This coming Monday (21st March) students will be invited to support a fundraising initiative on behalf of one of our fellow Marist schools, Trinity Catholic College in Lismore. The College was inundated in the recent floods, sustaining damage to every classroom, staff area and facility. As a Mount Carmel community, we will be holding a BBQ fundraiser on Monday in order to raise money to assist their rebuilding efforts. Our thanks in advance to any students or families who are able to assist this very worthy cause.

As our parents and carers of students in Years 7 & 8 would be aware, this coming Monday, students will be receiving their whooping cough & HPV immunisations from NSW Health. Year 7 are receiving their first round of injections, whilst Year 8 will be receiving their second round after it was cancelled last year due to the pandemic. To assist with this process, students are asked to wear their sports uniform on Monday and to ensure that they have a suitable breakfast on Monday morning. 

Finally, as has been stated previously, I request that families inform the College immediately should any student test positive to COVID-19 and again stress that should this occur, the student must isolate for a minimum of 7 days, along with any sibling from the same household (unless the household contact has completed 7 days of isolation in the previous 21 days). Finally, I would also ask that students who are displaying any type of flu-like symptoms stay at home until such symptoms have ceased. 

Kind regards,

David Cloran

Assistant Principal

C.S. Lewis urges us to read because ‘words matter.’ He says that ‘we read to know that we are not alone … to link our stories with others and to remember that our life, like all lives, has a story.’ Stories engage our interests, curiosity, fear, and sense of wonder. Part of the attraction of a story is that as the drama unfolds and readers engage with characters, alanguage and the events of the narrative, they discover an imagined role for themselves. This sense of ‘power’, choice and role-taking creates greater enthusiasm for identification, reflection upon important issues and the imagined consideration of alternative endings that occur through this literary encounter. There can be a special intimacy and trust created between a storyteller and a reader.

Morris Gleitzman is one of Australia’s most popular authors of books for young people. His novels explore serious and sometimes quite confronting issues in humorous and unexpected ways. Of his many publications, it is the wonderful Felix series which is my favourite. Beginning with the book Once published in 2005, and followed by Then, Now, After, Soon, Maybe and Always, the series takes the reader on a journey of discovery which is filled with a mixture of joy, hope, surprise, pain and sorrow. The English department at Mount Carmel has class sets of the first six books in this series and I’m sure we will be purchasing the final book published only late last year.

When Gleitzman first began planning Once he had no idea that a ten-year-old Polish Jewish boy by the name of Felix would take him on the writing journey of his life. ‘I just wanted to write a story about friendship’, Gleitzman said. ‘A wonderful friendship between two young people who can’t believe their luck because they find what most of us want more than anything – a true friend.’ Interestingly, the author didn’t want his story to be too ‘safe’. He wanted to explore every aspect of friendship and determine if this particular kind of relationship could survive in very difficult circumstances. So, he made the creative decision to place the two young friends in the middle of a terrible war – the Second World War.

Researching and writing Once became a personal journey for Gleitzman as his grandfather was a Polish Jew from Krakow. As a young man, Gleitzman’s grandfather had left Poland and travelled to England, years before the Holocaust. Sadly, many members of his family who stayed in Poland, were killed by the Nazis. When Gleitzman travelled to Poland and visited the Jewish cemetery in Krakow, he found a memorial with his family name on it. This discovery allowed him to ‘meet’ in his imagination, a boy called Felix, who would come to represent the many children whose lives were shattered by war and violence. This character Felix is again representative of the children caught up in war and violence today, in places like Ukraine and Syria.

Through the stories of real and imagined life we become aware of ourselves as feeling and thinking beings who belong in a world potentially more complex than, or very different from, our own. The reading of such stories creates a pattern to human experience which has the potential to inspire the young and affirm the old. Stephen King was right when he described books as ‘a uniquely portable magic’.

Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach

If you have received a reminder SMS this week, this is to advise you that a scheduled payment is now overdue. If you have since made payment, no further action is required.

If you are unable to pay the amount in the SMS please contact the Finance Team. Kindly note that if you have a previous agreement for your school fees, these agreements are not rolled over to 2022 fees. New agreements will need to be arranged with Finance. The college finance office can be contacted by Phone 9603 3000 or by email mccc-finance@dow.catholic.edu.au

If you would like to add payment instalments to you school fee account - please complete the following form and email it to instalments@dow.catholic.edu.au

This week Year 8 participated in a fundraiser for Caritas’ Project Compassion. This involved a coin line where in Pastoral Classes students brought in coins and created lines. Several of the lines stretched beyond the width of a basketball court raising valuable funds for those less fortunate. Year 8 raised over $300 in the exercise which was an amazing effort and example of the generosity of the students.

LIVE is a unique initiative of Catholic Youth Ministry Wollongong (CYMW) which targets secondary school aged youth. LIVE nights occur within the broader LIVE framework and are at the forefront of the Youth Ministry Plan in the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong. The selected program for each event will offer scenarios that encourage students to Encounter Christ, grow in their Knowledge of Christ, develop a sense of Ownership of their faith, and discover opportunities for Broader Engagement/Mission/Service. Each event involves live music, relationship and community building activities, video and spoken presentations. Each event consists of a lunchtime concert (LIVE lunchtime) followed by a twilight retreat (LIVE night) for Years 7-12. LIVE nights consist of a three hour program that is held onsite at Mount Carmel Catholic College. The program begins shortly after the school day has finished at 3:30pm and finishes by 7:00pm.

Mr Bernard O'Connell
Youth Ministry Coordinator

Mount Carmel Second Hand Uniform Shop sells pre-owned College uniforms at less than half the cost of new uniforms. 

You can bring your child's uniforms to the shop when they no longer fit or you no longer need them (Uniforms must be clean and in good condition. Blazers must be dry cleaned). The Second-hand Uniform shop will sell the uniforms on your behalf, and after they sell the P & F Committee will transfer the money to your nominated bank account.  The P & F will keep 10% of all sales.  You are also able to donate the uniforms and then the P & F will benefit from 100% of the sales.  

The uniform shop is open from 2.30 - 4pm on the days listed below, usually the first Monday of each month.  The shop will next be open on Monday 21 March 2022. The shop is run by parent volunteers to raise money for the P & F Committee and to help families of the school with low-cost uniforms. 

If any parent wishes to volunteer in the Second-hand Uniform Shop please contact the school office.

Term 1 2022

Monday 21 March

Monday 4 April

Term 2 2022

Monday 2 May

Monday 6 June

Term 3 2022

Monday 1 August

Monday 5 September

Term 4 2022

Monday 7 November

Monday 5 December

Cash only - no EFTPOS facilities