From the Principal
From the Principal
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers
How quickly we have moved to onsite learning this week! It was a pleasure to see our students return on Monday and have the playgrounds filled with laughter and the classrooms filled with the sound of consolidation of the learning that has occurred over the last few weeks. Sometimes learning growth is visible and sometimes learning growth is more subtle and not easily measured.
Over the last few weeks, I have often referenced in my communications to you, our capacity to be agile and flexible. We have certainly had our resolve tested by the challenges brought on by the pandemic. As educators we have reviewed and refined the Continuous Learning Program; as parents, you would also have your resolve tested as you juggled your family and work commitments. The students have generally increased their levels of autonomy and their ability to be disciplined and focussed. I also have a renewed respect for retaining one’s sense of humour and optimism in the face of the constantly changing daily issues that COVID-19 has surfaced. I believe that how you deal with the issues is the measure of who you are – both for yourself and in the eyes of those around you.
If there is a positive, it must be that the true strengths of the OLMC community are now obvious to all. We have rallied as a community: our parents, our students, our staff, the College Board and our inspiring Parramatta Sisters of Mercy. I thank the Sisters sincerely as I know that we were and are always in their thoughts and prayers as a Mercy community, as they are in ours.
What has your daughter learnt about herself at this time? What have you observed that is different about her way of acting and thinking? In considering the time we have all spent at home, these might be good ideas to explore with your daughter as she transitions to onsite learning. What will she keep doing? More of something? Will she start working in a different way?
As Principal, I know I have benefitted from taking the time to show deep appreciation for those around me. From the friendly smile and acknowledgement that comes my way and that encourages me to be present in the moment. I have been grateful for the messages of support and gratitude that have come from parents and students alike; for the emails sent to me and for the parent who called out her thanks from the car window as she dropped off her daughter on Monday morning. I am so proud to be leading OLMC at this time as it has shown me such generosity of spirit amongst our community. Thank you all!
Year 12 students have been foremost in our minds here at the College and the recent Year 12 Student-led Conferences, conducted via Zoom, have been a great success. Year 12 are currently in their Assessment Block this week and next week and even this has taken on new meaning and purpose. I think we are all relieved to be back face-to-face and the resilience of Year 12 has been outstanding. We offer them our full support but we must also realise that they have stepped up and taken on an increased level of responsibility. This is both encouraging and right as they complete their education at the College and prepare for the wider world. I am confident that the forthcoming Study Weeks (two) in the July holidays, generously supported by their teachers will add to their confidence and courage as they approach their Trials in August.
The Mercy Tree symbolises all that is good about our Mercy community. At present, it is shedding its leaves but it stands strong and unwavering as a call to charity and service. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important not to forget the charitable causes that we as a community support. The Mercy Tree is an initiative of the College and underpins an important partnership with the Sisters of Mercy Parramatta. Standing tall in the Brigid Shelly Courtyard, the Chinese Elm tree was blessed and planted on College grounds in 2012. Reflecting the growth of the College’s commitment to Mercy Values and its desire to address the needs of the wider community, the Mercy Tree continues to raise funds to support charitable causes nominated by OLMC students and determined by the Sisters of Mercy Parramatta. For the second year, donations to the Mercy Tree will go to support the Parramatta Women’s Shelter. As we emerge from coronavirus lockdown, donations are needed to support western Sydney’s most vulnerable women and children. During disasters and particularly at times like this, when people are being forced to stay inside, the rate of domestic and family violence climbs. In this difficult time, we would appreciate your donations to this worthwhile cause. To donate to the Mercy Tree, click here.
We are in Phase 3 of our Continuous Learning Program. It has been carefully considered, is focused and highly practical. Should we be called to revert to remote learning we can do so with minimal disruption. As always, I will communicate any instructions and updates from health and government authorities as they are made known to me.
Take care and stay safe.
Warm regards
Mrs Marie Wood
Principal (Acting)
Teaching And Learning
The HSIE Faculty Update - Our Focus on Engagement
The HSIE Faculty Update - Our Focus on Engagement
With the move to the Continuous Learning Program, the HSIE Faculty has been focusing on lifting engagement in student learning by providing various formats for students to share their thinking and skills development this semester.
For Year 10 Commerce, this has been the creation of their own Google site that journals their learning throughout the Employment Issues topic and asks them to reflect on the skills and knowledge needed for their dream career.
For Year 10 Geography, this has seen them take on the persona of a rural Chinese citizen moving to an urban area. The students wrote a letter to their family back home about their experience of being a 'floating' migrant in a Chinese city, outlining both the opportunities and challenges they are faced with.
