Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community,

Last year, like many things, the Debutante Ball for Year 11 students was simply not possible and thus we, at MLMC, are experiencing two Debutante Ball seasons in 2021, along with all the discussion and excitement that such occasions bring. Over the past fortnight, the College hosted the first of the Debutante Balls which, of course, reignited the yearly debate by some about the outrage of reasons behind such balls. Each year it leads me to ponder about their true meaning and value: what was their real origin and why do they still exist?

Firstly, the word ‘debutante’ is derived from the French word ‘debuter’ with the meaning “to begin”. So, to the beginning, understanding that it started as a sexist process by which young women of marriageable age could be presented to high society for the first time, so that they could then attend other dances in the hopes of finding a partner. (Source: https://www.solosophie.com/history-of-debutante-balls)

In the UK, the tradition began in the 17th century whereby women in high society were presented in court to the king and queen. They could thus mingle in high society and be treated as adults, again in the hopes of finding a suitable partner to marry. Queen Elizabeth ceased the practice at court in the 1950s.

In the USA, Debutante Balls were a tradition bought over by the pilgrims and by the 19th century, had evolved into a dance and afternoon tea. They were revived in the 20th century and today they flourish, with Cotillion Balls still running; the most prestigious of which is held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

In Australia, the tradition is, of course, quite different. Although young ladies still normally wear white to signify purity, they are usually not about ‘high society’ or being elitist, but rather organised by schools, youth groups, churches and other organisations as fundraisers or social events. As a result of societal difference, they have always had a different emphasis and seen as more of a social gathering for all.

This is certainly the case at MLMC; the tradition of the College Debutante Ball has a historical background, with our students being involved since the 1950s and the first ever MLMC Debutante Ball held in 1966. As we celebrate 125 years of MLMC, let us celebrate all our history, including these 55 years of Debutante Balls.

Last weekend saw the Year 12 Debutantes presented; it was both an honour and privilege to share this occasion with them. To be amongst families on such a wonderful occasion is always a pleasure and I look forward to the Year 11 Debutante Balls later in the year. Five Debutante Balls in one year certainly does continue the tradition.

In many schools, the Debutante Ball has evolved into a ‘Presentation Ball’, where participants are presented in groups, with multi-coloured ball gowns permitted and an array of suits worn. Who knows how our Debutante Balls will evolve; I am sure it does not look now, as it did in 1966. For now, let us rejoice in celebrating our students dressing up, enjoying the glamour and formality of their Debutante Ball.

A Word on our Uniform Shops

I am aware that word is slowly filtering out about the future of the Uniform Shops here at MLMC.

Firstly, the Bob Stewart Uniform Shop on campus will close at the end of this term and from Term 3, uniform items will only be available from their Croydon shop (1-7 Maroondah Hwy, Croydon).

Secondly, our Second Hand Uniform Shop, operated by the Parents and Friends’ Association, will close at the same time. This has become necessary due to the high level of administration required in keeping the shop open and the volunteer base needed to do so. We are currently looking for new opportunities to be able to provide such a service in the future, although we understand that there are several online opportunities (through social media) that parents are already using. More information will be available in the near future.

God bless

Philip A Morison
Principal

New MLMC Shop

This term we have introduced the new MLMC Shop which gives parents a one-stop-shop payment portal for all transactions (excluding College fee payments). We’re asking parents to use this portal for costs associated with device repairs, photocopier funds, Catherine’s Cafe coffee vouchers, IT purchases and replacement ID cards, bus passes and badges.

Please log on via the College website's Portals page (or click HERE), and create a new account. It is a very quick and easy process to set up an account and the steps are outlined in the MLMC Shop Parent’s Guide, which you can find on the website and below. If you have any problems please contact the Finance Office on 9735 4022.

