Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community

I suspect that we all know of people, who have had great opportunity and yet never seem content, while others who have had to overcome adversity seem so happy. Why is that?

An example might be something like: Jack is often in trouble. He is always late with his homework. He criticises other people. He seems to always dislike the world. Anna has a sunny personality. She is well organised, finds plenty of time for work and play and has lots of friends. Jack comes from a happy, comfortable, hardworking and loving family. Anna’s father passed when she was a baby and her mother suffers from a debilitating disease. Money is short and Anna has to care for her younger brother. Why is Jack so grumpy and Anna so happy?

The answer of course lies in outlook and resilience. Life has many ups and downs, how we deal with the difficulties we face often depends on the choices we make. Resilient people are able to recover quickly from setbacks. By working on one’s psychology, a more resilient self can eventuate, so you can enjoy the good that life brings and not be defeated by the tough times.

I am constantly lifted by the positivity of many around me who remind me to be thankful and enjoy each moment as an excellent recipe for happiness and resilience.

An article I reread recently gave three ways to capture the benefits of positive psychology:

1. Express gratitude
Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what you have — from a roof over your head, to good health, to people who care about you. When you acknowledge the goodness in your life, you begin to recognise that the source of that goodness often lies outside yourself. In this way, gratitude helps you connect to something larger than your individual experience — whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.

Set aside a few minutes every day and think about five large or small things that you're grateful for. Write them down if you like. Be specific and remember what each one means to you.

2. Leverage your strengths

To reap the benefits of your strengths, you first need to know what they are. Not many people know what their strengths are. If something comes easily, you may take it for granted and not identify it as a strength. If you are not sure of your strengths, you can identify them by asking someone you respect and knows you well, by noticing what people compliment you on, and by thinking about what comes most easily to you.

Certain strengths are most closely linked to happiness. They include gratitude, hope, vitality, curiosity and love. These strengths are so important that they're worth cultivating and applying in your daily life, even if they don't come naturally to you.

3. Savour the good

Most people enjoy the pleasure in special moments, like a wedding or a holiday. Everyday pleasures, on the other hand, can slip by without much notice. Savouring means placing your attention on pleasure as it occurs, consciously enjoying the experience as it unfolds. Appreciating the treasures in life, big and small, helps build happiness.

Multitasking is the enemy of savouring. Try as you might, you can't fully pay attention to multiple things at once. If you're scanning the computer screen and listening to music during breakfast, you're not getting the pleasure you could from that meal — or the computer, or the music. If you're walking the dog on a beautiful path but mentally worrying about jobs you have to do, you're missing the moment.
— Positive Psychology: Harnessing the Power of Happiness, Mindfulness, and Inner Strength, Harvard Medical School (Year unknown)

These concepts have been re-enforced for me over these past weeks in several ways.

Firstly, I have been offering my support by attending ‘The Calling’ ceremonies of the Year 9 Rite Journey program, which is celebrated in Houses, with parents in attendance. COVID-19 restrictions have meant that these ceremonies have been postponed and altered, and yet the Year 9 team persist with a great positive attitude, supported by many, many colleagues. These are very positive experiences and I congratulate all staff, students and parents involved. To support these ceremonies, Catherine’s Cafe has been set up to offer hot drinks. This, too, has created a very positive interest by the general public who pass by and question the concept, including some who are homeless. It was also a great opportunity for our VCAL students to show some real leadership in service to others.

A second reminder came from our history, as I continue to read about our heritage as we launch our 125^th anniversary celebrations. An article, posted in The Lilydale Express on Friday 24 January 1896, titled ‘The New School’, stated:

On Monday morning the new school was opened for the first time. The attendance, it was expected, would be very good, but the actual results exceeded the promoter’s highest expectations. The Rev. Father Hennessy was present, and when the Rev. Mother opened the school, 46 children were present. On Tuesday the attendance was about 52, and yesterday it had increased to 56. It is expected that when the school again opens on Monday that about 65 children will be in attendance. The children seem happy in their new surroundings, and there is every possibility of the school reaching the standard of success desired.

I suspect the Sisters at the time were well aware of the great amount of work that was to come, yet they were positive in their outlook and trusted they had been gifted with the skills and support they would need. I wonder as to the measure of their success in 1896.

Let us, too, remain positive in outlook as we move forward together in this year of 2021, the year of our 125 Years celebrations, and the year in which we will celebrate a resilience that was, and is now, so evident.

In the Spirit of Catherine

God bless

Philip A Morison
Principal

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
— John 6:68

God of Mercy and Understanding,
I know that with help
I can open my heart more fully
to the mysteries of the suffering and death
of your son.

I thank you for this reminder of your love
and your call that we be more patient,
gentle and compassionate with others.

