Bulletin

Monday 09 August:  Professional Learning Day - No classes.

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Monday 09 August - Friday 20 August:  Online Year 12 Assessment Block.

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Wednesday 11 August -  6.30pm-7.30pm:  ZOOM meeting for parents/carers of HSC students. 

• Please send your questions through to Mrs Anne Fry at frya@stvincents.nsw.edu.au and put into the subject “HSC Parents’ Questions” (see more in 'Principal's Message').

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Dear Parents and Carers 

I was surprised today by the automated prompt in my diary to write a newsletter article.  I was in disbelief that another week of our term had passed.  Without the usual constricts of bells, timetables and schedules, it is sometimes hard to recognise when a day of work/school finishes, and even what used to be the profound differentiation between the working week and the weekend has now blurred.  I hope you have been better than me in creating the rituals and patterns that ensure your days start and end well, and that you have some relaxing, non-screen based activities planned for the weekend. 

We have received positive feedback from our students that they are enjoying their screen reduced days (this week was Tuesday) and they have another to enjoy with even more freedom on Monday.  The 9 August was gazetted from the beginning of the year as a Professional Learning Day, so the students will not be actively engaged by either Google Classroom or Google Meets.  The exception being our Year 12 students who commence a two-week assessment block from Monday 9 August through to Friday 20 August.  Please keep this fine cohort of young women in your thoughts and prayers while they try their best to maintain academic rigour amidst the changing and often confusing messaging around the HSC, return to F2F and vaccine eligibility.  It is a difficult time for each of them and their families.  Next Wednesday 11 August we will host a Zoom meeting for parents/carers of our HSC students.  Please send your questions through to myself on frya@stvincents.nsw.edu.au and put into the subject “HSC Parents’ Questions”.  This will help me keep track of questions.  We will do our best to have the team best able to answer your questions ready on the night.  Please use this Zoom meeting link for the meeting at 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday 11 August.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89010044938?pwd=V0dNREJqZ3U1ajdqSlBGd0lSU0hXQT09

Meeting ID:   890 1004 4938
Password:     a5Z1uQ

Thank you to the parents who participated in this week’s seminar on Respectful Relationships and Consent Education presented by Catherine Manning.  Despite the limitations of Zoom, Catherine reached out to parents and provided very accessible ways for them to create the environment for conversations with their daughters on this critical topic. 

I hope each of you and your families are finding sources of consolation through small acts of kindness.  Don’t be shy in nominating your family members for the Generosity of Spirit Award that is current.  Some of the submissions I have already had the privilege to read had a profound impact on me, and lifted my spirits.  Thank you for the privilege of being on this journey with you.

Today we farewell (remotely) Ms May Mangano, who leaves on family leave.  We wish her every blessing as she eagerly anticipates the arrival of her beautiful baby.  Ms Karen Astrom joins the PDHPE Department on Monday to take over Ms Mangano's classes.

COVID UPDATE

I include an attachment of a media release from Catholic Schools NSW which was released today.  The arrangements outlined for HSC students are as we had anticipated and planned for, so luckily our students do not have another change.

After reading this media release and listening to the Premier this morning, I am now anticipating that we have to get used to the possibility that learning will remain online for the remainder of Term 3.  This is only my speculation at the moment, but I want to reassure you that we are constantly reviewing our Foxford model, planning for all contingencies and hoping for the best!!!

In all things I will be guided by Health advice and act in the holistic interests of students and staff.

Stay safe,

Yours sincerely

Anne Fry
Principal 

The College community offers its condolences to the following who have lost a loved one recently:

Ellie Byrnes (Year 9) and Olivia Byrnes (Year 7) - beloved Grandmother.

Amelie Fanale (Year 8) - beloved Grandfather.

Sophie Slee (Year 10) - beloved Grandfather.

May they rest in peace.

