St Benedict's Catholic College

Dear Parents and Carers

The St Benedict’s Day Celebrations today were marked by wonderful House spirit and a huge range of activities organised at Year level and House level. Congratulations to the staff and to Mr Turner in particular, who organised the day. Despite a lot of illness amongst the students at the moment and a non-academic day, attendance was excellent and school spirit was on show. Full details including our fundraising efforts in the next newsletter.

Last week we held our first ever Mother’s Day Morning Tea and over 60 Mums attended with their children. After presenting their Mothers with a letter or card (did your child remember to give you yours??), students and parents mingled together in a convivial atmosphere with music provided by our senior Music students. Thank you to the hardworking committee: Karen Caccamo, Anita Borg, Nichole Pace, Melissa Nicholas and their helpers. Following an address by the College Captains, P&F President Fiona Place thanked the assembled parents for attending and the school for hosting the inaugural event. A number of our functions in the future will be using trybooking.com or a similar external booking agency and this was our first very successful attempt at using this free service. We have reached a point now where space is at a premium until a Hall is built and we do need to monitor numbers for catering purposes at our larger events.

Over the last month a number of small but vital concrete works have taken place to make our outdoor Library spaces more flexible and to accommodate more students in the “Outdoor Learning” space adjacent to the Library. A big thank you to Mr Sette for his efforts in making our spaces more functional.

Over the last two years our Theatresports team has been making a name for themselves across Sydney. With two teams now competing, congratulations to our Intermediates who have gone through to the semi-finals despite being narrowly beaten by Knox Grammar. Bravo to Eliza Button and Sophia Laurantus (Year 9) and from Year 10, Hannah Small and Grace Cremen. Our senior team competes in the coming week.

One of our Theatresports team members, Hannah Small, has also been in the news. As the 2018 MISA Youth of the Year, she has been invited to speak on several occasions to large gatherings of adults through Toastmasters, on a range of topics. Currently Hannah is preparing for another public presentation after being spotted at a Toastmasters Event at the Campbelltown Catholic Club earlier this year. We wish her well as she represents all Macarthur Youth in venues across Sydney.

Warm regards

Michael Hanratty

Principal

The last two weeks have again proven to be a busy time at St Benedict’s with many events, sports and competitions happening.

Mother’s Day Morning Tea

The P&F hosted the first Mother’s Day Morning Tea last week and it proved to be a great success. Many of our mothers were joined by their child for the morning tea and there was certainly an energy and excitement in the room. Our mothers certainly enjoyed the letter/poem that their child wrote to them expressing their gratitude and love.

Congratulations to all staff and our P&F on such a wonderful event.

Careers Week

Last week also saw many guest speakers from Universities and TAFE speak to students about pathways available in their respective institutions. It was great to hear all of the options that students have as they start to make some big decisions in the coming weeks. Mr Mustapic has done a wonderful job in providing our students with knowledge and connections as they start to look at schooling options after the HSC.

Theatre Sports

Once again our students participated in Theatresports. Mr Hayden took our year 10 students along and they performed very well – finishing second. This really is a great effort and the team and Mr Hayden are to be congratulated on their efforts – good luck in the next round.

NAPLAN

Last week saw our Year 7 and 9 students complete NAPLAN. This year was the first time that this has been completed online and our students worked diligently in completing them as best as they could. We look forward to the results.

History Debating

Last week also saw our History Debating team in action. Both the Year 10 and 11 teams competed and by all reports represented themselves and the College proudly. Despite raising some great points, our Year 10 team unfortunately lost. The Year 11’s though, were successful and we look forward to their continued success.

Verbal Combat

Last week both Year 8 and 9 were involved in an incursion called Verbal Combat. This program looks at right relationships and highlights the need to make sure that our words and actions, both in person and online are respectful. Brainstorm productions – the group who presented the incursion, were great and helped reinforce these valuable lessons to our students.

