Dear parents, friends, staff and students,

This Sunday we celebrate the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity refers to the fact that as Catholics, we believe that God exists as three persons within one being. God the Father (Creator), Jesus the son (Redeemer) and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial (of one substance). Each plays a role in the saving nature of God but there is clearly only one God. People of other faith will sometimes struggle with this concept. For us, it is reassuring that we have a loving God that can be with us in different ways to help us toward salvation. As stated in the book of Genesis (1:31), our creator – ‘God looked upon all that He had made (including humanity) and it was good’. As Jesus our redeemer did, “There is no greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). As we are told in Matthew (28:20) “I will be with you always, even until the end of time”. This is the nature of the most Holy Trinity.

Next Friday our college community celebrates Champagnat Day (the actual feast is Tuesday June 6). This has traditionally been the major community day on the College calendar. The reason this is important is that it recognises our link to the little brothers of Mary (Maryists or those we now call Marists). St Marcellin founded this group of men to specifically educate young people. His goal was to give them skills and knowledge to become competent and valuable citizens but more specifically, he wanted to “make Jesus known and loved”. For this reason, he sent brothers to all corners of the earth and now there are over 600 Marist schools with more than a half a million current Marist students. This makes us a part of an enormous global family. Champagnat Day is a day that reminds us of our charism whilst having time to celebrate and enjoy the presence of others. For this reason, there are three stages to our day. We begin with a celebration of the mass and recognition of students who live our values. We then move to stalls that incorporate food and games and finally finish with a school concert. Each of these things links us back to our community. Many other schools across the world will be doing similar things during next week. On this day, students will be fundraising for Marist Solidarity which assists Marist schools across the Pacific region. Parents are most welcome to attend the Champagnat day mass commencing at 9.15am. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to the front office to assist staff in catering for additional seating.

A few weeks ago, many of you completed the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey which gave feedback on a number of areas at Mount Carmel. We received the results of these during the week and whilst the College Leadership Team have started to look at these, it will take some time to digest and examine the data. There has already been some valuable discussion around why scores may have been given and what we might do to improve. Our intention is to share some of this with you more broadly when we have the chance. Unfortunately, one omission by the company running the survey was around our faith dimension. We have asked some questions over the last few years that are able to give us trends. For this analysis to happen, we need these questions answered. This survey is 5 multi-choice questions and will take around 60 seconds. I would ask that parents please complete this one last section. Your input is valuable whether you completed the TTFM survey or not. You can access the survey here.

A few weeks ago, an agreement was reached to enable staff to develop new programs around new syllabuses that will be introduced over the next few years. Part of this agreement included an extra Staff Development Day each year to provide staff with an opportunity to collaborate and plan. Each school in our diocese was asked to consider where this was best placed to provide maximum advantage. At the P&F meeting, I proposed to parents that we would include our extra planning day at the start of week 6 in term 4. As we already have a day on the calendar, this means that both Friday Nov 10 and Monday Nov 13 will be pupil free days. This ensures that our HSC students are not disadvantaged and provides an opportunity for the remaining students to work on assessment tasks or upcoming exams. It ensures that staff will get maximum benefit from the day by linking it to work already being completed and it may also provide an opportunity for some families to escape for a long weekend. Please add this new date to your calendars.

Ite in Veritate

Mr Steve Lo Cascio