Our Mission Captains began this week's assembly with a focus on Reconciliation Week and the theme 'Be a Voice for Generations', encouraging all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in our everyday lives – where we live, work, and socialise – for a more just, equitable, and reconciled nation for all.
On 26 May, several students along with staff represented the College at the Teralba Park Stolen Generation Support Group National Sorry Morning Ceremony, commemorating the Stolen Generations and their families. This important community event strives to work for Reconciliation and Justice for Australia’s First Peoples and to show respect for and remember and honour the Stolen Generation.
Our cross country team winning the Aggregate Cup for the first time and the Percentage Cup for the fifth consecutive year at the CaSSSA competition last week. Throughout the entirety of the competition, our students demonstrated exceptional perseverance, teamwork, and sportsmanship. We are so proud of our team. Well done!
Our talented student musicians had a wonderful time at the music camp, with the opportunity to hone their skills, learn from professional guest musicians as well as their own tutors, experience singing in a massed choir and trying new musical instruments. The camp was a great success, and we are proud of the progress and confidence that our students displayed. Their love of music and playing together in ensembles was evident in their camaraderie and happy conversations.
God of all people,
We give thanks for the diversity of the peoples and cultures here on our nation of islands.
Help us to learn and grow as we come together as one.
We pray especially for this nation, Australia, that all who live here never lose the ancient connection to the first people of our land.
Help us to listen and learn from the stories of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestors, that we may be richer for their wisdom.
National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week
At MSM, the Social Justice Council organised a moving Sorry Day service on the Convent Lawn, where the College Flags were lowered to half mast, a pledge for reconciliation was read by our community, and everyone was invited to sign the College’s Sorry Book.
Thank you to Mr Beavon, Ms Lennon, Ms Cawood and our Social Justice Council for their ongoing advocacy work in this very important area.
This year, all House groups are celebrating a special House Spirit Day. This is an opportunity for our students to connect with the story of the College, build school spirit and engage in community service opportunities. This week, we marked the first annual Rush and Grantuly Days:
- Rush Day: 29 May, marking the day in 1973 when Francis Rush was installed as Archbishop of Brisbane.
- Grantuly Day: 1 June, marking the day in 1925 when the Sisters of Charity opened their first school on the verandah of Grantuly Homestead.
Our second ExtravaCANza for the year was held in the glorious winter sunshine, along the Convent Lawn. Our five CAN groups were joined by Rush and Grantuly House students, offering a wonderful variety of food, carnival and craft stalls. Hundreds of students enjoyed the sunshine, sausages and live music organised by Music Captain Sinead. Our market raised an impressive $895.40 for Project Wakitikimi, supporting the work of Sr Leone Wittmack in the Northern Territory and Tiwi Islands. Congratulations to our College Mission Captains Amy & Sophie and all CAN students for another wonderful event.
Parenting to Promote Resilience
Parenting is a challenging role and balancing the desire to protect our children from mistakes or failure and supporting them to experience challenges is nothing short of overwhelming.
“We are so afraid of getting parenting wrong that we overdo getting it right.”
This statement resonates with me as a parent of two teenagers and in working with hundreds of families over the years, I understand that it is a common quandary. Current research applauds the motivation behind what is often called ‘helicopter parenting’ but articulates the negative impact it can have. If we solve our children’s challenges before they can experience them and work through their options, they cannot develop the abilities, skills, and competencies they will need in their arsenal for later life. Competence lifts confidence and a secondary outcome to excessive or premature support is that our children either struggle to develop confidence or develop a hollow confidence and become crushed when they unexpectedly experience failure.
When it comes to the education of our children, the evidence tells us that it is vital to be involved, however overinvolvement is proven detrimental and resulted in diminished engagement with school. The most alarming reported result was that of the dreaded entitlement, whereby children of over involved parents held the belief that others should solve their problems specifically in relation to their career or education difficulties.
This makes for concerning reading and no doubt raises the question: So, what exactly are we parents supposed to do? Despite not having the absolute answer for this modern parenting conundrum, there are two clear takeaways from the current research:
To build resilience we need to trust our children can do things on their own and when they fail, do not rush to fix things for them, instead we need to ask: What do you think you should do now?