Here in the middle of Lent,
I turn to you for help.
Please soften my heart.
Help me to let go of judging others.

Help me to be humble in this journey
and remember that any mercy and compassion I feel
is a gift from you.
I await the joy of Easter with new longing and patience.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

Dates and reminders

• Public holiday: Monday 8 March is the Labour Day public holiday
• College Assembly: a full College Assembly will be held on Wednesday 10 March from 8.55am
• Swimming Carnivals: the Division 2 EISM Swimming Carnival will be held on Tuesday 9 March at Ringwood Aquanation and the EISM Champions Carnival will be held on Monday 22 March at MSAC
• Catch-up photo day: our catch-up photo day (including sibling photos) will take place on Monday 22 March
• Athletics Carnival: the MLMC Athletics Carnival will be held at Quarry Rd Oval on Monday 29 March
• End of term: the final day of Term 1 is Thursday 1 April (Good Friday is Friday 2 April)
• Save the date: the College is hosting a free Autism Awareness Forum on Wednesday 28 April at 7.30pm. More information regarding tickets will be made available closer to the date
• Lost property: we have a large number of (often brand new) uniform items in lost property without any name written on them. Please label your child's uniform where possible
• College blazer: a reminder that March marks the return to wearing the College blazer to and from school.

The MLMC Swimming Carnival on Friday 26 February was a great way to start the 2021 Carnival calendar. Students from McAuley Campus (Years 7-9) had no hesitation in getting involved and jumping in the water, setting the tone for a good day to follow.

Our House Prefects, accompanied by their range of inflatables (hint: don’t use a blow up car if you want to win) and costumes, swam their ceremonial Prefect race, with Ryan taking the gold medal, before the freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly races for Years 7-9 continued, as did the plank competition and the popular Participation Relay.

The senior students arrived in the afternoon, just as the sun came out, and they continued the great work of the junior students, with many of them having a go — with Year 12s sometimes losing costume pieces to the bottom of the pool in the process. It was great to see Terry Dunn there too (pictured below with Terry Dunn House Prefect Daniel Ryan).

Overall, it was a great day down at Lilydale pool, with Carr House taking the chocolates for this year’s Swimming Carnival. I am sure the other Houses will put up a great fight at the Athletics and Cross Country Carnivals.

Swimming Carnival points tally:

Carr — 744
Frayne — 644
O’Neill —524
Terry Dunn —513
Maguire —501
Ryan —328

On Tuesday 23 February, 283 eager Year 8 students and 11 competitive homeroom teachers made their way down to the College ovals to participate in MLMC Survivor 2021. All had one goal in mind: to claim the prestigious Survivor Shield. After a motivational pep-talk, students spent the morning competing as homerooms in a series of physical and mental challenges inspired by the TV show Survivor. These challenges are facilitated by the homeroom teachers and this year we were also fortunate to have our Year 10 and 11 VET Sport and Recreation students assisting.

Through competing in Survivor, students are provided an opportunity to bond with their new Year 8 homerooms and recognise the various strengths of their fellow classmates. This will be important in the coming weeks as the Class Captain selection process takes place. Survivor also provides an invaluable opportunity for students to further develop important skills such as teamwork, leadership, cooperation, communication and problem solving.

The competition was fierce with 8 Red and 8 Silver scraping into the ‘Ultimate Challenge’ finale. After a nail-biting grand final, it was 8 Silver who came away victorious. Congratulations to 8 Silver and their homeroom teacher, Mr Dan Beard. Thank you to the amazing team of people who assisted in making this event possible.

Below are some student reflections on the event:

Year 8 Survivor Day was a very fun activity to participate in. Throughout all the Survivor activities I learned to work as a team and discuss our ideas. My favourite activities were the water game and the lock game.
— Jar Lewis (Year 8 Silver)

I was able to connect with my class in a way that probably bought us all closer together as a group with many things in common. My favourite activity was by far the cup and water activity, where we all had the chance to get involved and to cheer each other on. Two homerooms were competing against each other by trying their absolute best to fill up their individual class tubs full of water by using cups to transfer from one tub to the other.
— Issy Hanson (Year 8 Purple)

Year 8 Survivor gave everyone a great opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers as well as the other homerooms. It helped me to meet new people, make new friendships and collaborate. Survivor encouraged everyone to support all their peers. There was also a friendly competitive side to the day, with everyone striving to achieve and do their very best. We had a chance to use our communication skills and teamwork and to challenge ourselves to find our strengths and weaknesses and identify the different types of people in our class. I particularly liked the mental activities, especially the unlock the lock challenge.
— Katherine Hobson (Year 8 Silver)

Survivor was so fun. My favourite activity has to be the book hold, where you had to hold books straight up and stand in a line and see how long you could hold it up for. Another one was the water relay. We did a relay run with a cup of water and had to tip it in a bucket to get it up to a line. When your ping pong ball reaches that mark you win.
— Kaitlyn Kennedy (Year 8 Jade)

On Tuesday 2 March our Intermediate VCAL students headed out to Belgrave to challenge themselves at the Harrow Park Trees Adventure. This experience is part of a personal strengths and stories of survival unit in which students identify their own personal strengths and explore ways in which people have overcome fears and moments of crisis using their personal strengths.

