Bulletin

Upcoming Events Reminder

Tuesday 19 February 6.30pm - P&F Meeting - in the LRC (library)

Dear Parents and Carers

On Monday evening the College facilitated the Year 12 Parent/Teacher/Student interviews.  These are such important occasions for our senior students to reflect on their learning, articulate their goals and receive feedback from their teachers.  The Year 12 teaching program is well underway with a whole term and an assessment cycle completed last year.  There was wonderful, constructive conversation taking place wherever I looked on Monday night and I am encouraged by the degree of commitment made by the students to make the best possible use of the remainder of the teaching time left in Year 12 (approximately 22 weeks).  I encourage our Year 12 students to be making very good use of the resources of our Career's Adviser and College Counsellor, to make sure they are working purposefully towards their tertiary targets and maintaining healthy habits of mind and body.

To help in the development of healthy habits, the P&F funded Mr Paul Dillon to speak to our Years 10, 11 and 12 students regarding the latest research on teenage use of drugs and alcohol, and how to keep themselves safe.  He was as always, exceptionally well received by the students, who admire Paul's authenticity and genuine care for their wellbeing.  Paul also spoke to a very appreciative audience of parents that same evening.  In my thank you at the end of the night, I said I thought that the allocation of resources for these seminars is the best money the P&F spent all year!  I do sincerely thank the P&F for the money they provide for student and parent education.

Another expression of the good work of the P&F was the hospitality provided to the parent community on Saturday evening at the 'Parent Welcome Cocktail Party'.  Held in the floodlit Caritas Christi Courtyard, the occasion provided opportunity for parents to renew and make new friendships.  The opportunity to meet and network is important as parents support their daughters throughout adolescence.  I hope to see you at the first P&F meeting of the year to be held in the library (LRC) at 6.30pm on Tuesday 19 February.

Uniform Shop

This week our contract with Ranier Design Ltd comes to a conclusion after 9 years with the College.  We thank them for their service to the College.  Our new supplier is Noone Image and we are excited to be working with this company who also supply our sister schools in Melbourne.  

In the transition period there will be no retail service in the week beginning 18 February.  Noone Image will open the St Vincent's on campus shop from 25 February at 8.00am.  Online ordering will be available from early March. 

Retail hours will be during term:

Monday 8.00am-2.00pm

Wednesday 12.00pm-5.00pm

Friday 8.00am-2.00pm.

Additional trading days will be advertised for the school holiday periods. 

Entry to the new uniform shop will be through the main gates/doors of the Garcia building on 1 Challis Avenue.

Mrs Anne Fry
Principal

Thank you to the many parents who were able to attend last week’s Parent presentation by Paul Dillon ‘Teenagers, alcohol and other drugs 2019: What’s happening, what’s out there and how much influence do parents really have?’  The feedback from both students and parents has been very positive, particularly Paul’s focus on affirming the healthy choices of adolescents and the wise choices of parents. Paul’s work with young people is one of risk minimisation by equipping them with accurate facts and empowering them with strategies for responsible actions to enhance the safety of each other’s lives. I encourage you to keep the dialogue going with your teenagers and with each other.

The Deputy Principals of many of the Eastern Suburbs schools have also come together over the past six months to share our strategies for preventative education to promote the safety and wellbeing of our students. We recognise that whilst our students’ daytime hours are within our individual school walls, their socialising is very mixed. We believe the opportunity for a united approach in sharing best practices and consistency of message could support both our students and our parents. Parents’ best resource is other parents when it comes to supervision of children at parties and gatherings after school hours. We are thus hosting a Parent Evening to open dialogue across schools. The event is called #afterthebell to be held at Waverley College on Wednesday evening 3 April. I will be there, as one of the leaders of our schools in partnership with you.  More details to come.

It was a joy to celebrate the Cater and De Lacy House Mass this morning with students, staff and many parents who were able to attend. Fr Darryl encouraged us to consider the planting and replanting we need to do to nurture our lives and that of others. Our students’ prayers reflected upon the inspiration of our pioneer women Sisters De Lacy and Cater who looked out to identify the poor and constantly sought new ways to respond to the needs they saw around them. I do encourage parents and carers of the other Houses to attend these House Masses where possible; it is an opportunity to be part of the community and experience liturgy with your daughter.

