S t M a r y ’ s C o l l e g e Sent to Proclaim the Gospel

Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

From the Principal

It is with great excitement that I am able to begin sharing with the wider St Mary’s College community news about our next stage of building.

Knowing the College and campus as well as you do, you will appreciate that while we have some beautiful heritage buildings encasing our history - and the specialist facilities of the CPA (2006) and the Susan Sullivan Library, OHSC and Junior School Years 4-6 classrooms (2010) our site is small, bordered as it is by Franklin and Gray Streets, West Terrace and the Church properties on Grote Street. Over the last year the Board of Directors have considered, under advice, the building options of our property and the corner of West Terrace and Franklin Street will be the location of our next enterprise.

The 2016-2019 Master Plan will involve two stages of building.

Stage 1 will be a new Front Office (Administration and Finance) immediately located inside the Franklin Street gates offering easy access to visitors and parents requiring Front Office services. Internally, a refit of the old library will create a contemporary ICT Centre adjacent to the current computer suites in the southern end of the Boylan Building. This new location will also improve the security of the College by enabling us to secure all access gates between 9.00am and 3.15pm.

The architectural firm of Grieve Gillett Anderson has been approved for Stage 1 and final design work and planning will commence by mid-year.

The Board of Directors has, at its last meeting, appointed TTT (Turner & Townsend Thinc Pty Limited) as Project Managers for the entire Master Plan development and they will be responsible for organising tenders for architects, builders and site management for Stage 2.

Stage 2 will consist of:

The current half sized gym will need to be demolished and car parking will relocate to the back of the College in spaces cleared by the removal of the old transportables.

The West Terrace three storey building is anticipated to be completed by late 2018 assisting the College to accommodate the intake of Year 7 as the enrolment entrance year for secondary schooling.

In addition, the new contemporary spaces will cater for the ongoing development of curriculum and learning and the vibrant ex-curricular life of the College.

Even before its finalised design, companies vying for its business have already referred to it as an “iconic site and building” of West Terrace.

Design work for the West Terrace concept will commence in Semester 2 and collaboration with all stakeholders occurring thereupon. Should you as a parent have a question or point in regard to the Master Plan at this early stage please forward them to the College Parent Council on council@stamaryscollege.catholic.edu.au . The Council is then able to represent the parent voice and interests to the Board of Directors Capital Works Sub-Committee.

I hope to be able to share with you design images later this year but in the meantime (pictured above) is your first glance at our future Front Office.

AGM Monday 30 May

Members of the Board of Directors, College Executive and Leadership

Team and parents of the College Council gathered for the 2016

Annual General Meeting on Monday 30 May to receive the

presentation of Board, Council and Finance Reports for the 2015

school year.

The evening was further enhanced by the presentation of the Art and

Design faculty of student work and curriculum strands from Reception

to Year 12. This presentation illustrated how the students’ learning

reflects the Dominican values of aestheticism and creativity.

“You eternal Trinity, are the artist, and I your handiwork have come to know that you are in love with the beauty of what you have made.”

Catherine of Siena.

S t M a r y ’s C o l l e g e 253 Franklin Street

ADELAIDE SA 5000

T:8216 5700 F:8216 5730

W: www.stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au E: enquiries@stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au

A full sized gym, sports offices and PE teaching space A Visual Arts Centre A Year 12 Centre

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

From the Deputy Principal: Curriculum

This Semester, the variety of our R-12 learning teams continue to have two main foci, a true benefit of being an R-12 school. Our initial and ongoing focus has come from our previous years’ work; that is, a focus on Standards Referenced Assessment and developing a process which has our community working towards a common understanding of what assessment is and how it is measured. Of course, across the diversity of year levels and learning areas, assessment can and should look very different, but at its core we are moving towards rationalising our common beliefs about the practice of assessment in our classrooms. We are guided here by the AITSL Standards for teachers, particularly Standard 5 which … ‘asks us to assess, provide feedback and report on student learning through’:

Assessing student learning

Providing feedback to students on their learning

Making consistent and comparable judgements

Our work on Standards Referenced Assessment over the years has culminated in a process which, in accordance with AITSL chair and leading educational research John Hattie’s aims, makes learning visible by essentially starting with, working towards, bringing students to, giving feedback against and assessing using a common set of year level and subject standards. These are guided by ACARA Achievement Standards from R-10, measures of Crossways outcomes for RE across R-12, and informed by SACE Performance Standards in 11-12. This work contributes to the development of a St. Mary’s Policy on Learning which our Learning Area Coordinators are spending this year working through. I will present this continuing work in the newsletters as the year progresses.

