University Open Days

Open Days are a great way to experience the university campus, listen to key note speakers and speak with current students about their experiences. Many universities offer Open Days over the August and September period. If you are interested in attending Open Days it is important to register your interest early due to COVID restrictions. Details for these events are listed below.

Not sure what you want to do post school? Visit the OLMC Careers website to utilise some of the available career exploration tools - career targets, career search or complete the career personality quiz in the student secure area.

DEBATING

The last two weeks have seen OLMC girls performing exceptionally well in debating competition. Apart from one week when four of our teams had nearly all regular members unavailable, each week has seen our girls win more than half of our debates. This is a consistently excellent result, something our girls and their coaches should be proud of. Special mention must go to our Year 7 teams, who have both been undefeated at this stage. The 7A team comprises Vishnu Gude, Isabella Homairi, Celeste Ieronimo, Sophie Tong and Shiloh Julien while the 7B team is A’isha Ali, Lizzy Butler, Pia Goradia, Bianca Mina and Celina Wassef.

With five rounds completed, our results reflect the hard work and talent of our girls and their coaches.

Year 7A 5 wins

Year 7B 5 wins

Year 8A 3 wins

Year 8B 3 wins

Year 9A 1 win

Year 9B 4 wins

Year 10A 3 wins

Year 10B 2 wins

Year 11A 3 wins

Year 11B 2 wins

Year 12A 3 wins

Year 12B 3 wins

It is important to remember that teams who have a total of four wins in the preliminary rounds are still capable of making semi-finals, depending on other results, so we hope to have many teams qualifying for the finals.

I would like to make special mention of several people who have contributed to the smooth running of our debates in the last two weeks, particularly Mr Gerard Altura as well as Mrs Gabby Scanlon, Mrs Ellen Lonergan and all the coaches and adjudicators. Thank you also to Sandwich Heaven of Winston Hills who, without charge, kindly delivered their delicious sandwiches when circumstances created difficulties with picking them up.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

The Parramatta Eisteddfod has once again confirmed the quality of our girls in Public Speaking. Over the last two weeks, our achievements have been exceptional.

In the Prepared Speaking event for 13-14 Years section, highly talented Year 8 student Sierra Lake confirmed her exceptional potential by winning first prize against some outstanding competition. Well done also to Allison John, Meihan Sun, Sahanna Sri and Vedika Kothekar who also performed extremely well. When it came to the Telephone Pairs event, our girls were simply amazing. In the two sections of that event that were entered by our girls, OLMC swept all major placings: first second and third, an achievement that is unprecedented. In one section, Kaira Dasgupta, Sierra Lake (again!) took out first prize, while London Ardeleanu and Alexandra Attard were second and Lucinda Dong and Byravee Nadarajah were third. In a separate event, Mia Fogolin and Olivia Nesci were first, Isabella Samaha and Jasmine Velasco while Tia Monga and Deeya Vashi claimed third place. Well done to our other teams as well: Janine Delapradit and Allison John, Gabrielle Blaine and Shanika Nawani, Chanelle Elias and Niamh Nolan, and Avni Mathur and Meihan Sun.

The Eisteddfod continues for another three weekends and we look forward to more outstanding performances by our girls.

Christopher Ostrowski
Debating and Public Speaking Coordinator

Merits

A reminder that all students who compete in OLMC Sports can collect Merits from Mr Guthrie.

AMCC Gym

The AMCC Gym is open for students in Years 9 to 12 to use before school from 7:45 to 8:30am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

If students would like to use the gym (free of charge), please CLICK HERE to register. 

NSW All Schools Swimming

The NSW All Schools Swimming Championships were held on Friday May 28 at Sydney Olympic Park. OLMC was represented by one of the biggest number of girls we have seen, including Ashleigh Hamilton, Amelia Harvie, Riley McIntosh, Kasey Bolt, Olivia Nesci, Tiana Karl, Mia Cleary and Emily Shumack.Congratulations to all the girls on making it this far. Ashleigh finished 2^nd as part of the PDSSSC Multi-Class Freestyle relay and 4th in the 50m Backstroke, Amelia finished 8^th in 100m Freestyle while the Open Freestyle relay finished 9^th and the All-Age Freestyle relay finished 5th, unfortunately, they were disqualified for a false start in one of the legs though. But well done to all the girls and they should be commended for their efforts, teamwork and support.

NSWCCC Soccer

Congratulations to Tayla Milicevic who competed in the Open PDSSSC Football team at the NSWCCC Football Championships on May 25 and 26 at Valentine Sports Park.

Saturday Netball

With school holidays approaching there will be a few weekends where netball will not be on. There are no games on Saturday June 12 due to the long weekend. The final game for Term 2 will be on Saturday June 19 then we will have 2 weekends off. Term 3 games will then start back on Saturday July 10, which is the last weekend of the holidays.

The Rounds 5 and 6 results can be viewed HERE. 

Saturday Soccer

The Saturday Soccer Season in nearly over. OLMC 1 has their final round game this Saturday against Frensham while OLMC 2 has a BYE and OLMC 3 finished 3^rd overall in Yr7 Division 3. All the girls should be congratulated on their efforts and achievements this season. It was great to seem them all out playing and enjoying soccer again.

