Welcome to our Term 4 2022 Edition of Aspire, our newsletter for future MSM families that highlights successes, activities and events that have occurred recently at Mt St Michael’s College.  

It was such a joy to welcome our Year 7 2023 students at the Orientation Day in Term 3. Our College Leadership Team enjoyed meeting the families at the subsequent “Welcome to MSM” family interviews that occurred in August. It has been wonderful seeing so many of the Year 6 students involved in the “come and try” activities offered at the College during Term 4. 

As always, I encourage you to take the time to share this news with your daughter, helping her familiarise herself with our College. 

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas. May your holiday season be filled with sparkles of joy and love. 

In Faith and Love

Ms Sharon Volp
Principal
Around the College
Orientation Morning

In Term 3 we welcomed the Year 7 2023 students for their Orientation morning. It was the first time since 2019 that we were able to welcome students and their parents/caregivers to the College on-site. Thank you to our 2022 College Captains, Georgina and Eden, and Year 7 students, Zel and Tilly, who addressed the audience regarding life at MSM from a student perspective. Our Year 7-8 Choir performed so beautifully for our special guests. It was a wonderful morning.
 
 
Spirit Of The Arts Festival - ELPIS

Oh…What a Night! In late August we hosted our first twilight “Spirit of the Arts Festival” in three years!  There was an energetic buzz around the College grounds and even a light shower of rain could not dampen the atmosphere. We were treated to an evening of first-class entertainment provided by our Music, Drama and Dance curricular and co-curricular students. The Visual Art displays showcased the diverse talents of our students who utilise so many different mediums. The evening concluded with an amazing “Closing Spectacular” entitled Pandora’s Box written by Linda Statham, our Director of The Arts. This item brought together the Year 8, 9 and 10 Dance classes, the Co-curricular Dance Team and Performance Ensemble, Drama classes in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11 accompanied by music by the Percussion Ensemble and Years 7-8 Choir and College Choir. The Year 10 Art students also featured.

Thank you to all who attended and supported this marvellous event!
 
 
 
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Sports Celebration Breakfast

On Friday 14 October we had 370 staff, students and guests attend our second annual Sports Celebration Breakfast. It has been a massive year in sport and it was wonderful to see so many students awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze Awards. We were privileged to hear from CaSSSA alumni and Brisbane Lions AFLW player and Vice-Captain, Natalie Grider on her transition from CaSSSA sport to professional sport. Natalie provided some valuable words of advice for our students, including, not to underestimate the value of involvement in school sport now! It was inspirational to have Natalie with us for this event in 2022.
Co-curricular Awards Assembly
The Co-curricular Celebration Assembly was held on Tuesday 11 October. This was an opportunity to recognise and congratulate students on their commitment and achievements in the College’s Co-curricular program in the areas of Academic, Cultural and CAN (Community Action Network) activities. We also commissioned and presented badges to our 2023 Co-curricular Captains and thanked the 2022 Co-curricular Captains.
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MSM Celebrates
During Term 4 we acknowledged and celebrated the achievements of our students in the academic, mission, sporting and cultural fields of life at MSM at our annual awards night “MSM Celebrates”.   

To accomplish excellence and achieve success, we recognise that everyone needs to share a commitment to the same vision and values, and they need to be nurtured and practiced. We also recognised and appreciated our teaching staff and their tremendous commitment as well as the enormous support of our parent community.
 
 
 
 
2023 Student Leadership Team
We extend our warmest congratulations to our Student Leadership Team for 2023:
College Captains - Emily and Breeze 
Mission Captains - Sophie and Amy 
Academic Captains - Elise and Lucy 
Cultural Captains - Zoe and Poppy 
Sports Captains - Olivia and Aspen
Aikenhead Captain - Charlotte
Grantuly Captain - Eva
Rush Captain - Sinead
Stewart Captain - Charlotte
Mary Aikenhead Day
In Term 3 we celebrated Mary Aikenhead Day, one of the most important dates in our school year. Our day commenced with Fr Dang Nguyen celebrating Eucharist with us. It was wonderful to see so many students actively participating in our celebration through activities such as the processions and readings. Our Eucharists are always enriched by the sharing of the talents of our music, dance and drama students. We thank our Dean of Faith and Mission, Ms Simpson for her overall organisation of this very special day.
 
