On Wednesday 22 June 2022, the College will be holding the annual Careers Breakfast for Years 10 to 12 students.

This year we welcome the following ex-students (alumnae) to our panel:

• Jessica Denlow (2011) – Finance
• Rebecca Chong (2015) – Exercise Physiology
• Claire Stephens (1994) – Management
• Dr Anna Samecki (2005) - Medicine

For more information on our fantastic speakers, see the flyer above.

Students are to arrive 7.15am for 7.30am start (Access will be through Gate 7). A breakfast of danishes, muffins, and fruit together with tea, coffee, and hot chocolate will be served.

Students can CLICK HERE to Register for this event.

Managing Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a double-edged sword – it can prompt us to perform better, but it can also cause unnecessary stress and slow you down. Setting unrealistic and inflexible expectations can lead to the development of anxiety, diminish our self-esteem and an inability to focus well whilst preparing for exams.

Perfectionism often stems from fear and self-doubt, concerned that if we let go of our conscientiousness, that it will hurt our performance. Many people have traits of perfectionism and are even proud of them, but an important difference between perfectionists and high achievers is where your focus lies. If you are striving for excellence, you can be happy about your achievements and learn from your mistakes. However, perfectionism can be less forgiving and robs you of the satisfaction and pride that comes from all the things that you do well. In fact, perfectionists achieve less than those with healthier attitudes, because their focus on perfection can bring on procrastination and other self-defeating behaviours.

Perfectionism affects how one thinks, behaves, and feels. This may include:

1. Feeling depressed, frustrated, anxious, and even angry, especially if you constantly criticise yourself for not doing a good enough job, after spending a lot of time and effort on a task
2. Feeling unable to feel pleasure in your achievements
3. Experiencing black-and-white thinking (e.g., “Anything less than perfection is a failure”) or catastrophic thinking (e.g., “if I make a mistake, I won’t be able to survive the humiliation”), or should statements (“I should never make mistakes”)
4. Behaviours like chronic procrastination, difficulties completing tasks or giving up easily, avoiding situations in which you may ‘fail’ or ‘make a mistake’, being overly cautious and thorough in tasks, and constantly re-doing tasks to ‘improve them’

Perfectionism simply isn’t sustainable as it uses a lot of psychological battery. Redirecting the positive aspects of our perfectionism and managing our stress so that it becomes a beneficial motivator, can help to let go of perfectionistic tendencies.

1. Reduce unhelpful thinking

• A thought diary can be a useful way to check out the accuracy of perfectionistic thoughts (e.g., ‘I must do things perfectly’) and find a more balanced way of thinking.
• Replacing self-critical or perfectionist thoughts with more realistic and helpful statements that are practised regularly (e.g., “all I can do is my best”). Practising these statements regularly, even if you don’t believe them right away, will turn positive realistic thoughts into a habit, and help crowd out the negative self-talk.
• Learn how to view situations as other people might see them or ask yourself what we might advise a close friend in this situation

2.See the big picture and embrace ‘good enough’

• Attention to detail can be incredibly time-consuming. Recognising the opportunity cost and time of your behaviour.

3. Gradually and purposefully facing our fear of making mistakes or being imperfect

• Exposing ourselves to situations that we may otherwise avoid such as stopping yourself from re-checking assignments more than a few times, or asking for help

4. Overcoming procrastination

• Breaking down larger tasks into manageable steps and reward yourself for reaching each goal

If you feel like your daughter needs some help with her perfectionism, please contact a College Counsellor on 8838 1273.

Ms Chloe Gresham
School Counsellor

On Tuesday 7 June, we welcomed Dr Prue Salter from Enhanced Learning Educational Services to speak at our Year 7 Study Skills Evening.

This evening helped families assess what changes could be made to help students move towards achieving their personal best efficiently and effectively. Families examined the following areas:

• Home study environment
• Organising and managing their resources
• How to work effectively at home and how to deal with distractions
• How to manage the workload in high school

Families also have access to a video highlighting the steps to studying in high school, including making study notes, learning the notes by testing yourself, and doing as much practise as possible!

