Dear members of the MLMC community

Welcome to this newsletter as we endure the very cold and wet first weeks of winter. I hope you are all able to stay warm and indulge in great hearty, but healthy meals to help you forge ahead yet enjoy this beautiful but arduous season.

There is much to discuss with you.

It is with great pleasure we announce the much-awaited introduction of Charlie our College wellbeing dog has commenced.

Despite his large size, Charlie is still very much a bouncing puppy that is curious but also a little anxious at the same time. For that reason, the transition of Charlie into the College continues to be a gradual one.

Charlie made his debut last week but was limited to orientation walks, getting to know his surroundings first before beginning his work of giving and taking love and affection. It was wonderful to see our students respond to the request of helping transition Charlie into the College by not giving him attention. You could imagine how overwhelming it would have been for Charlie if 1500 students called out his name or rushed in for a pat. Needless to say our students, despite the temptation, were fantastic, showing interest respectfully from a distance, allowing Charlie to settle in. It should be noted, it was equally difficult for staff too.

The College believes that some of the benefits of having Charlie on site will soon be seen. In fact, on one of his orientation days, some senior students stole a cuddle as a way to relax between exams. We believe the benefits will be many, but feel the immediate impact will be seen through:

• helping make our community feel more supportive, connected, positive, nurturing, and welcoming

• providing comfort and a distraction at a time when society is experiencing stress and anxiety.

As Charlie’s transition to be a wellbeing dog here at the College continues, we will keep you posted on the great work he will be doing. Charlie lives with the Morison family and we all love him. I bring him to his workplace every day and I look forward to seeing our students enjoy him as he will enjoy being with them. He loves people. He has taken over my office and every other office he can get into at the College. He still loves to jump to meet people and is a little afraid and overwhelmed by loud noises, but he is acclimatising well.

It should be noted that although the College now has two dogs on College grounds they are authorised to be at the College. Please understand that although we know the benefits of having animals in our presence, only authorised pets may be brought to the College as we must ensure proper training and procedures are in place. We are also mindful that some students may be allergic to dogs and indeed might be fearful of them.

The College has signed up to a program through a group called Dogs Connect and you can read about it at dogsconnect.net.au

I look forward to updating you on Charlie’s progress and apologise if occasionally my clothes appear to somewhat dishevelled as although Charlie is a groodle, which is a non-hair shedding dog, he manages to cover me in hair most days.

The second thing I wish to raise with you today is the MLMC Community Forum Group (CFG).

As part of our Mission to seek to educate future generations to inspire a love of learning, a love of life and a love of God, MLMC recognises the importance of parents’ views on the holistic education of the young people in our care. We are committed to strengthening our relationships and partnerships with families. At the last College Advisory Council meeting, the terms of reference for the CFG committee was finalised with the intent of replacing the Policy and Curriculum group which has now been disbanded. This committee provides a platform to consult about the development of policies and programs which are central to the life of our College. It will not replace the important role of the Parents and Friends’ Association (P&F), which continues to have parent consultation as one of its aims, or the very important role of the College Advisory Council.

The membership of the CFG committee will be:

• Chair (the Chair will be appointed by the Principal according to the agenda)
• Principal (Ex Officio)
• Deputy Principal — Learning and Teaching (at least two Deputy Principals will attend according to the agenda)
• Deputy Principal — Organisation
• Deputy Principal — Pastoral Care
• Deputy Principal — Mission
• Advisory Council nominee
• Staff nominee X 3
• SRC nominee on rotation X 3
• Parent nominees x 3 (parent nominees will declare interest to the Principal and be appointed by the Principal).

The key responsibilities of the committee are:

• to act as a consultation group for the College on matters directly affecting the education of students in matters of curriculum, policy and pastoral care

• to suggest changes to the policy direction for any new or existing policy whose intent has been altered

• ensure all stakeholder views are represented in the direction of College policy

• act as a focus group to provide the Curriculum Innovation and Management Team feedback on any new or proposed curriculum programs

• to consult and provide feedback on proposed changes to assessment and reporting

• to provide feedback to the College on pastoral care initiatives and the College Pastoral Care Program

• to consult on student leadership initiatives

• to provide the College Principal feedback on perceived shortfalls or failings in present College initiatives

• to provide the College Principal feedback via commendations on present College initiatives.

It is intended that the CFG will meet out of hours twice per term at a time to be agreed.