Year 7 parents and carers will be receiving a letter inviting you to book in for Meet the Tutor and Parent-teacher interviews. These conversations provide a significant opportunity for dialogue as we come to know your daughter and position ourselves for her care and learning. I encourage you to be present where possible at 3.15pm to meet your daughter’s Tutor teacher.  We do recognise work and family commitments may require some of you to make Parent Teacher bookings later in the afternoon.

Over the next two weeks we will be providing information about the upcoming Camps and Retreats Wednesday 3 - Friday 5 April.  These are compulsory learning experiences and I ask you place these dates in your calendars.  You will be informed of the staff member responsible for leading these for each Year Group in the letters that follow.

Mrs Elizabeth Brooks
Deputy Principal, Pastoral Care

This weekend the Years 7, 8 and 9 Boarders went for a weekend activity to Manly.  We learned about the importance of recycling and looking after the environment due to large amounts of litter being dumped in our ocean, which is impacting our marine life negatively.

We were all shocked with the amount of pollution and toxic waste that ends up in our water, we learned how urgent our ocean needs help and how we can improve our consumer culture by buying sustainably and cutting down things like plastic and converting to reusable things such as hard plastics, metal and tin which will positively affect our environment leaving less waste making the oceans safer for our marine life.

The ‘Beat the Bottle Volunteers’ were the people who spoke to us.  On the day they had Miss Earth and Miss Earth Runner-up endorsing their clean-up campaign.  I was in complete awe when they told us how much rubbish is left daily on the beach.  Inside the buckets which you can see Rosie and I holding, there are glass bottles, hard and soft plastics, metal, cigarette butts and pieces of glass, paper cups and straws. 

After the volunteers have sorted the rubbish into categories, they then weigh the amount of each category and then compile the statistics and inform major companies such as McDonalds by telling them how much their products such as paper cups and straws are affecting the beach environment and marine life.

By Montana Skuthorpe and Dakota Macourt

Yours in Boarding

MS MARYANNE O’DONOGHUE
DIRECTOR OF BOARDING

Last week I mentioned the feast day of St Josephine Bakhita, patron saint of those who are trafficked.  The prayer selected by my colleagues, Mrs Jo Anderson and Mrs Stefanie Matthews for staff prayer this week, brought home to me the wide range of people who fall victim to human trafficking. 

Prayer for an End to Human Trafficking

Oh God, we didn't see them.
But you did -
The hundreds and thousands of human beings
Trafficked each year to join the millions who are trapped in
modern-day slavery.
Under terrible conditions, they work in factories, plow fields,
harvest crops, work quarries, fill brothels, clean homes, and haul water.
Many are children with tiny fingers for weaving rugs
and small shoulders for bearing rifles.
Their labor is forced, their bodies beaten, their faces hidden
from those who don't really want to see them.
But you see them all, God of the poor.
You hear their cry and you answer
by opening our eyes, and breaking our hearts
and loosening our tongues to insist:
No mas. No more.

Amen

Mr Joseph Hekeik
Staff Scholarship 2018

Studying  Undergraduate Medicine

From 2019 onwards UCAT has now replaced UMAT as the admissions test for entry into medical, dental and clinical science degree programs in Australia and New Zealand.  The UCAT is a two hour computer-based test that will run throughout July 2019.  A link to a brochure which may be helpful for potential medicine students and their parents is here:   UCAT Handbook

University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is consistently ranked among Australia’s leading universities.  Applications for the Hansen Scholarship Program, the University of Melbourne’s new flagship equity scholarship opens on 1 March. Provided by benefactors Jane Hansen and Paul Little, the program brings together an unrivalled package of benefits for high-achieving domestic students who may otherwise struggle financially to access higher education.
Information sessions will be held in late February and early March - but candidates can get a headstart on their applications by previewing the application questions now and gathering the documents they will need to submit.  Students in regional, rural, and remote communities are particularly encouraged to apply.

MS HELEN MARSHALL
CAREERS ADVISER

Performing Arts students have already started learning challenging new skills in classes. To support their learning Dance, Drama and Music senior students are attending the NESA (previously the Board of Studies) shows that present exemplary student performance selected from the previous year’s HSC cohort.

Drama students attended Onstage at the Seymour Centre last Monday. Dance and Music will attend Callback and Encore in the upcoming days. These performances are an invaluable teaching tool as students can see live performances that highlight the standards and criteria that they aspire to.

