2021 HSC RESULTS
The College is very proud of the 2021 HSC results and the achievements of the students in this cohort.

• 74 Band 6s or E4 (mark between 90-100)
• 220 Band 5s (mark between 80-89)
• One ‘All Rounder’ - Band 6 in every course - Ritika Dosanjh
• 37 students received one or more Band 6
• 75% of students were in the top three bands (Band 4-6) within their subjects
• 16 students achieved an ATAR 90+ 

The College will acknowledge the 16 students that have achieved an ATAR over 90 at the High Achievers Academic Assembly on 17 February.

The College congratulates the following 2021 HSC students for achieving a Band 6 Result in one of more of their courses:

CLASS GROUPINGS 2022 - Year 7 - 10

FLEXIBLE ABILITY GROUPING
In 2022 we have continued to implement an organisational process where we CLUSTER groups of students in ability groups. This is a broader concept than streaming because students are placed into groups by considering a number of measures of their academic performance and progress. The groups are flexible because we constantly monitor student progress and will move the learning environment appropriately. Realistically in our educational setting, this will occur at two points in a year.

We create homogenous groups of students grouped together based on identified learning needs. In these groups like-learners have the opportunity to learn together in an appropriate learning environment. Students are placed into an environment that will best support their learning needs so that they can achieve their full potential.

This grouping practice also allows teachers to explicitly focus on addressing learning needs.

A focus on PEDAGOGICAL DESIGN will allow teachers to adjust the learning environment, teaching instruction and content organisation. Each of these explicit approaches should enable students to achieve in the full range of achievement in the Common Grade Scale.

TEACHERS ORGANISATION OF LEARNING - Differentiation
In any one year all students follow the same program of work, studying essential content and working towards the achievement of syllabus outcomes.

Teachers of classes will vary (differentiate) the learning activities to support students in learning content, and these activities will support the different learning needs of the Core, Structured and Extended learning groups. This will mean that periodically classes will engage in different activities in order to learn the same content.

PROCESS of GROUPING STUDENTS

1. After enrolment and placement testing the Leaders of Learning - Curriculum and KLA Coordinators review diagnostic test data for individual students. This data provides information about the ways students learn and a snapshot of their learning achievement to date.
2. Students are placed into a learning environment that will best support the identified student learning needs so that they achieve their potential. This is reviewed at two (2) points during the year.
3. They will be clustered into three learning groups:

2022 CLASS GROUPING INFORMATION
Typically, the following conventions exist:

However, there are some exceptions:

YEAR 10: CAT (Catholic Studies) - informed by grouping with Electives, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, P, R, S, T) 

YEAR 9: CAT (Catholic Studies) - informed by grouping with Electives, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, P, R, S, T) 

YEAR 8 : HSIE/TEC/VAR - Practical class size, max 24 students, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, Q, P, R, S, T) 

YEAR 7 : CAT/TEC/PDH - Practical class size, max 24 students, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, Q, P, R, S, T) 

MATHEMATICS: Due to the Pathway structure of Stage 5 Mathematics, the following groupings exist for Year  9 and 10:

In Year 8, due to the half block nature of the timetable, the following groupings are implemented:

For Year 7 Mathematics, some preliminary data has been used to organise classes, however, all classes are considered Core, until they are reviewed during Semester 1.

Ms Chardy Miller
Leader of Learning - Curriculum Pedagogy

Good afternoon everyone,

As we commence 2022 I would like to share some information that is currently included in our College Diary and is important in terms of establishing norms and providing support for our students. The challenges of the past  2 years have reinforced greatly that we should take nothing for granted, whilst at the same time, displaying the great sense of cooperation, community, care and resilience that exists within Mount Carmel.

Having said that, it is also important to recognise that there are certain things that we can undertake that will foster even further our common goals with respect to Learning and Wellbeing. Firstly, the Pastoral Care foundations that we are built on here at the College. These pillars are fundamental to our Pastoral Care and Wellbeing programs and stress the importance of a holistic and collaborative approach to education. It is these themes that will be integrated into our Pastoral Care program over the coming year that will provide opportunity for group and individual challenge and growth.  

Secondly, the importance of maintaining a high standard of application and presentation as part of our broader community. Late last year, letters were sent out by each of our respective Year Coordinators outlining some of the expectations regarding uniform and grooming, among other things. Could I please remind students and carers of the expectations regarding hair, as outlined below:

Hair – Girls

• Hair must be tidy and neither grown nor groomed in an extreme or exaggerated fashion. Hair needs to be well brushed, combed and tidy. Extremes of cut, dyeing/foils, gels, mousse, sprays and steps must not be used.
  
• Hair must be of a natural colour and in such a condition that it does not invite comment
  
• Ribbons (cardinal red, navy blue or white) are to be used to tie back hair longer than collar length
  
• No patterns or lines are to be shaved into the scalp or eyebrows
  
• Hair should not obscure the face. No fancy clips or hair accessories.

