Message from the Principal

On Tuesday morning we experienced our first live streamed assembly. Our Year 11 and 12 students were able to watch from their Homerooms and the Years 7-10 students watched through TEAMS. Congratulations to our Student Leaders for the preparation that they put into their inspirational presentations. It was great to have our Mission Captains, College Captains, Academic Captains, Sports Captains and House Captains centre stage providing some fabulous messaging to our community. 

Congratulations to our choir for their beautiful rendition of Fide which brought tears to my eyes. I really enjoyed seeing them sing live again, after weeks of conducting rehearsals on-line. Thank you Ms Dias-Jayasinha! I encourage you to view the link below my message to hear their wonderful performance.

The entire production was very polished and professional thanks to the outstanding efforts of our IT Team. Thank you, Mr Watson, Mr Hamilton and Mr Couper.  

I felt a “lift in mood” throughout the College after the assembly. Perhaps it was that the whole MSM community had finally come together…we have missed each other!

We look forward to welcoming back to the College our Year 7 – 10 students on Monday. Once again, I extend my heartfelt thanks to our parents/caregivers for your support during our Learning at Home program. I have sent home separate correspondence this morning with updated information about procedures next week. 

Some of you may have seen the poem below as it has gone viral on social media. I understand that there is some controversy regarding the author. One set of sources acknowledges that it was Kathleen O’Meara, an Irish French Catholic writer and biographer during the late Victorian era who wrote the poem in 1869 with it being reprinted in 1919 during the Pandemic.  The second author that it is attributed to is Kitty O’Meara, a retired schoolteacher and chaplain in Wisconsin who penned it in March 2020.

And the People Stayed Home: A Famine Poem
And people stayed at home and read books and listened
And they rested and did exercises and made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed, someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices and dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.                          

In faith and love

Sharon Volp
Principal