Mercy News - 3rd June 2022
Key Dates
Monday 6th June
- Year 11 Examinations
- Year 10 Examinations (Units 1&2 Biology & Physical Education)
Tuesday 7th June
- Year 11 Examinations
- SCSA Cross Country Competition
Wednesday 8th June
- Year 11 Examinations
- Year 10 Examinations
- Year 9 Examinations
- Units 3&4 Mathematical Methods SAC
Thursday 9th June
- Year 11 Examinations
- Year 10 Examinations
- Year 9 Examinations
- Year 7B & 7C Band Night: 7:00pm Performing Arts Space
Friday 10th June
- Staff Professional Practice Day (Student Free Day)
Monday 13th June
- Queen's Birthday Public Holiday
Wednesday 15th June
- Year 10 Wellbeing Day
Thursday 16th June
- Year 10 Music Recital: 4:00pm Performing Arts Space
- VCE Music Recital: 7:00pm Performing Arts Space
Prayer
Message From Our Principal
FEAST OF PENTECOST
On Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost is a reminder that, both in our personal lives and society, God does not do everything at once but in stages. We should expect the same Spirit that is witnessed in the Acts of the Apostles to visit us once again. Of course, that Spirit is always among us. Sometimes it is a matter of us tuning in and listening to both the signs of our times and the prompting of the Spirit.
NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK: BE BRAVE. MAKE CHANGE
Today we conclude National Reconciliation Week which has provided us a Mercy Community with a chance to reflect and learn more about our shared history in Australia. This year's theme, 'Be Brave. Make Change' challenged us all to tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation as we were all asked to make change for the benefit of all Australians, beginning with brave actions in our daily lives – where we live, study, work and socialise. A planning committee of staff and students provided a number of events and activities for us all to be involved in which helped us explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.
DISCOVER MERCY
Our Term 2 Discover Mercy Days were held last Sunday and Monday. It was a wonderful opportunity for our prospective parents and students to gain an understanding of our school through presentations, tours and performances while also being able to chat to members of our community. I am grateful to the many students, staff and parents who gave their time and shared their experiences to showcase our school. It was another example of how proud we are of our community and of our family school collaborative relationships involving us all.
APPROACHING THE END OF SEMESTER
We are fast approaching the end of a very busy semester, with only a few weeks to go before the term break. We remain thankful for the continuity of learning and time on site for our students. We have seen increasing involvement in our range of co-curricular activities and our students continuing to engage wholeheartedly in being back at school, connecting with their friends and teachers. We also know that this time of the term and semester means increased assessments and work requirements that need to be managed with these other involvements. Our Year 12 students especially, will be managing these expectations as they look to the completion of their Unit 3 subjects. I commend our students with the support of our teachers and their families for the way they have embraced this term with tests, excursions, Sporting and music commitments, preparing for exams and much more.
Let us never lose trust in the patience and mercy of God.
Lila McInerney
College Principal
Student Executive Reflection
I have been very lucky to get the opportunity to be part of the Student Executive team in my final year at Mercy. I am the O’Hea House Captain for 2022 and I am very grateful to have this experience. So far this year, I have found that this role has helped me to become more engaged in what is occurring in the school community and has helped me become more sociable as I am able to work with the other year 12 House Captains, the Student Executive team and my year level leaders. I have been very lucky that this year has been onsite as I have been able to meet the students in O’Hea and interact with them at significant events such as the swimming carnival and athletics carnival. My main goal as house captain is to help all students feel welcome and comfortable so that they are more likely to get involved in school activities. I believe this is very important as high school can be a bit difficult and getting involved allows us to meet new people, develop new skills and make long lasting friendships. I hope to be seen as an approachable and friendly House Captain so that all the students in O’Hea feel like I will always be there to support them. I am very grateful for this role and for all the support I have received especially for my year level leaders, Nadia (year 7), Zhi (year 8), Sienna (year 9), Isla (year 10) and Eva (year 11).