Parents are encouraged to review the slides and the Family Handout from this session with their daughters and discuss the main areas identified where changes need to be made. Parents can also find extra study skills tops on the website below.

http://studyskillstoptipsparents.com/

All OLMC students have access to a study skills website to help further develop their skills. Check out www.studyskillshandbook.com.au and enter the username: OLMC and the password:  64results.

Vinnies Winter Appeal

We will continue to collect clothing and non-perishable food until the end of the Term. These will be delivered to our local Vinnies Collection Point in Wentworthville.

Thank you to the families who have already supported this initiative so positively.

Junior Mercy 6 Day

On Wednesday 1 June, 10 Mercy Action students travelled by train to Monte Sant Angelo in North Sydney to participate in the Junior Mercy 6 day. Six secondary schools make up this group and were all founded or run by the Sisters of Mercy.

The focus of the day was on social justice and our ability to make a change in the world. The day was full of fun activities, guest speakers, including the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), and Resource Living Sustainability. It provided us with an opportunity to work and interact with students from other Mercy schools around Sydney. Thank you to Ms Little and Mr Esterman for escorting us on the day.

CSDA COMPETITION

Last week saw the end of the preliminary rounds of CSDA Debating. Our results have been very pleasing in the last fortnight, with nine out of twelve teams being successful against Oakhill and four against Mt St Benedict College. We now await the announcement of which teams progress to elimination rounds or directly to semi-finals. Overall, OLMC won 32 out of 60 debates, reflecting a consistent effort from our girls. All teams and their coaches should be congratulated on the effort they have put into their preparation and training. Thank you to Mrs Ann Kumar and ex-students Alison McGuirk and Gaby Mizzi, who have acted as adjudicators throughout the Debating season and of course, our wonderful debaters, reserves and supporters who have often stepped in when other schools needed additional chairpersons and timekeepers.

Each team competed in five debates and results are as follows:

A NEW INTRASCHOOL DEBATING COMPETITION

Last week, our DAPS Leaders, Sakshi Chouta and Stephanie Ogle, announced a new cocurricular activity at Assembly. The Intraschool Debating Competition has been designed to allow those numerous students who missed out on selection for the CSDA Competition to participate but is also open to any student who wants to try their hand at debating. Current CSDA debaters cannot apply.

Held during Term 3 with semi-finals and grand finals in Term 4, the competition has two sections: one for Years 7 and 8 and another for Years 9 and 10. Girls can form their own team of four speakers and can even ask experienced CSDA debaters to be their coaches.

The competition will be streamlined to make things easier for beginner debaters and the reward at the end is the names of the winning teams being engraved on two new trophies. For Years 7/8, this will be the Doris Goldie trophy, named after a teacher in the 1950s and 1960s who contributed much to Debating at OLMC. For Years 9/10, the Sr Barbara McDonough trophy acknowledges one of our previous College Principals who also organized Debating at the school.

A new site has been established on Information Gateway/Debating at OLMC with all details and guidelines for each speaker in a debate. You can also contact Mr Ostrowski at any time.

Entry forms are in the Student Centre and final date for submissions is Monday 20 June.

PARRAMATTA EISTEDDFOD

The achievements of our girls at this competition continues to amaze. In the latest round of competition, our girls participated in four different events and were declared winners in each one. Exceptionally well done to Olivia Saab of Year 7, Abera Satyajith and Emily Johnson of Year 8 who won their Individual Prepared Speaking events and Emily Orszulak and Meihan Sun who took out their section of Telephone Pairs. Our other entrants were also successful. Natasha Tween of Year 7 and Zivelle Seasay of Year 8 were awarded third placings. In Telephone Pairs, A’ishah Ali and Lizzy Butler of Year 8 were awarded fourth place while Year 7 girls Sybella Hanna and Aruvi Nadarajan received Highly Commended certificates in their respective events. More Highly Commended awards went to Vibha Ravi and Georgia Draiby of Year 8 and Willow Higgins of Year 9. Arsh Preet Kaur of Year 7 received an Encouragement award while Aishani Gaur of Year 8 received a special award for most original speech in her section.  

