30-minute 1:1 interview to unpack their profile and discuss career options with a qualified careers consultant from Career Avenues. This will assist them as they move into the course and subject selection process for their senior study later this year.

Connecting students with tertiary and industry partners

One of the many joys of my job is connecting students with relevant tertiary and industry partners to give them greater exposure to their desired career and explore different pathways to reaching their career goals. Below is a reflection from Year 12 student Olivia Churchland who recently attended a Nurturing Aviation Day hosted by Sydney Flight College. Below is her reflection on the experience:

On 25 February I attended the Nurturing Aviation Day held at Sydney Flight College. This was an enriching experience with speakers such as Matt Hall – reigning world champion Red Bull air racer and former Royal Australian Air Force top gun fighter pilot, and representatives from the Australian Women’s Pilots Association including president Barbara Trappett who discussed the continuing ‘Matt Hall Racing Part Scholarship’ and their new ‘Women in Aviation Part Scholarship’ respectively.

I felt so inspired through this experience particularly as a female entering a male-dominated industry and was moved by the encouraging words of the speakers. Sydney Flight College also announced their new goal is to have 25% of each cohort female students by 2025. This goal allows more women to work towards their aviation dreams.

The College also offered an optional 15-minute trial flight for a fee which I participated in. I had the opportunity to fly an Archer TX aircraft, and with no flight experience took off and flew for 15 minutes with very close supervision and support. Participating in this Aviation Day, I learnt a lot about flying and the plane used for the trial flight and in training students at the College as well as the double diploma program offered at the College. I would highly encourage any young aspiring pilots to participate in a trial flight as it is the best experience for someone who is considering this career option. I am so excited to embark on this journey in 2024 and could not recommend this open day more highly to young women looking to pursue this career path. Thank you to Ms Guirguis for providing me with an alternative pathway to becoming a pilot that I otherwise would not have considered as an option. As a result of this day, I am more certain of my career path for 2024 and look forward to submitting an application with the College this year.

Olivia Churchland
Year 12

Upcoming careers events

Please have a look at the following link for information on upcoming careers events and opportunities.

I encourage students to get in touch if they would like any further information on these events or any specific careers guidance around their interests and aspirations.

Eva Guirguis
Head of Future Pathways & Partnerships

Sports Update

College sport achievements

After a quick turn around from the 3-12 College Swimming Carnival, a primary representative swim team competed on Wednesday 1 March at the Conference 2 Zone D Swimming Championships. Students on the day were vying for selection to swim at the Sydney Catholic Schools Championships later this month.

The Santa Sabina Conference 2 Swimming Team included:

There were not many instances where a Santa Sabina student was not being called over the loudspeaker to come and collect a ribbon from the results table. A total of 15 Santa Sabina students have progressed to the Sydney Championships.

We also congratulate the students listed below who have had success in a number of sports through the Catholic Schools Sporting Pathways:

Ashley Duigenan – selected in the MacKillop Tennis team
Faith Ata – selected in the Sydney Catholic Schools Rugby League team
Isabelle Middleton – selected in the Sydney Catholic Schools Hockey team
Ava Sinnot – selected in the Conference 2 Football team
Emma Elphick – selected in the Conference 2 Football team
Alessandra Ronsisvalle – selected in the Conference 2 Football team
Raquel Calandra – selected in the CGSSSA Touch Football team
Annika Ingwersen – 6th place NSW All Schools Triathlon Championships

Saturday Sports Updates – Term 1 Competitions

It has been a joy to watch our students representing Santa on the courts, fields and the swimming pool as part of the Saturday Sports offers.

The levels of engagement have been amazing and each week we can see the enjoyment and development during the IPSHA (Junior School) Soccer, Water Polo and Flippaball competitions and the IGSA (Senior School) Touch Football, Tennis and Water Polo competitions.

Please note that for games played at Santa Sabina there is a strict NO DOG onsite policy. We would love to see all parents from all participant schools adhering to this guideline for the safety of all involved in the facilitation of the competitions.