The Trees Adventure excursion gives students the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned about the strengths and lesser strengths they possess. Students worked in groups to encourage and motivate one another to take themselves out of their comfort zones and ‘face their fears’. During this time they were able to reflect on their own fears and explore ways in which to ‘survive’ such situations, using the skills and character strengths of themselves and those around them.

Congratulations to each and every one of our students for pushing themselves beyond the boundaries in which they had set themselves before arriving at Glen Harrow Park.

Our Intermediate VCAL students will continue to explore the idea of survival and ways to overcome times of crisis and the ‘fear of failure’ by investigating real-life stories of survival such as that of Aron Ralston, an American outdoorsman and motivational speaker known for surviving a canyoneering accident by cutting off his own arm.

Project Compassion is a fundraising project organised by Caritas Australia to help join the thousands of schools, parishes and individuals across Australia this Lent in bringing hope, support and compassion to the world’s most vulnerable. This is really important as they connect young Australians in Catholic schools with the Caritas Australia mission to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity.

Caritas is the international aid and development agency of the Australian Catholic Church. They are driven by providing social justice and ensuring the dignity of every person. They work with local communities in Australia and overseas, listening to concerns, assessing needs and working with partners on locally-led development programs. With hope, support and compassion at the core of what they do, they work towards a world where all people may thrive.

Every homeroom has a collection box and students are encouraged to be generous in donating to these. The money we raise through Project Compassion will go towards providing things such as emergency food, shelter, water, education opportunities and better hygiene measures for those living in developing countries. We are asking students and staff to be creative in initiating simple fundraising activities throughout Lent.

This year we truly want to live out our Mercy value of Service, which is this year’s College theme, and make a positive difference to the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.

(1) Student Achievements

Equestrian
Congratulations to Charlee Dobbin (Year 8 Orange) (pictured in the gallery) who represented MLMC last week at the interschool competition at Boneo Park in Rosebud. Charlee won all four classes she was competing in, was declared the overall champion of the Advanced section and the overall winner of the Stars section — the two highest levels you can compete at in showjumping. This also resulted in helping MLMC into third place overall. Well done, Charlee!

Football
Congratulations to Serena Gibbs (Class of 2019) who last weekend made her AFLW debut for Carlton Football Club.

If you have any student achievements, please email them to dwebb@mlmc.vic.edu.au

(2) Swimming training

Swimming training is held on Monday afternoons, 3.30-4.30pm, and on Wednesday mornings, 7.00-8.00am, at Kilsyth Pool. Training is held to improve students' swimming and fitness levels. ALL abilities are welcome. Commendations and House points are up for grabs and it's free to join in. Students will be bussed from the College to the pool on Mondays and back to the College from the pool on Wednesdays. Breakfast is also provided on Wednesdays. Please see/email Ms Webb in the Doyle Centre for more details.

(3) EISM Swimming Carnivals

The Division 2 EISM Swimming Carnival will be held on Tuesday 9 March at Ringwood Aquanation. All students who have qualified have been notified and information has been uploaded to the Parent Portal. Best wishes to all students who are competing. The EISM Champions Carnivall will be held on Monday 22 March at MSAC.

(4) EISM reminders

With the Summer seasons of Year 8, 9 and Senior EISM Sport all now underway, please remember the following:

• Check the Sport plans — up on the Doyle Centre window at the beginning of every week and on the College Instagram story
• If you are unable to play in your team in a particular week, you need to let your coach know as early as possible
• Please be on time to the Doyle Centre on your sport day. All EISM teams need to leave at the start of lunch (occasionally earlier) to get to venues to play
• Your uniform needs to be 100% correct to ensure no forfeited games — hockey, soccer and football must wear long navy socks (available at the Doyle Centre) and mouthguards must be worn for hockey. NO CORRECT UNIFORM, NO GAME.
• Live fixtures for EISM matches can be found online at eism.org (Click on ‘Weekly sport’, then ‘Fixtures and results’ then ‘Junior’ (Year 8 and 9) or ‘Senior’ (Senior) fixtures.