The second of these main foci is our shared work on differentiation. Following on from our work with Flinders University’s Dr Jane Jarvis, we have moved as a college community to redefine differentiation as Quality (differentiated) Teaching Practices. That is, all of the careful planning that goes into finding different ways in which we can learn more the learning styles of our students, and the methodologies with which we plan and teach to work with and capitalise on difference within our classrooms. Differentiation is not about ‘doing different assignments’ as such, but rather teachers working with, and hopefully students gaining agency of, individual learning styles in embracing strengths but also addressing challenges. Essentially this means that we are aiming for students to feel like they are on board with their learning through challenge and support. Characteristics of this include:

Students knowing some things;

Students needing to think;

Students needing to work;

Developing persistence;

Occasionally ‘hitting some walls’;

Being ‘one one’s toes’;

From the Principal (continued)

2 July Federal Election and Education

The Catholic Education Office has asked us, as principals, to share with

our school communities some facts and figures around the education issue

and national funding and Catholic schooling. The material is non-party or

politician candidate aligned but simply seeks to re-inforce an awareness

that education is an important voting issue. More understanding of the

Catholic Education sector may assist in personal decision making at the

election.

On the back page of this newsletter are flyers and for more information go

to the NCEC’s website: http://www.schoolfundingfacts.com/

Eileen Young

Principal

St Mary’s College is celebrating ENVIROWEEK - 14 June – 17 June

Enviroweek is an annual national schools event that connects students to the power of nature.

Enviroweek’s actions empower students with the knowledge of their positive everyday impact – for them, their school and our environment. Through real-life learning, they experience how nature helps their health, wellbeing and even their schoolwork; and how their everyday choices really count.

During enviroweek, each year level will be involved in different activities in Wednesday afternoon Care Education, utilising recyclable materials:

R-6: creating flowers using recyclable paper

Year 7: various games utilising recyclable materials

Year 8: making bookmarks using recycled cardboard

Year 10: making grass heads

Year 9, 11, 12: reflection time

In addition to the above activities, the Ecommit group will be officially launching St Mary's ‘Switched on Schools’ campaign.

To combine healthy eating and nude food, free apple slinkies will be offered on Thursday 16 June at lunchtime.

We look forward to celebrating this week with the school community.

Neive Jones and Lili Iammarrone Ecommit Members

Needing to regroup from time to time;

Feeling challenged;

… and ultimately having effort leading to success. (Taken from Tomlinson 2010).

As time progresses, our R-12 classrooms will hopefully be using this language with students in both goal setting and reflecting. We will also be discussing language either side of the notion of being ‘on target’ which we aim for our students to avoid: boredom through lack of engagement (or finding things ‘too easy’) and anxiety and frustration (or finding things ‘too hard’). Again, this work will contribute to our overall Policy on Learning.

Year 10 and Stage 1 Exams Timetables for Year 10 and Stage 1 Semester 1 Exams have been both emailed to students and sent home to families with an accompanying letter which details specifics for the exam week (timetables will also soon be on our website). The letter discusses ‘the place’ of exams, elements that I reinforced with our Year 10 students this week when speaking to them about their experience. We discussed that exams are an assessment of their learning to date conducted in a controlled environment; the importance of them in Year 10 in Year 11 is just as much for the formal experience of the exam also. We discussed that this can help students assess their strengths and challenges in exams as a type of assessment, and in working with their teachers reinforcing the routines involved in effective revision and study techniques. It may also help with the upcoming subject selection process in for Stage 1 and 2 (in Term 3), in that students can interrogate the types of assessments that are in each subject which may influence their choices either way. In both processes of exam revision and subject selection, the theme of working with teachers and key staff is vital. We know our students and our processes well. I encourage all Year

10 and 11 students to work with teachers during these important times to try and achieve the best outcomes possible, be they academic results or learning experiences.

Corey Tavella Deputy Principal: Curriculum

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

From the Deputy Principal: Student Wellbeing

Photographing/Videoing students at school events: A number of parents/guardians request each year that their child is not filmed or photographed in any way, and we need to respect their wishes. In this era of social media, we are unsure about where the photos/video footage will end up and how it will be used.