Uniform Shop closure

The Bob Stewart Uniform Shop at the College is closing at the end of Term 2. From Term 3, MLMC uniforms will only be available from their Croydon shop at 1-7 Maroondah Highway. The shop's trading hours are Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm and Saturday 9.30am to 12.30pm. You can call the shop on 9036 7386 or email them at croydon@bobstewart.com.au

College Office closure

The College will be closed on Thursday 24 June 2021 for a staff professional development day and will re-open on Friday 25 June 2021 at 8.00am. Both Thursday 24 and Friday 25 June 2021 are student free days to allow for staff professional development.

The College Office will remain open 8.00am-4.00pm during the first week of the school holidays, closing on Friday 2 July 2021 at 4.00pm. On Monday 12 July the College will be closed for Staff Formation Day. Term 3 starts for students on Tuesday 13 July 2021.

On Friday 7 May and Saturday 8 May, our Year 12 students finally had the opportunity to do their Debutante Ball. The two-year wait meant that the event was particularly special for this group, with many of the students expressing what a fantastic experience it was for them to have in their final year.

We had 28 couples presented on the Friday and 29 on the Saturday to our College Principal, Mr Philip Morison, and an audience of family and friends. Each student had a biography written especially for them that was read out during the presentations. Afterwards, the debutantes and their partners graced the community with their dancing skills, presenting four formal dances that they had been working on in rehearsals over the previous seven weeks. We give a special thanks to our fantastic dance instructors from Sassi Dance Studio in Lilydale.

The boys looked very sharp in their tuxedos from our long-time suit supplier and friends at Trevor Dudley's Menswear, and the girls all looked stunning in their white dresses. Also, particular thanks goes to Mrs Dee Leach and Mrs Laura Nation, who were the representatives from the Parents and Friends’ Association there to help the students with the preparations.

After the formalities, each of the nights finished off with family photos and some less formal dancing, with music provided by Old Collegian-run DJ Caravan Sounds. We were thrilled to be able to run these nights for our Year 12 students after the fragility of 2020. We are very much looking forward to our Year 11 Debutante Balls that are scheduled for Term 3.

MLMC’s STEM Club students, who meet once a week at lunchtime, have been busy developing coding skills and preparing for our High Altitude Balloon (HAB) launch at the end of this term.

The inaugural HAB launch was in 2019. Once again the team of students involved in the HAB Project, under the leadership of teacher Mr John Parlas and supported by the Catholic Education Office, plan to collect data from the atmosphere with a variety of sensors in our payload.

We plan to analyse our findings from this year’s mission and use the primary data learn to more about the sky and near space that form the troposphere and stratosphere above.

The STEM Club students (pictured in the gallery below) have been learning how to use Python to code in Term 1 under the guidance of teacher Mr Hans Dharma and they are now transferring these skills to code our data collecting sensors for the HAB.

With all three of our Year 12 STEM Prefects (from Science, Mathematics and Technology) involved in the HAB Project, and the commitment from our enthusiastic younger STEM Club students, this project is once again proving to be a valuable cross-curricular learning experience for all involved.

Here are some reflections from our STEM Prefects:

As senior students, we are able to work with the STEM Club to prepare for the launch of the High Altitude Balloon. So far we have plotted the path of the balloon, made a prototype of the box, tested the tracking systems, and we are beginning to program the various sensors that will be used in the balloon. When all of this is prepared we should be able to have a successful launch.
— Connor Taylor (Science Prefect)

On the day of the launch, we will be able to successfully track down the balloon, collect data from the launch and retrieve the video footage of the whole flight. The planning we are doing now ensures that there are little margins for error and allows us to experiment with what works best.
— Hardy Nagel (Mathematics Prefect)

It is inspiring to see young students begin to code with such enthusiasm and take an interest in STEM and specifically the real-life application of Technology. It will be great to see these young students pursue a pathway in Technology in the future due to their experience in the HAB Project.
— Alec Grebe (Technology Prefect)

After a year away due to COVID-19 the Old Collegians' Association was more excited than ever to host the annual Business Breakfast on Tuesday 11 May. The breakfast is a great way to connect with members of the MLMC community and hear success stories from our alumni.