AARA Processes at MSM
Mt St Michael’s College is committed to providing an environment where students are supported and encouraged to achieve their potential.
In accordance with legislative requirements, MSM implements Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments (AARA) for students according to the requirements identified by QCAA to minimise barriers for eligible students to demonstrate their learning, knowledge and skill in assessment.
Under the Australian Government’s Disability Standards for Education (DSE) 2005, schools are required to consider what adjustments to assessment conditions are reasonable in the context of the eligible student’s circumstances. Adjustments are then provided to minimise, as much as possible, barriers for a student whose disability, impairment, medical condition or other circumstances may affect their ability to read, respond to or participate in assessment.
These barriers fall into three broad categories:
- permanent
- temporary
- intermittent
Students may also be eligible for AARA where illness and misadventure (for example a broken limb) or other situations may prevent students from demonstrating their learning, knowledge and skill in assessment.
Ineligibility - Students are not eligible for AARA on the following grounds:
- teacher absence or other teacher-related difficulties
- matters that the student could have avoided including technological difficulties and poor time management
- matters of the student’s or parent’s/carer’s own choosing (e.g. family holidays, co-curricular commitments)
- a diagnosis of the disability and/or medical condition
- a date of diagnosis
- a date of occurrence or onset of the disability and/or medical condition
- details of symptoms, treatment or a course of action related to the disability and/or medical condition
- how the condition affects the student participating in assessment, particularly timed assessment
- professional recommendations and reasons for the AARA request/s.
Ms Alison Larkings, Program Leader – Middle Years and Mrs Ellen Kean, Program Leader – Senior Years manage AARA processes in the College and review eligibility every term and medical documentation needs to remain current. For students in the Middle Years, this documentation needs to be provided annually for short-term conditions. For students in the Senior Years, this documentation may need to be provided every six months, depending on the condition and QCAA requirements. It is important to note that AARA does not necessarily transfer from one semester or unit to the next as the overall goal is to build skills and capacity in students so that they are able to complete assessment without AARA wherever possible. If a parent feels that their student may be an eligible candidate for AARA, please contact the relevant Program Leader for an initial conversation.
Congratulations to 85 students from our Year 10 cohort who participated in the Marist Dancing program. After four weeks of lessons learning dances including the waltz, rumba and the salsa, the students had an opportunity to showcase their dancing skills at the finale held at City Hall. It was a fabulous culmination of the program. Thank you to Ms Lennon, Year 10 Pastoral Leader, and other College staff for accompanying students to the lessons.
Recently, Year 9 and 10 Drama students visited the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, to view the visually captivating production of Dead Puppet’s Society’s “Ishmael”, by David Morton, a reimagined version of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick. Pushing beyond the norm with state-of-the-art technology, this contemporary production delivered a transformative story-telling experience: fusing live film making with live action, miniature sets, cutting edge camera technology and puppetry to effectively communicate a story of individual hope and redemption.
Mt St Michael’s College Guitar Ensemble was thrilled to be invited to the Combined Schools Guitar Concert at St Rita‘s College, Clayfield on Wednesday, 24 May in their impressive Trinity Hall venue. Also performing were Guitar ensembles from St Laurence’s College and St Rita’s as well as a professional guitar group, the Riverside Ensemble, in which our own guitar teacher Mr Joel Woods is performing.
MSM welcomes our Parisian exchange student, Mathilde to our school community. Mathilde is staying with Year 11 student, Juliette for 3 months. We hope you enjoy your time with us.
Our MSM Alumni are our greatest pride! MSM Year 11 students enjoyed hearing from accomplished MSM Alumni, Rebecca Treston, KC (Class of 1983) and Madeline Eaves (Class of 2008) during our Career Information Session. Rebecca, a leading Queensland Barrister provided students with valuable advice on choosing a post-schooling pathway and career opportunities in the legal sector. Rebecca shared how she worked as a solicitor for 5 years before being called to the Bar in 1996. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2013 and in November 2018 became the first female President of the Bar Association of Queensland.