We ask that no photos or video footage is taken during music and drama performances for student safety and privacy issues. Any photos must only be of your own child.

In terms of such whole school events as Sports Day, where it is very hard to take photos of your daughter without including other students in the photo (such as when they are competing in an event), we ask that you do not post the photo(s) on social media.

During such Junior School events as Liturgies, Music mornings, assemblies, etc, once again we remind you that if you wish to take photos, to please only take photos or video footage of your child and not of groups of children, and not to post it on social media.

We thank you for respecting this request.

The extract from the St Mary’s College Parent Cyber safety Guidelines below relates to and supports our request outlined above:

St Mary’s College provides policy, guidelines and education for staff, students and parents/caregivers in relation to what is deemed acceptable and appropriate online behaviours. This includes the following:

The school name, motto, crest, logo and/or uniform must not be used

in any way which would result in a negative impact for the school community.

Staff, students and parents/caregivers must not post photos of either

themselves and/or other students which clearly identity them as a member of the St Mary’s College school community, nor post photos taken during any school sanctioned activity. This includes off campus events such as Sports days, camps/trips away, sporting events, etc.

Students and/or parents must not take photographs or otherwise

record members of the school community (other than themselves or their own child) whether intentionally or inadvertently and/or post to the Internet, publish or share without the written permission of the person photographed.

No member of the school community will establish or maintain a social

networking site which uses the school name, crest, logo or any other name by which the school and its community may be known without the express permission of the Principal or their delegate. This includes class, subject or activity based Facebook pages.

Members of the school community also have a responsibility to ensure

that all online communications are in keeping with the College’s expectations in relation to appropriate and respectful interactions with teaching and non-teaching staff.

Students will not post inappropriate comments about individual staff

members which if said in person would result in follow up action being taken.

Coping with stress and anxiety With Year 10 and 11 exams occurring in Week 8, as well as major assignments due, this can be quite a stressful time for many students, and depending on the development of their resilience skills, they may or may not have developed strategies to deal with it. Below are some helpful strategies:

Get Stressed The first strategy to dealing with stress is to get stressed.

Stress feels yucky but it is actually your body’s way of preparing you to perform at your best. Blood gets pumped to your arms and legs, your heart speeds up, and nonessential services like your digestion slow down- you are ready to take on the world.

So stress might feel unpleasant but realising that it is your body’s way of revving you up and helping you to perform at your best, will help you to keep these feelings in perspective.

Write Out Your Worries The second strategy to deal with the stress of an upcoming test or exam is to grab a piece of paper one or two days before the test and write down all your concerns about it.

Chew Something The third strategy is to eat or chew on something either before or during the test or exam. Eating or chewing on something sends a signal to your body that says, “Well, if I’m chewing something I can't be in total danger, so relax a bit.

Build Momentum Answer a question that feels easy first off in a test or exam to build up your confidence.

Breathe Out - S L O W L Y When you feel stressed one of the fastest ways to calm down is to breathe out slowly.

Stand tall walk proud Your brain is incredibly intelligent. If you stand-up and maintain a powerful posture your body sends a signal to your brain that tells it you are feeling in charge of things and it can reduce your stress hormones.

Look after yourself Breakfast- eat “brain food” the morning before a test or exam. Have a higher protein, lower carbohydrate mix at breakfast. That means less toast and more eggs.

Drink water- water lowers your levels of cortisol that causes stressful feelings. Avoid energy drinks as they rev you up and may interfere with your levels of concentration.

Sleep well- try to get a good night’s sleep the night before a test or exam. If you are feeling really worried, set an alarm so you can wake up early and do some revision.

Keep Calm and Carry On You have many, many skills that will NOT be assessed by this test. Tests and exams are important, but they are not the big predictors of life success.

Do your best and prepare as well as you can but don’t make the mistake of thinking that your score on a test is a measure of your intelligence or predicts your future.

…with many thanks to Andrew Fuller, Clinical Psychologist.