Well done also to our other competitors: Crista-Nicole Gahdmar, Ananya Sharma, Kasey Bolt, Caitlin Yeliseev, Ruhara Parndigamage and Rajvi Parma, all of Year 8, who performed very well and should be proud of their efforts.

A sincere thank you to Mrs Ellen Lonergan who gave up her time on a Saturday morning to support the girls when I was unable to attend.

After a break over the long weekend, the Eisteddfod concludes this weekend, with no fewer than twenty-eight of our girls competing across several events. We wish them all luck.

Christopher Ostrowski 
Debating and Public Speaking Coordinator

Congratulations to Jennifer Wang (Year 9) and Bailee Blackman (Year 8) who were selected, via an audition process, to perform in the West Phil String Ensemble as part of the Western Sydney Philharmonic. The students performed amongst professional and non-professional musicians and provided some beautiful music for the afternoon concert. The String Orchestra performed at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday 13 June and performed Bela Bartok’s Divertimento for String OrchestraI and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major op.48. Jennifer and Bailee gave an impressive performance and should be commended on their achievement.

Saturday Netball

CLICK HERE to view draws and results.

Just past the halfway point, here is the Ladder after Round 8:

OLMC 7 (13/4) – 3rd

OLMC 6 (14/5) – 4th

OLMC 5 (14/5) – 5th

OLMC 4 (14/4) – 3rd

OLMC 3 (15/3) – 4th

OLMC 2 (Cadets 5) – 5th

OLMC 1 (C9) – 5th

Just a reminder of the upcoming weeks and when games and training are on:

There WILL be games on Saturday 18 and 25 June.

There are NO games in the school holidays – Saturday 2 and 9 July. Games then resume on 16 July.

There will be NO training during the School Holidays. Training will resume Tuesday 19 July.

A good news story from our netballers - 6 OLMC girls (who play for Alexanders - Maddie Stewart, Stephanie Lake, Emma Maroun, Gretel Hyde, Bronte Herberstein & Isabella Cotter) played a netball game against one of the All-Abilities team on Saturday afternoon. As a team they decided to volunteer to ensure that the All-Abilities team would be able to have a game as not many other teams put their hand up. The girls were all so grateful to experience this and the joy from the other team was very humbling. Well done girls!

Saturday Soccer

Here are the results from round 5:

OLMC 1 defeated Kincoppal Rose Bay (5 - 1)

OLMC 2 were defeated by Kincoppal Rose Bay (4 - 3)

OLMC 3 were defeated by MLC (8 - 1)

Our final round for the season is on June 18.

NSWCCC Softball

After numerous postponements due to the weather, the NSWCCC Softball Championships were finally held on June 6 at the International Peace Park, Seven Hills. Congratulations to Teyana La Brooy and Grace Cini who were chosen in the PDSSSC Open Team to compete at theses championships. Well done girls.

NSWCCC Cross country

The NSWCCC Cross Country Championships were held on Tuesday June 7 at Eastern Creek Raceway. This year the course was mainly run on the track due to the poor recent weather. Well done to all the OLMC representatives - Lucie Francis, Matilda Webb, Niamh Nolan, Sofia Polson, Katherine Baker and Kasey Bolt.

Congratulations to Lucie who finished 6th and has qualified to compete at the NSW All Schools Championships on Friday July 22. Matilda is a reserve after narrowly missing the top 10.

Well done to all the girls!