For Year 9 Aboriginal Studies, they have been examining identity and how to undertake ethical research. They have put their knowledge into practice by creating their own television broadcast on an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person who has contributed to Indigenous cultural recognition.
For Year 9 Work Education, they have been learning about the importance of Work Health and Safety, it has taken the form of creating WHS Worker Response Plans. These plans communicate what one must do when faced with an emergency.
For Year 8 Geography, this has taken the form of our students undertaking a water audit. This entailed keeping records of how their family has been using water during the lockdown. I hear our students have taken to this task and have been stalking the family bathrooms with stopwatches, noting every minute individuals within their family have showered, washed their hands, or brushed their teeth.
For Year 7 Geography, their work on Sustainable Development Goals has seen the creation of informative posters. Through this creative medium, our students were asked to promote one sustainable goal and generate their own ideas on how each person can help support the achievement of this goal. On reading their suggestions you can see the Mercy values shine through.
To increase engagement, not only have the teachers utilised the student submissions, but they have been leading Zoom sessions. These sessions have been designed to connect with the week's learning and be interactive. For our Year 10 Geography cohort, this saw them experience first hand the challenges of the old migration dictation test. The teachers, in wanting to provide a rich and authentic learning experience, delivered the test in French. Their experience in having to write in a foreign language led to a rich discussion on the challenges all non-European migrants to Australia faced from 1901 to 1958.
Finally, with our students back in the physical classroom this week, the HSIE teachers are focused on consolidating their learning and providing an opportunity for students to connect with their peers. Our Year 7 Geography students, took the form of playing Grid Reference Battleship. Having learnt how to grid reference in previous weeks, this class activity provided the students with an opportunity to reinforce, refine and apply their new skill in the ultimate competition.
Ms Gillian Carpenter
Leader of Learning HSIE
OLMC Connect
Public Speaking
Public Speaking
As school life gradually returns to normal, public speaking opportunities have also sprung to life, admittedly at a virtual level. Nevertheless, much is in the pipeline for our girls.
World Titles
As previously announced, the World Debating and Public Speaking Competition was cancelled for 2020. While this denied Yasmine Alwakal of Year 11 a wonderful opportunity to display her outstanding speaking skills, there are plans to run a virtual competition catering for the same four categories required in the real event. This is wonderful news for Yasmine and all those who qualified for the World Titles.
Speaking 4 The Planet
A competition run by the Sutherland Environment Centre explores the impact of our choices not just on the environment but on so many aspects of our lives. Once again, Yasmine Alwakal, who seems to have endless energy for being involved, will be submitting her recorded speech, while in the Junior section, highly talented Jennifer Wang of Year 7 will compete. Both girls are sure to impress the judges and we wish them luck in their submissions.
CSDA
After being postponed (and almost cancelled), the CSDA Zone Finals will be proceeding through the magic of Zoom. Speakers will connect with adjudicators and each other on Friday, 12 June and Grand Finals held the following week. This is good news for three of our girls who have qualified for the Zone Finals: Alexandra Attard (Year 7), Isabella Samaha (Year 8) and Ambeikaa Mishra (Year 9). It won’t take long for these girls to dust the cobwebs from their speeches and recapture the excellent standard that has taken them to this level.
Plain English Speaking Competition
This competition now requires a recorded speech on video for students between 15-18 years on the 1 January this year. Eligible public speakers have been emailed with information and hopefully, there will soon be two OLMC girls preparing speeches for this competition.
Student Speak
The in-school portal to this program has already seen many students indicating interest in contributing to this program. Jennifer Wang of Year 7 has provided an excellent speech on 'A Story that Matters' (now viewable on CANVAS) and several others are not far from submitting their videos. All students, not just public speakers, can participate in this program that should grow into an impressive library of excellent speeches. Full details can be accessed on CANVAS/Courses/Student Speak. Any interested student can contact Mr Ostrowski at any time, or in B101 any lunch hour. Support for preparing and presenting speeches is available.
Mr Christopher Ostrowski
Public Speaking Coordinator
From The Uniform Shop
College Notices
Other Careers Event
Meet your School Counsellors:
Meet your School Counsellors:
The College is committed to the welfare and wellbeing of all students and employ’s qualified registered psychologists to assist in assessing and addressing any wellbeing concerns. Students can access school counselling via one of the following ways:
- Self-referral - students can email a College Counsellor directly or attend Student Services and arrange an appointment time.
- Teacher/House Leader referral - if your teacher or House Leader has concerns about your wellbeing, they may encourage you to utilise the counselling services.
