News

Time flies, and we are now in the midst of term 2. Students are beautifully dressed in their Winter uniform to keep them warm. One of the highlights so far this term was the Mother’s Day event. It was such a wonderful day to spend time with the special person who gives us unconditional love. Year 5 Green did a fabulous narration from the book “Love You Forever” by Robert Munch. We then had a beautiful spread of cakes and tea. Another significant event that took place was the Interhouse Cross Country. We were blessed with glorious sunshine. What was more incredible was the show of collegiality as students cheered and supported one another. Learning and lots of knowledge was evident as we witnessed colourfully decorated spacecraft in Kindergarten. Students used their imagination and creativity to make them. Pre-Primary wrote the story of “Dear Zoo” by Rod Campbell. They also learned to innovate the story by changing the characters. The Year 6s learned about plants and the types of soil they need to grow. They experimented by planting seeds in varied conditions. Through their investigative skills, they were able to determine the specific earth that plants need to flourish. Prayers and Faith are still the main focus in our school. Year 6s attended mass along with the Lesmurdie Parish community. We also had two student leaders who represented the school at the mass to celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia. As for sports, by the time this newsletter is published, our interschool swimmers will hopefully be beaming with pride as they represent the College at the interschool swimming carnival. After school is a busy time, especially at the pick-up points, we advise parents to park their cars in the designated areas. Kindly follow the queue and pick up your child only from the given location. This system is to ensure the traffic flows with ease and the students’ safety. We would also like to thank parents who supported the school, whether volunteering for events or being partners in their learning. God Bless. Anne Tan Head of Primary

Mother’s Day Mass It was wonderful to have the opportunity to thank God and pray for all mothers at our Mother’s Day Mass, which was celebrated in our College Chapel by Father Michael McMahon OMI on Friday, 7 May at 10.30am. LifeLink Launch College representatives from Year 7, 8 & 9 joined Ms Hepi and I for the Archbishop’s LifeLink Launch on Thursday, 20 May at Aranmore Catholic College. The LifeLink organisation was established in 1994 to provide for the ongoing financial and promotional support of agencies established or assisted by the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Perth. Further information is available on the LifeLink website: https://lifelink.com.au/ LifeLink – Winter Appeal 2021 A reminder that each family is asked to bring to school, non-perishable cans or goods that will assist ‘The Shopfront’, a LifeLink Agency supporting needy families in the Archdiocese of Perth. We will create a ‘hamper wall’ in the Wandju Room and then donate the goods to ‘The Shopfront’. LifeLink – Gold Coin Challenge On Thursday, 24th June, each student is asked to bring a gold-coin donation to contribute to a House Money Chain. Each House will have an opportunity to make a money chain in an allocated area of the Wandju Room (House points to be awarded for the longest chain). Young Mercies for Vinnies This group held their first ‘combined’ meeting with the Young Vinnies from Mazenod College to discuss what events they are currently involved with and begin planning for the Young Mercies for Vinnies/Young Vinnies sleep-out next term. All students with a passion for social justice are invited to join this group – please see Notices in SEQTA Learn for further information. Seeds of Justice “Seeds of Justice” is a Mercy Education Limited initiative to raise awareness of social justice issues and campaign for the rights of the marginalised, poor and vulnerable in society. Student conferences are held annually in Victoria and Western Australia for students attending Mercy Colleges. Our first national gathering was held via Google Meet here at the College and attended by students in Year 10 & Year 11 on Friday, 21 May 2021. The theme was: To be as shining lamps – Mercy empowering women.   MIA MAD 2021 All Senior School students have started their MIA MAD program for 2021. Students are reminded that all information regarding the program can be found on SEQTA Learn in the course: 2021 Year <Level> Mercy In Action – Making A Difference. A number of MIA MAD opportunities have begun at the College, including our involvement with the Red Cross Soup Patrol. Mr Adrian Martino Head of Faith & Mission

