This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Advent. As with the past two weeks, we have been preparing for a major event in the Church’s calendar with the birth of Jesus Christ. This week, Jesus speaks of John the Baptist and how he was sent to ‘prepare the way’ for Jesus. Advent gives us a focus for the weeks leading up to Christmas and encourages us to reflect on our lives and how we are moving closer to the coming of Christ. Our thoughts and actions should be specifically considering how we are preparing for Jesus and how we might welcome him into our daily lives.

This week, Mount Carmel was named as the champion school for the Macarthur Independent School’s Association (MISA) competition for 2022. The MISA champion school is won following the collation of all the results from MISA competitions throughout the year. It is certainly a very exciting achievement to know that our students have consistently been the best at the various competitions we have entered and have placed ahead of 14 independent Christian schools within our region. Congratulations to all students who have represented Mount Carmel in any MISA competitions. Your efforts and achievements have contributed to this result and reinforces that Mount Carmel is certainly a college that provides opportunities for excellence.

On Tuesday evening, the College hosted the Creative Arts exhibition. This has been the first major opportunity in three years to exhibit student artworks from various year groups. The evening was attended by an estimated 200 people and the artworks were a credit to the students. In many cases, these artworks have taken months to create and there was a great sense of energy from the students who exhibited them. Students were also given the opportunity in some classes to visit the exhibition during Wednesday and Thursday. Well done to all involved and especially to our CAPAL staff who assisted students in the creation of the work and organised the evening.

Over the past week, we have seen two significant appointments for the College. Mr Simon Huntly has been appointed as the Acting Assistant Principal for 2023 following Mr Cloran’s secondment to Magdalene as the Acting Principal. Mr Huntly has been our Pastoral and Wellbeing Coordinator for three years and has previously been an Assistant Principal and Acting Principal in the Wagga Diocese. Mr Huntly brings a wealth of experience and will be a valuable asset in this role at Mount Carmel. We also welcome Mrs Alison Bostock to the College as the Senior School Support Officer. Mrs Bostock joins us from Paramatta Diocese and has been working in schools for almost 20 years. She will have the chance to settle into this role for the next few weeks before taking full charge at the start of 2023.

Today we held our Sports’ Awards assembly for 2022. These awards in the past have been presented on a Tuesday afternoon in staged groups. This year, we decided to raise the profile and present these in front of the whole student population. Unfortunately, due to the size of our hall and possible estimated visitor numbers, this meant that we could not invite parents as we did not know if they would fit into the hall. In retrospect with lower student numbers today, this would have been possible. I understand this would disappoint some and we will look at other options moving forward. Congratulations to all the students and thank you to Mrs Turnbull on her organisation of these.

Excavation has started on our new STEM block and the internal demolition has occurred to our maths block. The work on these buildings is sparking a lot of interest amongst the students and I am pleased to say that the maths building is on target for majority completion for the start of next year. I will keep the community posted as we hit various milestones.

Friday 16 December will be the last day for students, with the final College Mass, awards ceremonies and our traditional student concert. The following Monday morning (Dec 19) will be parent/teacher/student zooms for those who wish followed by staff PD. The College office will close at Midday on Tuesday Dec 20 and reopen on Jan 25. This will be readvertised in next Friday’s newsletter which will be the last for the year.

Ite in Veritate

Mr Steve Lo Cascio