There is much in the media at present speculating on the attitudes of youth in response to Covid - from the impact of lockdowns to access to vaccinations to HSC completion and schooling.  What is crucially important is that our young people feel they are given a voice and contribute to the decisions that affect them.  Our youth are not only students, not only HSC students, they are intelligent citizens with a social awareness and personal ethics, accustomed to exploring and discerning knowledge and motivated to make informed and independent decisions.  Adolescents also learn by testing out their opinions in consultation with each other; they need time and opportunity to process, to reflect and evaluate.  Our students are daughters, sisters, grandchildren, friends, neighbours.  Their motivations, their worries and their hopes are motivated by the fullness of who they are in relationship with others and their world.

With remote learning being extended we are providing forums for students to connect with their year group peers whilst simultaneously being offered a medium through which they can share with school leaders and pastoral carers the issues that are important to them.  Students are being invited via a fortnightly Google Form to identify what is working well for their learning and wellbeing and to offer suggestions or queries to be part of a Google Meet Year group meeting where they can dialogue with trusted peers and adults.  We want for our students to feel well informed and reminded of our Ignatian way - a relationship of companionship.  Conversation can be a wonderful antidote to uncertainty.  It may not be able to relieve it entirely, but it certainly makes us feel less alone.  It was a privilege to listen to the Year 12 class on Wednesday as this group of young women used their collective voices to affirm, to express gratitude, to problem solve, to console, to clarify, to remedy and to hope.  Years 12, 11 and 8 have had such an opportunity to gather as a Year group this week and Years 9 and 10 will do so next week.  It is important to us that we create spaces for students to share what is important to them and know that there is a medium through which they are listened to.  The Year 12 conversations were not all about Covid and lockdown, they included online shopping, the Olympics and screen free days.  It felt a little like being on playground duty - walking by candid conversations about whatever it is that matters.

One aspect of schooling that students in Years 11 and 12 have expressed is their appreciation of Tutor and House providing connectivity and positivity. Students continue to meet as a vertical Tutor group twice a week Mondays and Thursdays, whilst meeting in their Year groupings on Tuesdays and Fridays. Year 7s have commenced their transition joining their elder peers in vertical Tutor groups whilst remaining connected to their Year 7 Tutor group to enable the continuity of care.  Please know that the Year 7 Tutor teachers will continue to be the main point of contact for parents and carers throughout this term.

Our teachers are working with great diligence and innovation to sustain the momentum of Foxford learning.  We are mindful of the balance needed in providing instruction and connectivity with teachers and peers for collaborative thinking, whilst also valuing independent and self-directed learning at one’s own pace and a break from screen time.  Please speak with your daughter about how she is managing her routines for learning and giving herself space for exercise and relaxation off screen.  Monday is a well-deserved rest day for students whilst our teachers have opportunity to pause and reflect as we continue to refine practice.

It was impressive to see so many parents and carers join Tuesday evening’s webinar on Respectful Relationships.  Catherine Manning explored how assumptions and stereotypes around gender have contributed to notions of power which progressively impact upon understandings of relationships.  Our young people are growing up in a media saturated world with much sexual objectification of bodies and relationships.  Research shows young people do look to their trusted adults for guidance to explore what we value and why - what it means to feel cared for, empowered, to exercise agency.  Catherine also encouraged us as parents/carers and educators not to make this a one-off conversation, but to be on the look-out for opportunities to talk about assumptions of gender, agency and consent in our everyday experiences.  It is not possible to share Catherine’s presentation from her webinar as it is her intellectual property, but I offer you some resources HERE and HERE that you may find useful as parents and carers as you guide your children in learning about and experiencing respectful relationships.  Our teachers are committed to the continuation of our professional learning that has also been informed by our own student voice.  We are hopeful to continue the dialogue with Catherine’s student workshops face to face in Term 4. 