Lorna Starrs Deputy Principal: Student Wellbeing

June

6-10 Year 6 Camp - Ballarat

9 Year 11 Drama Performances - CPA

10 Year 11 Drama Performance - CPA 7.00 pm

13 Queens Birthday—Public Holiday

17 Club Muze - 7.00 pm CPA

19 Instrumental Concert Day - CPA 12 noon (Sunday)

22-24 Year 12 Drama Production - 7.00 pm CPA

27 Cambodia Pilgrims depart

27 Pupil Free Day - Semester Changeover

29 School Photo Day

30 Junior School VIP Mass - 9.00 am St Patrick’s Church

E V E N T C A L E N D A R

St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

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Positive Thinking Week

In Term 2 Week 3, St Mary’s College celebrated Positive Thinking Week. This week was designed to be our College community’s spin on Mental Health Awareness Week.

The week featured a range of activities intended to unite the school as a whole and promote positivity and happiness within our everyday lives. The celebrations kicked off with a pop-up cinema, screening uplifting and joyful television shows for the sub-schools. This was followed by a whole school craft activity on Wednesday in Morning Care group, which gave students an opportunity to reflect upon and express the ways in which they maintain a positive outlook throughout their lives. The result of this was our Rainbow of Positivity which was displayed on the Friday for our Whole School Breakfast.

The week closed with a whole school Zumba session on the Veritas Lawns, which was enjoyed by the Junior, Middle and Senior school. Last but not least, the College community combined to showcase the true meaning of positivity, which was celebrated over a vibrant Whole School Breakfast. This featured the beloved smiley face cookies, muffins, juice and coffee vans. The students’ spirits were further lifted by groovy live performances from some of our musically talented Senior School students. Overall, the week was one to be remembered. The essence of this celebration will be maintained throughout the year by a range of positive and uplifting quotes to be displayed around the school. This will remind students that positivity and happiness are of utmost importance. Isabelle Haklar, Samantha Krznaric and Nicole Wilhelm Year 12 SRC

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

A captivating and wildly entertaining show, ‘The Power of Poetry’ introduced students to poetry that contains some large ideas and lots of heart.

In the Susan Sullivan Library on Tuesday 24 May, performers from ‘Poetry in Action’ presented Year 9 students with an enthralling show featuring a range of poetry from around the globe. The troupe did a great job conveying what it is that makes poetry powerful through the use of self-expression and humour, which was enjoyed by all.

Angela Carbone Year 9 English teacher

The following Year 9 students share their thoughts on the performance:

The actors introduced themselves as Skyler, Natalie and Carl. The show began straight away. It was about a team performing poetry but one of the main members was missing, so their bus driver Natalie had to fill in. There was a problem though, Natalie knew nothing about poetry! Throughout the rest of the show, Natalie becomes her true self and sets her feeling free along with her hidden poetry talents. Through the performance they showcased a variety of poetry devices such as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, similes, and metaphors. Brianna Hegarty

The group added song and movement into their performance which flowed well with their poems. Some of the poems were about love, war and ordinary people, which allowed the audience to visualize the scenario and to set the scene. I recommend ‘Poetry in Action’ for everyone, as it was humorous and engaged all Year 9 students. Louisa Brewer

My highlight of the performance would have to be the way Natalie acted, her acting skills were outstanding and horrendously funny. In saying that, I also loved the way Skyler and Carl were always joking around with each other and making funny little jokes regarding poetry. It was a fantastic show and was definitely worthwhile seeing. Amber Fibrosi

The performance was great as it was really enjoyable and the time just flew by. I believe that it was so engaging as the performance incorporated relatable humour that just made everyone laugh. It was also enjoyable because they used scenarios that we could relate to, for example there was a poem read about all the bad things in relation to public transport which was really funny. These scenes were definitely some of the highlights of the performance. Sophie Luccon

I would recommend that other schools also get ‘Poetry in Action’ to perform for their students. They were very inspirational in the way they expressed poetry. They effectively illustrated that poetry is not just words on a page. Poems have meaning, or are a story; they’re more than just words that rhyme. This performance inspired students to take a further interest in poetry, or at least see it in a different light. Naomi Wilson

On Thursday 12 May, members of Writers INK and the College Book Club were treated to a visit by local writer Cameron Raynes, author of the recently published First Person Shooter which is set in a fictional Australian country town. This is his first novel to be published although, as Cameron explained in his talk, the story began in the form of a film screenplay but gradually developed into a novel over time.

