Last Friday was International Women’s Day and the College was extremely pleased to host two wonderful women who spoke to the girls. Firstly, Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington who is Professor of History at Australian National University Canberra and secondly, Liz Scully who is the Board Chair of the Parramatta Women’s Shelter and currently campaigning for the ALP for the State Seat of Parramatta. Both these woman spoke of the challenges they face in their current roles and the barriers they themselves have faced as leaders in their respective fields. Did you know that only 1 in 5 Professors at Australian universities are women?

I also had the opportunity, together with Sr Mary-Louise Petro our Congregation Leader and Mrs Marie Wood our Deputy, to attend a luncheon where the Right Honourable Ms Julie Bishop MP spoke of her leadership experiences and the challenges she faced, especially in the political arena but, in particular, her achievements and learnings as Australia’s first female Minister for Foreign Affairs and significantly the work she undertook internationally to repatriate the Australian victims of MH17 and her pressure to hold Russia accountable for the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17.

All these three women were outstanding speakers and wonderful role models for our girls. One big take away from the three women was that they all strongly believed that women must stand up and support other women and for us all, both men and women, to work in collaboration to break down the gender barriers that still exist in our society today.

Open Day was held last Sunday. It was a huge success and I wish to thank the many hundreds of students who worked tirelessly throughout the day as Tour Leaders, on stalls and in classrooms showing the wonderful school we are.

Many thanks to the College Teaching and Support Staff, the many parents who supported the P&F on the BBQ all day, and the Alumnae representatives. We estimate well over 1600 people attended the day, which is the largest group in the past 6 years.

Enrolments for 2021 will open straight after the conclusion of the Information Evening on March 26.The number of applicants on the waitlist for 2021 far outweighs the number of positions available so it is imperative that all families intending to enrol for 2021 do so immediately.

What we did find out on Sunday, was that a large number of people were still seeking enrolment for Year 7 2020 and a number of those already had siblings here at the College. Our enrolments are closed for 2020 and we are only accepting names to go on the waitlist. This includes siblings until a vacancy arises. I need to stress to all prospective families that you must not wait to enrol your daughters. Please register them on the waitlist as soon as possible and you will be notified, when they are in Year 5, of the enrolment process and time frame. Once again, I am finding current families now going through the stress of not having their daughters enrolled as we are at capacity for 2020 and I expect by May this year we will offer our places for 2021.

At last night's P&F Meeting, the new Committee members were elected:

I would like to thank these parents for volunteering their time to fill these positions on the Committee.

God bless,

Mr Stephen M Walsh

Principal

Click here to view College Calendar.

The year has started productively for the girls in Mathematics. During the Transition program, Year 7 students explored what it means to ‘work like a Mathematician’ and they were given opportunities to develop their mathematical toolbox to assist them to solve the problems that they face, and will face, in their everyday lives.

Students in Year 7 spent time discussing the strategies that can be employed to solve problems and then applied these strategies using problems from the ‘Maths300’ suite of problems. These provide challenging hands on experiences that allow the girls to develop and use their mathematical skills in a problem-solving context.

Problem solving lessons allow the Mathematics teachers to intentionally address the ‘Working Mathematically’ component of the Mathematics syllabus. In this strand, students are encouraged to develop understanding and fluency through inquiry, exploring and connecting mathematical concepts, choosing and applying problem-solving skills and mathematical techniques, communication and reasoning. For all students, the 'Working Mathematically' strand and the application of the skills and content they have learnt in class, can provide a level of challenge and engagement, inspiring students to seek interesting and unique solutions.

It has been encouraging to see the girls engage with the problems explored thus far with such interest and enthusiasm and we look forward to more experiences that will challenge them to apply the mathematical content they have learnt to complex and unfamiliar situations.

Mrs Lorraine Dredge
Leader of Learning, Mathematics

There is a range of school holiday workshops and experiences on offer for students looking for creative experiences.