NSWCCC Teams Tennis

On Monday May 30, OLMC competed at the NSWCCC Teams Tennis event in Bathurst. The team consisted of Catherine Yue, Renee Poon, Mia Fogolin and Archa Chavan. The girls all competed in an individual set and 2 doubles sets against each school. The girls played exceptionally well and made it through to the Semi Finals. Unfortunately the rain set in, and the finals matches where abandoned. The Finals were then rescheduled for Monday June 6 at Parramatta. Archa was unable to compete due to being oversees, so Elyssa Wakim was able to step in. Unfortunately, Santa Sabina was too strong, defeating OLMC 5 sets to 3. The girls should be very proud of their achievements with OLMC finishing 3rd, our best results ever at the tournament!

NSW All Schools Tennis

Congratulations to Catherine Yue who, after competing in the NSWCCC Teams Tennis event in Bathurst on the Monday, then backed up on the Tuesday and competed in the NSW All Schools Championships which were also held in Bathurst. Well done Catherine.

NSW All Schools Swimming

The NSW All Schools Swimming Championships were held on Friday June 3 at SOPAC. OLMC was represented by Zoe McIntosh, Emily Shumack and Ashleigh Hamilton. Emily narrowly missed qualifying for School Sport Australia finishing 4th in the 16 years 400 Freestyle, Zoe finished 7th in the 15years 50 Breaststroke and Ashleigh finished with a 5th in the senior Multi Class 50 Backstroke and 100 Freestyle plus 6th in the 50 Freestyle and her Freestyle Relay team came 2nd! Well done to all the girls on their awesome achievements.

Taekwondo

More amazing results from our Taekwondo expert, Chelsea Gomez, who competed recently at the Cadet and Junior World Championships Selection Event and won!!! She’ll be representing Australia in the Cadet - 41kg division at the 2022 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria in July!!!  As part of her preparations, she is also competing at the Chuncheon Korea Open at the end of June.

Chelsea’s coach, Justine Abigail Sangalang is an OLMC Alumni, who also represented Australia at the Junior World Championships while still at OLMC (she graduated 2015).

OLMC is so proud of Chelsea and wish her all the best in her preparations for the World Championships! Good luck!

Stuart Guthrie
Sports Coordinator

OLMC Parramatta is one of the foundation partners of Western Sydney University’s AcademyU program, which allows students in Years 9, 10 and 11 to participate in university studies whilst still at school. Students undertake modules of learning drawn from across the Schools of the university, as well as The Academy, a unique multidisciplinary pathway. Year 11 students will also have the opportunity to complete a 1^st year university subject. The Welcome Ceremony was a great event held at WSU’s Parramatta South campus, and an opportunity for our students and their parents to be welcomed into this program.

On Tuesday 14 June, Year 12 Dance students travelled to the Sydney Opera House to watch 10th anniversary performance of ‘Terrain’, a dance work choreographed by Frances Rings and performed by the Bangarra Dance Theatre. ‘Terrain’ is a prescribed HSC text that our Year 12 Dance students are currently studying in class.

The nine-part work depicts the transformation of Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest salt lake, and explores the power of ancestral ties that bind people to Country. It was a captivating performance which was thoroughly enjoyed by our Dance students. 

We were also fortunate to see the sails of the Opera House lit up for the Vivid Festival!

Opening Hours and Purchases: 

Please note the Uniform Shop will be closed on Wednesday 22 June and Thursday 23 June for stocktake 

Otherwise, the Uniform Shop is open Monday to Thursday, from 8.00am – 9.30am, and 3.00pm – 4.30pm on Monday and Wednesday (school days only).

Online purchases can be made via the Online Uniform Shop (https://shop.olmc.nsw.edu.au/) and all orders will be delivered to the Student Centre for collection by students.

Terms 2 and 3 - All girls are to wear the full winter uniform. 

Scarves

Currently, the uniform shop is out of scarves, and we apologise for any inconvenience.

There will be some back in stock soon, which when available, can be purchased online or via the shop. 

If you have any concerns regarding uniform items, please don't hesitate to contact the uniform shop on 8838 1275 or uniformshop@olmc.nsw.edu.au

Year 10 Camp, 2000