Term 2 IGSA and IPSHA sport trials

During this term, there will be trials for the following IPSHA and IGSA sports. These trial sessions are compulsory to attend as we will be grading and placing each student into a team. If your child is unable to attend any of the trial dates for their chosen sport, please email sport@ssc.nsw.edu.au asap.

IGSA Hockey (Years 7-12): Thursday 9 March 3:30pm-5:00pm
IPSHA Hockey (Years 3-6): Saturday 1 April  8:00am-9:30am
IGSA Football (Years 7-12): TBA
IGSA Basketball (Years 7-12): TBA

Interschools Snow Sports K-12 – Term 2 holidays

Thank you to those who filled in the expression of interest form. We will be in contact with you in the coming days. If you missed out on filling in the form or want more information on the event, please email sport@ssc.nsw.edu.au

NSWCCC Hockey Championships – Bathurst

Santa Sabina will enter 1 Open (Y7-12) team into the NSWCCC Championships in Bathurst on 16 and 17 May. If you wish to trial for the Hockey team, and represent the College, please fill in the expression of interest form by Friday 24 March.

Selected students will stay over in Bathurst on Tuesday evening and the Championships are a student-paid opportunity. Trials will be held on a date TBC after registrations close.

CGSSSA Football Championships

The CGSSSA Football Championships will be held on Wednesday 10 May (Term 2, Week 3).

Santa Sabina will enter a Junior and Opens team (Y7-12). If you would like to attend trials for the teams, please complete the expression of interest form by Thursday 16 March.

Trials will be held on a date TBC, in Week 8 of Term 1.

Regional OzTag Championships

Santa Sabina will enter teams (Y7-12) into the NSW Regional OzTag Championships on Tuesday May 23. Please complete the expression of interest form by Friday 17 March if you would like to trial for one of the teams.

Further information will be shared to those who express their interest.

Rachael Simmons
Assistant Director of Sports and Co-curricular Activities 
Debating and Public Speaking Coordinator

Re-introducing George Ayoub, Director of Development

Staff Story

Our new Director of Development, George Ayoub, is bringing fresh ideas to his vital new position which is helping to move the College forward. As Director of Development, his job is to build relationships and raise funds to bring much-needed projects to fruition. These projects will provide facilities and scholarships for current and future generations of Santa Sabina students.

For the last seven years George has been our popular Director of Sport and Co-curricular Activities. His change to the field of development is new for us but not new for him – in the past he was, for five years, the Director of Development at Trinity School, setting up their fundraising program from scratch. His top achievement there was raising enough funds to build an underground pool and new gymnasium.

Revitalising Santa Sabina’s annual appeal is George’s first ‘target’ for 2023. ‘Our whole community should be supporting the College for their sons and daughters’, he says.

‘My job is to connect with the whole community and encourage everyone to engage in some way, whatever is possible for them individually’.

Apart from the Veritas Annual Appeal and raising funds for scholarships, he also has his sights set on several longer term projects: a covered outdoor learning space on the Primary Campus, improvements to our swimming pool, and ultimately an extensive new sports precinct with state-of-the-art facilities.

He has been delighted to find that our culture of giving is already strong – ex-students have been providing generously for scholarships for several years. Business sponsorship is a new avenue George is also looking at for future support.

George’s background is as a teacher of History and English and he continues this aspect of his career in 2023 as a teacher of the IB subject in Year 11, Theory of Knowledge.

‘This is a great subject which encompasses all disciplines and where we get to discuss things happening in the world’, he says.

‘Our lessons are very much discussion based – students lead, the teacher leads – either way it’s a very good way of gaining knowledge.’

Well known to many of us is George’s career in Rugby which has punctuated his teaching career and involved high profile professional work for Rugby Australia and Japan Rugby. He was Australia’s top TMO – Television Match Official – also known as the video referee. Prior to this he was the Rugby NSW Referees Manager.

Already well-connected in our community, George is the husband and father of Santa Sabina students (Barbara Ryan, Class of 1980 and Olivia Ayoub, Class of 2020) and he has a long history with our families having grown up locally, attending St Patrick’s College and remaining in the Strathfield community to bring up his own family.