Mrs Elizabeth Brooks
Deputy Principal

I'm sure many of us, like myself, have been contemplating the ‘strikingly familiar’ in lockdown.  My working days are moving along at the speed they would normally and in the same sequence as most, especially our students, however there are prevalent subtle shifts I am noticing.  Whilst the physical routine is consistent: get up - cup of tea - catch up on the news - get dressed - go to work (a room away) - finish work - go for a run - cook dinner - eat with family - clean up - back to emails - sleep - my psychological response is profoundly different.  I find myself appreciating the precious moments in my daily routine that the pandemic cannot steal from us - our connection to those we are in relationship with.  My outfits have changed to a more hybrid concept - ‘corporate’ still, yet casual and comfy below the desk - newsreader style.  My girls and husband are amused daily by them.  I am enjoying the presence of my dog in my ‘office’ although he can be very annoying when he bangs on my door when I’m on a ‘meet’.  Yet despite his oblivion to the pandemic, he brings my family and I daily furry comfort when we need it most.  I am finding the end of the day particularly peaceful when I take a run or a walk to debrief the day and nurture my body and mind.  My sleeping patterns are different - I'm staying up later and sleeping slightly longer.  My dreams can flit from the sublime to the ridiculous!  I know most of you who are reading this description would by nodding along acknowledging your similar lockdown sentiments.  However, something has shifted for me.  I am finding myself acknowledging the privileges in my life - my family who love me and who I love most - the beauty of a glorious sunny day against the cobalt blue skies we are experiencing or the sweet scents of the first hints of my blooming Jasmine bush.  Every day as I teach my two Year 12 classes, I am awestruck by their resilience and engaging personalities despite their inner apprehensions.  I have been enjoying in my Year 12 Advanced English class; the study of a poet - TS Eliot, whose primary modernist concerns were the inevitability of life and the mundanity of time and daily routines.  The irony of the timing of this module is not lost on me, nor my students!  We laugh about it and it is in the chuckling enabled through the connectivity of cyberspace that makes me truly grateful for the technology right now that enables a direct pedagogical platform to be together with my students.  Despite our consensus that we need less screen time and we as a response to that, will build ‘screen-reduced’ days into our Foxford program, I personally am so grateful that right now this connectivity enables the students into my daily routine, to brighten each day for me and confirm why I love my job so much.

As well as acknowledging the ‘strikingly familiar’ I am enjoying the ‘surprisingly different’ moments of our Foxford program.  A few such moments come to mind as I reflect on my week.  Firstly, this morning it was a pleasure to meet with our Year 8 cohort who were reflecting on their subject selection choices they have made to compliment their Stage 5 learning program that will commence in 2022 and conclude in 2023.  To listen to their voices assert with conviction, the reasons why they were electing to study the subjects they chose, was impressive.  It was apparent that their discernment stemmed from their own authentic activation of our reflective learning model; recognising their own learning styles, learning capabilities and genuine passions.  I am looking forward to my continued relationship with this cohort as they progress through their academic years at Vinnies.  The second ‘surprisingly different’ moment of my week, did have a level of humour to it.  As teachers, in our usual mode of face to face teaching, we sometimes wonder where our students are at the start of a lesson.  Are they still in assembly?  Are they coming late from an incursion or exclusion?  These quandaries, whilst not common, can occur in the familiar face to face nature of on-campus learning.  Don’t worry - we always find them!  Often to the relief of both the teacher and the students.  What surprised me this week was the way it is possible to ‘lose’ a class momentarily in Foxford.  I had a lesson with my CP Year 7 class and I was waiting for them joyfully to commence the lesson.  I waited a bit more and as I started to wonder where they might be, the email exchange occurred - ‘Mrs Mano we can’t find you!’  ‘Where are you girls?’  ‘On the Google Classroom?’  ‘Which Google Classroom?’ ‘I’m in our House classroom.’  ‘Oh!  We are in the other classroom!’  ‘Ok - everyone get off the classroom and come and meet me back in the Google Classroom where we were last time we met.’  I can’t tell you the relief I had in seeing all of their smiling faces beaming at me, as they were safely ported back to my classroom through cyberspace.  I must say the students and I did all have a bit of a belly laugh about that one.  Suffice to say we are absolutely rock solid on which Google Classroom to meet on next CP lesson.

