The past week has again seen our community re-engage with a range of activities and events that had been somewhat of a distant memory over the past couple of years which are an integral part of educating the total person, building community and providing a broad range of experiences for our students to excel in. These included:

• Tuesday: Year 12 students attended the University of Wollongong Discovery Day
• Wednesday: HSC Ancient History students attend a Pompeii and Herculaneum “Sources and Artifacts” excursion at Macquarie University.
• Wednesday evening: Year 7 Meet and Greet night for students, parents and pastoral advisors
• Friday: House Assemblies and Murray House Liturgy and fundraising BBQ.

Thanks to all staff and students who prepared, supervised and attended these events. With respect to the Meet and Greet night, thanks to those parents and carers who attend in support of the evening and to our Year 12 Student Representative Council members who assisted with being ushers and assistants throughout the evening and to a small group of musical performers who provided some entertainment.

Two weeks ago, I placed a reminder to families regarding drop off and pick up of students in the College Car Park. Could I again remind parents who drop off and pick up their children, we ask that you do not enter the turning circle in front of the administration office at peak times each morning and afternoon. Students need to be dropped off in the parent carpark which is to the left as soon as you drive through the College gates, or they can be dropped off or collected from along Spitfire Drive. The sobering events earlier this week are a reminder of the need to practise safety and caution during these times. Spitfire Drive, in particular, does not have a designated pedestrian crossing and I remind students and carers to be patient, especially during the afternoon pick-up. Please also be aware that the use of the Parish Child Centre Car park coincides with their peak period as well. The centre has allocated specific spaces for their exclusive use and would greatly appreciate our assistance in providing a safe environment.  I thank you for your ongoing co-operation and support with this matter.

Mr Simon Huntly

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A (The Last of the Green)

First Reading: Lv 19:1-2. 17-18 - Love your neighbour as yourself.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 102:1-4. 8. 10. 12-13. R. v.8 

(R.) The Lord is kind and merciful.

Second Reading:1 Cor 3:16-23 - What is wise with the world, is absurd with God.

Gospel Acclamation  1 Jn 2:5 

            Alleluia, alleluia!

          Whoever keeps the word of Christ,

grows perfect in the love of God.      

Alleluia!

Gospel: Mt 5:38-48 - Turn the other cheek.

This Week

At the Opening College Mass, students will receive Ashes as well as the Eucharist.

 

During Lent, we, the Church, do not have flowers or say the alleluia at mass. 

The Liturgical colour is purple! A purple cloth was placed on Jesus, and it is now associated with pain, suffering, mourning and penance.

Mrs Christine Meharg

Last Friday I had the opportunity to speak to a Year 8 English class about current affairs. I asked them to tell me what was happening in the world at present. They thought for a moment and then one student said, ‘Latrell Mitchell had a fight with Jack Wighton". Now, I had heard of Latrell Mitchell but not of the other person mentioned. I assumed he was also a rugby league player of note. Others in the class then nodded and said they had seen some footage of the pair on social media being escorted away by the police. I then asked the class had they heard about the earthquake which had hit Turkey and Syria causing incredible loss of life and destruction. Only two raised their hands. I asked them if they could locate Turkey or Syria on a map of the world and again there was silence.

On the same day I showed my Year 12 English class a poignant photograph taken days before of a man sitting alone on a pile of rubble that was once his home and holding the hand of his dead 15 year-old daughter. The man’s name was Mesut Hancer and his daughter, Irmak. We discussed the notion of perspective and commented on our own worlds where issues such as ‘COVID fatigue’ and disconnection as well as upcoming assessment tasks and study seemed somewhat ‘small’ in the scheme of things.

While we live in a context saturated with information, noise, and constant stimuli, our knowledge of the world is dramatically shrinking. Another critical dimension which is disappearing is our language. We are losing the ability to use words confidently and competently to communicate, to question, to create, to speculate and to think. Knowledge of the world and a rich vocabulary are essential for learning and for life. They allow us to look beyond self and to imagine what life may be like for others in different circumstances. Our current situation calls for radical acts such as reading books, writing stories, watching the news and turning off devices. Our young people particularly need to broaden their horizons and learn about themselves and the world around them beyond Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

Clare Murphy

English Coordination and Literacy Instructional Coach

Something that is continually stressed in the English classroom is the importance of reading, specifically the need for students to develop an authentic love of reading to relish in the multitude of possibilities it allows for; from escaping to other worlds to finding comfort in the arms of new friends; from developing empathy for the trials and tribulations of others to understanding one’s own challenges and triumphs more clearly.

