News

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

Despite our unusually wintry weather, we have had a marvellous start to Term 4 and already the term has been jam-packed with activities. Our Year 12 students completed their exams and seminars in order to celebrate their last few days with special activities. It is such a heart-warming time to see our young women confident in their achievements and looking forward to the next chapter of their lives. We are blessed that our students were able to enjoy their final assemblies, House Breakfasts and traditional boater throw. The Graduation Mass, Presentation of Year 12 Awards and Dinner were enjoyed by all our Year 12 families. It was a full house with the many families and staff being able to attend. These many events take quite some organising, but our dedicated staff go out of their way to ensure that this is a special week in which the girls will add to their memories of school life. I spoke to the Year 12 students just before they left. As well as telling them how proud we are of them, I also reminded them to remember the importance of the people who they love in their lives. As they move on, I encouraged them to live the Gospel values and to be the wonderful young women that they are. We were also able to celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of students at our Sportspersons Awards Evening and Presentation Night. To see our students stand proudly on the stage, and to view the talents of those who performed, is such a joy. As I regularly tell parents and students, we have a dedicated staff who continually work to give more and more to our students, but at the end of the day it is up to the student to take that advice and help, and to do the work. We congratulate all the students who were prize-winners, but we also congratulate all of our students who give of their best and achieve very good results. You should all be very proud. As some of our Year 12 students prepare for the WACE examinations, the rest of our students are working diligently on their courses. Year 11 students will be the next group to sit examinations, with the Year 9’s sitting examinations for the first time this year. Our Year 6 students are also busy preparing for the conclusion of their primary years, and the special activities organised for their end of year. In addition, there is a hive of activity in preparation for the Student Art Exhibition next Thursday at 6.00p.m. We look forward to having many of you join us for the evening. Next week we farewell Mrs Geraldine Armstrong-Woods who is looking forward to semi-retirement. We thank her for her years of service, especially in the Arts area, and wish her well as she welcomes some time to spend on herself. We look forward to having you join us next week at our College Fair on Saturday 6th November between 3.00p.m. and 7.00p.m. It promises to be a great afternoon with many fun activities. We continue to pray to the Lord for the safekeeping of our students and their families. God Bless, Carmen Cox Principal

Term 4 started off with the Year 12s sitting their Mock WACE Exams and then attending seminars relevant to their WACE subjects. We then started the final countdown preparing for the girls last few days with events including a shared morning tea for all the staff prepared by the girls, the traditional Boater throwing routine, House Breakfast, little Miss awards with a twist this year and ending it all with their Graduation ceremony. It was truly a wonderful way to farewell the class of 2021. While the focus was on the Year 12s the rest of the young ladies all settled back into school routines. Which as you are fully aware, is not easy for teenagers who love their sleep-ins. It was great seeing them all wearing their full summer uniform and I have to say; the majority of the girls are now remembering to remove their excess jewellery before coming to school. A huge thank you to you as parents, for reminding them about the college uniform rules. Since Term 4 is only 8 weeks, I guarantee you that all the girls will all have some sort of homework to do every night. Be it set homework, finishing off work that they did not complete in the classroom, revision for in-class tests, assessments and definitely exam revision for the Year 9-11 girls. If you have found that your daughter is struggling with her homework, then please contact her teacher straight away so they can assist. As you are aware, we do offer free tutoring for the students in Maths, English, Science, your daughter just needs to attend the lunchtime or afterschool clubs for these areas. If you are not sure what days and times the clubs are running, the information can be found below: October is mental Health month and SchoolTv has published their Happy and Gratitude documents here. SchoolTv have said that happiness is defined as the balance of positive and negative emotions, combined with overall life satisfaction. Researchers have found that gratitude is always strongly associated with greater happiness. However, negative emotions are still important. They have a lot to teach us and alert us when things need to change. Practising gratitude helps people feel more of the positive emotions, enables us to relish good experiences, improve our overall health, deal with adversity and build strong relationship. Fiona Hepi Head of Secondary School

The end of the year is just around the corner, learning however, continues with enthusiasm and is very visible when you visit classes. The Year 6s are on their journey working towards making a better world. They are using STEM concepts to create innovative and leading-edge products. Watch this space in our following newsletter for updates. It was lovely to see students from Pre -Primary presenting flowers to our Year 12 graduates last week. They were excited to see their big sisters, and it will be their turn to receive flowers in 2032. This is an exciting time for our Year 5s, taking over the leadership reins next year. They spent a class period learning about different leadership skills and what makes a good leader. In addition, they had the opportunity to listen to the Australian Electoral Commission speaker and learn about our election system. Singing is a favourite activity, and on alternate Fridays, we gather in the gym to learn new hymns with Mrs Wade. It is glorious to watch students from Pre Primary right through to Year 6 singing and moving to the melodies. Once again, it is always lovely to join the Kindergarten children in their morning greeting and singing. They always brighten our day. We certainly have a jam packed semester with students getting ready for the in-term swimming and Grandparent’s Day, and not forgetting our Christmas Carols that will take place on the second last day of the term. We also had a school tour this week, and if you know of families who would like an academically esteemed and well-balanced education, direct them to us. Lastly, this is an important message for parents picking up their children from Glen Road. For the safety of the children, vehicles are not encouraged to park along the road during pick-up time. However, if you need to park the car, kindly proceed to the car park within the College. We have an ample amount of parking bays for you. Have a great last term, and do not forget to slow down and smell the roses. God Bless Anne Tan