Each guest was treated to a delicious breakfast prepared and served by the Senior VCAL students, along with a tea and coffee from Catherine’s Cafe.

This year’s Business Breakfast showcased Amanda Scardamaglia (Class of 2000), an Associate Professor and Department Chair at Swinburne University's Law School. She spoke of her time at MLMC and growing up on a strawberry farm longing for a fast-paced life in the city. Amanda soon realised the pressures of this lifestyle as a young lawyer which resulted in her feeling burnt out and unmotivated. Amanda chose to switch up her career path and follow her passion for academia, completing her PhD and going on to establish Swinburne's Law School. Amanda spoke of the influence MLMC has had on her life and career choices, and how the Social Justice Prefect in her wanted the Swinburne law school to feel like the community she had grown up in.

The second speaker of the morning was John Van Gastel (Class of 1985), a costumier to the arts. With dazzling images of costumes he had designed and created for the Melbourne Theatre Company's adaptation of Shakespeare in Love, John spoke of how costumes can “tell a story without any dialogue” helping to portray emotions and periods of time. John was quite the comedian sharing fun stories about his experiences working with English movie star Kate Winslet on The Dressmaker and Australia's Eric Bana in Romulus, My Father. John has had a very successful 30-year career, including the television series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Dancing With The Stars and Underbelly: Squizzy.

A big thank you to both Amanda and John for sharing their stories as well as to Savanna Fanfulla (Class of 2014), who provided some comedic entertainment with her rendition of Boom Boom Boom Boom, a parody of the Vengaboys' song Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom.

The event was a huge success and it would not have been possible without the assistance of all those who volunteered their time. The Old Collegians’ Association looks forward to seeing some familiar faces return throughout the year at other events and we look forward to hosting this event again in the future.

Year 7 and Year 8 students welcomed presenters from Medieval Education on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 May for a multi-sensory experience around the topics of ancient civilisation and the medieval period.

Year 7 students have been focusing on ancient civilisation in class, specifically Rome and China. The presentations included exhibitions and displays on warriors and warfare plus rulers and subjects. Students were able to experience the hierarchy of society when they were asked to role play being Caesar or a tax collector during Roman times.

Throughout Term 1 Year 8 students had been focusing on the medieval period. The presenters included displays and reenactments of both weapons and armour, this included students being able to try on armour and experience a medieval tournament. These experiences had been designed to enable students to place into context what they have been learning during Semester 1.

A big thank you to all staff who gave up their valuable class time for these events to occur.

EISM Champions Carnival

The EISM Champions Carnival for track and field was attended by over 50 MLMC students on Monday 10 May. This twilight event showcases some of the top athletic talent from across the EISM, so it was a huge honour to have so many students there competing. The following students had an amazing performance and finished on the podium:

• Bronze: Megan Schelfout, Andrew Mammolotti, Jack O’Connell, U13 boys’ relay (Andrew Mammoliti, Archie Spencer, Sete Tevi, Oliver Knight)
• Silver: Brylee Anderson, Sasha Maggs, Daniel Ryan, Brigette Rice, Amy Wicks
• Gold: Amy Wicks, Luke Phillips (x2), Cheyenne Moore (x2), Andrew Mammoliti, Ben Heath.

Year 9 EISM Grand Finals

On Thursday 2 May, we had five of our Year 9 teams compete against various schools for the summer season EISM premiership. Unfortunately both of our tennis teams fell to strong opposition in Aquinas and Tintern, but the boys’ team definitely made Aquinas work for the win. Our girls’ basketball B and touch football (pictured below) teams were outplayed, but the scoreboard was not reflective of the tight contest on the field. Finally, our boys’ basketball A team (pictured above) won an absolute nail-biter against rivals Luther, getting the win by just two points. Having finished fourth, beating the top team Aquinas last week in the semi final and then going on to win the premiership (with the help of Ryan Nunziate scoring 34 points) was a super achievement for all the boys. Well done to all the EISM teams on a wonderful season.