Finally, I turn my attention to our HSC students - the Class of 2021.  With the news today from the Premier that ‘Year 12 students in Greater Sydney will sit assessments and Trial HSC exams from home under a revised, more flexible, pandemic blueprint revealed by the NSW government’, I feel a profound sense of contentment.  I am grateful for the power of wise decision-making that has enabled the creation of our SVC model of online Year 12 assessment, which whilst somewhat avant-garde, is morally responsible and now is the government’s way forward.  Go us!  An enormous amount of attention to detail has been executed to ensure the smooth and seamless running of these rigorous online assessments and I want to acknowledge the hard work of not only my own teams - the Heads of Department and the Diverse Learning Team, but our dedicated Year 12 teachers.  These colleagues have been instrumental in the writing of these excellent assessments, designed to ensure that the hard work the students have been putting in, will be measured and awarded.  To our Year 12 HSC class and the Year 11 Mathematics Accelerants - ‘Bonne Chance!’.  Remember you know more than you think and you are so much more than a mark!

I leave our Year 12 students with my favourite Dr Suess quotes.

Mrs Jasmin Mano
Director of Teaching and Learning

As part of our ongoing proactive wellbeing focus at St Vincent’s College, the ‘Cura Personalis’ program takes every opportunity to ensure students are engaging with evidence-based interventions that promote elevated and sustained wellbeing - a key part of our proactive pastoral support.

In our previous communication we shared some of the positive feedback received from our parent community.  This week, we are thrilled to share with you the voice of one of our students...an unprompted email to her ‘Cura Personalis’ teacher…what an act of character!

“Hi Miss,

I just wanted to thank you for encouraging our Year 11 CP class to be so engaged with the "do something nice for someone task".  I drew a picture for my little sister with all the things special about our relationship and left it on her desk.  When she found it, she and my mum started crying.  She asked my mum if we could get it laminated so that she can stick it on her wall.  Thank you for setting us up with this task, I am so grateful to have received such a beautiful reaction”.

The wellbeing program ‘Cura Personalis’, offers our students and teachers regular sessions designed to experience wellbeing.  The program offered at St Vincent’s College is unique to most schools, as it is taught by all of our teachers across all of our Year levels.  With our current context in mind and responding to the ‘pastoral’ needs of the community, we again drew inspiration from Associate Professor Lea Waters’ series, which responds to life in ‘lockdown’.  Our session this week was crafted to ‘intentionally cultivate Positive Emotions’ - students engaged in an episode from Professor Waters’ series for 'The Guardian’ (see here), and then completed a task themed around positive shared memories.

Earlier in the week the College launched a strengths spotting exercise for our students:

‘We are calling all our girls to action...each of you is encouraged to nominate a parent/carer/sibling from home, whom you believe has inspired you with their expression of ‘Generosity of Spirit’.  A deserving member of our community will be selected and will have the pleasure to choose from an online voucher or donation to a charity of choice’.

We are so thrilled to be receiving nominations, and our heartfelt thanks goes to each and every person in our community for their enduring and constant support of each other while they are engaged in their learning journey at home.

As always, if you need additional wellbeing support, please do not hesitate to be in communication with your daughter’s Tutor or Head of House - their relationship and knowledge of your daughter uniquely positions them to offer our best guidance and care.

By savouring the moments of good, committing to being mindful and present, highlighting acts of character and practising optimism and gratitude, all students strengthen their connectedness to the culture of wellbeing - that is St Vincent’s. 

Mr Mitchell Grace
Pastoral Dean of Students

I had a Google Meet this morning with all Year 8 as they finalised their understanding of the subject selection process for next year.  We did an Acknowledgement of Country, as we would if we were face to face, but of course we are not all on Gadigal land.  I am on Gamaraigal land, Mrs Mano was concerned that she may be on the cusp between Tharawal and Gadigal country.  Mrs Cartmer was certain that Tharawal country was where she was sitting.  Our students knew their land too.  It’s a good thing.  Awareness is the beginning of change, and understanding makes justice possible. 