Australian Theatre for Young People

15 to 18 April - Burn the Seats - Escape rooms, choose your own adventure and live action role playing! Increasingly audiences love to be physically involved in the story and become the focus of the action.

https://atyp.com.au/product/years-10-12-burn-the-seats/

23 and 24 April - Year 9 to 12 Monologue Technique - Learn all this and more and sharpen up your monologue before your next audition or performance. Perfect for participants getting ready for their IP performances this year.

https://atyp.com.au/product/years-9-12-monologue-technique/

Australian Film and Television School

15 and 16 April - Music for Film and TV

AFTRS, Building 130, The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park

Learn how to create music for film and TV in this challenging and rewarding two-day course, under the guidance of a professional Screen Music Composer. Using AFTRS’ state of the art film and music facilities you will have experience of scoring your own short piece of film.

https://www.aftrs.edu.au/short-course/music-for-film-tv/

15 - 17 April – HSC Video intensive

AFTRS, Building 130, The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park

This course is a skill and story development workshop for emerging filmmakers tackling an individual project for the HSC. The workshop helps you hone your screen skills to create a high quality year 12 video project. HSC subjects that video can be used in include English Extension, Visual Art, Design and Technology, and Drama.

https://www.aftrs.edu.au/short-course/hsc-video-intensive/

23 and 24 April – Video editing

AFTRS, Building 130, The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park

Are you interested in learning how to edit your own videos? This hands-on practical course will teach you the basics of editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is not recommended if you already have a strong familiarity with Premiere Pro.

https://www.aftrs.edu.au/short-course/video-editing-with-premiere-pro/

NIDA

13 to 27 April

For students from Years 7 to 12, NIDA offers introductory through to advanced courses for during the school holidays in a variety of disciplines including creative play, drama, acting on screen, music theatre, singing and acting, public speaking and more.

https://www.open.nida.edu.au/holiday-classes

Casual/part-time work opportunity at Grill’d Parramatta

Grill’d is looking for fun, excited 15-18 year olds to work 2 to 4 shifts on weekday afternoons and weekends. If you are interested in applying, please see Jake Sullivan, Restaurant Manager (310 Church Street, Parramatta) with your current resume.

CSDA Competition

Last Friday evening, eleven girls travelled to Emmaus College, Kemp’s Creek, to participate in the first round of the CSDA competition. All girls were thoroughly prepared and must be commended on their presentations. As always, the competition was very strong but three girls made it through to this week’s semi-finals at St Pat’s Strathfield on Friday evening. Congratulations to Ambeikaa Mishra (Year 8) and Sakshi Chouta and Stephanie Ogle (both Yr 9 but competing in the Yr 10 section). While these girls were outstanding, the efforts of all our speakers is to be commended. Well done to Hayden Rodewald and Kyoko Sano (Year 7), Aaliya Garg (Year 8), Ananya Arunkumar (Year 9), Jala Bakri, Sofia Del Rio and Riley Rodewald (Year 10) and Priyanka Sangar (Year 12), who all worked hard and delivered well. They should be proud of their efforts.

Open Day

Last Sunday’s Open Day was a huge success and as always, our public speaking girls made a significant contribution. Truly noteworthy was the professional presentation by Year 7 students Tia Monga and Summer-Rayne Roughley. These girls were required to deliver a speech (twice) to an audience of 500 and more as part of the welcome to our visitors. Tia and Summer-Rayne spoke with confidence and clarity, barely referring to notes and were truly wonderful ambassadors for the College. To listen to these young people speak was to hear two young girls who are certain to be future leaders.

Just as commendable was the work of the girls who manned the Public Speaking Co-curricular booth. From left to right in the photo are Ainslie McNally (Year 8), Laurice Behan, Summer-Rayne Roughley, Jane Whelan, Ivana Stefanovski and Madeleine Starkey, all of Year 7. Not in the photo is Tia Monga. The way in which these girls welcomed visitors, explained the many opportunities for public speaking at the College and generally used their initiative when confronted with a whole range of requests was something to be marvelled at. A sincere thank you to all these wonderful young students.

ROSTRUM VOICE OF YOUTH

Each year, OLMC hosts early heats of Rostrum Voice of Youth. This year, the date is next Thursday 21 March. As always, we have a full contingent of entrants in both Junior and Senior sections. Our Junior entrants are Faustina Confucious and Laurice Behan (Year 7), Ella McGirr (Yr 8) and Maeve Nolan (Year 9). Special thanks to Laurice and Ella who stepped in at the last moment to replace students who were forced to withdraw. Our Senior speakers are Yasmine Alwakal and Marinelle Juan (Year 10) and Claire Cottrell-Dormer and Charlotte Warnant (Year 11). Most girls are well on their way in their preparation and all are sure to be highly competitive.

This week, a request for volunteers for the Rostrum evening will be going out to students but if the past is anything to go by, the response to this request will be met by many enthusiastic students willing to help in this Mercy year of service. Volunteer forms can be collected from Mr Ostrowski any lunch hour in B101.