Claudia de
2022 O’Hea House Captain
RE and Identity
National Reconciliation Week each year begins with Sorry Day (26 May), which remembers the Stolen Generation of Indigenous children stripped from their families and honours their strength and resilience. Reconciliation Week is then bookended with two major historical events, the 1967 Referendum (27 May) and the Mabo decision (3rd May).
True Reconciliation must be based on a shared acknowledgment of the reality of our colonial past, of its effects on the First Australians, and on a shared determination to change the ways in which First Nations people are treated. A recognition and understanding of past and present injustice is essential for Reconciliation and is a time for all of us to participate in and reflect on.
In 2022 the theme of Reconciliation Week urges us to ‘be brave, make change’. It calls on Indigenous Australians to be confident in recognising and insisting on their right to equal respect and recognition. That takes courage, as we have looked at in the experience of First Nations people like Adam Goodes who bravely called out racism and discrimination.
Being brave and making change also involves courage from all of us in acknowledging injustices towards Indigenous Australians and pressing for change. This brave step is needed if we are to make a difference. As a community of faith that lives out the Gospel message of love through the mercy tradition of justice, compassion and hospitality we are called to be brave in standing in solidarity with our First Nations people and working together for change. This week our students and staff were involved in a number of events and actions that showed solidarity and unity with our First Nations People. This included:
-The signing in support of the Uluru Statement of the Heart
-Listening to the story of a First Nations person and their experience of discrinimation, courage and determination
-Remembering the pain and honouring the resilience and strength of the stolen Generations in our Sorry Day liturgy
-Profiling an Indigenous person who has lived out the theme ‘Be Brave, Make Change.’
-Writing a message of reconciliation and creating a seas of hands in the Aboriginal Flag and a SORRY sign in Indigenous colours
-Playing the Indigenous marngrook footy game among the Houses.
-Raising money for ‘Opening the Doors Foundation’ who support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' educational needs.
Josie Dilettoso
Director of Religious Education and Identity
RECONCILIATION WEEK AT MERCY COLLEGE
This year’s theme for Reconciliation Week is ‘Be brave. Make change’. In celebration of this significant week, our school organised a number of activities and events. We began the week with a whole school assembly. As part of this assembly, Krstel Petrevski, an Indigenous AFLW player for Melbourne and Mercy College alumni answered some questions in a Q&A session. She told us of her journey to where she is today and how she reached her goals despite setbacks she faced. This was truly inspirational and taught us how we all have the ability to achieve anything we set our minds to; despite all odds. We concluded this assembly with a signing of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Students were asked to come forward in recognition and support of this statement that asks for a First Nations voice in Parliament.
The Mission Leaders worked together to collate and write a number of shocking statistics regarding the ‘gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. These were written all around the school in chalk on the ground to highlight and educate members of our community of these gaps. In addition to this, the Mission and Student Voice Leaders organised and led a SORRY Day Liturgy which included the lowering of the flags to half mask, prayers for change and an action to unite us as a school community in solidarity with our Stolen Generations. This experience was unifying and allowed us to truly come together to commit to justice and change. Throughout the week we have been profiling First Nations people who have been brave and have made change. These profiles will then be used to create bollards that will be put around the school during NAIDOC Week. We finished the week with messages of encouragement, solidarity and reconciliation and placed these on hands to create a sea of hands in the form of the Aboriginal flag - a mercy commitment to being brave and making change.
Rhea S - Mission Captain
SOCIAL JUSTICE - RECONCILLIATION WEEK FUNDRAISERS
On Monday 30th May, the Social Justice and Seeds of Justice members gathered together to help the Mercy College Community celebrate 2022 Reconciliation Week by fundraising for the Opening the Doors Foundation.
A cupcake stall was set up near the canteen and students were invited to purchase a cupcake for $2.00. The students could either purchase a cupcake that had already been iced or they could choose to ice their own cupcake. The icing colours were those of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags: red, black, yellow, blue, green and white. They had a lot of fun creating their own designs which were very colourful! The cupcakes were enjoyed by all and every cupcake made, was sold.
A Sausage Sizzle and a Casual Clothes Day in Indigenous Colours was also held during the week to help raise money for the Opening the Doors Foundation.
