News

This past week the College Library hosted a very successful Bookfair, under the theme of “Reading Oasis’. There was definitely a buzz as students rushed to grab a bargain of the latest Scholastic products and many compiling lists for consideration by their Grandparents at the annual Grandparent Day. From novels, to picture books, to novelty packs of books and the ever popular stationary collection, there was something for everyone. It was equally great to see some of our Secondary students visiting the fair and is an area we would like to grow in 2022. Grandparent’s Day was a true celebration of community as students were able to tour their family through the building, playing a collection of ‘old fashioned games’, interviewing them about their life story, entering our newly assembled sensory room, taking time to go down the yellow brick road to read in our Oz inspired reading room. We are fortunate in the space we also hosted an interactive Science display and also a showcase of our robotics programme. We would like to thank our parent helper Sonya McGillivray for assisting us on the day. WACE exams have come to a close and we congratulate our girls on their efforts and we will now await their results. It has also been fantastic to receive ongoing notification of our students attaining their Certificate IVs, which have complimented their studies. Well done. Booklists have now been published for 2022 on the College website https://sbcl.wa.edu.au/enrol/essentials/booklists/ please refer to the site for all information regarding requirements. Where students will be studying differing courses (e.g. Mathematics and Science in Years 9 and 10) letters will be sent from teams advising of student allocation. There is a Parent Forum AGM on Wednesday 24th November 2021 at 6pm, for 2022 team. If there are any parents interested in joining our Parent Forum team, please feel free to contact our President Tracy Gall 0411042338 or Tracy.gall2@education.wa.edu.au for more information. Held in the Staffroom, doors will open at 6.00pm and the meeting starts at 6:30pm. Wishing our students well during these final weeks and we are looking forward to celebrating their achievements upon the completion of their reports at the end of the year. Janine Walsh Deputy Principal

This week, most of our Year 12s approach the end of their WACE exams whilst the Year 11s undertake theirs or complete hours for their Education Certificate. The Year 10s are also busy revising for their exam period which commences next week whilst the girls in Year 7 – 9 are all completing assessments. Amidst this busy time, we have had the Year 8 quiz night social with Mazenod run by the Year 8 Student Representatives. It was a great noisy night with some fantastic prizes thanks to Ms Bianchini. The Year 9s will be participating in a Lawn Bowls evening on Monday 22 November against some staff teams. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top – according to the green’s manager, students usually win. Watch this space when the results are published. The Year 7s have their second social with Mazenod on Tuesday 23rd November. The theme is Hawaiian shirts. Hopefully the evening will be warm to give the Hawaiian them even more credibility. Photos and a report about the evening will be in the next Enews edition. It was fantastic seeing the many grandparents attended the Grandparents Day last week. The girls certainly enjoyed showing them around the College and sharing Mass and morning tea with them. This week’s Enews SchoolTv article is all about resilience. Resilience is key to addressing mental health issues. We need to allow our kids to experience adversity. There is a tendency to shield our kids because parents have become a bit over-protective.” Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. The link will lead you to the SchoolTv information about Resilience Resilience is important for a child’s mental health. It is their ability to bounce back from failure, challenges, adversity and stress. It’s not something that kids have or don’t have but a skill that kids develop over time as they grow. Building resilience not only helps a child deal with current difficulties, but it also helps develop a resilient mindset that will help them deal with challenges later in life. All children are capable of working through challenges and coping with stress, but they require guidance and support from a charismatic adult role model. https://sbcl.wa.schooltv.me/newsletter/resilience Fiona Hepi Head of Secondary

There is never a dull moment on the primary campus. As they prepared for their leadership speeches, you could feel a strong rattle of excitement in the Year 5 classes. They sought advice and asked questions from current leaders to better understand what being a good leader entails. It was lovely to see the passing of information between the two year groups. Our leadership candidates were exceptional. Their speeches were polished and well-researched. In addition, they spoke clearly and all had a personalised message that was mature and well-structured. We are proud of every student that ran for the leadership and house leaders’ positions. While the Year 5s were working on their leadership speeches, the Year 6s prepared for their Shark Tank presentation. I had the opportunity to have a sneak preview of some of their great inventions. I am certain that lots of hard work and research went in to getting these done. The students will be presenting their pitch and trying to convince a group of professionals to invest in their products and services. I have been fortunate to be part of the professional panel and cannot wait to have a first-hand look at their innovation. Not to outdo the older students, the Pre -Primary children have been working on their mathematics, including high-levelled addition. We were also fortunate to have the Year 10s visit the Kindergarten, students and together, they worked on some painting. In the fields of the Arts, we had a wonderful evening viewing the creative art pieces and paintings from our young talented girls and boys at the Student Art Exhibition. Many of them also took away prizes for their visual art pieces. At the Twilight Fair, our talented choirs sang to kick start the biennial event. Many watched and were in awe of the harmonies and the beautiful singing. The recent Grandparents’ Day was a spectacular one too, with over 900 visitors to our school. The children had immense fun and showed their grandparents the activities, crafts and learning they had been working on throughout the year. Our nature playground is starting to take shape. The students will get a chance to play on the new playground before school finishes for the year. Students from Year 3 to Year 6 also voted for their student leaders for next year. Don’t forget that our in-term swimming will commence next week. Furthermore, the students are also preparing for the traditional Christmas Carols on the Green. Our Pre-Primary children have also been rehearsing for their nativity assembly. This is our primary campus, where the activities for fun and learning never cease. We look forward to seeing you at our forthcoming events. God Bless Anne Tan Head of Primary

The term is rapidly drawing to a close and the girls are busily preparing for exams and end of year assessments. Amidst all of this, it’s great to see that there’s still enthusiasm to sign up for rec activities and support various school based events too. The girls are also currently completing house and room allocation requests for 2022. They will find out which house they’ll be in when they return in the new year. Next week we will host all our new boarders for 2022 at Orientation. A number of the girls have offered to act as buddies and I thank them for this. Ms Cumpsty, who will take over as Acting Head of Boarding in 2022, has been visiting the boarding house and familiarising herself with the daily routines and practices. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support during my time as Head of Boarding- I have certainly appreciated it greatly. I will certainly miss SBC Boarding and the wonderful community we have here. Best wishes Annamaria Cream Head of Boarding

It was wonderful to celebrate Mass together with the secondary students and their grandparents on Friday, 12 November. We thank Fr Bill Ousley OMI for joining us. We have also celebrated Thanksgiving liturgies/Masses for our Year 6 classes, Year 2 classes and Year 11 students. In the coming weeks we finish the scholastic year with a Year 10 Mass and Kindy to Year 9 final Mass in the College gym (Friday, 3 December). This term we are collecting goods for the St Vincent de Paul Christmas hampers, ensuring all families in our community have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas even though they may be struggling financially. We thank you all for your generosity. The hampers will be put together by members of Young Mercies for Vinnies from St Brigid’s College and Mazenod Vinnies group next week in the Parish hall. Mr Adrian Martino Head of Faith & Mission