This week we are thinking about 'Closing the Gap' and lamenting that in the last ten years of this project not one of the targets has been reached, and many have gone backwards.  Incarceration rates, life expectancy, health outcomes, education outcomes, employment - all are still lacking for our indigenous people.  First Nations’ voices, ideas and expertise have now been invited into the planning and implementation process.  We have new hope.  Listening to someone’s ideas and allowing ourselves to be changed by them, perhaps begins with calling them by the right name -

“I have called you by your name, you are mine.”  Isaiah.

You might be interested in knowing some of the names that have made their way from Gadigal or Kurringai or Burramatta into our local speak.  

Mrs Jo Kenderes
Director of Faith and Mission

Competition deadlines have been extended to 17 September 2021

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 What have our SVC students been reading/watching/listening to during holiday lockdown and Foxford?

University of Sydney

Mathematics Course Pre-Requisites

USYD has Mathematics pre-requisites for some courses.  To find out more use the link found here.

TAFE NSW

TAFE NSW 2022 Degree Guide

TAFE NSW offers a range of degrees that are taught by industry professionals in state-of-the-art facilities.  Download a copy of the TAFE NSW 2022 Degree Guide here

Studying in the USA

If any student is interested in going to university in the USA after high school, they should try to attend the following information seminar delivered by Education USA on Thursday 19 August at 8:00pm.  For more information and to register use the link found here

UCAT Webinar for Years 11 and 10 Students 

The UCAT is a key criterion for medicine/dentistry interview and course offers, but many high-achieving students score poorly due to inefficient and ineffective preparation.  This free webinar will cover ten common mistakes and five research-based tips to save time and effort, plus how to solve Section 1-5 UCAT questions (+ mini mock test).  Register using the link here 

Sydney Film Festival

The 68th Sydney Film Festival is Australia’s premier international film festival that takes place over 12 days and nights, showcasing the greatest, strangest and most exciting works that cinema has to offer.

Single tickets were scheduled to go on sale on Wednesday 21 July, however, due to the current restriction in NSW, Sydney Film Festival has made the decision to delay the program announcement of the 68th Edition.  The Festival remains committed to an in-cinema COVID-safe event, and will make further updates regarding on-sale dates via  SFF eNews.

AFTRS Virtual Open Day Update

On Saturday 14 August, attend AFTRS Virtual Open Day to learn more about Australia’s premier screen and broadcast school and their programs:  Bachelor of Arts Screen:  Production, Graduate Diploma in Radio, Master of Arts Screen (Directing, Producing, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Sound, Music, Documentary, Animation) and Master of Arts Screen:  Business.  Join live chats and panel discussions, take a virtual campus tour, enjoy work produced at the school and get some tips on how to ace applications for the 2022 intake.  Registrations for AFTRS Open Day 2021 are now open using the link here.

Sports People - Employment in Sport

Established in 1996, Sportspeople was the first agency in Australia to offer a specialised sport recruitment service.  Today Sportspeople remains and offers a range of recruitment services to the broader sport, fitness and aquatics sector throughout Australia and New Zealand.  For more information go here.

Meat and Livestock Careers and Events

The meat and livestock industry plays a huge role in Australia's wealth creation.  Use this site to find more information on different jobs and opportunities. To apply for a role at MLA, select a role from the list of current opportunities and ‘apply’ to create a profile and submit your application.  You can register your details and set up a job alert for future opportunities.  Events and workshops are held regularly - to find out more go here

Ms Helen Marshall
Careers Adviser

Sport Staff Contacts for Term 3 2021:

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

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

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

TERM 3 SPORT

Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions, all Term 3 Sport has now been cancelled or postponed.  The IGSA Saturday competition has been cancelled whilst the IGSA Inter-School Athletics Carnival meet is hopefully just being postponed until Term 4.  Please be aware that fees paid for Term 3 Sport will be credited to your account.  There is no need to directly contact Mrs Pauline Martin.  

There are some great home training sessions on the College website for those girls who are missing their Saturday Sport, and lots of good Tutor Challenges being organised by Ms Jacobs.