A number of the students from Years 8 to 12 had read First Person Shooter just recently and posed a number of interesting and perceptive questions that Cameron responded to in considerable detail. Students in the writing club ‘Writers INK’ commented on the following aspects of Cameron’s talk:

“Cameron Raynes was an amazing person to hear. He was willing to answer any question we had, and did so in great detail, as well as reading excerpts from his novel. He gave great insight into the writing process, explaining how he went about creating his stories. This included traveling around the country to work on organic farms, and writing about the difficulties associated with a speech stutter he had as a child. Hearing about how he used his experiences as inspiration for writing inspired us to think about the ways that we could incorporate more of ourselves into our stories.” Gemma Owens & Ellen Martin

“It was interesting how he explained about putting himself and his experiences as someone who used to stutter directly into the book. I thought it was very brave to put something so personal into his novel.” Jude Martin

On behalf of teachers Ms Eileen McCabe and Ms Carmen Gambarotto and members of the Writing and Book Clubs I would like to thank Cameron for taking the time to speak to us about his work. His honest, thoughtful and personal insights into the process of writing a novel were much appreciated by all.

Bernie McInerney English Coordinator

Maths & English Help

Does your daughter need additional help? Ask her if she knows about Maths & English Help. Taking a proactive approach to seeking assistance develops academic responsibility and remind her that she can always bring her friends!

Maths & English Help is in K11 during lunchtime on Monday and Tuesday and in the library after school on Wednesday.

At lunchtimes on Mondays and Tuesdays, there are at least five teaching staff available to help one-on-one. On Wednesday afternoons, the Library is staffed with teachers to help students who wish to stay after school.

St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

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On the 23 and 24 March 2016, the two classes of Year 12 Child Studies prepared a healthy recess which followed the Right Bite Strategy for both the Reception and Year 1 classes. The ‘big’ girls were just as excited as the ‘little’ girls to share their food in the beautiful OSHC room. Around one very long table, the girls enjoyed food such as brown rice Olafs and teddy bears, avocado chocolate mousse, coconut cherry slice, Bliss balls, healthy Oreo biscuits. Ms Shattock’s Reception class and Mrs Cooper

Year 1 class displayed excellent table manners and loved the array of food that was presented for them. Many gig-gles were shared between the ‘big’ and ‘little’ girls and we all look forward to continued class activities throughout the year.

Alicia Hancock

Child Studies teacher and Hospitality Coordinator

The Year 10 Food and Hospitality class had the opportunity to experience the reality of catering for a function this month when they planned and prepared both lunch and afternoon tea for the Association of Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools Meeting that was held at St Mary’s.

It was an excellent learning experience for the students and their efforts were very well received. The students were congratulated on their menu plan, presentation and most importantly the taste of the food. This experience gave them a taste of what this subject offers in Year 12 and what it is like to plan and execute a catering event.

All students involved thoroughly enjoyed the experience and expressed the desire to cater at other school events. It was a large task for these students and the result was outstanding.

Congratulations girls! Karen Vonderwall Year 10 Food and Hospitality Teacher

Positive Penguins When Sara was in Year 3 she created a PowerPoint for a school presentation on healthy mind, healthy body. The presentation was so well received that she was asked for copies of the presentation by staff, students and parents. This led to Sara and her parent’s financial help in having an App developed “Positive Penguins”.

Positive Penguins is an App (iOS and Android) that helps children understand that their emotions come from their thinking. It teach-es them to challenge (or problem solve) the negative stories they tell themselves. This is especially important when feelings relate to bullying, being different, anxiety, worry etc. Often the anxiety and stress we feel comes from not real threats, but stories we make up in our heads.

The four positive penguins take you on a journey to help you understand that feelings arise from your thinking and if you challenge your negative thoughts successfully you may be able to see things in a more realistic and even opti-mistic way.

Her website for the App is www.positivepenguins.com. The App can be downloaded from iTunes and Google Play (cost 99 cents).

Giovanna Iannicelli Technology Coordinator

St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

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We have been investigating mixtures in our Chemistry unit and our CURIOSI-TY led us to the tiny world of atoms.

We watched the Clickview video – Physical and Chemical Sciences (which can be accessed through St Mary’s College Links http://www.stmaryscollege.catholic.edu.au/college-links.html / clickviewonline / student’s login / student’s password / search box- physical and chemical sciences) which led us to inquire about what are things really made of.

We were introduced to the ‘Big Bang’ and inquired about the different forms of energy. We speculated as to why the Big Bang was silent.

Millicent’s response “The Big Bang was silent because ener-gy moves silently.”