Hair – Boys

• Hair must be of a natural colour, tidy and neither grown nor groomed in an extreme or exaggerated fashion
  
• The following are not allowed – steps, undercutting, dyeing, layering, colour variations, gels, too long (over collar and/or ears), obscuring the face or eyebrows, or too short. Hair may not be tied up (e.g. pony tail)
  
• Extremes of cut, dyeing, gels, mousse and sprays must not be used
  
• Nothing below a #2 gauge/blade (unless a medical condition exists) is acceptable and no patterns or lines are to be shaved into the scalp or eyebrows. Changes in length should be blended
  
• Hair must be in such a condition that it does not invite comment
  
• All boys must be clean-shaven.

Lastly, it is important that each individual student accepts responsibility for their own level of wellbeing. The SEEEDSS program provides a scaffold for the awareness and implementation of a variety of strategies and skills that we can all apply to monitor and adapt behaviours that can influence our individual and collective wellbeing. Again, this program will be part of each Year Groups Pastoral Care and Wellbeing throughout 2022.

Each of these matters are explained in more detail in the Student Diaries. Please feel free to discuss these with your son or daughter, or contact their respective Year Coordinator for further information.

Elevate Education
In conjunction with presentations to Years 8 & 11 later this year, Elevate has provided access to a range of webinars throughout the year for teachers, parents and carers. The first Webinar for the year is next Wednesday.

• February 9 - Motivation and the role of parental praise and goals.

Each seminar commences at 7pm. Registration is essential and free for parents of Mount Carmel Catholic College. You can register by clicking here.

Each webinar runs live on-line for an hour where the presenter will share Elevate’s key research and skills and will conduct a live Q&A so you can ask them questions directly. Should you have any questions or would like to contact Elevate directly, their details are listed below.

Thanks in anticipation of your support throughout 2022.

Mr Simon Huntly
Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Coordinator

We begin a new school year in challenging and uncertain times. Complex situations such as these call for a particularly rich and enthusiastic community response. Given literacy’s profound impact on learning, communication, enjoyment and agency, it is timely to revisit the literacy landscape at Mount Carmel – a landscape central to the intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual development of all students.  

Literacy is the ability to read, write, view, speak and listen for different purposes in a range of situations. It is fundamental to a student’s ability to learn at school and to participate in life beyond school. Parents are a vital component of the literacy learning process. Parent engagement in learning is known to lead to improved outcomes for students of all ages. The role of parents and other adult caregivers is therefore critical. Connecting learning at home and learning at school in the form of a literacy partnership is an exciting initiative at Mount Carmel. The Mount Carmel Home-School Partnership is a commitment to joint action in which parents and teachers work together to improve student learning outcomes. 

This collaborative and creative venture is based on the following core principles: 

• parents are the first and continuing educators of their children
• learning is life-long and occurs in multiple settings
• partnerships grow from mutual trust, respect and responsibility
• schools and communities flourish when the diversity and strengths of families are valued and privileged.

The key dimensions which frame the building of this partnership include the following:

• communication
• connection between home and school
• community and identity building
• recognition of the important role of the family
• consultation on decision-making
• participation.

As part of this literacy partnership, Mount Carmel is committed to the following:

• engaging with parents and families to explore ways to support learning at home 
• providing development and training opportunities that bring teachers and parents together
• providing resources and opportunities to support and facilitate home-based learning
• proactively communicating and discussing students’ progress with parents 
• integrating family engagement into curriculum planning. 

Parental engagement strategies which lead to positive student learning outcomes include:

• having high aspirations for your children
• the privileging of books and reading for pleasure
• shared reading experiences
• establishing reasonable screen time boundaries 
• having rich and regular parent-child conversations
• communicating to your children the value of education
• positive parent-teacher relationships.

As the Literacy Instructional Coach, I will be communicating with parents and caregivers regularly throughout the year. I encourage you to contact me if there are any questions or concerns regarding literacy and learning. 

Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach 

Over the last few years, our Senior School Technology Officer has been developing strategies to ensure improvements in IT systems and processes. An enormous amount of work has been completed in ensuring better hardware has been built into classes, better internet connections and new wiring and Wi-Fi capability and improvements to our surveillance systems with the introduction of more and better quality CCTV to assist in monitoring safety and out of hours security. The current phase of improvements include an upgrade of our PA system and the launch of our new website. I thank Mr Grana for his time, effort and expertise in ensuring we have the best equipment available for our students and staff.

To continue the streamlining of our IT processes, next week you will receive an email asking you to agree to certain conditions should your child need to borrow a computer from the College. When students fail to charge their devices or these need repair, our technology assistants will sometimes offer a loan device. As you would be aware, these are expensive devices and we need to ensure students take responsibility for their care and appropriate use. If you do not want your child to have access to these daily loan devices, there will be a spot for you to indicate this. If you do wish your child to have this access, we ask for your agreement to the appropriate conditions. This will be outlined in the Compass 'Technology Loan Device Agreement' event notification which will be sent out next week.