Staff and Student Achievements

Lucien Primavera (Year 9 Blue)
Congratulations to Lucien Primavera (pictured in the gallery below) who competed in the Victorian School Shooting Championships at the Melbourne Gun Club on Monday 19 April. Lucien shot 7/10 in the first round, which is a huge effort. Well done, Lucien.

Campbell Cumming (Year 8 Red)
On Friday 28 May Campbell Cumming will be participating in the SSV Junior Boys Golf State Finals. Campbell has done an awesome job to qualify for this competition and we wish him the best of luck.

Sam Green (Year 12 Green)
This weekend Sam Green will be umpiring his 200th Eastern Football Netball League game. This is a huge achievement, especially for someone so young. Sam is a fantastic umpire (word from players and spectators themselves) and we cannot wait to see where he goes in the future with this.

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

EISM reminders

With the Winter seasons of Year 8, Year 9 and Senior EISM Sport all about to begin, we ask students to please remember the following:

• Check the Sport plans — up on the Doyle Centre window at the beginning of every week and on the College’s 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
• Their uniform needs to be 100% correct to ensure no forfeited games — hockey, soccer and football players must wear long navy socks (available at the Doyle Centre) and mouthguards must be worn for hockey. NO CORRECT UNIFORM, NO GAME.

Fixtures

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).

EISM results

Year 8 Results (11 May)

Year 9 Results (13 May - SEMI FINALS)

Senior Results (19 May)

Year 9 Results (20 May - GRAND FINALS)

Food Fabulous Food is a Year 10 subject that allows students to summon their inner creative skills in the kitchen. Butter icing, chocolate and sprinkles filled the room and covered the students as they created drip cakes on Friday 7 May in time for Mother’s Day.

Students had the opportunity to plan, design and create their own drip cake masterpieces while learning key skills in chocolate work, decorating and baking.

Other topics covered in this semester-long class are bread, pastry and competing in My Kitchen Rules-inspired cooking competitions. Hands-on learning has proven to be highly successful with this talented group, as you can see from the photos of their amazing cakes and big smiles. All students should be very proud of their work and we hope the cakes made it home to be enjoyed with their families.

Throughout the year students in VCE Literature at MLMC are encouraged and directed towards the many amazing opportunities and competitions open to them to support their creative writing projects across Victoria and Australia. Many of the Literature students are prolific creative writers in their spare time and actively work to develop their craft. The skills that students draw on for producing creative artefacts whether they be, short stories, memoirs or poetry, are essential when encountering, interpreting and constructing texts on an analytical level — a skill all good bookworms need.

Two MLMC Year 11 Literature students are in the running for the prize pool offered in the Write4Fun’s 'The Write Note' poetry and short story competition. Write4fun has been encouraging student writers and artists with fantastic competitions since 1997, they also publish top-quality books and conduct interactive writing workshops across Australia.

Literature students Jas Knight (Year 11 Bronze) and Kye Arnot (Year 10 Purple) (both pictured) are in the running for the top prize — $500 cash and a choice of a $500 Rebel gift card, Nintendo Switch, Apple iPad or a PlayStation 4. Both Jas’ short story, The Unexplainable Heart, and Kye’s poem, Loving an Addict, are being published in the Write4Fun creative works anthology which is comprised of the strongest pieces submitted by students across Australia. Well done to both of them. We look forward to hearing about more successful submissions from these two budding authors in the future.

If your child is interested in entering creative writing competitions, please ask them to come and speak to me. There will be plenty of opportunities to enter competitions throughout the year.

Young Farmers Club members and VET Agriculture students have recently been involved in planting out an on-farm wetland of considerable significance. The Petinella family operate four farms, with their main base of operations being 160 acres in Coldstream. The creek running through the farm directly feeds into the Yarra River. Works were recently undertaken here to build a large dam to store sufficient water for summer irrigation of their soft berry fruit. Water storage and use is a complex issue and the family worked closely with Yarra Valley Water to build the first diversionary wetland of this scale on a farm in the Yarra Valley.