When not at work, George works daily on his fitness, watches Rugby (of course) and is also a volunteer surf lifesaver, rostered every three weeks on a beach on NSW’s Central Coast. In a surprising escape from his sporting interests, George recently completed a Master’s in International Security, focused on cyber security and counter terrorism, which we hope will never been needed! 

Advancing the interests of our students and community is always at the forefront of George’s mind – give him a call on 9745 0232 if you would like to help him provide the best we can for our students.

Victoria Harper
Publications and Marketing Officer

Santa Sabina College Business Directory

The College, led by our Principal Ms Skerman, has embarked on a Master Plan that will set the direction of the College for the next 20 years. The Master Plan encompasses both the physical footprint of the College as well as the teaching and learning environment now and into the future.

The role of the Development office is to support the Principal, executive, staff and students to enable us to meet the many initiatives planned for Santa Sabina College in the near future. 

The College would like to offer our families and others in our community the opportunity to promote your business, company, firm or service to reach a wide College community audience. For our professionals, business owners and service providers the College business directory will provide and build a sense of community, promote your business, company, firm or service to our families and also support the College as it pursues our strategic goals to provide a quality education for our students from pre-school right through to our Year 12 students.

For nearly 130 years Santa Sabina College has been a leading Catholic education institution providing for many thousands of students who have passed through our corridors. The opportunity to be educated at Santa Sabina College provides our students with a great head start in life but this is only possible through the wonderful support of our community over many, many years.

Rationale

The Santa Sabina College Business Directory would allow the Santa Sabina community, parents, ex-students and supporters of the College the opportunity to advertise their business, service, firm or trade to our community allowing you greater potential for growth while supporting our College.

Goal

To sell as many advertising spaces as possible to members of our community and beyond, to generate funds, provide a service to our community and to create an information hub for all in our community.

Benefits of the Business Directory

There are many benefits of advertising your business on the College directory.

1. Amplify your presence.
2. Improve your local visibility.
3. Get discovered more.
4. Increase brand awareness.
5. Strengthen your business reputation.
6. It’s a cheap way to advertise.

Process

To advertise your company, business, firm or trade on our Business Directory simply complete the form.

For a small fee this directory will become a valuable resource and we hope will grow to assist both your business, service, firm or trade and our community. We hope that you will find this a very worthwhile opportunity to display your logo and business information with us for the benefit of all in our community.

12 months advertising = $300.00
2 years advertising = $500.00
3 years advertising = $600.00

Please provide as much information as possible. You will then be sent an invoice to pay for the advertising on our website and portal once we have all your information.

If you would like to know more or to register your interest to be involved in this exciting initiative feel free to contact me on 97450232 or giving@ssc.nsw.edu.au.

George Ayoub
Director of Development

Uniform shop holiday trading hours

The Santa Sabina College Uniform Store will close for the Easter break on Wednesday 5 April at 4:00pm.

Winter Fitting appointments are open from 13 March 2023. Appointments can be made here.

Please use the link to make your appointment at  https://midford.as.me/SantaSabinaCollege or to make an online purchase. www.midford.com.au Online Pass Phrase SS1894

Online Orders are packed every day while the Uniform Shop is open and may be collected by students and parents throughout the day.

Please note the Uniform Shop does not accept cash. All major credit cards/eftpos accepted instore.

Please contact the Uniform Shop by telephone 9745 7045 or email santa.sabina@midford.com.au.

International Women’s Day with Burwood Council

On Wednesday 8 March, 11 of our Year 8 and 9 students participated in an International Women’s Day event with Burwood Council at Burwood library. They were accompanied by Ms Julia El-Azzi. 

This event was held in conjunction with Days for Girls and its purpose was to help advance menstrual equity, health, dignity and opportunity for all. Santa Sabina joined students from local schools and the Days for Girls volunteers for an inspiring information session and some community sewing.

Amelia Woods and Alexis Gittani from Year 8 attended and reflected on this experience:

Going to the IWD Days for Girls event with Burwood Council was a great experience that I was very lucky to be involved in. I learnt so much from the volunteers and really enjoyed seeing the process of making all of their products , hearing more about what they do and meeting council members at the morning tea. Going to this event has made me feel inspired to use my sewing skills to volunteer for the charity and spread awareness about the cause. 