The process:

• Items for referral to the CFG must be raised with the Principal at least one month before the planned date of the meeting
• The CFG agenda will become a standing agenda item at each College Executive meeting
• The Principal will draft the agenda and share it with permanent CFG committee members
• The Principal will advertise those items to be consulted upon to the general community and seek further interested participants. Up to 10 will be permitted
• The Principal will appoint a chair for each meeting and finalise Executive participation
• The Principal may invite other members from College committees according to items to be presented
• The SRC to nominate students to each meeting as organised by the Deputy Principal Pastoral Care.

I am therefore seeking expressions of interest from community members who may wish to consider nominating for this newly-formed committee that will start next semester. Dates of meetings are yet to be set. Interested parties should email me at principal@mlmc.vic.edu.au All members will be required to undergo the volunteer and child safety processes of the College.

Lastly, there has been much speculation in the media and discussion by a range of medical associations about mask wearing. There are still both staff and students testing positive to COVID-19 on a daily basis. Influenza is also prevalent within our community. While the wearing of masks is not mandated, it is still a good preventative measure should staff and students choose to do so. The other constant that remains is the encouragement to maintain high personal hygiene standards including the washing of hands every two hours, cough etiquette and social distancing where possible.

In the Spirit of Catherine,

God bless

Philip A Morison
Principal

As the nights grow colder we begin our Winter Appeal for Vinnies, let us ponder on the words of the prayer and make a commitment to do something positive this week for people in need.

Hear our prayer today for all who are homeless this day.
For those sleeping under bridges, on park benches, in doorways or bus stations.
For those who can only find shelter for the night but must wander in the daytime.
For families broken because they could not afford to pay the rent.
For those who have no relatives or friends who can take them in.
For those who have no place to keep possessions that remind them who they are.
For those who are afraid and hopeless. For those who have been let down by our social safety net.
For all these people, we pray that you will provide shelter, security and hope.
We pray that those of us with warm houses not be lulled into complacency and forgetfulness.
Jesus, help us to see your face in the eyes of every homeless person we meet so that we may be empowered through word and deed, and through all the means we have, to bring justice and peace to those who are homeless.

Amen.

Dates

• Monday 13 June — Queen’s birthday public holiday
• Friday 17 June — Student free day (Staff Professional Development)
• Friday 24 June — Last day of Term 2 for students (2.35pm finish time)
• Friday 1 July — College Office closes for school holidays at 4.00pm
• Monday 11 July — Staff Formation Day (student free) and College Office is closed 
• Tuesday 12 July — First day of Term 3 for students and College Office opens at 8.00am

Uniform

Lost and Found

The College's lost and found cupboard is overflowing with uniform items that are without an owner. If your child has lost a piece of uniform, sleeping bag, blanket, shoe or drink bottle, it may be in our lost and found cupboard (pictured), which is next to Student Reception. We even have a Richmond Football Club sandwich holder that I will take great pleasure in throwing out if it's not claimed soon. All items in the cupboard are without a name. Any uniform item that is named is returned to students so please check that your child’s name is still clearly visible on each piece of their uniform.

Wet Days

With the arrival of wet days, this is a timely reminder that Bob Stewart's Croydon store has a wet weather jacket (pictured) in stock. These jackets are very light and can roll up into a small bundle that takes up very little room in a school bag. It is well worth the investment to avoid a wet blazer.

College beanie

A number of Year 10 students continue to sell the College beanie at lunchtime, raising funds for Motor Neurone Disease research. Beanies can be bought at the lunchtime stall in Catherine's Way (pictured) or via the Finance department for $20 each. Payments can also be made in advance through the online MLMC Shop, with each beanie sold raising $8 towards this wonderful cause. We are already well on our way of reaching our target of $1600.

Rapid Antigen Tests

The College has a healthy supply of Rapid Antigen Tests. Students are welcome to collect a box of tests from Student Reception should you need one. More information will be sent via a letter to parents soon.

Student photographs

Student photographs have now been distributed to your children via their Homerooms. 

Private Music Lessons in Term 3

Mrs Sharon Flint
Music department secretary

Enrolments are now open for Term 3 Instrumental Music lessons. The College offers private 30-minute or 45-minute lessons in brass, drums, guitar, piano, strings, voice and woodwind (Note: brass and woodwind also offer group lessons to our students). All private lessons are run during school hours. If your child is interested in joining this exciting program, please download an enrolment form from the MLMC Parent Portal on our website or alternatively, email the Instrumental Music Secretary Mrs Sharon Flint on sflint@mlmc.vic.edu.au for further information. Be quick to secure a place.

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)

Finance department

Applications close on Thursday 23 June 2022 for the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF). Fee help is available. Parents holding a current Health Care Card or Pension Card are eligible for a discount off their tuition fees. Note:

• $225 per student is available for eligible applicants

• to be eligible you must be, as of the first day of either Term 1 (31 January 2022) or Term 2 (26 April 2022), a holder of a valid means-tested Centrelink card or a temporary foster parent

OR

• be a student 16 years or older who holds a Youth Allowance Health Care Card.