This is where our Young Farmers Club came in. Over a series of two days, students from the College and our VET Agriculture program participated in the planting of this amazing wetland. When complete, this system will filter water from the farm and a nearby housing estate on-site and contribute significantly to the water quality of the Yarra River. The wetland, over five acres in size, comprises three stages — initially settling large sediment and finally using large shallow ponds to purify the water with over 30 different species of indigenous plants.

In the tradition of learning by doing, our Young Farmers spent time with Rowan Hore from Yarra Valley Water and Michael Petinella from The Fresh Berry Co. Students explored the engineering works from start to finish, studied plans for the facility and learned all about whole catchment management. The group also planted several thousand plants into the system, contributing to stream quality for decades to come.

We are looking forward to coming back and visiting the system next year when it is fully operational. We would like to thank the Petinellas and all of the local farming families and businesses that take the time to include our students and invest in the future.

Year 11 Intermediate VCAL students recently completed a unit of study on sustainable building design. Many VCAL students are undertaking a VET Building and Construction course and this study had a great deal of industry relevance. For other VCAL students it provided them with an insight into what makes an energy efficient house.

Students firstly undertook an audit of their own homes and researched what cutting-edge building products are available while gaining a greater understanding of how a house can have a reduced environmental footprint. Further research looked at local and international sustainable building features, then students armed with this knowledge began designing an environmentally sustainable house.

Year 11 Silver student Isaiah Villani writes about the task:

Mr Ashley Savage from the College’s IT department presented two computer-aided design (CAD) programs — Sketchup and Minecraft. He took us through all the steps in order to create a plan for our sustainable house which was helpful because most of us hadn’t used Sketchup or Minecraft before. Sketchup was hard to use at first because it was a newly-implemented program. My group decided to use Minecraft instead, which enabled us to work at a faster pace and complete the online version with extra time to work on our physical model.

In groups we firstly designed, cut, glued, measured and constructed a model cardboard house which gave us a rough idea of what we really wanted to do, and in doing so we also gained better ideas for the final model.

We had to create the actual model of the house using sustainable materials and were given three weeks to do so. The class was split up into groups and we worked collectively to create the house. My group completed the house at a level that was above our expectations. It was fun and enjoyable.

Finally, we presented our CAD designs and models to the class. This was easy to do because we motivated each other and ourselves, while also having a few practice runs helped quite a bit.

Libraries are a place of adventure, providing opportunities for people to seek and locate information, browse collections, develop knowledge, share ideas and engage in a variety of fun activities. Libraries consist of physical and digital spaces where people can connect with ideas, information and other members of the community. At libraries, people can remember and learn more about the past and also dream and develop their skills for the future.

As part of Library and Information Week 2021, from 17-23 May, MLMC library has hosted a range of activities for students to experience adventures in space and time — the theme for this year. Regular weekly library activities included students meeting for Chess Club, Puzzle Cube Club and Book Club. In addition, students were also able to participate in a library careers session, a pop-up library, Star Wars quiz and a bookmark making competition.

The week was busy, with many classes utilising library resources, programs and services. These classes included Year 7 Science energy research tasks, Year 8 Humanities Renaissance research tasks, Year 7 to 10 English wider reading classes, VCAL Literacy classes, LOTE small group language activities, a Swinburne University Careers information session, Year 9 STEM research, Year 11 Psychology classes and Year 12 English Language classes.

Library and Information Week 2021 activities have inspired many adventures in space and time for students and staff at MLMC.

As part of the Year 10 Outdoor Education program, students undertake a navigation unit which covers map reading and compass use. Previously the class had completed an orienteering course at our College and as a culmination of the students’ knowledge and skill we headed to Mount Lofty State Park in Wonga Park on Friday 7 May for an orienteering course. The students had to cover about 3km. As well as a valuable learning experience, students had a lot of fun navigating their way around the course.