Opening the Doors Foundation is an Aboriginal-led community organisation supporting educational opportunities for Aboriginal children and is dedicated to supporting the extra costs associated with schooling for Aboriginal students around Victoria.
The Social Justice group thanks all of the Mercy Community who helped raise money for this very important cause.
Sarah K 8C & Clare M 8C
Deputy Principal
School communities are constantly implementing programs, interventions or new ways of working to improve student learning.
Source: Adapted from School improvement - What's trending now? (Teacher Magazine, ACER)
SEMESTER ONE EXAMINATIONS
Semester One examinations have been designed to provide students the opportunity to demonstrate their level of progress and achievement based on the key content covered throughout this semester.
These examinations will also provide an indication of the level of student performance across each subject with results included in their semester reports.
Year 11 Examinations: Monday 6 June to Thursday 9 June.
Year 9 and 10 Examinations: Wednesday 8 June to Thursday 9 June.
Students will receive feedback from their teacher(s) following these examinations with additional feedback placed on SIMON for parents to view. This aim of this feedback is to identify areas of achievement as well as areas for future improvement to support students with their learning.
Further information including a letter to parents outlining the arrangements for these examinations and an updated Semester One Examination timetable has been made available to parents and students. These details have also been posted on the Daily Messages on SIMON for all students to access.
In the meantime, please contact your daughter’s subject teacher with any questions related to their overall progress and learning. If you have any questions about the upcoming semester examinations, please contact Mr Nicholas Ambrozy (Deputy Principal).
We wish all students the very best for their upcoming examinations.
RELEASE OF THE 2022 VCE EXAMINATION TIMETABLE
The 2022 VCE examination timetable is now available. It has been developed using 2022 VCE and scored VCE VET Unit 3–4 enrolments and addresses the following key priorities:
- minimise the number of students required to sit more than two examinations on any one day
- minimise the number of clashes where students have two examinations in the same session
- avoid scheduling another examination on the same day as English and English as an Additional Language (EAL)
- accommodate the marking and processing requirements of each of the VCE written examinations, providing enough time for students to receive their final results by mid-December 2022
TRIAL EXAMINATIONS YEAR 11 AND 12
Between Monday 19 September and Thursday 25 September, all VCE students who are currently completing a scored VCE Unit 3 and 4 Subject will participate in a trial examination period. It is important that all students are available to be at school on those days, so we would ask that you do not make other arrangements at that time.
Trial examinations are designed to be as much like the real thing as possible serving several purposes, specifically for the student including
- Identify knowledge gaps and consolidate already acquired information
- Develop exemplary responses
- Identify ‘command terms’ – justify, explain, compare….
- Master timing
- Utilise reading time
- Tracking progress
- Access to examiner reports and identification of common errors or misconceptions.
Most importantly, the feedback from trial examinations will highlight the gaps in knowledge and understanding. Learning how to revise and to be better at examinations can only happen when students are engaged with their trial examinations under the same conditions in which they will experience in the VCAA External Written Assessments.
UPCOMING VCE HEAD START LECTURES
Registrations are now open for ATAR Notes’ VCE Head Start Lectures. The lectures are running from Monday 4 July to Friday 8 July. Each session is live-streamed, and completely free to attend.
Find out more by clicking on the link: ATAR Notes Lectures.
The lectures are delivered by high-achieving past VCE graduates. Register now to access the live-stream sessions, lecture recordings, lecture slides, and more.
Nicholas Ambrozy
Deputy Principal
School Counsellor
Dear Students, Parents and Guardians,
It is with much sadness that I am announcing I will be leaving my role at Mercy College. My last day of work will be Friday the 17th of June. Thank you for welcoming me into the Mercy College community. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be part of such a diverse and wonderful community from 2019 until now. Building connections with students, parents/guardians, and staff has been an immensely rewarding experience for me, and the decision to move on from this role was an incredibly difficult one.