Big Science Competition

Several of our students tested their knowledge of Science in the Big Science Competition earlier this week. This competition gives our students a great opportunity to assess their knowledge of the Science curriculum against others of their age. Good luck to all students who competed in this competition.

Mock Trial

The Mock Trial team was in competition again this week and were beaten in a very closely contested trial. Congratulations to all involved and good luck in the next round.

St Benedict’s Day

Today sees our annual St Benedict’s Day celebration. In what is always a great day, we began the festivities by joining together in celebrating Mass. After this, each Academic Care class ran a stall, where money was raised for charity. The day concluded with Bennies Got Talent – always a great showcase of the many talented students that we have in the creative and performing arts.

Mr David Costin

Assistant Principal

Monday 27 May - 2018 Year books will be distributed

Thursday 30 May - Wednesday 5 June - Year 9 & 10 Semester 1 Exams

Thursday 6 June - Year 10 Career Excursion

Thursday 20 & Friday 21 June - Staff Development Day

Please note that the dates for the Staff Development Days (Pupil Free), originally planned for Term 1, have been set for Thursday 20 June and Friday 21 June.

At the heart of reconciliation is the relationship between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. To foster positive race relations, our relationship must be grounded in a foundation of truth.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long called for a comprehensive process of truth-telling about Australia’s colonial history. Our nation’s past is reflected in the present, and will continue to play out in future unless we heal historical wounds.

Today, 80 per cent of Australians believe it is important to undertake formal truth telling processes, according to the 2018 Australian Reconciliation Barometer. Australians are ready to come to terms with our history as a crucial step towards a unified future, in which we understand, value and respect each other.

Whether you’re engaging in challenging conversations or unlearning and relearning what you know, this journey requires all of us to walk together with courage. This National Reconciliation Week, we are invited as Australians from all backgrounds to contribute to our national movement towards a unified future.

Prayers of Intercessions:

God of love and justice, we pray that our political, religious and community leaders act in the interests of all the people in this land... that they walk the talk of reconciliation. Lord, Hear Us

ALL: Lord, come walk with us towards peace and reconciliation

God of love and justice, we pray for those who still suffer sadness because of the government policies of the past ... may they be healed by us walking the talk of your Gospel command to love. Lord, Hear Us

ALL: Lord, come walk with us towards peace and reconciliation

God of love and justice, we pray for those who are ostracized because they walk the talk of reconciliation. May our nation encourage and celebrate their work. Lord, Hear Us

ALL: Lord, come walk with us towards peace and reconciliation

God of Love and justice, help us to learn the message of justice taught by Pope Francis who has instructed us to go out. Go out and share... go out and interact with our brothers and sisters, go out and share, go out and ask. Become your Word in body as well as spirit. Lord, Hear Us

ALL: Lord, come walk with us towards peace and reconciliation

Aboriginal Our Father:

You are Our Father, you live in heaven

We talk to you, Father you are good

We believe your Word Father

We your children, give us bread today

We have done wrong, we are sorry

Help us Father not to sin again

Others have done wrong to us

And we are sorry for them, Father today

Stop us from doing wrong, Father

Save us all from the evil one

You are Our Father, you live in heaven

We talk to you, Father you are good

The Lord’s Prayer from the “Missa Kimberley”

Our Feast Day celebrations began with a beautiful Mass as a College community celebrated by Fr. Michael Williams, Parish Priest of St Paul’s Camden. A celebration that calls us to reflect on our College’s motto, BE MY LIGHT and to be welcoming to all we meet - with a Benedictine focus of radical hospitality. Celebrating Mass is a most beautiful and reverent way to begin our feast day celebrations and to give thanks for all the blessings we have.

Friday 24 May is also the Feast Day for Our Lady Help of Christians.‘This is your mother.’ Under the title of Help of Christians, Mary was chosen as Patroness of Australasia by the First Provincial Synod, convened by Archbishop Bede Polding, in Sydney in 1844. The fledgling colonies needed Mary’s help at that time, as the nation does today. We are also helped through Mary’s powerful intercession, and through the example of her life that we find in the Gospels.