 
MSM Foundation
Year 7 Father-Daughter Breakfast

We welcomed Year 7 students and their fathers for the annual MSM Foundation Year 7 Father-Daughter Breakfast. Thank you to our special guest speaker, Lieutenant Colonel Jon Pollard, Commanding Officer and Chief Engineer, 12th Chief Engineer Works of the Australian Defence Force for sharing his background and insight into the many STEM opportunities a career in the Defence Force can provide, and facilitating an exciting spaghetti and marshmallow tower STEM challenge with the help of Corporal Samantha Copus (MSM Alumni – Class of 2011) and Private Michelle Spadaro. A wonderful morning was had by all.  
 
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2022 Music Camp
The Music Camp was a great musical education experience for the 135 students who attended. The students worked hard practising and rehearsing in preparation for the QCMF. Surrounded by friends and fuelled by mounds of food, the students had lots of fun. 
CaSSSA Cross Country Carnival
Our committed cross country athletes attended Nudgee College to compete in the CaSSSA Cup Cross Country Carnival. Congratulations to our team on winning the CaSSSA Percentage Cup for the fourth consecutive year and for achieving outstanding results in each age group as well as individual performances. After an extended and very long season, a huge amount of commitment and sheer grit, our MSM cross country team did us #MSMProud in every way!
Year 7 POS-ED
Our Year 7 cohort focused on the character strength of appreciation of beauty. 7D and 7B spent their Positive Education lesson on the Convent Lawn sketching things around them that were beautiful. The students noted that this was an important value as it helped them reflect on the important things in their life and that there is beauty in everything.
Ronald McDonald House
Many MSM students and staff volunteered to decorate a Red Boot in support of Ronald McDonald House Charities and the 2022 Red Boot Hoot charity event, their largest fundraiser of the year. These famous decorated ‘Boots’ featured prominently on each table and were sold at the end of the night to help raise funds to support seriously ill children and their families. 
QUT Science & Engineering Challenge
MSM Year 9 and 10 students put their STEM skills to the test at the Science & Engineering Challenge at QUT. The students worked in small groups and competed against groups from other schools to build bridges, mars rovers, bionic hands, water turbines and more. At the end of the day, the students were thrilled to place second overall in the competition.
Sports Aerobics
Recently our MSM aerobics teams competed in the 2022 Nationals competition achieving outstanding results including two gold, one silver and one bronze and some outstanding team performances at a very high level.
MSM's Got Talent
Recently MSM’s Got Talent helped raise funds for Weemala while showcasing the talents of students from across the school. Congratulations to our Senior School winner Emily (Year 11) and our Middle School and overall winner Sophia (Year 9).
Queensland Catholic Schools and Colleges Musical Festival
It was fantastic to see the return of live performances for the Queensland Catholic Schools and Colleges Musical Festival at Villanova College on 11-14 August. MSM had 126 students performing in five sections over three days. Awards as follows: College Choir - Silver, Year 7&8 Choir - Gold, Concert Band - Bronze, String Orchestra - Gold, Guitar Ensemble - Gold.
Book Week at MSM
Our Book Week culminating activity was MSM READS where the whole school stopped to read a book of their own choice during extended homeroom time. Two lucky homerooms, 11C and 7E, got to experience MSM READS in the Library, with the addition of hot chocolate and marshmallows, accompanied by a sweet treat and a “Dreaming with eyes open” bookmark. 
National Science Week
As a part of National Science Week, twenty-one Year 10 Preparatory Biology students visited the education laboratory of the Queensland Medical Research Institute (QIMR) in Herston as part of their “A Day in the Life of a Scientist” program.
External Music Exams
Many music students are maintaining a high standard of commitment to their studies and have completed external examination certificates with the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB), conveniently located in Ashgrove.
IEU Awards for Excellence In Art Design
Congratulations to Year 10 students Anouk and Sophie received High Commendations for their thought-provoking acrylic paintings. A further special honour, the Harriet Hunter Memorial Award, for overall best piece of artwork, was presented to Anouk for her outstanding artwork, ‘BEWILDERING BEGINNINGS’.
Middle School Assembly
At MSM, we value the physical action of gathering as a community and celebrating the achievements of this proud school. Recently the middle school celebrated the successes of the Year 7 – 9 students at the Middle School Assembly. 
Think Pink Drive
During the month of August, Interact and Sisters Empowering Sisters collaborated to bring the MSM community the Think Pink Drive and we were inundated with donations! The generosity of our students and their families was outstanding to say the least and Share the Dignity and Days for Girls were very grateful.