It has been a privilege to work with such resilient, open-minded, insightful, determined, kind, inspiring, and brilliant students throughout my time here at Mercy College. I would like to thank these students for their honesty and trust. I wish all students the very best as they continue to navigate the ups and downs of their adolescent years. I encourage students to continue reaching out for support from members of the school community, family, friends, school counsellors, and mental health services - we all struggle sometimes and asking for help takes courage, it is a part of being human and connects us to each other.
I would also like to acknowledge parents/guardians and school staff in their ongoing encouragement and unwavering support for students. I am grateful for the experience of working alongside and collaborating with supportive and knowledgeable colleagues. I would like to especially thank our school principal, Lila McInerney, and the wellbeing team, who I have been lucky enough to work closely with.
If you/your child has seen me previously and would like to say goodbye or schedule a check-in session in the next two weeks, please email me at jbanks@mercycoburg.catholic.edu.au. Students are also welcome to pop into my office at recess or lunchtime (my work days are Wed, Thurs, Fri).
Students who are currently seeing me for counselling sessions will be contacted by the person taking over my role and offered the opportunity to re-commence counselling sessions. If students need wellbeing support at school in the meantime, I encourage them to reach out to their Homeroom Teacher, Year Level Leader, or the Director of Student Engagement and Wellbeing, Maria Daniele.
Joanne Banks
Psychologist
Learning and Wellbeing Level Leader - Year 8
In order to recognise students who are consistently displaying positive behaviours at school, the Year 8 cohort has introduced the “Mercy Stars” initiative.
Each term, there will be a common goal that all Year 8 students will need to try and achieve. This goal will align with the College’s Positive Behaviour Expectations of Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Safe.
Students who achieve this goal will be awarded a “Mercy Star”, which will go into a raffle for a prize at the end of the term. Students who receive Mercy Stars regularly will also be acknowledged for being a positive role model amongst their peers.
The current Mercy Star goal is: Wearing the school uniform proudly and correctly.
Uniform expectations can be found on page 12 of the student planner. We appreciate your support from home to ensure that students are displaying positive behaviours at school.
Looking forward to seeing Year 8 proudly wearing the Mercy College crest!
Tania Ragusa
Year 8 Learning and Wellbeing Leader
Languages - Indonesian
Tamu dari Indonesia mengunjungi Mercy College - Guests from Indonesia mengunjungi Mercy College
On Tuesday 24 May, Mercy College welcomed three teachers from Indonesia (from the school SMPN20 Singkawang in Kalimantan) and one Indonesian teacher from St Mary’s College in Seymour. These two schools have a school partnership. They were interested to learn how Mercy College is sustaining and developing the partnership with our partner school, SMP Progresif Bumi Shalawat.
In addition to discussions and a school tour, the guests also attended Ms Moore’s year 9C Indonesian class.
Liz Moore
Head of Learning: Languages
Hello, today in class 9C, we were fortunate enough to have some Indonesian partner school members join us for one enjoyable period. We were able to communicate in both Indonesian and English, sharing information about ourselves and our interests, allowing both sides to get to know one another. After our insightful and entertaining discussions, we danced to an Indonesian song, which made everyone smile! The members of the partner school were gracious enough to offer us some Indonesian bracelets to take home and show our family. Overall, it was a fantastic and enjoyable experience!
Sienna M, 9C
Today, we invited four Indonesian teachers to join our class. Dewmini, Sienna and I introduced ourselves to them in Indonesian. Then we all asked them questions about what they do as a teacher in Indonesia. It was a very fun lesson and they surprised us with beautiful handmade bracelets. We ended our lesson by dancing to an Indonesian song.
Celine, 9C
And in Indonesian we have learnt so far…
Pada hari Selasa, siswa di kelas 9C bertemu orang Indonesia. Kami berdiskusi dengan mereka dan mereka memberi bracelet dari Indonesia. Kita juga menari (to an Indonesian song) dan itu menyenangkan sekali. Saya ingin bertemu mereka (again).
Dewmini, 9C
Music Recital
The wider Mercy community is invited to attend the Mercy College Music Recital, which will be taking place on Thursday 23rd June, from 7pm in the Performing Arts Space.
Over 80 music students will be performing in a range of items which showcase our ensemble and classroom music programs.
Michelle Walker
Head of Music