Yesterday we entered The Season of Creation, a time for us to focus on our precious earth and all of God’s creation. It is a time to reflect about what we are called to do in order that we can do our part to protect this world. At OLMC we are blessed with active student Social Justice and Eco Justice teams whose constant attention is devoted to helping all in our school to see where and how we can act. In another section of this newsletter our Head of Faith and Mission, Mr Taylor shares with you some of the inspiration we take from the words of Pope Francis.
This has been another busy fortnight at OLMC. Students and staff have been acknowledged by others for their outstanding work. Their endeavours required courage and compassion for themselves and others. It is with great joy that we celebrate with them.
Music Camp took place last week, although to say Camp is not quite right as the event was held solely at school. There was lots of fun and a great deal of preparation that has gone into getting ready for the Celebration Concert and we are very much looking forward to welcoming the students’ families and staff back for our first concert since 2019. Thank you to Jo-Anne Mileto, Madalena Broadbent, Gabby Russo and all of our Instrumental Music Teachers for your support of our students.
Parent Teacher Student Interviews for Year 7 - 9 will be held next week online. As always, we encourage all families to take the opportunity to meet with teachers to both celebrate the successes of your child and to discuss next steps to support their growth. This is an important opportunity for us to come together as partners in your child’s learning growth and development.
Mercy Day will be celebrated on 15 September. This is one of the most significant days in our year. It is a time when we pause to acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful legacy that has been gifted to us by the Sisters of Mercy. The Student Leaders from all year levels take a role in the preparations encouraging all to be involved. This will be the first day we have had onsite since 2019. Many of our students are yet to experience a Mercy Day at school and we are very much looking forward to sharing the joy and fun. There are competitions, a disco, and lots of different sweets to buy. I cannot stress enough how important it is for our students to be part of the day. I have had the honour recently of speaking with a number of Alumni and one of their most prominent and fondest memories was Mercy Day. We hope that we can once again provide such wonderful memories for all our students.
CELEBRATING STUDENT ACHIEVMENTS
STEM Team
Congratulations to our Year 9 STEM MAD team of Heidi, Sephora, Katiya and Alice who have won the national STEM in SPACE prize. Thank you to Dr Long who inspired and guided the students enabling them to be creative and solve a problem in an interesting way. Their prize, awarded by The Andy Thomas Space Foundation, is to attend the Australian Space Forum in Adelaide in March 2023.
The students will demonstrate their project at the National Catholic Education Conference to be held in Melbourne next week.
Frayne Speech Festival
Congratulations to the Voice Choir team who won this section of the Frayne Speech Festival. This event is hosted each year by a different Mercy school and provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the skills and talents of students in a variety of different types of public speech performance. To all who represented OLMC, we offer our thanks and congratulations; the students were all excellent ambassadors for the College. Thank you must also go to Ms Butterworth for her organisation and coordination of the OLMC teams and Ms Brislin, Ms Taine and Ms Gamble-Curran for their leadership and coaching of the students.
The Senior AFL Team has been successful in making it through to the Herald Shield Competition Division 2 Grand Final. Congratulations to the team and their coaches on such a significant achievement.
This Sunday is Father’s Day. We wish all the fathers, grandfathers and men who are significant mentors in the lives of others, all the very best for a wonderful day. We hope you feel special and spoilt.