Mr Christopher Ostrowski
Public Speaking Coordinator

Twitter

OLMC Sport is now on Twitter, so join in the conversation @OLMCsport

NSW All Schools Triathlon

The NSW All Schools Triathlon Individual Championships were held on 28 February at Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith. OLMC was represented by Lucie Francis who finished 2^nd in NSWCCC and 8^th overall in the Junior division. An amazing achievement, well done Lucie!

NSWCCC Cricket

The NSWCCC Cricket Trails were held on 25 February in Raby. Congratulations to Tarni Sutton and Vaishnavi Deobhankar who represented OLMC at this event.

NSWCCC Tennis

The NSWCCC Tennis Championships were held on 4 March in Parramatta. Congratulations to Charlize Cipri and Catherine Yue who represented OLMC at this event after being selected to compete. Well done girls!

NSWCCC Softball

The NSWCCC Softball Championships were held on 26 February in Seven Hills. Congratulations to Bianca Carney and Isabella Carney who represented OLMC at this event as part of the PDSSSSC Open team. Well done girls!

Athletics NSW Junior Championships

The NSW Athletics Junior Championships were held at SOPAC on 22-24 February. Congratulations to Summer Giddings and Lucie Francis who not only competed and won their events but have qualified for the Australian Junior Championships to be held in Sydney in April. Well done girls and best of luck.

OLMC Cross Country

The OLMC Cross Country was held on Monday 11 March at Parramatta Park. Unfortunately, the event had to be modified due to Parramatta Park having a double booking. Well done to all the girls who competed and congratulations to the following girls who were awarded Age Champions:

Congratulations also to all the girls from STANLEY as they were awarded House Champion!

A big thank you to all Staff and students who helped on the day and to all of the students who participated.

OLMC Swimming Carnival 2019

The Annual College Swimming Carnival was held on 28 February, at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, as a Twilight Carnival.

The College community entered into the spirit with the girls dividing their time between competitive events and exuberant cheering for their “House”. It was great to see so many still dressed in a colourful display for their respective Houses. It was also wonderful to see so many students participating in the swimming events throughout the evening, especially the seniors.

A big thank you must go to the Sport Leaders and all the House Leaders, who inspired such enthusiasm, spirit and commitment, as well as generously assisting in the preparation of the Carnival.

Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding swimming efforts throughout the carnival and being awarded Age Champions:

A big Congratulations must go to Isabella Boutros and Antonia Moussa and all the other CLARE students and Leaders for their victory on the Night as both Champion House and Champion Spirit House.

Final Champion House placings were:

Final Spirit House placings were:

Finally, a big thank you to all the staff and students for their efforts and also to all the parents who came along to cheer and support their daughters.

Mr Stuart Guthrie
Sports Co-ordinator

4-6 Ross Street (corner of Trott Street)
Ph  8838 1275
Email  uniformshop@olmc.nsw.edu.au
Trading times  Monday and Friday (school days) 8.00am - 9.30am

Uniforms can be ordered via email or by calling the Uniform Shop.

Please visit the College website for full details.

The College has received notice from the Australian Government Department of Education and Training (the department), that the department has requested that the College provide a statement of addresses, in accordance with the Australian Education Regulation 2013 (Cth) (the Regulation).

A statement of addresses contains the following information about each student at the school:

• Student residential address (not student names)

• Student level of education (i.e. whether the student is a primary or secondary student)

• Names and residential addresses of the student’s parent(s) and/or guardian(s)

Schools generate a record number for each student for the purposes of this collection, which is also provided to the department.

Please following the links in the documents below for further information:

2019 Collection Notice

FAQs 2019 Address Collection

Mrs Danielle Dwyer

Director of Business Services

Ash Wednesday marks the commencement of Lent in the Catholic Church. For 40 days, students and staff are encouraged to reflect on how to renew and heal their relationships with families, friends and God. Many thanks to Fr Walter, Mrs Gabby Scanlon and Mercy Action Representatives who led a moving prayer service and distributed ashes in the Ailsa Mackinnon Community Centre and Edith Angel Hall.

Project Compassion was also launched and each homeroom received a Project Compassion box, where all members of the OLMC community are encouraged to donate funds to Caritas Australia projects in Australia and overseas. Click here for more information on Project Compassion. 

Last week, led by the Year 10 Religious Education Team and Mrs Gabby Scanlon, students participated in their annual Reflection Day at St Joseph’s Spirituality Centre at Baulkham Hills. Guest speakers from the Possibility Project, Kim Pearce and Cath Davis, shared with students their ecological and social enterprise initiatives with the local people of Jaipur.