TERM 4 SPORT

We are now going to start preparing in the event of Term 4 Sport going ahead and have opened the Term 4 Sport Registrations page on the College website.  The sports offered are EASTS Touch, IGSA Water Polo, IGSA Tennis, Futsal, Santa Sabina Basketball and Volleyball.  Please make sure you would be available and committed to all training sessions and Saturday matches before enrolling.  The registrations will close at 3.00pm on Friday 20 August as we have to enter our numbers to the Associations on that day.  

VINNIES OLYMPIC CHALLENGE

In keeping with our Olympics theme and to try and keep everyone fit and healthy during lockdown, we are running a Mystery Stepper Competition each week for the next few weeks.  You can compete for one or all weeks - it's up to you.  So get your family and get out into the sunshine -  and start walking!  

Mystery Stepper Competition Rules:   

Each week staff and students are to keep a record of their steps from Saturday to Thursday and upload their number onto the Google form on the Thursday night.  It’s not about how many steps you do, it’s about how close your steps are to the mystery stepper's steps.  Please keep proof of your steps by taking a photo of the screen and save it on your phone as you may be called upon to show this proof at any time. 

Each week the mystery stepper will be an active Vinnies' 'old girl' who will give a few hints as to her identity.  Extra prizes will be awarded if you can guess who the mystery stepper is.  Who will be the best detective?  These guesses can be put on the St Vincent's College Instagram page.  It’s that simple!  But you have to be in it to win it!  Great prizes from Running Bare, Olivia Jean Bags, The Storeroom Vintage Shop and Let’s Go Surfing, will be awarded weekly for the next few weeks. 

The Google form was emailed out to all students on Friday morning last week and a copy is on the Student Welfare and House classrooms.  Any questions please email Ms Jacobs.  Go Vinnies Steppers! 

SPORTS STARS OF THE WEEK 

Congratulations to all those Tutor Groups who contributed to the Olympic Challenge this week.  We had lots of entries and the competition was very close!  If you didn't participate, that's ok, you can start the week 2 challenge this Saturday.  Lots of great prizes to be won!

A big thank you to Georgia McGrath (2011), who was the ‘Vinnies Mystery Stepper' for Week 1.  Georgia's grandmother Shirley McGrath and cousin Ceilidh both attended St Vincent’s before her.  Shirley was on a Music scholarship and went on to be the President of the Ex-Students’ Union for 21 years. Her team raised funds to purchase the grand piano in the Chapel and also the Grotto for the College.  Georgia's father, Paul McGrath, also MC'd the St Vincent’s College Blue and White Ball for 20 years.

Georgia McGrath pictured below with her grandmother Shirley McGrath and Anne Fry.   Pictured right at her graduation with Ms Jacobs and Mrs Williams.

Georgia now lives in Kurnell and loves her job as a disability support worker for the company, Stellar, who are helping break down the stigma around disabilities and advocate for inclusion and empowers and supports people to live and active and fulfilled life.  Georgia was Sports Captain in 2011 and represented the College in Athletics, Cross Country and Netball.  She has a one year old border collie dog who she takes running regularly, so it took a lot of steps to keep up with her. 

We had many students get close to Georgia and some who even did more steps.  We had many people get close to Georgia and some who even did more.  But the person who had the closest number of steps to Georgia's 51,575 steps was Piper Stanish in Year 7 (De Lacy) with 51,643 steps.  Closest staff member was Ms Vanessa Brown (O'Brien) with 56,749 steps for the six days! Prizes will be given out when we are back at school.  Well done, ladies!

Don't forget to start counting your steps from tomorrow.  Doesn't matter if you didn't participate in week 1, we would love to have more in the competition next week!

Congratulations to Alexandra Tait in Year 10, (pictured below) who has been selected in the NSW water polo squad after six months of hard training with the NSW Academy.  Hopefully Lexi and her team will still get to compete at the Nationals in September. Well done, Lexi!

This section is to make the College community aware of some of the exceptional athletes we have in the College.  If your daughter has represented her state or country recently in her chosen Sport, please send us any results, photos or blurbs on her performance to jacobsj@stvincents.nsw.edu.au 

Ms Jacinta Jacobs
Co-ordinator of Sport