Co-curricular Performing Arts students have commenced classes and ensembles. We have had a huge increase in enrolments which is really fabulous, with Dance ensembles swelling to five Jazz Dance ensembles and two Ballet ensembles. Auditions for these ensembles was a huge afternoon and a big congratulations and thank you to Ms Alana Santi for all her hard work trying to group students into appropriate groups so the ensembles are the best combination possible.  Music ensembles have  all begun and we have the largest Choir enrolment the College has ever had in living memory.  A big thank you to Mr James Paul for the sensational work he does with our vocal students.  The range of songs and challenging harmony work is always a delight to hear.  Theatesports has grown, and we now run junior and senior Theatresports.

On that note to get the year off to a wonderful start, we have the legendary and talented Ms Lyn Pierse as our celebrity judge on 18 February in the College Hall 3.15pm-5.15pm.  Theatresports is a lively and fun way to get students thinking, speaking and acting on their feet.  Learning to be spontaneous, confident and creative is extremely challenging and these brave young women are to be congratulated just for getting up on the stage.  I wish every team the very best for Monday afternoon.

A reminder to all students to check their co-curricular times on Edumate, and to read their emails to ensure they attend all of their classes. Remember, if you are unable to attend a class because you have an assessment activity, you must give your tutor a minimum of one week’s notice. Considering you have three week’s notice for all assessment activities this is not difficult to plan for and communicate in time, respectfully, with your tutor.

A quick reminder of when all the ensembles are on in the College:

Ukulele ensemble – Monday Lunch

Ballet ensemble – Tuesday before school

Theatresports – Tuesday Lunch

Jazz Dance ensemble – Tuesday after school

College Production – Tuesday after school

Choir – Wednesday before school

Rock Band – Wednesday Lunch

Theatresports – Wednesday Lunch

Jazz Dance ensemble – Wednesday

Orchestra – Thursday before school

Ballet ensemble – Thursday before school

College Production dancers – Thursday lunch

Jazz Dance ensemble – Thursday after school

College Production – Thursday after school

Jazz Dance ensemble – Friday after school

Please remember that an ensemble is a full year commitment.  This is important as you are learning skills and working with a group.  You are also usually preparing for a performance and it is important to not let your group down.

I hope all our Performing Arts students are organised and enjoying their new activities here at the College.

Catherine Johnson
Head of Performing Arts

Co-ordinator of Sport: Ms Jacinta Jacobs: 0418 416 663 / jacobsj@stvincents.nsw.edu.au

Head of Tennis  -  Ms Therese Taylor    0408 711 881
Head of Touch  -  Ms Elyse Hermanis   0434 610 870
Head of Water polo  -  Ms Steph El Safty    0419 950 164
Head of Swimming/Cross Country - Ms Jacinta Jacobs   0418 416663

SPORTS DRAW:  For all draw and venue information go to: www.stvincents.nsw.edu.au/sport/weekly-sports-draw/  

Website details: www.stvincents.nsw.edu.au/sport . 

TERM 1 SPORT 

IGSSA SATURDAY and TILDESLEY TENNIS

Our Tildesley and IGSSA teams are continuing in earnest with their training.  Thank you to all the players for turning up for training, especially on the especially hot days.  Tuesday was a scorcher and we still had training on.

Last weekend was the first Round of IGSSA tennis and this year we have six teams competing.  Special kudos to our two Year 7 teams, for some of the girls it was their very first match and both teams won.  In fact, five of our six teams won their matches. Congratulations to all players in all teams.

A reminder to players and parents, if you have any queries about IGSSA tennis, please check Sport/Tennis on the College website for where and what time your matches are to be played.  Please plan ahead for Sydney traffic and arrive well ahead of time for warm up.

If on the day you are uncertain about the weather and if there will be a cancellation, check the IGSSA mobile site - https://m.ahigs.nsw.eu.au/

A reminder to captains, to make sure you collect all four balls at the end of the matches, check the scorecard before you sign it and take a photo of it in case there are any discrepancies in the future.  Good luck in your round 2 matches and please let your coach know your results. 

Ms Therese Taylor
Head Tennis Coach

TOUCH

We had so many junior players wanting to play touch this term that the Easts Competition couldn’t accommodate a few of the teams from some of the schools with large numbers.  So, instead of dropping these players we have created another development competition at Lyne Park. This is similar to the netball development we run in Term 2 for netball with Year 7.  

The girls are still having the same excellent quality coaching during the week and then a match each Saturday plus finals.  This will improve their skills and help them improve for the Term 4 competition.  They will also get to play with their friends and have fun. 

All training and draw information can be found on the College website under Sport/touch.  Good luck to all teams for this weekend!