Sam Clear from ‘Walk as One’ discussed with students the importance of global, national and Christian unity.

Guest Speaker - Liz Scully

For International Women’s Day, the OLMC community were given a greater insight into the action plan to combat homelessness for women. We were lucky enough to be visited by Parramatta’s Labor Representative, Ms Liz Scully, who is also the Chair of the Board for the Parramatta Women’s Shelter. She enlightened our understanding of the issue of homelessness and explained how the initiative of providing homeless women with accommodation would benefit the community. Ms Scully alerted students to the primary cause for homelessness in women - family and domestic violence. This forward-thinking initiative will provide the homeless women and children of the Parramatta area with a safe environment until they can sufficiently support themselves.

Homelessness is a rising issue in the world today, prevalent in our own City of Parramatta. Between 2011-2016, people without a secure home increased by 50%. Ms Scully stressed the need for a collective support towards all members of our local community in order to create a welcoming environment. In line with our theme of service, donations to OLMC’s Mercy Tree for 2018-2019 will go towards the Parramatta Women’s Shelter, so that the organisation is able to hire professional staff to help women care for their families. As the establishment further grows, OLMC shall continue their support for women. Liz Scully’s visit allowed the girls and staff members to have their questions about the welfare of women’s rights and homelessness in Parramatta answered. Her life experiences and words of advice, truly inspired us to take a stand for the rights of women, whether in a position of political authority or as the Mercy Girls that we are. Thanks to many local unseen heroes, including Ms Scully and members of OLMC staff, we’re sure to see significant development towards establishing a safe and secure environment for women and children in the city of Parramatta.

Divyangi Pandit
Mercy Action Leader

Jesuit Refugee Service is an organisation that supports people seeking refuge and asylum in Western Sydney. Over the last few years, OLMC have helped JRS through a Foodbank Drive, where students and staff are asked to donate grocery items for families. See the poster below for items you and your family can donate each week. Coloured plastic tubs will be situated outside the Staff Common Room, where your daughter can deliver items over the coming weeks. At the end of the Term, these items will be delivered to JRS at Westmead. Your contributions are very much appreciated by JRS and refugee families in Western Sydney.

For more information on JRS, go to https://www.jrs.org.au/

Mercy Futures is an initiative of the Parramatta Sisters of Mercy and OLMC Parramatta, inviting all members of the wider Mercy community to reflect on the many ways of responding to the call of Mercy in everyday life. The first Mercy Futures event to open the year will be guest speaker Michael Lloyd White, Chief Engagement Officer for the World Kindness Project, an international platform for collaboration, designed to encourage and support nations to join in the global campaign towards a kinder world. For more information, please see the flyer in the Additional Notices section of this newsletter.

Mrs Claire Thomas
Director of Mission

Your daughter may wear either her full Summer Uniform or her full Winter Uniform in Week 1 of Term 2. No combinations of the two uniforms are allowed.

Your daughter will be expected to wear her Winter Uniform from Week 2, Monday 6 May.

I would ask for your assistance in ensuring that your daughter’s Winter Uniform complies with the College Dress Code. In particular, the tunic or senior skirt is to be worn at the correct length (at least 2 cm below the bottom of the knee cap).

The College Blazer is to be worn as the outer garment to and from school in Terms 2 and 3. The jumper/cardigan is not to be worn to or from school unless under the blazer.

Please also note that blazers are to be worn to House Assemblies and College Assemblies in Terms 2 and 3.

Full length pantyhose are to be worn with the winter uniform.

Thank you for your support in ensuring that your daughter wears the correct uniform. When I speak to the girls about uniform, I emphasise the respect factor. When the girls wear the uniform with pride, they show respect for themselves and for the College. I appreciate the financial commitment you, as parents, make to purchasing all items of the uniform. It is for this reason that I ask that all items of the uniform are labelled with the student’s name so lost property can be returned to your daughter.

Please note that the Uniform Shop will be open on the following Saturdays:

• Saturday 23 March
• Saturday 30 March
• Saturday 6 April
• Saturday 13 April
• Saturday 27 April

On these Saturdays, you will need to make an appointment. Please note, if you do not have an appointment, they will not be able to assist you as it disrupts their schedule.

For more details, please visit the College Website. 

Mrs Anne-Maree Donnelly
Director of Pastoral Care

Please click here to read a letter from State Transit regarding the Conditions of Use for the Student Opal Card.

Mercy Girls in the 1940s