Here are some student reflections from the excursion:

We were split into groups and were given a compass and map of the park to navigate our way to the 10 checkpoints. We did this to learn how to use a compass and map properly without a teacher helping us. It was super fun and everyone had a great time while learning things. We walked up big mountains and saw kangaroos while getting to see great views from high up.
— Nancee Ripepi (Year 10 Gold)

By using maps and compasses we searched around for different stations located all around the park. By doing this, we learnt how to effectively use navigational equipment to easily locate each station and find our way around the park. I enjoyed this activity a lot because it was fun to search around Mount Lofty.
— Seb Price (Year 10 Jade)

We used maps and compasses to locate the stations which were at various places throughout the park. Some of them took a bit of time to find and some were a lot easier but it was important that we didn’t miss any so that we didn’t have to go back to try and find them. I thought it was really fun to be searching for the points and it helped me improve my navigational skills tremendously. It was also good to be doing it with friends so that we could discuss where we thought the next point could be. Overall, with the lovely weather and fun activity, it was a great day.
— Josh Del Biondo (Year 10 Orange)

It was a great experience and required use of a map and compass to find the markers. What I got out of it all was that it was important that you can read a map in order to navigate around the state park otherwise you would get off track and not be able to find the markers. Which, might I add, happened a few times.
— Danya Moerth (Year 10 Orange)

Students had to have a good eye as the markers were really well hidden in the bushes and trees scattered around the trail. But in the end, thankfully, the whole class made it back in one piece.
— Hayden Foletta (Year 10 Blue)

From 16-21 May it was Careers Week — a time to celebrate the jobs we have and consider the careers our students might enter in the future. On Monday 17 May, the Future Students Coordinator from Australian Catholic University (ACU), Mr Dave Plant, came to the College to talk to our Year 11 and Year 12 students about the ACU Guarantee. It is a great pathway into ACU and students can get early offers into ACU, as early as June.

On Wednesday 19 May, our Year 9 students completed Morrisby testing. Morrisby is a Careers Tool that will help students to learn about their own skills and abilities and help them with their pathway planning. This is a very exciting part of the FutureME component of the Year 9 Compass program.

On Thursday 20 May, Old Collegian Associate Professor Amanda Scardamaglia (Class of 2000), who is the Department Chair of the Swinburne Law School, came to talk to our students about pathways in Law and the Law School. The students played interactive games that were designed by Swinburne. Amanda was also recently a guest speaker at the Old Collegians’ Association’s annual Business Breakfast.

Each day this week our students also had access to new videos about the future of work and careers via the MLMC Careers Website as well as information about career pathways they may not yet have considered.

Sport has been played at MLMC for many years and still is today. Although we no longer have any tennis courts on-campus, we do have a strong history of tennis with some notable tennis players gracing our courts. This latest story celebrating 125 years of Mount Lilydale Mercy College focuses on 1969.

1969 — New tennis court

A College prospectus from the time noted that ‘special attention is given to sport’. In this era, a School Sports Day was held each year at the Croydon Monastery, until the oval was constructed, and this usually took place on a weekend so that parents could attend as well.

For decades Mount Lilydale College students had been playing basketball and tennis, two competitive games deemed acceptable for young ladies to participate in. Since the 1920s there were courts on the grounds of the school where these games could be played, however, tennis was listed as an extra and fees were charged for individual tuition.

In the early 1960s a hockey field was constructed on a flat area of land to the east near the railway line, and this became the school’s first oval. In the years that immediately followed athletics, marching and netball were taken up.

In 1969, new tennis courts were built at the school, located where Centennial Hall is now. When finished, these were officially opened by His Grace, Archbishop Knox, and soon after two of the greatest Australian tennis players, Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong, gave exhibition matches on the courts. Both players would become world No.1-ranked players, with Margaret Court going on to win more Grand Slam titles than any other player in history.

Margaret Court is pictured above in front of our grotto.

It was a beautiful Friday morning here at MLMC looking out over the valley from the top of Rourke's Hill. Our thanks to Mr Danny Katzen (Science teacher) for sharing these stunning images that he took when he arrived early this morning.