Fr. Michael spoke in his homily about the importance and value of prayer. We may not only get the answers we want but we get the answers we need. Through prayer you may not gain things but in fact lose. What do you lose from participating in prayer - anger, hate, insecurity, sadness.

Thank You to our wonderful readers - Angus White (Year 12), Joseph Abdallah (Year 9), Connor Hempenstall (Year 12), Alessi Criniti (Year 9). Also a special mention to the Altar Servers - Flynn Wright in Year 7 and Elijah Rewa (Year 9). Our choir, musicians and singers are so talented. Thank you for their beautiful singing and involvement in our Mass - music brings to life the words of our Catholic faith.

Our Masses are success and such a wonderful celebration of our faith - but I wanted to mention a group of students who always assist myself in the set up and organisation of our College Masses - Cooper Judge (Year 11), James Hunt (Year 9), Ronan Camilleri (Year 8), Zane Raetz (Year 8), Joshua Bartolo (Year 8). I would also like to thank our photographers Eden Beringer (Year 9) and Jessica Rocchetto (Year 9)

Weekly Prayer Focus

As part of the College’s Prayer life we have a focus each week to pray and meditate on. I thought it would be fitting to share with you our focus for this week.

THEME: Benedictine Hospitality - be an instrument of God’s peace

Aim: To provide a way of becoming an instrument of God’s peace through prayer.

Background: St Benedict asks us to be peacemakers in our relationships and in our communities (Prologue 17). To do this, we begin with prayer, asking for the ability to become Christ’s presence in our communities, home, friendships, classrooms, church and workplace.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Pray this prayer everyday. Watch for opportunities to sow the good seeds for peace.

Sow the seeds of peace, love and pardon in your family and friendship circles.

Sow the seeds of light and joy at work or at school.

Sow the seeds of faith and hope at church, at the shops or on the sporting fields.

Scatter these seeds of beauty every day wherever you are and the goodness you sow will grow in the hearts of those you touch.

Don’t forget you might need these seeds to sow in your own heart too!

ROSARY - Wednesdays at Lunch Time

We have begun praying the rosary weekly on a Wednesday at Lunchtime; with the hope of extending to other days of the week.

Catholics pray the rosary because it’s a powerful prayer to God, through His mother, Mary. Praying the rosary has been a tradition in the Church for a long time. It’s a bit fuzzy who made it more formal.. What really matters is that this prayer is super powerful. Throughout Church history, many popes and saints have highly recommended that we pray the rosary. St. Louis de Montfort said, ‘When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.’

The rosary begins with the recitation of the Apostle’s Creed, an Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and a Glory Be. Then there are five decades which each begin and end with an Our Father and Glory Be, and have ten Hail Mary’s in between. When you pray the rosary, you meditate on the events in Jesus’ life. There are the joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries.

Kind regards

Mrs Kimberley Logue

Director of Mission and Vision

Last Monday we welcomed our newest staff member Mr Brandon O’Donnell to the CAPA department. Mr O’Donnell comes with a wealth of musical and teaching experience. His enthusiasm for music is already rubbing off on our music students. I have no doubt that he will inspire more students into music.

Last Monday two of our talented Year 10 students, Mitchell Casey and Talon Grubisa, performed for the Mother’s Day Morning Tea. From this event they have been chosen to play at this year’s VETsteddFOOD event at the Camden Civic Centre. We wish them the very best.

Regards

Mrs Koryzma

CAPA Co ordinator

On Friday May 3, Year 7 were fortunate enough to undertake an excursion to Taronga Zoo as part of their Science subject to study adaptations in animals. We made our way around the zoo, observing every exhibit with interest. We completed a scientific worksheet to study specific questions regarding the animals. For example, we were asked to investigate why the seal's fin is shaped the way it is, or what are some problems a giraffe might encounter with having such a long neck. We were also required to understand the taxonomic order in the animal classification system and explore this in our answers, classifying animals accordingly. These questions will help students exploring this topic in their upcoming Science assessment.