- Parent referral - your parents can refer you to the counselling services by phoning the College Counsellors on 8838 1273.
- New students - As part of your induction at OLMC, your House Leader will help to arrange a time for you to meet the counsellors.
The College currently has three counsellors:
Sandra Portela
I am an endorsed Forensic Psychologist, meaning that my Master's study focused on psychology and the law. I have been practising for 13 years. I commenced employment at the College in 2019, as the Senior Counsellor. Prior to this, I worked for various organisations including a child protection counselling service providing counselling to children, adolescents, parents, foster carers and kinship carers, the Family Law Court to help provide advice to the Court about suitable care arrangements when parents have separated and also in a public primary school and State high school as a School Counsellor.
My passion is working with young people and supporting their wellbeing by helping to foster their strengths and enhance their resilience. My therapeutic preference is to use a strengths-based approach, utilising Solution Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, in conjunction with teaching skills such as mindfulness and relaxation. I work at the College from Monday - Friday.
Alia Palethorpe
I am a registered psychologist and have been working with families and children for 12 years. My first position was at Macquarie University where I researched family roles, relationships and other dynamics within the modern Australian family. I then moved on to working in a women’s refuge, providing therapy and support to mothers suffering from mental illness and their dependent children. After this, I took a position at Anglicare within adoption and foster care services before moving to the Department of Communities and Justice (then called Family & Community Services) to work with vulnerable children and their families. Prior to commencing at the College, I worked within a non-government agency providing counselling and advocacy to survivors of abuse and their supporters.
In 2016, I was very excited to be given the opportunity to be a Counsellor at OLMC. The idea of cultivating healthy and ongoing professional relationships with young people, their parents and staff, through psychoeducation and therapy was what I was looking forward to building. I would describe my therapy style as holistic - a blend of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Attachment-based Therapy. I aim to provide a safe space where we look at the ‘problem’ as external to the person and focus on goals, solutions and empowerment. I work at the College on Monday, Thursday and Friday.
Emily Montuori
I am a registered psychologist and I believe it is a privilege to work with young people seeking support for emotional distress or crisis. Throughout my professional career, I have always held a strong passion for advocating for adolescents and I am grateful for the opportunity to assist them to access their internal strengths and work collaboratively with their support networks.
I completed my tertiary training in psychology at the University of Sydney, 10 years ago, and have worked for 20 years with children, adolescents and adults in a broad range of areas including various roles in child protection for the New South Wales government. During that time, I spent several years at an adolescent unit based in Kings Cross supporting some of our most vulnerable teenagers and families. This enabled me to develop my experience and exposure to complex therapeutic issues and further fueled my desire to continue supporting adolescents.
I am passionate about mindfulness, creative therapies and understanding the brain from a neuroscientific level. My work is underpinned and led by a variety of evidence-based therapeutic approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and more. I am at the College on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Charlize Galayini
Charlize Galayini
Loving God,
Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them,
You created us in your image and made us stewards of all your creation, of our common home.
You blessed us with the sun, water and bountiful land so that all might be nourished.
Open our minds and touch our hearts, so that we may attend to your gift of creation.
Help us to be conscious that our common home belongs not only to us, but to all future generations, and that it is our responsibility to preserve it…
Make us courageous to embrace the changes that are needed in search of the common good, now more than ever may we feel that we are all interconnected, in our efforts to lift up the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen
Laudato Si Week
We celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Pope’s Encyclical that addresses care for the earth - our common home. It is timely to stop and reflect on the earth and the way that we treat it during the global pandemic. As we begin to emerge from our period of isolation, spend some quiet time reflecting on the earth- the crops and flowers, the waterways and the animals. The prayer above is an extract from the Common Prayer for the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si. The full prayer can be found here.
Vegetable gardens
As we spent more time at home, the EcOLMC girls were meeting via Zoom and shared some of their lovely stories about creating vegetable gardens in their backyard. This is an easy way to transform your yard into a useful and tasty garden!
Friday morning prayer
Despite not being able to gather in the Chapel for our regular Friday morning mass, we continue to gather as a College community through a shared prayer experience. The daily Gospel is read with a short reflection each Friday morning. This allows our Catholic community to stop and participate in a shared prayer experience.
As we enter into the final week of May, please remember to place prayer reflections and intentions onto the blue paper located at the Mary sacred space set up on the Chapel steps. This will remain in place for another week.
The month of June will be dedicated to the environment. We will share some moving videos and articles in the coming newsletters.
Wishing you all a happy week.
Mrs Gabby Scanlon
Director of Mission