Here are the results from rounds 5 and 6 -

Round 5:

OLMC 1 were defeated by Roseville, 5 nil

OLMC 2 were defeated by St Scholastica’s, 5 - 1

OLMC 3 defeated St Scholastica’s, 4 - 1

Round 6:

OLMC 1 defeated SCEGGS, 2 - 1

OLMC 2 defeated St Vincent’s, 11 - 4

OLMC 3 were defeated in their Semi Final by Abbotsleigh, 6 - 1

OLMC College Athletics Carnival

On Friday May 21, 2021, the annual Athletics Carnival, after a year off, was held at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre Warm Up Track. The College community, once again, entered enthusiastically into the spirit of the day. The track and field competitors enjoyed participating at the arena in cool conditions in a traditional carnival. Thankfully the weather was very kind and the rain held off.

A special thank you to the PDHPE staff for assisting in the set up and running of the Carnival. A big thank you also to all the staff who helped with the various duties on the day.

It is great to see that the OLMC spirit is still overflowing with enthusiasm and commitment, and obviously dominates wherever you may be. In the future we hope to again see the wonderful house “colourful” outfits that were on display.

A special thank you to the Sports Leaders, Annie Gittany and Haylee Shelton, and all the house leaders for their help in preparing for the carnival, and their enthusiasm and leadership illustrated on the day of the carnival.

HOUSE LEADERS 2021

Congratulations to Mercedes on their success again as House Champion and to Clare on their success as Spirit Champion for 2021. All Houses should be congratulated as the results were all extremely close.

Congratulations to the following girls on their efforts and achievements at the Carnival and as a result being crowned age champions:

17+ years – Annie Gittany
16 years –Brooke Luksic
15 years –Lucie Francis
14 years –Eleni Mestousis
13 years –Lily Johnston
12 years –Kasey Bolt

Finally thank you to the staff at SOPAC for all their assistance during the preparation and completion of the Carnival.

Stuart Guthrie
Sports Coordinator

Please note that on Thursday June 17 the Uniform Shop will be closed.

Opening Hours and Purchases: 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.

Winter Uniform: Students are to wear their winter uniform during Term 2 and Term 3. For the senior winter uniform, the long sleeve shirt is optional.

Scarves: There are scarves available for purchase either online or at the Shop.

Tights: The Uniform Shop has tights available for purchase with the winter uniform.  If you are purchasing these elsewhere, the requirement is 70 denier opaque, colour - Ink Navy.

Old College Uniforms: If you have any old-style College uniforms (green and white/red), these items can be returned to the Uniform Shop for recycling.

Black Tights: The Uniform Shop has a small number of black tights available for purchase for use outside of school, they are Kayser, 50 denier, opaques tights, $5.00 each. There are only 2 sizes available, M or XLarge. These tights are not available online, and can only be purchased by visiting the uniform shop.

If you have any concerns regarding uniform items, please do not hesitate to contact the Uniform Shop on 8838 1275 or uniformshop@olmc.nsw.edu.au.

OLMC Parramatta Teaching Staff in 1978

Paralysis of Perfectionism

In our culture, perfectionism, defined as the need to be or appear to be perfect, is seen as a positive trait. However, in reality it is accompanied by critical self-evaluations, comparisons to others and concerns with how other people perceive you. Perfectionism is often seen as a positive trait that increases your chances of success, but it can make it harder to achieve your goals due to self-defeating thoughts and behaviours. It may also cause stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.

Brené Brown, a writer and research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, distinguishes between perfectionism and healthy behaviour. In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection she writes, “Perfectionism is not self-improvement. Perfectionism is, at it’s core, about trying to earn approval and acceptance. Most perfectionists were raised being praised for achievement and performance (grades, manners, rule-following, people-pleasing, appearance, sports). Somewhere along the way, we adopted this dangerous and debilitating belief system: I am what I accomplish and how well I accomplish it. Please. Perform. Perfect. Healthy striving is self-focused- How can I improve? Perfectionism- is other focused- What will they think?”.

Typically when you picture a person who strives for perfection, you think of a hard-working, driven, task-focused individual. However, perfectionism can also present as avoidance, procrastination, low engagement and putting in less effort than you know they are capable of. It seems counter-intuitive, however, for those who expect themselves to perform perfectly, the pressure to do so can mean that they avoid starting out of fear of “failing” to attain that perfection they expect of themselves, and think others too expect of them.

In our culture, we may not be able to remove the drive towards achievements, but we can start by building a sense of self-worth that is beyond achievement. We can choose a life that is values orientated rather than achievement orientated. We can offer praise to others based on their strengths rather than their achievements. We can value mistakes as opportunities to learn and not as failures. When we stop and think about the people that are most important in our lives, do we think about them in terms of their achievements, such as grades, awards they have won, or how perfect their skin is? Chances are, these are not the things that come to mind when we think of a loved one. Because these are not the things that define us. Perhaps with this in mind, we can move forward with more self-compassion and kindness.

Sandra Portela
Senior College Counsellor