The teachers and zookeepers brought the excursion to life with their information and expertise. The day was also a lot of fun and everyone engaged in learning in a positive way. We were able to see some incredible animals on the day, such as elephants, chimpanzees, giraffes, Komodo dragons and the fierce Sumatran tigers. The animals looked back at us too with interest, and we are pretty sure some of them thought we looked good enough to eat!

It was a terrific day and a stimulating and fun learning experience.

Thank you to all the teachers and staff who made it possible.

Joseph Christl Year 7.

This year, the Science and Engineering Challenge was held at Thomas Reddall High School in Campbelltown and was hosted by the University of Newcastle. Nineteen eager students from various Science classes participated. The day certainly lived up to its name. Students felt challenged, but also had fun. Some of the challenges required coding skills, mathematical solutions and structural engineering problem solving.

I was filled with immense joy watching the students interact and participate with enthusiasm. The St Benedict’s students were a credit to the College through their outstanding, respectful behaviour. Of course with all challenges, especially against eight other schools, competition was a little fierce. Perhaps it was my competitive spirit, but until the final challenge, which was the bridge testing, we were coming in second place. I will always remember this fondly. However, just like the nursery rhyme ‘London Bridge is falling down’, so did the Bennies bridge. Taking a catastrophic tumble during the testing, it forced our fabulous second place to move right down to fifth place.

Nonetheless, the Bennies Science spirit lives on, the students worked hard and had the right attitude. Next year will see us as the victors!!

Well done to the wonderful students who participated:

Ashley Byndoor, Samantha Mago, Erin McWhirter, Mikayla Noble, Wayden Ongsitco, Emily Hogan, Fayme Joby, Katarina Maruncic, Mitchell Parker, Oliver Byrnes, Damian Eagles, Caitlyn Humbles, Charlise McCarthy, Dylan Zuber, Paris Bermingham, Amelia Kubecka, Ishita Prasad, Riley Hinton and Katherine Monier.

Till the next challenge,

Mrs Ligia Learmonth

Science Teacher

The Big Science Competition was held on Monday 20 May. This is an international competition that challenges critical thinking and problem-solving skills. This year, we only had a small number of students from Years 7 to 10 choose to compete, but we look forward to receiving some good results later in the year.

Special thanks to Miss Hermis for organising the competition.

Ms de Lima

Science Coordinator

Zumba:

Priyanka Nandan

Mixed Sports:

Daniel Lal

UFC:

Eliza Clough

AFL:

Blake Straub

Cricket:

Bailey Waters

Gymnastics:

Zane Raetz

Soccer:

Zara Sheehan

Kickboxing):

Isaac Mutu

Barefoot Bowls:

Lachlan Sneddon

Bowling :

Tylah Krol

Bowling B:

Annabelle Prior

Gym:

Ben Novak

Tennis:

Ricki-Lee Mifsud

Beach Sports:

Sienna Rixon

Skating:

Emily Dagher

Flipout:

Ayesha Conate

MISA Sport

Our MISA teams had their first week of competition against Magdalene & St Patrick’s College Campbelltown

