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Dear parents, friends, staff and students,
Over the last few weeks, we have celebrated the time of Easter and the subsequent appearances of Christ after His resurrection. In this Sunday’s Gospel, (John 10: 11-18), Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd. On a number of occasions throughout the New Testament, we see references to shepherds and sheep and whilst this had a specific contextual importance at the time, it still has deep meaning for us today. Jesus says that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep and that he knows them and loves them. This is an image of a caring and compassionate guide and protector. This shepherd is not just an employee working for someone else but has a deep and unwavering interest in what happens to the sheep. In the same way, Jesus knows us, loves us and laid down His life for us. Our reliance on His guidance is both necessary and beneficial. As we move out from the time of the Resurrection, we can gain comfort in the knowledge that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is with us and caring for us.
Over the past week, we have been conducting the majority of our enrolment meetings for Year 7, 2022 applicants. Once again at these meetings, many parents and potential students speak of the reputation of the College and of the positive impression that is made by our current students at information evenings and within the community. I would like to congratulate the majority of our students for the way they behave in public and the way that they enhance the reputation of their College. Thank you for continuing to work toward the values and standards of a Mount Carmel graduating student. Thank you also to the staff who have worked extremely hard to hold these meetings and build these relationships with our potential future students.
For parents who have been associated with the College for the last few years, you would be aware that one component of our School Improvement Plan is focussed on feedback. Toward the end of term 1, members of our community were provided with a link to comment on the strategic plan of Catholic Education, Diocese of Wollongong. At the end of term, students were given an opportunity to provide feedback to their individual teachers on their own classes. The last of this round of feedback to us is provided now to enable parents to comment on the College as a whole. This survey titled ‘Tell Them From Me’ (TTFM) contains the same questions that were asked last year to enable us to track trends and improvements. We would greatly appreciate this feedback to enable us to build this into our own strategic plans. To access this survey please click here.
Upon return this term, the students would have noticed a large number of Builder’s markings on the concrete around the College. These are the result of the decision to move forward in our planning for the development plans that I outlined at the last P&F meeting. These plans are currently with council. Once we have final approval for these plans, I will show them to the students and provide more detail for parents.
Earlier this week, we conducted our annual evacuation drill. Once again, the students were very cooperative and evacuated in an orderly and calm manner. These drills help us to provide a safe environment and whilst they are a minor disruption, they are an important requirement.
Next week, Mount Carmel will be hosting staff from around the Macarthur who will be undertaking a Mini Certificate of Gifted Education (Mini-COGE). A number of our staff will also be undertaking this training in order to improve their skills in this area. Whilst the training will have minimal impact on Mount Carmel, I encourage the students to say hello to these guests if they see them around the College.
Mr Steve Lo Cascio
Principal
With the new term underway we have recently received a list of updated COVID19 directives from the Catholic Education Office (via Catholic Schools NSW and NSW Health). These include:
- Students are not required to physically distance.
- Staff physical distancing is now recommended rather than required where practicable.
- Detailed restrictions on singing, bands and ensembles and dance and drama have been removed.
- No capacity restriction in offices.
- No restrictions on singing in places of worship.
- No requirements for wearing a mask at indoor venues or while using transport services.
- A strong focus is to be maintained on accurate record keeping to support contact tracing in case there is an outbreak given the relaxation on other restrictions.
- No restrictions on group work or any school related activities.
- All visitors continue to sign in each day using the Quick Sign-In iPad in order to meet NSW Health's contact tracing requirements.
These new directives remain in addition to our ongoing standard reminders for all families, which include:
- Keeping your child home when they are unwell, even with very mild symptoms.
- Informing the school immediately if your child is self-isolating or undergoing testing, and informing us of the result as soon as possible.
- Following sickness with flu-like symptoms, ensuring your child is free of symptoms and can present a negative COVID-19 test, before they return to school.
All the best for the week ahead,
David Cloran
Assistant Principal
- 26 April – NAPLAN Equating Test – Year 7
- 27 April - NAPLAN Equating Test – Year 9
- 12 – 13 May – NAPLAN
- 14 May – Year 11 Academic Reports available to available to parents (COMPASS)
- 17 May – NAPLAN
- 19 May - Year 11 PTS Interviews
- 18 June – Year 7-10 Academic Reports available to parents (COMPASS)
CURRICULUM MATTERS...
NAPLAN
MCCC has been selected for NAPLAN Equating Tests. These will occur on Monday 26 April (Year 7) and Tuesday 27 April (Year 9). A small group (approx. 30 students) will be involved. All parents of students involved have received a letter advising such.
