This Sunday’s Gospel reading from John 10:1-10 describes Jesus’ attempt to explain his role as the Good Shepherd to a group of Pharisees. Throughout this short reading, Jesus refers to himself as being both a “Shepherd”, who is concerned and caring for his followers, and also as a Gateway to the Lord and eternal salvation. It is important for us to remember, as we commence our new term of learning and spiritual growth, that as members of a Catholic community, we are all gifted with the responsibility of being shepherds and gates for all members of our community, particularly those who may be struggling with a range of challenges in their lives. We hope that the upcoming term will be one that allows us to further develop our skills, knowledge and understanding in both a learning and spiritual context and that we continue to support all members, particularly those in most need.

In his absence, we continue to wish Mr Lo Cascio all the best for his time in the Holy Land and La Valla. He has been in communication from time to time with staff and has greatly appreciated the opportunity to immerse himself in his own spiritual development by his visits to the lands where Jesus and Blessed Marcellin Champagnat answered their call to continue God’s work.

At the time of our last Newsletter, Mr Lo Cascio placed a reminder for the return of applications for Year 7 2024. At this stage we have had well over 300 applications and our Leadership team, KLA Coordinators, Year Coordinators and Diverse Learning team has conducted around 240 Interviews, with the majority of these being over the past 2 days. The interviews could only occur in the smooth manner that they did courtesy of the magnificent work by our Front Office staff who booked interviews and organised the schedule. Thanks to all staff involved for making the interviews such a success. We will finalise this stage of the enrolment process over the next week or so, with notification of offers due to be mailed out on June 23.

I would like to announce that Mr Greg King will commence the role as Full-time PDHPE Coordinator from Monday June 5. Greg previously held the position before taking up employment at the Association of Independent Schools for the past 18 months. We look forward to his return in 5 weeks’ time. In the interim, Ms Susan Turnbull will assume the Acting 2 point Coordinator role until Greg commences. Also, congratulations to Mr Brendan Berkeley, who is the successful applicant for the Year 9 Coordinator position whilst Ms Tara Hibberd is on Maternity Leave. Brendan will commence this role at the start of Week 3.

The new Science and TAS Block is steadily taking shape with significant progress still being made on the foundations and footings (see image below).

This Thursday will see a significant concrete pour to the existing work and we should see an acceleration of construction above the ground over the coming weeks. During the break, renovation work was completed in J-Block, an upgrade of our existing Fire Hydrant system was completed and folding walls in the Year 7 Rooms in D-Block were installed. Thanks to our IT and Maintenance staff who liaised with contractors during the completion of these works.

Finally, an invitation is extended to our Year 7 Parents and Carers to attend our 2024 Literacy evening next Wednesday, May 3. Our English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach, Ms Clare Murphy, will be presenting some valuable information regarding the importance of literacy skills and what we can do as a partnership to support students and families to improve literacy outcomes. This evening will commence at 6.30pm and be held in the College Library.

Thanks to all students, families and staff for their role in what has been a positive start to the term. We look forward to continuing this enthusiasm and application to our learning over the coming weeks.

Ite In Veritate

Mr Simon Huntly

Writing is a medium for thinking and making sense of experience. When we write, we write ourselves into meaning, discovering ideas and generating insights. We write to clarify, solve problems, shape and communicate our beliefs and perspectives, experiment, access the inner world of thoughts and emotions and conduct our transactions in the public, social and professional areas. Every act of writing is therefore potentially an act of creation.

With advances in neuroscience over the last decades, we are gaining valuable insights into the role of writing in cognitive development and the benefits of and processes involved in the act of writing. Most interesting amongst these for teaching writing is the evidence that:

• Expressive writing has shown to reduce stress by 60%. This kind of writing may include, for example, journal writing, stories and reflections.
• Writing for 15 minutes, three times a week, has shown to improve sleep and have a positive impact on mental health.
• Regular expressive writing is linked to improved immune function, mood and general wellbeing.
• Writing regularly can assist in closing ‘mental tabs’ which lead to stress and neural overload.
• Writing by hand has been shown to improve understanding and the retention of information. Pen and paper writing sends unique sensory signals to the brain that build motor memory and imprint knowledge in the brain more effectively than through using a keyboard. So, thinking and memory are enhanced by pen and paper writing rather than keyboard writing.

The act of writing regularly is therefore not only advantageous for students’ academic performance, but also of considerable potential benefit to an individual’s health and wellbeing. Thus, the formation of a community of teacher-writers and student-writers is an important part of the Mount Carmel literacy landscape.

Clare Murphy

English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach

Please see attached Bus flashing lights campaign information from Transport for NSW which commences Term 2.