Year 7-9 Mixed Frisbee Won: 21-5

MVP: Isabella Melodia

Year 7-9 Boys Basketball Won: 38-22

MVP: George Halim & Daniel Sharkawy

Year 7-9 Girls Basketball Lost: 58-18

MVP: Katlyn Benedicic

Year 11-12 Boys Soccer Lost: 3-1

MVP: Diego Castro-Eastman

Year 10-12 Girls Soccer Draw: 2-2

MVP: Shaye Thorne

Year 10-12 Boys Softball Won : 11-5

MVP: Joel Shipley

Year 10-12 Girls Indoor Cricket Lost: 91-64

MVP: Amy Evans

Year 10-12 Girls Netball Lost: 54-4

MVP: Alverta Hidou

Yours in Sport

Mr Jason Smith

Sport Coordinator

St Benedict’s celebrated National Careers Week 13-19 May 2019 by having a Guest Speaker Seminar each day of the week. These presentations were held during lunchtimes to packed classrooms. The students who gave up their lunch break proved themselves to be excellent ambassadors for the College by displaying enthusiasm and excellent behaviour throughout the presentations.

Sydney University, Macquarie University, Western Sydney University and the University of Wollongong all visited St Benedict’s during the week to provide students with the latest information on: Courses, Scholarships, Adjustment Factors (Bonus points), Early Entry and Alternative Entry at their respective universities.

Each university emphasised the importance of attending the upcoming University Open Days. Please find details of all University Open Days in UAC’s PDF guide here – https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/schools/uni-open-days-2019.pdf

TAFE also visited St Benedict’s during the week to update students on the many courses, diplomas and degrees; and apprenticeship and traineeship pathways available at TAFE. Please find details of TAFE infofest here -

https://www.tafensw.edu.au/infofest

Mark Mustapic

Careers and Pathways Coordinator

SBCC students from Mackillop Gold joined over a million children in the National Simultaneous Story time reading of Alpacas with Maracas by Matt Cosgrove in the School Library on Wednesday 22nd May. This event aims to support the value of reading and literacy for children of all ages. Our students enjoyed listening to the very funny story, shaking their maracas and making an alpaca craft activity.

Tahlia Murhan (Year 7) shared her experience of spending time with the alpacas in Canberra and informed us that it is easy to tell the difference between alpacas and llamas as alpacas have spear shaped ears and llamas have banana shaped ears.

Take a look at this website for some great ideas on encouraging your teenager to read 9 ways to get teens reading.

Mrs Ann Conte

Head of Library and Information Services

On Friday 17 May, St Benedict’s competed against Sefton High School in the J.A Thompson History Debating Competition. Both our Year 10 and 11 teams competed in this first debate for the year.

The Year 11 team consisting of Morgan White, Darcey Christl, Olivia Dowling and Rhianna Irons debated the topic “that the attempts of the US Government to solve the issues of the Great Depression did more harm than good.” As the negative team, St Benedict’s argued that the positives of the US Government accomplished far outweighed the negatives. The team worked cohesively and together presented a strong argument with even stronger rebuttals which resulted in a convincing win for our seniors.

The Year 10 team consisting of Kai Straub, Grace Cremen, Emily Azzopardi and Damon Siutz debated the topic “That the use of atomic bombs against Japan to end WWII was justified.” St Benedict’s were the negative team and built their case based on the argument that no bombing is ever justified. Despite presenting a solid case, the year 10's were unsuccessful against a strong Sefton Team.

All the students involved are to be commended on their representation of the College.

St Benedict’s will host the next round of the competition in Week 8. The Year 11 team will debate against Kings School on the topic of “That museums are more destructive than productive for history.” Whilst Year 10 will debate against Good Samaritan on the topic “That Napoleon betrayed the French Revolution.” We wish both teams the best of luck.

A massive thank you needs to be extended to Mr Agoo for driving the Year 10 team and supporting St Benedict’s on the day.

Miss Tabitha Brown

During the Lenten season, the Environment Club organised an Easter egg guessing competition to raise money for Project Compassion. We had several students and teachers enter the competition for their chance to win all 128 Easter eggs. The person with the closest guess of 130, and the winner of the Easter eggs, was Ebony Seychell from 9.1.

Congratulations!

Miss Joyce

The Environment Club also organised a school-wide writing competition to raise money for Project Compassion. Students could write a short story or a poem around the theme of ‘environment’. We had a huge range of engaging compositions to read through, but two of these really stood out.