Madeline, a current Clinical Nurse delighted students with her journey following graduating at MSM. She told the cohort about how whilst studying her nursing degree, she spent time travelling the world both volunteering and working. Today Madeline balances full time work whilst studying her post graduate law degree.
We thank Rebecca and Madeline for their insightful presentations.
Students from the Year 10 and 11 Chemistry classes are currently competing in the Queensland Titration competition run by RACI. The students conduct chemical analysis through acid base titrations to determine the amount of an unknown substance. Although their results are assessed as a team, the students must conduct all their work individually under time pressure. The most successful teams from across Queensland are then invited to compete in the National finals. A big thank you must go out to our hard-working laboratory assistants Ms Christine Simpson and Ms Lorrae Broadley for the hours of extra work they put in supporting our students.
Last week 20 Year 9 students from MSM joined 800 Year 9 students from across Brisbane for YLead Altitude Day where they learnt from and listened to guest speakers and their peers about how to “Unlock your potential”. Here are some reflections from two of our Year 9 participants.
“Altitude Day helped me step out of my comfort zone and gain more confidence, and I would like to thank Mrs Larkings and Mrs Devenish-Meares for organising our attendance. There were three main tips that really stuck out for me:
- Follow your passions.
- Think big and back yourself.
- Our differences make us stronger.” Kiera
“For me my big take away from this day was that wherever you are, whoever you are, you can make a difference in the world, you just have to be passionate about what you believe in as demonstrated by the three guest speakers. “It’s a long process, but it’s doable.” – Tom Price, You are Not Alone founder.” Jasmine
Our team came together for the annual Cross Country Camp ahead of the CaSSSA Cup Carnival. On the Friday afternoon, they competed in their final CaSSSA lead up meet for the season and then made their way down to the Gold Coast Recreation Centre, Tallebudgera. After surprising our friends at McDonalds on the way, we were primed for a big weekend. Every member of our team (including staff) was challenged to step outside their comfort zone, support their friends and enjoy the company of other students that they might never have had the opportunity to share stories and memories with. We climbed to the highest heights, swung from the Giant Swing, challenged each other with team games, worked together to conquer Indigenous orienteering challenges and in true team spirit competed in a truly epic and slightly mad game of dodgeball. I guess when you bring 70 of the most competitive people together and put them in a room the outcomes are going to be exciting! Overall it was so much fun for all involved and a weekend of long lasting memories and friendships were formed. We left the camp prepared in every way for CaSSSA Cup Cross Country on Thursday 25 May where history would be made.
Thank you to our Year 10 Parents and Caregivers who joined us for Sunset Drinks at the College. As the sun set over the courtyard, attendees enjoyed a relaxed evening hosted by the P&F Association. It was a wonderful evening thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Alumni Meetings: Please visit the MSM Alumni Association Facebook page for updates.
Term 2
P&F Meeting Monday 5 June 6pm
Term 3
P&F Meeting Monday 7 August 6pm
P&F Mothers Lunch Friday 25 August 12pm
P&F Meeting Monday 4 September 6pm
Term 4
P&F AGM & Meeting Monday 6 November 6pm
Term 2
Monday 17 April – Friday 16 June
Term 3
Monday 10 July – Friday 15 September
Term 4
Tuesday 3 October – Friday 24 November (Years 7-11)
Click here to view the 2024 term dates.
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
Support the MSM Environment Group by donating your eligible containers! Bring your containers to school or use our scheme ID when returning to your local depot. Your donations will go towards funding our current and future environmental initiatives.
Mt St Michael's College scheme ID: C10333591
Slow down!
The Brisbane City Council, in coordination with The Gap Ward Office, recently erected an additional 40 km/h school zone limit and traffic signs facing incoming traffic along Elimatta Drive and Aloomba Road following a request from Mt St Michael’s College to investigate the traffic management in the school vicinity. A safety project endorsed by Mt St Michael’s College’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) Committee.
In consideration for our neighbours, where possible please avoid leaving your motor running, especially when parked outside a home.
Mt St Michael's College - MSM News
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Mt St Michael's College
67 Elimatta Drive
Ashgrove, QLD 4060
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