If you have NOT ALREADY APPLIED for the CSEF at the College in 2022, please complete a form (which can be downloaded HERE or below) and return to the College or contact the Finance Office on 9237 1315, for more information. NB: a signed copy of your valid Centrelink card (we can copy the card for you at the College) must be attached to the form to ensure your application can be processed.

Final applications close on Thursday 23 June 2022. Late applications cannot be accepted. Funding will be applied to your College fees.

The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme 'Be Brave. Make Change' provided a focus for a week of activities at the College. The theme highlighted the challenge to all Australians — individuals, families, communities, organisations and government — to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so that we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

Throughout the week our daily prayers and reflections were centred on this theme and a variety of activities were available to students and staff each day in the Ministry Lounge. A full College Assembly took place on Tuesday 31 May and welcomed some very important guests — Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, a senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin Nation, Mr Courtenay Dempsey, a 133-game player with Essendon Football Club and the Indigenous and Multicultural Program Manager for the AFL, as well as Ms Michaela Long and Mr Craig Murphy, who welcomed students and staff to the assembly with a smoking ceremony.

We were very privileged to have this opportunity to experience some traditional Indigenous customs and to hear first-hand about the importance of reconciliation. We also participated in the Reconciliation Sports Carnival at Worawa Aboriginal College in Healesville; a fun day encouraging sport and cultural and social exchange between participants. The week concluded with a moving liturgy in the chapel prepared by the Year 12 CSYMA students. Prayer ribbons were placed outside of the chapel as a sign of our commitment to reconciliation.

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible has been a stage-favourite for decades. With its powerful allegory of the 1490s Salem witch hunts for the fear, paranoia, religious zealotry and mob-hysteria in the 1950s Cold War USA, as it is for today’s ‘fake news’, post-COVID exhausted world.

The 2022 VCE Theatre Studies class decided to maintain the playscript’s original setting of the theocratic 1690s Puritan society — but with a renovation of minimalistic styling and design to emphasise the play’s key motifs of religious paranoia and the supernatural.

As a task, the ‘Theatre Studs’ class undertook the highly complex production process of a theatre company — planning, development and presentation. They developed collaborative partnerships across year levels in pairs and groups, as characters, as directors, in technical production, as designers and as production teams. 

MLMC has a proud tradition of theatre with a repertoire of shows in recent years, including Get Smart, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pink Panther Strikes Again. This year’s show included an extraordinary cast of students who have invested several hundred hours of rehearsals, acting and stagecraft development. This multi-talented cast and crew was amazing. They committed themselves to deliver high-quality performances, with the play staged on two nights in Centennial Hall, on 13 and 14 May.

Most of all, what the audience got to see was the special care, community and spirit they had cultivated in this experience together — especially re-engaging their theatrical skills after two years of disruption. Indeed, they exemplified all that is supportive, creative and energetic in the tradition of ‘Mercy’.

On Tuesday 24 May, the Year 7 students were given the opportunity to invite some of the special and significant people in their lives to the College. We began the morning with a Welcome Assembly and liturgy in Centennial Hall where the Principal, Mr Philip Morison, welcomed these important people in the lives of our youngest students, along with myself and Ms Elizabeth Keogh, Deputy Principal — Mission.

The Year 7 students then walked their special guests around the College grounds, showing them the areas of their school that have become an important part of their everyday College life. This included the Mansfield building, the Heritage Room inside Mount Saint Joseph, the new Mercy Learning Centre and, of course, the canteen.

The morning ended with a cup of tea or coffee in McAuley Hall where the students and their special people could mingle with other members of our community. Our Year 7 students loved showing family and friends around their school.

Thank you to all the individuals who came to this special day and helped our students understand how important and valued they are.

On Tuesday 7 June, the graduating classes of 2022 and 2027 got together during the Pastoral Care period. For the Year 7 students, it was a chance to meet some of this year’s Year 12 students and find out that they were not as intimidating as they might appear to be and to ask some questions about their school life.

For the Year 12s, the session offered a chance to return to their Year 7 building, see some of their Year 7 Homeroom teachers and to share some wisdom with the Year 7 students while also reminiscing about how far they have come and just how close to the end of their high school journey they are.

Judging from the smiles and the noise level in the building it was an enjoyable time for students in both year levels.