The WINNER and recipient of a $20 canteen voucher was Kiara Noble from 8.1.

The RUNNER-UP and recipient of a $10 canteen voucher was Pia McMahon from 7 Mackillop.

Congratulations to these two students, and thank you to all the participants for their wonderful entries.

The winning poems are published below.

Miss Joyce

Bennies Environmental Action Representatives (the BEARS) celebrated International Compost Awareness Week Australia (ICAW) by creating a worm farm in the College vegetable garden. ICAW, held from the 5-11 of May 2019, aims to improve awareness of the importance of compost and to promote compost use. The new worm farm at the College will allow food scraps from Food Technology and Hospitality practical lessons to avoid landfill and help build healthier soil in our vegetable garden.

The Environment Club also had a bulk order of premium garden soil delivered to the College on Tuesday 21 May. The students worked hard to wheelbarrow the soil into the vegetable garden in order to build up the garden beds in preparation for planting herb seeds. These herbs will be used in Food Technology and Hospitality classes, and the remainder of the garden is ready for new fruit and vegetable seeds to be planted in the coming months.

Miss Joyce

Teacher in charge

On Wednesday 22 May, three students from St. Benedict’s Catholic College attended the 2019 Sorry Day gathering at Holy Trinity Church in Minto. The gathering gives the local Aboriginal community a chance to come together and reflect on the history of the First Australians.

There were performances by the local pre-school groups, as well as reflections on the experiences of the Stolen Generations. The gathering was attended by many of the local schools as well as members of both state and federal parliament, Mr Greg Warren MP and Dr Michael Freelander MP. The students represented the College with absolute humility and were completely engaged in the experience.

Mr Morris

Year 7 Coordinator, Indigenous Educator

Term 1 saw St Benedict’s first LIVE event for 2019. This event focused on the theme of Who Am I? LIVE 2 is coming up on Friday 14 June, week 7.

The aim of this gathering is to draw young people into responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community and to forge a sense of community and spirituality amongst them.

All students are invited to attend this event. Permission notes will be coming out in Academic care this week.

Any questions please see Miss Brown.

On Monday 13 May, St Benedict’s P&F hosted the inaugural Mother’s Day morning tea which was a tremendous success.

D Block rooms were transformed into a warm and welcoming space for Mums to gather and mingle. Students joined their Mums and served up treats to make their Mum feel extra special. Bennie’s mums indulged in a variety of gourmet slices, decadent dessert cups and fresh fruit along with cappuccinos, herbal teas and juices. Music was provided by members of the school band and some Year 11 students took photos of the event - some of the wonderful snaps are provided in the collage below.

There were smiles all around and the event was very well received by all who attended. The P&F committee along with the hospitality committee would like to thank all that were involved in the event at St Benedict’s, with special thanks to Mr Hanratty for providing the wonderful space to host the event, Mrs Castelli for her superb event planning support and Temptations by Sue for the sweet treats.

We look forward to providing more spoils to Bennie’s Mums next year.

St Benedict's P&F Committee

There have been a number of confirmed 'Influenza A' cases reported. If your child is showing any symptoms it is advisable to seek medical advice and rest at home until recovered.

2018 Year Books will be distributed to students on Monday 27 May.

Lunch Order – Any lunch order completed through Flexischools, lunch collection for hot food is in the oven labelled “Lunch Orders” any Cold Food is in the Milk Fridge.

All orders including drinks are labelled with Students name and order. If students cannot find their lunch order, please can you ask the CAFÉ staff for assistance.

"It's that time of year again".

We have received wonderful equipment for the school in years gone by.

So from May 1 until June 25 collect those little Woolworths stickers and send them into the school office, or place them in the St Benedict's boxes, which will be placed in the entrance of Woolworths stores at Oran Park and Narellan Town Centre.

Happy collecting!!!!!