(5) EISM results

Year 8 Results 23 February

Senior Results 24 February

Year 9 Results 25 February

Year 8 Results 2 March

Senior Results 3 March

Year 9 Results 4 March

Old Collegian Drew Law (Class of 2011) has been announced as one of three Moomba Monarchs for 2021. A Store Support worker at Coles in Eastland, Drew was recognised for going out of his way during the pandemic to make sure his customers were well taken care of.

Drew's thoughtfulness for his community was demonstrated when he arranged to personally deliver the weekly shop for 97-year-old customer Desmond, who had called the store worried that he wouldn't be able to complete his grocery run.

Drew is not our first Moomba monarch. Moomba has always sought community involvement since its early festivals and in 2013 Old Collegian Karla Challis (Class of 1992) was among the community heroes selected to represent their organisations as Kings and Queens of Moomba. Karla was chosen to represent Victoria Police.

The Moomba Festival is being held over this Labour Day long weekend.

Congratulations Drew, we are so very proud of you! You can read more about Drew's story at: https://moomba.melbourne.vic.gov.au/monarchs/

The next story we share from our 125 stories of MLMC book celebrating the College’s 125^th anniversary this year is from 1902 and it features the Ryan family. Local licensees of the Lilydale Hotel, Daniel and Mary Ryan sent their younger girls to the Convent and their descendants then attended the College, one of whom is an inductee on our Mercy Honour Roll.

1902 — THE RYAN FAMILY

In 1902, Daniel and Mary Ryan came from Melton to Lilydale to take over as the licensees at the Lilydale Hotel, later to be known as the White Dog Hotel. The Ryans had 10 children and the eldest was Minnie, being 19, and the youngest, Irene, three years old. They were all involved with St Patrick’s Parish with Mrs Ryan being described as one of “its most ardent workers”.

The older children assisted their parents at the hotel while the younger girls, Margaret (10), Vera (8), Evelyn (7) and Monica (5) all attended the convent school. Irene would attend later when she was older.

In 1902 Mrs Ryan created a beautiful dress for her daughter Monica to wear that contained an embroidered kangaroo and emu holding a shield and British and Australian flags (pictured in the gallery below). Called the ‘Empire Day Dress’, it was more than likely created for the children’s celebrations in Lilydale to mark the Coronation of King Edward VII held in June 1902, as there were no Empire Day celebrations that year.

The family left Lilydale in 1907 and moved to Caulfield. One son, James, was killed at Gallipoli during WWI, while another, Charles, served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Their descendants would continue to be connected to the school, most notably Peter and Helen Wood and their children and grandchildren. Their daughter Angela Wood (Class of 1987) (pictured below) was inducted onto the Mercy Honour Roll in 2014.

Year 10 Photography students were recently given the task of taking a photo and then using Photoshop software to enhance the image. Year 10 Red student Olivia Vandenberg chose to take a photo of Sr Mary White RSM’s dog Ida (below), which is training to become a therapy dog. She is also pictured (above) with Sr Mary White RSM and Ida.

Below Olivia writes about the task:

I was given a task during my Photography class of taking a picture at eye level. At the beginning of taking the photos it took time for Ida to settle and time to get the right shot — it was a waiting game. After Ida had settled herself down, I needed the time to focus the camera on to Ida. Once the photo was taken I was so excited to see the results of the Photoshop work. During the lesson I learnt how to crop out unwanted materials and blend the unwanted materials to the actual background of the photo, I learned how to correct the lighting and change the different perspectives during the time I was Photoshopping. I am excited to show my parents the results of the photo I have taken and edited. I have built a relationship with an animal I never knew until the start of this year. Taking these moments slowly can make a big impact on what happens around you.

MLMC’s Chess Club has returned for 2021 with 20 eager students gathering in McAuley Library last week for our first session of the year. Students played friendly chess games against their peers.

Chess provides students with the opportunity to develop concentration, thinking, creativity, problem solving, reasoning skills and friendships with new people. Research studies have also shown that playing chess can improve academic performance.

Chess Club meets on Mondays at lunchtime in McAuley Library. Students from all year levels, from beginners to advanced players, are welcome to attend. During these sessions MLMC Chess Club students play friendly games in a welcoming environment.

On Thursday 25 March, students in Years 7 to 9 were taken back to the the Italian Renaissance and the beginning of many pivotal discoveries in Maths and Science. On entering McAuley Hall, students were transported to the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy, and the merchant banking families of the 14^th and 15^th Centuries.

The students were placed into groups with the title of one of the families and worked as teams to solve problems such as mathematical equations or scientific explorations. The learning intention was for students to encounter experiences to extend their STEM skills of creativity and critical thinking, collaboration and reporting.

Students from some classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 were introduced to the idea of experiential learning — learning and understanding of new knowledge. Forty-three staff from all different disciplines across the College were invited to also experience this activity.