Amelia Woods, Year 8

We got to meet Barbara and Rebecca, volunteers who are passionate about helping women and girls all around the world to have access to period products. When someone is menstruating , they miss out on a week of school, just because they can’t control their period. Instead, they stay in a separate place, namely, in huts. Due to it being unsanitary, five girls on average die per year, because of the unsanitary conditions. Days for Girls is a not-for-profit organisation that provides reusable period products to places that cannot access other products. They meet once a month and sew the different items. It was so great being able to talk to the different women about why they help and how they do it. This is an amazing initiative that has helped hundreds of girls over the past 15 years. This is very inspirational and reminds us how lucky we are to have access to these sanitary products.

Alexis Gittani, Year 8

Melanie van der Meer
Deputy Principal Mission and Pastoral Care

Help us support fairtrade, slave-free chocolate for Easter

Being in this group and advocating for social justice within the wider community has been such a rewarding experience for everybody involved.

During my primary school years the issues of slave labour and human trafficking were brought to my attention, and with help from adults around me I was involved in parish-based initiatives aimed towards raising awareness for these topics.

Our social justice committee has decided that during this Easter season we would like to start educating students and families on the damaging effect we are unintentionally having on the lives of many slaves, especially children. We intend to speak at every House’s House meetings during the upcoming weeks, explaining how we can promote and support fairtrade, slave-free chocolate this Easter, and more fun initiatives planned for later in the term.

Some of the members of our group will be giving a presentation, preceding a kahoot with a fairtrade chocolate prize. We hope to see everybody getting involved and becoming aware of this consistent and harmful issue in the world.

Isabelle Law
Year 10

Raffle for Caritas

Prizes: 

• Ladies bike
• Bike for ages 4+ 
• Bike 3-5 years 
• Batman skateboard
• Two backyard cricket sets [timber] 
• Huge tonka truck 
• Rugby ball 
• Foot spa 
• $100 Eftpos voucher 

Cost: $2 each or three for $5. 

Sold: in the piazza at lunchtimes on the Santa Campus and on Mondays and Thursdays at Del Monte until the end of term.

Prizes are on display in the library.

Jane Sulis
Outreach Coordinator

Clean up Schools Day

For over 30 years, Australians have come together to participate in the nation’s largest community-based environmental event, Clean Up Australia Day. 

Our College has been involved in this event for many years now and to extend our support this year, members of the student environment committee spent their lunch time on 3 March picking up rubbish around the Strathfield commercial precinct. In the short time that the girls were there, it was surprising to see how much waste they managed to remove from the public gardens and community spaces.

Our environment leader, Rosanna Cartwright, also encouraged members of the College community to join a clean-up event in their neighbourhood on the official clean-up day. While Australia’s environmental challenges cannot be solved in one day, this event plays an important role in continuing to raise awareness and encourage people to take action in their local area and see firsthand the impact of many individuals acting together to address this pressing issue. Well done and thank you to all those who participated in this event.

Kate Corcoran
Action Research Coordinator and Teacher of Social Science

Music does not stop after Santa Sabina!

Two recent graduates, Sophia Juarez (School Captain 2021) and Caitlin Murphy (2020), have continued to play their violin after school to a very high level as a part of our Professional Partner, The Sydney Youth Orchestras. Recently they were both involved in a special new program between The Sydney Youth Orchestras and The Sydney Opera House where musicians introduce instruments of the orchestra to young people with accessibility and access needs.

Sophia is studying Arts Law at Sydney University and Caitlin is studying Software Engineering at UTS.

James Pensini
Head of Music Performance P-12
Head of Orchestral Training and Community Engagement – Sydney Youth Orchestras

From the P&F Association

Mid Term 1 update

We are midway through Term 1 and the P&F Community continues to buzz with activity.  