We celebrated National Boarding Week recently with a variety of activities including an invite a teacher to dinner evening and a day girl sleep over. Sharing the boarding experience gave our girls an opportunity to introduce others to boarding life and by all accounts they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It has certainly been a busy few weeks with the girls busily undertaking various winter sports and extracurricular activities. It has also been very pleasing seeing the girls sign up fir a range of different weekend activities, including those run by our very own talented housemothers who are all very “crafty and creative.” I am concerned that increasingly, we are seeing a number of girls not join us in the dining room for dinner, preferring to consume junk food after school instead. Whilst I understand that the occasional junk food binge will happen, I am worried that for some girls, the amount of processed food they are eating is unhealthy. It is these same girls who are very hard to motivate out of their rooms making for a very sedate lifestyle exacerbated by poor food choices. I encourage parents to discuss these topics with their daughters during the forthcoming long weekend. Annamaria Cream Head of Boarding

Welcome back to Term 2. We have had a great start to the Term and already the Campus is alive with activity. We welcome back Mrs Amanda Savino and Mrs Sharryn Cunningham from their Term 1 leave. We also welcome the following new staff to our community: Ms Brooke McKnight, Library Technician Mrs Jo Cunningham, Primary Health and Physical Education Ms Patricia Histed, Secondary Science Ms Honor Lane, Health and Physical Education Mrs Linda McGrath, Teacher – Year 5 Ms Sasha Wells, Ms Tina Hayden, Ms Rebekah Smith and Ms Georgia King who will be working with our Aboriginal students, both at school and at our Boarding Houses. We farewell Ms Karen Evans, Human Resources/Risk and Compliance Officer and wish her well as she travels to Kalgoorlie for her new appointment. We thank our families for your patience as our blazer delivery is delayed. We are continuing to monitor the situation with our suppliers, and will advise as soon as we have a definite delivery date. The secondary students have enjoyed the opportunity of wearing socks while the weather remains conducive, however, there are still a few skirts that have been outgrown and need upsizing! We request that hemlines be adjusted to comply with the required length this weekend, or a new skirt purchased. Thank you for your support. The Parent Forum meeting will be held on Wednesday, 5th May and you are reminded that you will be given the opportunity to give your input into our next Strategic Plan at this meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 9.00a.m., with a second meeting for parent input to be held at 6.30p.m. Both meetings will be held in the College Staff Room and you are requested to RSVP by registering online through trybooking using the following link: https://www.trybooking.com/BQHNM We are looking forward to celebrating Mother’s Day on Friday, 7th May. All Mums are invited to attend the Primary School Assembly at 9.00a.m. followed by morning tea with their child /children. For catering purposes, and to allow us to notify teachers of the child/children involved, please booking using the following link: https://www.trybooking.com/BQSGN by Tuesday, 4th May. We look forward to sharing a ‘cup of tea’ with you in the true tradition of Mercy hospitality. We thank the many community members who have prayed for, and sent their best wishes for a speedy recovery to Mrs Willock, during her illness. We are happy to share that she is recuperating well with her family at home. As we look forward to the weekend, please keep our Year 4 children in your prayers as they prepare to make their First Holy Communion commitment during the Masses this weekend. God Bless, Carmen Cox Principal

