Every member of the Mt St Michael’s community, past and present is invited to purchase a heart and help us light the way for future generations.

Funds raised will be used to support college initiatives, ensuring that future generations of Mt St Michael’s students can receive the very best education.

All donations are tax-deductible and heart plaques will be mounted and blessed on Mary Aikenhead Day.

I return to our MSM Community refreshed and renewed after a wonderful month in Ireland, where I participated in a Retreat and the Mary Aikenhead Ministries Pilgrimage. It was humbling to follow in Mary’s footsteps, tracing the story of the Sisters of Charity from Mary’s birthplace in Cork, to her ministry in Dublin. Along the way, we were warmly welcomed by Irish Sisters who were happy to share stories of their ministry over cups of tea and endless plates of scones!

I was greatly moved by a visit to the Convent in Harold’s Cross, where Mary Aikenhead’s room has been lovingly maintained. There I saw the desk from which she wrote more than 3000 “begging” letters, urging the great and notable of Dublin to consider the needs of the poor. Some of her letters are maintained at the Congregational archives. Ever practical, and eager to economise, she used paper sparingly, and frequently reused paper for correspondence, writing sideways on used sheets! I was reminded of a line from Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton:
“Why do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night, like you’re running out of time?
Every day you fight, like you’re running out of time
Keep on fighting. In the meantime…”

At every point on my Pilgrimage journey, I encountered examples of the Sisters’ courage and enterprise as they sought to advocate for the poor. Using equal measures of creativity and love, they insisted on better outcomes for the marginalised. We are better for their efforts.

I look forward to sharing more of the remarkable story of Mary and the Sisters with our community in the coming months, and I thank Ms Volp for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

Grantuly Day
Congratulations to Grantuly Captain Sophie and our Grantuly seniors on their efforts to celebrate Grantuly Day. Grantuly Day is celebrated in early June, and marks the anniversary of the opening of Grantuly College (as MSM was originally named) on the verandah of Grantuly Homestead in 1925.

Our Grantuly students gathered for a liturgy at the beginning of the day, where house ribbons were blessed and distributed. They enjoyed a shared morning tea, featuring an ever-popular cake from the Golden King Bakery!

MSM Chop Launch
Last week, our College Captains and Mission Captains launched the MSM Chop, a special fundraiser organised by our Year 12 students. 39 students have volunteered to cut or shave their hair in exchange for donations. All proceeds from the Chop will go towards our major fundraiser Project Raise the Roof, and all hair will be donated to the Cancer Council to make wigs for chemotherapy patients.

The Chop will be held in August. If you would like to donate to the Chop, please use the QR Code included below, or visit the payment portal on our College Website.

NAIDOC Week Liturgy
Our term will close next week with a liturgy to mark NAIDOC Week. Although NAIDOC Week will occur early in Term 3, our Year 11 students will be away at their Residential Retreat, so we will celebrate early. The 2024 NAIDOC Week theme is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud, and Proud! Our liturgy will celebrate the courageous, visionary and transformative women and men who have helped to advance the Reconciliation movement and have championed language, culture and sovereignty.

The World Happiness Report 2024 – Our Young People and Positive Education
In 2023 we identified our student wellbeing goal for the foreseeable future as an intentional move to make Mt St Michael’s College not only a school with a brilliant Positive Education program, but a Positive School with Visible Wellbeing. Recently, the World Happiness Report 2024 was published by the Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford University. The report made for not only interesting but confronting reading. The key takeaway for me however was that at Mt St Michael’s College we are emphatically ahead of the game.

The report presented a thorough analysis of a series of data sets that measured the wellbeing of people across the globe. My primary focus was on the trends in self-perceived wellbeing of young adolescents (10-15), older adolescents (15-24) and specifically girls in high income, developed nations. The best predicator for life satisfaction is identified as subjective wellbeing and emotional health during childhood and adolescence. This recognised norm provided the lens for my reading, with the intentional contemplation of ‘what are we doing about it?’. Despite a considerable dip in wellbeing immediately post Covid19, in Australia and like nations that trend is beginning to reverse and data from 2022 indicates it is correcting. This is good news; however, it is also a call to action. As parents and educators, we are responsible tor ensuring that trajectory continues and informs our practice; how we respond counts.

Positive relationships at home and at school were key indicators of subjective wellbeing in responses from both young and older adolescents. The ability to independently resolve friendship and learning struggles was also highlighted as influencing the contentment of girls. These insights are overwhelmingly affirming and speak directly to the theory and practice of Positive Psychology. The concept of Positive Education is now in its 14^th year with MSM introducing the curriculum in 2012. Finland which consistently tops educational outcomes in OECD reports as well as data from the World Happiness Report, has made Pos Ed the foundation of its education system. This is not a coincidence. Positive Psychology and Pos Ed are not passing fancies of sentimental academics, it is essential to the long-term contentment and success of our children.

It is my goal, dare I say mission to expand the practice of Positive Psychology at Mt St Michael’s beyond the Pos Ed classroom, into a visible characteristic of the community. I would invite you to discuss with your daughter her learning in Pos Ed and to engage in reading on the PERMA model yourself. Recently, our Curriculum Leader for Physical Education, Mr Elliot McGarry recommended the following podcast to our wellbeing team from the perspective of a parent. I would encourage you all to have a listen and get on board the PERMA movement. We have the indisputable data regarding the wellbeing of our young people, we have the knowledge of what can enhance that wellbeing. And, we have the responsibility to act.

Listen here: Groundhog Day Ep 079: Groundhog Day & breaking cycles. Pop Culture Parenting.
 
Have a wonderful and safe break!

Semester 2 Parent Teacher Conferences 
Parent Teacher Conferences for Years 7-10 will occur on Monday 8 July 2024 between 10am and 5:30pm. Please note this is a student free day. Teachers will be able to discuss how students have progressed across Semester 1 and provide actionable feedback as we move into Semester 2. The conferences will be conducted in person in the Sophia Centre. If there are any teacher cancellations on the day, due to unforeseen circumstances, parents will be notified via email.

Bookings for Parent Teacher Conferences opened on Tuesday 4 June and will close on Friday 14 June at 3pm. I have sent communications to all families about how to book these important conferences earlier in the week.

NCCD Processes
Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). It is a federal requirement that we advise all families about the collection of this data. The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).
 
Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools 
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability. The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the fact sheet below.

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal at https://www.nccd.edu.au

Subject Information Evenings
As we start to look to Semester 2, we begin to consider the 2024 academic year. Our Year 10 students will engage with their Year 11 Subject Selection Evening on Tuesday 9 July commencing at 5:00pm in the Sophia Centre. The evening will conclude at approximately 7:00pm. This is a very important event that provides detailed information about the QCE system as well as the various pathways on offer to students in the senior years. Students and parents will be able to engage with a variety of subject talks at this event to determine their choices moving forward with a course of study.

On Thursday 18 July, students currently in Year 9 will have their Year 10 Subject Selection Evening. This evening gives students and parents the opportunity to speak with the Curriculum Leaders and subject teachers and ask any questions to allow them to make the best decisions they can for their academic journey. I strongly encourage all students to get involved with these processes to ensure that they are making informed decisions about their 2024 subject choices.