On Thursday 16 June, Year 12 students will have the opportunity to participate in the Vinnies Winter Sleepout — an overnight event being held at the College. By students coming together in solidarity and sleeping out in the McAuley Quad for one night, we hope to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness in the community. Details of this event were sent to all Year 12 families via the Parent Portal.

In support of the Vinnies Winter Appeal we are also inviting students in Years 7 to 11 and all their family members to participate in the Vinnies Virtual Winter Sleepout. If 16 June does not suit your family, we encourage families to find a convenient time over the weekend instead. It is up to families how they conduct this event. Details of the virtual event are available on the Docs tab of the Parent Portal.

We are also appealing for donations of goods to be given to the local Vinnies Foodbank. We have split items up between the year levels but any donation is welcome. Please see the list of items below.

To donate directly to the Winter Sleepout, please click HERE.

The College’s STEM Club students have been busy exploring the STEM process while engaging in a range of challenges at lunchtimes throughout this year. More recently our learning focused on the techniques and technologies involved in launching High Altitude Balloons (HAB) as we prepare for a launch in 2022.

The HAB Project, sponsored by the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) and coordinated by Mr John Parlas, had its first HAB launch in 2019. Current STEM students at MLMC have been learning how to track the balloon’s journey and code sensors in order to collect and retrieve the atmospheric and flight data from the HAB mission.

This year we have also formed a partnership with a group of STEM students from nearby St Patrick's Primary School. We were delighted to have them join us at the College on Wednesday 1 June (pictured) to learn more about our HAB Project and we look forward to working together throughout this STEM project.

On Friday 3 June it was my pleasure to run the annual Celebration Day for Ryan House and recognise the aspiring life of Mother Agnes Ryan. It was good to celebrate in person this year with a great turnout of people to share in the laughter and fun. As Ryan Prefect for 2022, I am so proud of the achievements of everyone participating in the House spirit at MLMC, and there were even some lucky winners of a House-led raffle. 

Thank you to everyone who attended and enjoyed the sausage sizzle lunch. Thank you to all of the devoted staff members as this wouldn't have been possible without their help. Go Ryan!

(1) EISM golf

Congratulations to Tom Handasyde (Year 8 Orange) who competed in the state final for junior secondary school golfers at Long Island Golf Club last Monday. He was competing in a very strong field with some of the best junior players in the state. Tom managed to get a top 20 finish, which was a fantastic achievement considering the field he was up against. Well done to Tom for his performance and we look forward to seeing his progression and representing the College for years to come.

(2) Worawa Reconciliation Sports Carnival

On Tuesday 31 May, a group of Year 8 and 9 girls took part in the the Worawa Reconciliation Sports Carnival, where schools from all over Melbourne came together during National Reconciliation Week to participate in a variety of sports, including netball and volleyball, in some friendly competition. It's a highlight on the sports calendar and a great day to connect with and celebrate our local Aboriginal College. Congratulations to all involved.

(3) EISM tennis tournament

Congratulations to Natasha Harrison (Year 10 Silver), Katie Harrison (Year 8 Bronze), Tomas Majdancic (Year 11 Red) and Coby Smith (Year 11 Purple) (pictured above) who represented MLMC at the inaugural EISM tennis tournament on Wednesday 8 June. They were lucky enough to get their games played in between rain showers. All athletes played extremely well and we saw an all-MLMC girls’ final with older sister Natasha taking out the title. Coby also finished runner-up in an extremely high quality boys’ final. It was an excellent result for MLMC — we are very proud of you all.

(4) Student Achievements

Karate
Congratulations to Stephen Cameron (Year 11 Bronze) (pictured below) who has recently represented Australia at the Oceania Championships in New Caledonia where he won three medals from three events — one gold and two bronze. Stephen is hoping these results will qualify him for the World Championships in Turkey.

Fencing
Well done to Lachlan Nicholls (Year 12 Purple) who represented MLMC in the second round of the secondary schools epee this week, finishing with a bronze medal (pictured) from a large field of competitors. Best wishes for the next round in July, Lachlan.

Football
Congratulations to Jess Vukic (Year 11 Purple) (pictured below) who was among 46 of the country’s most talented 17-year-old footballers named in the NAB AFLW Futures squad which played in an exhibition match at Geelong’s GHMBA Stadium on Sunday 5 June. Those in the squad will be eligible for selection in next year’s NAB AFLW Academy. Jess played for the Vic Metro Under 18 team at the national championships earlier this year.

Old Collegian Jorja Borg (Class of 2016) has been drafted to the Essendon Football club’s AFLW list for the upcoming season. Well done, Jorja (pictured below).

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

(5) EISM results

Year 8 (31 May)

Senior (1 June)

Year 8 (7 June)

Year 9 (9 June)