When asked for supporting reasons, Millicent looked at the electric light and responded: “Electricity is energy and it doesn’t make any noise when it moves.”

A scientist in the making: using current knowledge to hypothe-sis and apply to new situations.

As a class, we discovered that two or more atoms make a molecule which makes every-thing in the whole universe and began to make our own mole-cules using the atom kits.

Some of the more common molecules we made were:

H2O - water NaCl - common salt C02 - carbon dioxide H2S – hydrogen sulphide (rotten egg smell) CH4 – methane gas (cow, goat and sheep burps)

You may like to make some molecules at home, like Mikayla, who has been using marshmallows and toothpicks.

Anne Soldan Year 2 Science Teacher

Mikayla’s Atoms

Francesca’s Molecule

Mother’s Day Community Prayer

On Wednesday 4 May the Junior School joined together to celebrate Mother’s Day with prayer and song. The girls sat in the round, all attention upon the presentation of symbols that recalled our Mother Earth, Kaurna mothers, Biblical mothers, Mothers with us, Mothers who are no longer with us and Mothers who have taken on the mothering role.

We concluded our prayer with a heartfelt Blessing for all our Mothers absent and present, leaving many with a tear in their eye. A treasured moment indeed.

The Junior School choir followed with two rousing musical items – Any Dream Will Do and Your Love.

A further surprise was an impromptu performance by the Junior School String Ensemble playing a piece from Star Wars.

It was a delightful way to start the day, giving thanks for the wonderful people that are our mothers.

Anne Soldan

Junior School Prayer & Liturgy Coordinator

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

An important focus of Year 10 Religion in Term 2 has been extending the students’ knowledge and understanding of different aspects of major world religions. A task of 10G has been to create a unique religion (encompassing different aspects of other religions) that would appeal specifically to the needs and interests of young people today. Additionally, each student was recently encouraged to choose a word or phrase that summarised their new religion. Photographs of areas/objects around the school were creatively transformed into images which symbolically expressed their religion. The following are but a few examples…..

Isabella My religion's main message communicates balance and fairness. The girls show that there must be two equal forces to create balance. There are always two sides to every story that make up a whole/the truth.

Cindy A small flower blooming beyond a metal fence symbolises the happiness and love blooming even in the face of life’s adversity and hardships.

Anna This photograph chosen symbolises 'Perspective'. Although the photograph displays a view from a distance, it does not give exact information regarding: what the student sees, what she has taken a photograph of or what she is thinking. Furthermore, the meaning behind this photograph demonstrates different views from different standing points and my religion is inclusive of other world religions.

Janie The message of my image and that of my religion is love and is symbolized by the hand making an imprint into each individual’s life. We are connected through the love and influence of others in out life.

Monica This photo symbolises “exploration” which is a very important value of my religion which encourages people to explore themselves and the world around them. The window symbolises the sight of nature and all of its beauty. The girl standing in the centre of the frame is to represent her exploring and appreciating its beauty by connecting with the world around her.

St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

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Cindy

Anna

This year is highly significant for Dominican schools nationally and globally. It is the 800-year celebration of the Dominican Order of Preachers. As a way of sharing in the celebration, we have decided to link together with other Australian Dominican schools, by passing a symbolic walking stick and journal from one school to the next.

The walking stick is a symbol of being sent out like the early disciples to spread the good news, as well as a symbol of the Dominican values that unite us as one family.

On Friday 13 May, two student representatives and one teacher journeyed from Siena College in Melbourne to St Mary’s College in Adelaide, to hand over the symbolic walking stick. Tayla Conroy, Caitlin Hegarty and I then ventured to Cabra Dominican College on Wednesday 25 May to pass on the walking stick, which will then be handed on to St Dominic’s Priory College.

The walking stick began its journey at San Sisto Brisbane, then was brought to Santa Sabina College Sydney, St Lucy’s special school and St Catherine’s School for hearing impaired also in Sydney; then to Siena College Melbourne, and will end back at its starting point when students from Adelaide Dominican schools take it to the Common Ground Conference in Queensland in July.

We are looking forward to strengthening our ties with Dominican schools locally and nationally, throughout this year and in the years to come.