Ms Elyse Hermanis
Head Coach of Touch

WATER POLO

The new UNSW competition has some very high standard teams and we had some challenging games in our first week. All teams are training hard and we should see some excellent progression throughout the season. Unfortunately, last week with the electrical storm on Friday night, there was some damage caused and a couple of venues had pump problems and the water quality at Dawn Fraser Baths was unplayable.  These missed games will now be played in Week 7 and Finals will be pushed back to 30 March and 6 April.

This week should see all of our ten teams playing some top quality matches. Good luck to all teams!

Ms Steph El Safty
Head Water polo Coach

SWIMMING TRAINING AND IGSSA SWIMMING CARNIVAL

All Year 7 PDHPE classes will be completing swimming trials over the next week, mainly to get times for our new students who missed the College Swimming Carnival in Term 4 2018.  These times will give the Sports staff an indication of who should be in the IGSSA team, along with those who have already been selected from the main carnival.  There will be some swim-offs for the competitive Year 7's against the selected 13 year old Year 8's on Friday 22 February at lunchtime, and more information will be emailed to these girls.

The IGSSA Carnival is being held on Friday 22 March at Homebush Aquatic Centre, and there will be a meeting/relay session for all squad members at lunchtime on Wednesday 13 and 20 March.  Jesse and Dene, our new swimming coaches, are running sessions on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 7.00am-8.00am for any keen swimmers.  The enrolment form can be found on the College website under Sport/Swimming. All levels are catered for and you can come to one or all sessions.  IGSSA squad members must be coming to at least two sessions/week unless they are already in a squad outside of school.

TERM 2 SPORT REGISTRATIONS

Registrations are open for Term 2 Sport and close Friday 22 February at 3.00pm.  Students can select from IGSSA Soccer, IGSSA Basketball, SEHA Hockey and Wednesday Netball at St Catherine’s.  Year 7 netball next term will be skills development and mini games at the College on Thursday afternoons.

Netball is organised by our excellent head coach, Ms Kat McGrath, and she runs a great development program.  Term 2 Netball is all about getting ready for the big IGSSA competition in Term 3 and will concentrate on fitness and skill development.  To register you need to go onto the College website  http://www.stvincents.nsw.edu.au, Click on Sport, then Term 2 Sport Registrations.  You will need to know your student ID and email address. If you have any problems doing this please contact the Sports Department immediately.

SPORT STARS

Please keep the Sport staff informed of any good sporting results held outside of the College.  Information and photos can be emailed to jacobsj@stvincents.nsw.edu.au

Congratulations to Lani Bresnahan, Year 10, who played at the U16 NSW State Oztag Championships in Coffs Harbour last weekend.  Her Cronulla team was undefeated the whole weekend and won the tournament for the third year in a row.

Congratulations alsoto Demi Bresnahan, Year 8, Jasmine Rose, Year 8, and Sianna Eyles, Year 8, who also represented Cronulla in the Under 14s State Championships and narrowly lost their semi final. 

MS JACINTA JACOBS
CO-ORDINATOR OF SPORT

Plenty has happened since the school year came to a close last year, including the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami on 22December 2018 creating a massive humanitarian crisis, the stranding of 49 refugees and migrants including children in the Mediterranean, the creation of sand dams in Somali which are providing immediate access to water and a long-term solution to climate change related droughts and women in Hoi An City in Vietnam are profiting from rubbish and other waste while helping to create a more sustainable urban environment in a project supported by the UN Development Program.  Within a few months many challenges have been faced and many have been conquered changing the quality of life of many across the globe.

I hope everyone had a great night at the cocktail party last weekend.  Just a reminder that our first P&F meeting is next Tuesday night 19 February at 6.30pm, and will be held in the College LRC (library).

The dial in code for those who wish to conference in to the meeting is:

+61 2 8324 6690 #2011

If there are any issues you would like to raise or have any questions - please feel free to contact me directly at any time on 0400 583 677.

Looking forward to seeing some new faces on Tuesday night.

Katherine Aitken
P&F Association 

kgray_kudoss@hotmail.com / 0400 583 677

The Library Book

It was almost inevitable that a beloved ex-student would give me the perfect book as a farewell present.  The book is called “The Library Book” by Susan Orlean.  On one level, this non-fiction book is about a booklover’s nightmare:  The burning of over 400,000 books in a catastrophic fire at the Los Angeles Public Library in April 1986.  It is also about Orlean’s life-long adoration of public libraries nurtured by her mother who took the young Susan when she could just toddle to borrow huge piles of books each week.