‘I do believe something magical can happen when you read a good book’ – J.K. Rowling

‘We read to know we are not alone’ – C.S. Lewis   

Last week, in my Year 11 English Advanced class, students were invited to read letters written to young readers by accomplished writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers – such as Neil Gaiman, Anne Lamott, David Whyte and Jane Goodall – in a collection edited by Maria Popova, A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader. After some close consideration of the advice offered in the letters, and a reflection on their own experiences as young readers, students were asked to craft a letter of their own that offered some advice and encouragement to other young readers about the joy, knowledge and adventure that lives between the pages of a book.

Please enjoy some excerpts from their work:

“The truth is, in this picket-fenced world, books will not seek you, you must seek them out first. Run your soft, fragile fingers of the mind over the shelves splattered with books and count to 10 or 26 seconds as slowly or quickly as you need. Select at random or select at a precise point on the maze of spines. Do not follow the trends of the scripted world around you, fulfill your own insatiable desires for knowledge. Through this, you will find more about yourself than you could have ever known waiting at the door of impossible possibilities. Open it and see for yourself.” – Magdalena Kawa

“In encountering literature, the chains constricting your freedom to orbit stars, glide amongst clouds and wrestle behemoths, fall, rebinding themselves to bridges that link imagination to reality. The possibilities are truly endless. By your choosing, reading births the potential to venture in all forms. Realising the power of words incites a power of your choice. Much like bricklaying, reading is but an active puzzle that sanctions access to rooms unvisited. Rooms that house colour and experience in mediums often intangible to the person next to you. The trepidation felt remembering something forgotten, like a cold fish, slinks and bucks in your gut, awakening jolting fears akin to one’s sporadic rise to verbal, quaking alarms never set. Books are the key to the doors of such incomprehensible entities.” – Jacob Ramos

“Between the pages is the nexus of all worlds conceivable, the gateway to a vast catalogue of distant lands, peculiar peoples, wondrous adventures and countless subtle but thrilling lives to see through. Between the pages lies the crest of a wave rearing to crash a universe of adventure, emotion and experience on the baron eyes of the beholder. Between the pages is the seedling, yearning and aching to blossom into a cacophonous symphony of colour, spectacle and intrigue. Between the pages is the salvation from reality, the momentary escape which sustains our very being. What one discovers between the pages is the resolution of the self, necessary clarity only discoverable through each fold and turn. Between the pages lies lands beyond human conception, a world so vast, so beautiful our minds can merely attempt to paint a picture. The limitless horizon that is married to the beginning of a page pulls the reader between the arms of a loving mother, the tender kiss of a lover, the slay of a monster, the loss of a father. A thousand lives wash over the bare mind of a reader. Only between the pages of a book. Only between these very pages. Only between the pages of a book can one experience true experience.” – Matias Rennert

“When we read, we read for escapism, experience and empathy. We read for the satisfaction of another page turning or the accomplishment of the bookmark eagerly edging closer towards the end of the loose string. The string that weaves in and out of the characters’ lives, setting and plot which will eventually form a loop to reveal the fates and final destination of these characters which have left an imprint on our own journey. It is through this that we, as humans, gain a sense of our identity. A sense of belonging intertwined between our hearts and minds and the words starched onto the raw pages of power and passion. Pages which have the force to spark the intangibility of your artistry.” – Samarah Tolley

“When I was younger, not nearly old enough to tie my shoes or old enough to reach the clothes line, I found my comfort in the strings of letters that created characters from worlds I knew more about than my own. When I was younger, I spent more time in fantasy than reality,

And I loved it that way.” – Meghann Peeters  

“When I read it's like a splatter of paint, reading and reading, I feel so much colour, so much light and opportunity, so much creativity.” – April Phommasaeng-Hoang

“Your journey as a reader is like the growth of a seedling. The more you read, the more nourishment you receive and you begin to grow.” – Anna Segovia

“It is in reading - truly reading, that I found my peace.” – Liam Tannoury

Mrs Monique Hutchen

Assistant English Coordinator

Mount Carmel P&F Clothing Pool 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 Clothing Pool is open from 2.30-4pm on the first Monday of each month.  The shop will next be open on Monday 7 March 2023. 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.

Cash only - no EFTPOS facilities