Isabelle Haklar Deputy School Captain

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

From the Music Department Generations in Jazz 2016 - Stage Bands This year we were able to take two bands to Mt Gambier for Generations in Jazz for the first time, which was extremely exciting. Our Senior Band competed in Division Two for the fourth time and our Junior Band performed in Division 5 for the first time. Our Junior Stage Band performed incredibly well and although they weren’t adjudicated, they performed to their best ability and were able to fully experience the nature of the competition. Senior Stage Band competed against

many schools from South Australia and Victoria and were one of only two all-girl Stage Bands in this division. Overall, we placed fourteenth. All the girls gave their performances everything they had and we were able to walk off stage feeling proud of ourselves and our achievements from the weekend.

Stephanie Girgolas Deputy Captain – Student Coordinator of Music

Generations in Jazz 2016 - Vocal Jazz Ensembles This year, two Vocal Jazz Ensembles were taken to Mt Gambier for Generations in Jazz, and competed in Division 1 and Division 2 respectively. The Vocal Jazz Ensembles are comprised of Year 10-12 students and for some students this was their first Generations in Jazz experience, and all performed exceptionally. Excitingly, Vocal Jazz Division 1 placed third and soloist,

Annabelle Witkowski in Year 11, received the Ron and Vicki Denning Vocal Award. Overall, both ensembles were fantastic and very proud of their performances. We can't wait to share this repertoire at Club Muze, the upcoming event which will be held at St Mary's College in Week 7 (see poster for details).

Alexandra Gavrilidis Captain – Student Coordinator of Music

Combined Dominican Stringed Orchestra To acknowledge the 800-year anniversary of the Dominican Order, the St Mary’s College Music Department decided to create something very special to help celebrate and commemorate this special year by way of a musical offering. To this end, a Combined Dominican Orchestra, from three Dominican Colleges across Adelaide being Blackfriars Priory School, Cabra and St Mary’s College made up of over 100 students, has been formed. The first rehearsal of this very large and talented ensemble took place on Tuesday 24 May and hosted St Mary’s College. This

orchestra is preparing a ‘symphonic work’ in four movements to be performed at the ABODA Band/Ensemble Competition being held in August at Westminster College. This is a great opportunity for students to play in an extra-large orchestra performing some exciting and challenging music for a great occasion. Ben Chambers Coordinator of Performance Music

Battle of the Bands - Rostrevor College On Friday 13 May, at Rostrevor College, for the first time, the Year 8 Rock Band

had a chance to perform in front of a public crowd. We performed ‘Tear in my Heart’ by Twenty-One Pilots and ‘History’ by One Direction. We were a bit nervous before we got on stage, but once we got up there we had a great time. We really enjoyed this experience and we can’t wait to perform again at Social Justice Day. Hannah Chambers (8 Blue)

On Friday 13 May, the Year 9 Rock Band had the amazing opportunity of performing at Rostrevor College for the Annual ‘Battle of the Bands’. The songs that we performed were

‘Check Yes Juliet’ by We the Kings, and ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ by Simple Minds. Leading up to the performance we were a little nervous as we had not yet performed in front of a crowd of strangers, so far this year. However, once we got on stage, we had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. All members of the band were very grateful that we were able to take part in this experience, and I hope that we will get similar opportunities in the future. Megan Girdler (9 Yellow)

St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

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St Mary’s College, Issue 7, Monday 6 June 2016

St Mary’s College Absentee Phone Line : 8216 5716

Please telephone before 9.30 am if your daughter is absent

St Mary’s College Uniform Shop : 8216 5719

Opening times - Monday 8.00 am - 11.00 am Wednesday 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm Thursday 8.00 am - 11.00 am

St Mary’s College OSHC : 8216 5743

St Mary’s College Uniform Shop

Will be closed for one week to complete stocktake

Monday 27 June - Friday 1 July 2016

Reopening Monday 4 July at 8.00 am

We apologise for any inconvenience

Latest Federation e-News!

Go to www.parentfederation.catholic.edu.au and click on the ‘News’ link for the Term 2 2016 edition of ‘Federation e-News’.

This is the quarterly e-newsletter for parents and families from the Federation of Catholic School Parent Communities.

The focus of this bumper edition is Catholic Education Week. In this edition, we announce the recipients of the 2016 Tom Ffrench Awards for Family Engagement in Catholic Education and hear parents’ stories of how their schools have shown that ‘Every Child Matters’. And so much more….. If you have an article you’d like to contribute or have an idea about what you’d like to read please contact us at the Federation on 8301 6685 or

email us at fedadmin@cesa.catholic.edu.au