The Arts welcomed Guest Artist Sophie Munns
The Year 7 Visual Art Class participated in an authentic experience from an artist and audience perspective offered by an incursion at school. Each Year 7 class had a 3-hour workshop in two sessions of the normal school day. The incursion was led by Contemporary Visual Artist Sophie Munns.  
Model UN
Year 12 students Stephanie and Sophie have been representing MSM at the Evatt Competition, a high school Model UN competition. As captains of our Model UN group at school, they have proved themselves to be outstanding diplomats and leaders, coming fourth place at the State Finals. This places them into the National finals in Adelaide next month. We wish them the best of luck and can’t wait to hear about their future ventures in the world of international politics. 
INTERACT Celebrates 25 years
Congratulations to our MSM Interact group on celebrating 25 years of service to the Ashgrove community. After a wonderful lunchtime celebration members of our 2022 Interact Student Executive were guests at the Rotary Club of Ashgrove/The Gap, where they delivered a presentation on the highlights of Interact’s work at MSM over 25 years. 
Term 3 Peace Liturgy
Our community celebrated the conclusion of Term 3 with a powerful liturgy for peace. In our preparations for the liturgy, students were invited to write their own prayer for peace on a hand painted luggage tag. These tags were tied to the branches of trees and displayed at the liturgy. As the prayer tags move in the springtime breeze, they symbolically release their prayers for peace.
Rugby 7's CaSSSA Champions
Congratulations to our CaSSSA Champions, our 18yrs MSM Rugby 7's team. After dominating in the CaSSSA Rugby Gala Day at Shaw Park, in an event hosted by QRU, our strong and dedicated team wrapped up their season with a Stella performance undefeated for the day to bring home the Champions pennant. Congratulations to all players. Special mention to Holly who was named player of the tournament in the 18yrs division!
Year 7 Science Excursion
Year 7 students visited the Wivenhoe Dam as part of their unit on Renewable Resources and Sustainable Use. Seqwater staff member Leonie discussed why dams are important and led our students to test the water quality and treat the water before we use it in our homes. The gate in the dam wall releasing water was the experience of the day.
Year 7 Readers Cup
We are very proud of our Year 7 Readers Cup team, consisting of Emily, Lucy, Chelsea and Olivia, who competed in the Interschool Readers Cup Competition. For the first time in three years, schools were once again able to gather at Hillbrook Anglican School where they were quizzed on their knowledge of the five novels everyone had been set to read over the last term. It was a great night of friendly rivalry, as the leader board changed after each round. By the end of the evening, our students did a great job in coming 6th place against many competitive teams.
Crazy Socks Day
Our Year 7, 8 & 9 students donned their craziest sock combinations to raise funds for Interact’s Term 4 project Beddown, a local initiative that seeks to provide pop up services and shelter for people experiencing homelessness in the local Brisbane area. Thank you, Middle School, for your generosity, and to Middle School student, Pia for spearheading this campaign.  
Business Christmas Markets
The Year 10 Business & Enterprise students held their Christmas Markets as part of their unit of study on Becoming Enterprising. There has been a lot of discussion in class about costs, profit and how to effectively promote their products. The market was a huge success!
MusicFest2 - Ocean Blue
Performances from Percussion and Guitar Ensemble, Concert Band, MSM Singers, Year 7&8 Choir, College Choir and String Orchestra or sometimes a combination of these groups, delighted audiences with Music on the theme ‘Ocean Blue’ at MusicFest2. Beautiful Artwork provided by Grace Newman, 2023 Art Captain adorned the program for the evening and the Music celebrated all things Oceanic, aquatic, blue or bluesy. 
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Dynabook at Mt St Michael's College
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Mt St Michael's College was excited to partner with our laptop provider, Dynabook to produce a video case study. Watch the video below to see how our students and staff benefit from this world-class resource in their day-to-day college
Mt St Michael’s College is pleased to bring to you the MSM Business Directory. Accessed through our website and APP, this online portal, profiles businesses and provides opportunities to connect with the wider MSM community to promote your services, sales and special offers. 

Many business owners profiled in the MSM Business Directory are long-term friends of the College. They include current and past parents, local businesses and alumni who, together show a commitment to Mt St Michael’s College and support for MSM events, fundraisers and initiatives. 

If you would like to be included in the online MSM Business Directory, simply email msmnews@msm.qld.edu.au. 

For more information please click here
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