The first P&F General Meeting for 2023 was held on 13 February. It was great seeing a large number of parents attending the session, interacting, and hearing about what’s planned for 2023. We also like to thank Luiz Ramalho (Director of Sport and Co-curricular Activities) for presenting his vision for sports and activities at the College.

The interaction continues with many Year Group parent catch-ups being planned. Invitations to the catch-ups have been sent from your year parent representatives via the P&F WhatsApp and from the school via email. We encourage all parents to attend as this is a wonderful opportunity to meet other parents and reconnect with friends.

If you don’t have access to your P&F WhatsApp Year Group, please reach out to your parent year representatives or complete the online form to ‘Join Groups’ on Veritas Online.

Other activities

• We were excited to celebrate International Women’s Day 2023 with a Dinner on 8 March at Le Montage.
• The P&F will be assisting the College with the Discovery Tours on 10 March – showcasing College for future parents and students

Joseph Gittani
P&F President

Mother’s Day Volunteers needed

The P&F will be organising the annual Mother’s Day stall on Tuesday 9 May 2023. The stall allows students from Mary Bailey House, Primary Years and Gioia House the opportunity to purchase gifts for their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, carers and/or any special mother figure in their lives. 

We are looking for volunteers to help with Mother’s Day gift wrapping. This will take place in the Del Monte Hall from 8:30am to 1:00pm, Tuesday 28 March. This is a great opportunity to mingle with other carers in our community whilst wrapping gifts for the stall. Morning tea and lunch will be provided so if you can spare an hour, two hours or the whole day we would love to see you! We cannot run these events for the students without the highly valued support of our community. If you are able to volunteer in any way please fill out the below Google form by Friday 24 March.

For any queries please contact Houda Taouk – 0406 711 664.

We thank you for your support – volunteer here.

Marie Gebrael, Houda Taouk and Meaghan Aldridge-Chow
The Mother’s Day stall committee 2023 

Equality and Equity… For All

Parent education from Deb Brodowski

Wednesday 8 March is International Women’s Day. It’s a global day that focuses on the women’s rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, and other social issues surrounding women.

The theme for International Women’s Day for 2023 is ‘Embrace Equity’. This is such an important message for our young people, not only for International Women’s Day, but also as a community; of Santa Sabina, of Dominican values, for all.

Embracing equity is a means of creating a world where this is equality for all. Why is this important for our young people? Equity recognises that some people are less fortunate and are not in the same ‘starting position’ as others; this could be because of historical and social disadvantages some groups face. Helping create equity can be a wonderful stepping stone for creating equality in our community.

How do we foster equity with our young people? A key skill we can help foster is to acknowledge and address our unconscious biases.

Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that we form at an unconscious level. It is not in our control, as it happens automatically. It is usually triggered by our brain making a quick judgment on someone. We all have certain unconscious beliefs about different kinds of people and groups that they belong to. This is because our brain needs to process so much information so quickly; it tries to form short cuts.

Unconscious biases can be unhelpful as they can exclude others, unfairly judge others, and therefore do harm to others. By helping address our unconscious biases with our young people at a young age, we can help create a more equitable world. One well-researched way we can do this is through the SELF-model of addressing unconscious biases:

Slow: Help your young person down their thinking especially when making important decisions. Being put under pressure or feeling anxious leads us to make quick and sometimes regrettable decisions.

Empathise: Teach your young person to empathise with others. Talk a proverbial walk in their shoes. How are they likely to be feeling?

Learn: With your young person, learn about different cultures. Learn about different traditions, norms and values of other cultures. Be curious rather than judgemental. This can help prevents making cultural faux pas.

Find evidence: Support your young person in finding evidence against stereotypes. Support them in being curious around breaking down stereotypes and being inclusive.

Santa Sabina College Ex-Students’ Association

International Women’s Day

What a wonderful evening celebrating women! The panel discussion was informative and inspiring. These women are leaders in their field, innovators, paving the way to a more gender-equal future. Thank you to the College, the Parents and Friends, our sponsors the Bank of Queensland and Belle Properties Drummoyne, and the Ex-Students’ committee particularly Michelle Civitarese whose dedication made sure the night was a success.

Elizabeth Pooley
President