NAPLAN - 2021
Wednesday, May 12 - Year 7
Thursday, May 13 - Year 9
Monday, May 17 - Year 7 (period 1 - 2), Year 9 (period 3 - 4)
Ms Judith Tolomeo
Curriculum Coordinator
Good afternoon everyone,
As part of our ongoing development of a Growth Mindset, it is important that we continually take time to pause, reflect and reset with regards to our learning. The end of Term One, with the distribution of Interim Reports, has provided an opportunity for students in years seven through to eleven to reflect on their progress so far this year. Part of this reflection involves students analysing their reports as a means of identifying areas that they are progressing well in, those that may have scope for improvement and to consider strategies that could be employed over the coming term to make improvements in their learning. These reflections will be conducted in Pastoral Classes over the coming weeks. Below is a sample of the type of questions that students will address.
Where am I now?
|
What am I doing well? |
Evidence |
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What needs more work? |
Evidence |
What do I do next to move my learning forward?
The three most important things for me to do are:
Similar to the process of reviewing learning data, the College is undertaking this year’s “Tell Them From Me Survey” over the next week or so. This information is valuable for our College in gaining the insights from all community members, which will then assist us in planning and addressing the learning and wellbeing needs of our students based on data rather than assumptions and past practice. We greatly appreciate the feedback being provided by students in completing this survey.
Mr Simon Huntly
Pastoral Care and Wellbeing Coordinator
Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions.
Carl Sagan
American astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan emphasised the critical importance of writing when he stated, ‘Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of magic.’
As teachers, we aspire for our students to be competent, motivated and confident writers. Yet, the challenges we face in engaging our students in purposeful writing, in generating their enthusiasm for writing, and in developing their writing skills, are substantial. The social and private worlds of many of our young people are increasingly framed through written language that is instantaneous, often fragmented and conveyed in the moment as direct speech communicated via a digital platform. Text messaging, Instagram, Twitter, and other forms of social media have become the usual channels for constructing identities, forming relationships and interacting in a range of contexts. Immersed as they are in digital technology, many of our students are confident and capable when it comes to participating in everyday online communication. However, when it comes to the more complex and formal writing demands of the school curriculum, the situation is quite different. The academic context of school writing rewards written, literate and standard English as distinct from the more informal, spoken English dialect used in casual communication. Equipping students with the wide range of writing capabilities which allow them to succeed at school and work, is a responsibility which teachers take very seriously.
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.
Terry Tempest Williams captures the importance of writing in the following reflection:
“I write to make peace with the things I cannot control. I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white. I write to discover. I write to uncover. I write to meet my ghosts. I write to begin a dialogue. I write to imagine things differently and in imagining things differently perhaps the world will change. I write to honour beauty. I write to correspond with my friends. I write as a daily act of improvisation. I write because it creates my composure. I write against power and for democracy. I write myself out of my nightmares and into my dreams. I write in a solitude born out of community. I write to the questions that shatter my sleep. I write to the answers that keep me complacent. I write to remember. I write to forget…. I write as though I am whispering in the ear of the one I love.”
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.
Mrs Clare Murphy
English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach
On Thursday 25 March, Year 12 Geography went on an excursion to the wetlands of Bonna Point, Kurnell.
It was a beautiful, sunny day. When we met with our instructor he took us around the area and showed us the three different features of the coastal area that we were exploring, these included sand dunes, salt marshes, mudflats, mangroves and the estuary. After which he sat us down at a table and showed us how plants adapt to the salty environment of sand dunes and salt marshes. To do this we tasted two different seagrasses one was very salty, this reed seagrass was exposed to too much salinity and died to protect the rest of the seagrass which is green and less salty.
After recess, we physically measure the salinity and temperature of each environmental feature and assess the differences along with the plant and animal life in each area. Along the mudflats and mangroves, many crabs came out at low tide to feed on any dead materials present on the shore. We explored the mudflats and picked several different species of the crabs up to explore which species were most present in each area as well as their physical differences. Mudflats and mangroves are home to a diverse range of animals such as crabs. We were acquainted by the presence of a number of small crabs. Some were more pleased with this than others
After lunch, it was time to get in the water. Though we were informed of safety precautions, such as to beware of sea creatures, such as a stingray or a blue-ringed octopus before embarking on fishing in the water. We collected samples of aquatic animals and discussed the adaptations required to live in a wetland environment which is intertidal and the salinity levels are constantly changing.
This fieldwork helped our class deepen our knowledge of intertidal wetlands and allowed us to use geographical equipment to measure and assess the environment.
By Kate Lincoln and Shreya Pal
The Second Hand Uniform Shop is open on the following days.
Term 2 2021
- 3 May - 2.30pm - 4pm
- 7 June - 2.30pm - 4pm
Cash only - no EFTPOS facilities.
Results 27/3/2021
14B’s defeated Eaglevale 18 – 15
14A’s defeated by Ingleburn 5 – 49
15’s won on a forfeit against Glenquarie
Grad B’s defeated St Johns 27 - 18
Division 8 defeated Lyrebirds 21 – 14
Division 6 won on a forfeit against St Thomas More
Results 17/4/2021 (major bye round)
Division 8 defeated East Campbelltown 29 – 23
Division 6 won on a forfeit against Campbelltown North