Welcome back to Term Two and a welcome to all new families who have joined our community. A very busy term as always is ahead. Thank you to all families who have embraced our introduction of SEQTA Engage in Term One; we were all on a learning curve but we are so pleased with the smooth roll out of this platform to staff, parents and students. The positive response has been fantastic. As the year progresses additional features will be able to accessible. At the end of Term One all parents should now be able to access: • The Term One Report 2021 • Semester One and Two Reports 2020 • Your child(ren’s) timetable • Progressive results as they are released for all subject areas – these are as per the published assessment outlines • Teaching Programmes (Term Two will be available by the end of Week 3) • Assessment Outlines We held a very successful Parent Teacher Interview Day on the final day of term; our staff loved meeting families and discussing current and future progress. We also were pleased that many students also attended with their parents, as it is important that they are part of these conversations. Thank you for these conversations and please do not hesitate to make contact with teachers across the term. We encourage all students to make sure that they have read and discussed their Term One Report with the families, and to goal set together. For our Primary and lower Secondary students NAPLAN testing commences in Week Four. Whilst this is an important tool to gain information on a child’s progress and potential (including meeting the literacy and numeracy benchmarks for WACE attainment), it is important to remember that tests like NAPLAN do not assess everything that makes each of students exceptional and unique. It does not measure everything that our students can do; whether they can sing, program a robot, be an amazing footballer or that a student cares for their siblings each day without asking. These are the things which cannot be tested. NAPLAN is a snapshot of one moment in their learning journey. It is important that especially in our younger years and for our Year Three students who will sit the assessment for the first time that we not build it to be more than it is – a tool to help gauge a child’s progress. Our teachers will prepare all students in the lead up to tests and all have already completed their ‘practice test’ and an ‘excursion to the computer labs’. Our students were marvellous! We know they will all give their best, we are proud of them. In Week Four our Year Twelve General students sit their Externally Set Task in all general subjects, we wish them well and know that they will be preparing for these assessment pieces. During Weeks Eight and Nine our Year Ten to Twelve students will be sitting their first examinations for the year. We remind all students that preparation is key; take the support opportunities available to you, provided by teachers in the form of assistance at lunch times and after school, complete revision notes and tasks/sample papers, ask questions, be organised and take time for yourself (self-care is equally important in all examination preparation). During Term Two, our Year Ten students will be beginning the exploration of options available for their senior secondary years and moving towards begin graduands in 2023. There are a variety of sessions planned for them, including attending the Careers Expo 2021 at the Convention Centre and the Subject Selection Evening at the College on the 30th June, 6 pm. Students in Year 10 will also sit placement tests to assist in recommendations for courses of study in Year Eleven (this will occur towards the end of the term). Further information will be distributed to families as the term progresses. Our Library continues to be a hive of activity; if we do have any parents who are available to cover books at any stage please do not hesitate to contact us as we would love your help! I wish everyone a fabulous and blessed term, and I look forward to seeing our children continue to grow. Janine Walsh Deputy Principal

We started Term Two off with an ANZAC service held in the Gymnasium thanks to Ms Santarelli and her team for organising it, Year 10 student, Mandy Prince, an Air Force cadet, for reciting the Ode in her Air Force Cadet uniform and our special guest Geoff Irvin, from the RSL sub-branch in Kalamunda who spoke to a very respectful audience about his experience in the Air Force. It has been pleasing to see the girls wearing their winter uniform. Some have been wearing tights, while the majority have favoured socks. I have to say however, that some of the skirts certainly need to have the hems taken down as they are far too short. I am confident that when your daughters leave home, they are wearing the correct uniform. However, from the time they leave home to the time they arrive at school, some go through a change. This includes adding makeup, extra piercings, and rolling their skirts up to make them appear shorter. Since we are all involved in educating young women, we need to be on the same page, especially when it comes to following the school’s rules. I have had girls ask why they need to follow the rules, and I have explained to them that life is full of rules and the rules at school are the stepping stones to help them ensure everyone has an equal chance at learning and preparing them for the future. Learning to follow school rules early on helps students understand why rules are important well into adulthood. We have started week two off wearing masks, and it is good to see all of the students wearing abiding by this requirement. As we ended Term One with three-way interviews, it was fantastic seeing the number of parents who were able to attend. If, for some reason, you were not able to attend and you would have liked to have had a chat with your daughter’s teachers, I strongly encourage you to contact them teachers via email. All the staff emails are surname.firstname@stbrigids.wa.edu.au. If you are not sure who a teacher is, have a look at SETQA Engage – Timetable. The image on Mathematics course 2 means that the students in this class have an assessment on this day. If you have not had the chance to download the SEQTA App, I strongly recommend you do this. It is an excellent tool so you can see exactly how your daughter is going and when she has assessments. Please don’t hesitate in contacting either the College’s Helpdesk or myself for assistance with SEQTA. Kind regards Ms Fiona Hepi