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- St Clare's Student Runs for Australia
- Designing a New Future for Catholic Education
- Youth Ministry Comes Together
- St Anne's Temora Partners with FarmLink
- MacKillop Seniors Welcome New Cutting Edge Science Space
- St Monica's Joins World's Greatest Shave
- History Competition Flies Merici Student to France
- St Pat's Cooma Highlights
- National Day of Action in Our Schools
- St Bernard's Teacher Partakes in National Science Curriculum Workshop
- St Gregory's Queanbeyan Goes Wild
The St Clare's College community and all of Canberra cheered on Keely Small as she represented her country in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games this month.
The Year 11 student broke a personal best and the under-18 National 800m record for the second time, coming in hot at 2:00.81 minutes.
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald Keely said, "I am here for the experience and to get out here and run a PB against the world's best, I am stoked."
St Clare’s Principal Brad Cooney said Keely is a remarkable young woman who is equally dedicated to her studies as she is to the track.
The school's Senior Rugby team is also making headlines as they make their way to Japan in the school holidays to represent Australia at the prestigious SANIX Invitational Tournament.
The exclusive event is hosted by the Japan Rugby Football Union and the Global Arena in Munakata, Fukuoka on the island of Kyūshū is the venue for this tournament.
Studio Curious kicked off last month with the Executive Director of Catholic Education, Ross Fox, calling on its design teams to work together to improve student outcomes in 1000 classrooms and make sure that 'all our plans and designs capture the real context in which you work'.
The first two-day workshop brought together more than fifty people from 38 schools – joined by staff from the office – to design the future of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
Click here to read the blog from workshop one.
Over two action-packed days hundreds of students from Australia and the Oceania Region gathered for two large-scale Youth Ministry events within the Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn.
The Archbishop commissioned the passionate Youth Ministers at a celebratory mass at St Christopher’s cathedral before joining in with the Youth Ministry International (YMI) Equipping School at the LEAD Mass and Rally.
The Mass was opened with a beautiful traditional dance (see video below) performed by Troy and Bradley from Daly River in the Northern Territory in light of the Year of Youth.
Over 350 students involved with implementing Youth Ministry in their schools came together the following day at St Clare’s College to attend a CSYMA Youth Ministry Conference filled with workshops, dramas, music and prayer.
The Youth Ministry is working to empower young people to lead a new evangelisation and build pathways between Catholic schools and local Church communities through providing opportunities for youth to come together and encounter Christ.
Students at St Anne’s will work directly with industry experts and cutting edge facilities at Temora Agricultural Innovation Centre through an exciting new partnership with FarmLink.
St Anne’s Principal Kathy Holding is delighted to announce this formal educational partnership in the delivery of the Year 9 and 10 agricultural curriculum.
“This special partnership enables hands-on real farm experiences,” Mrs Holding said.
She said that the land and our farming families play a critical role in our nation and the economic and social future of our wonderful community.
“This partnership will nourish our young people with an interest in and concern for our farming future, and nurture personal ambitions for a life in the industry.”
“Throughout the year-long program students will investigate and learn about farm safety and chemical handling. They’ll conduct soil testing and analysis work with local agronomists to interpret and apply results and set up a field trial exploring the impact of nitrogen on canola growth and production.”
The Science of Farming: Linking the classroom to the paddock
CEO of FarmLink, Cindy Cassidy, said agricultural industries recognise the importance of nurturing young minds in the science of farming and showing them the diverse opportunities the industry has to offer.
"FarmLink is all about collaboration," Cindy said.
"We work closely with a number of organisations such as CSIRO, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authorities, Landcare, EH Graham Centre, agribusiness and other farming system groups across Australia."
"It is a tremendous opportunity for young people to link directly with these leading organisations and expertise. The private industry and school working together means real-life relevant learning for the students."
"With FarmLink the students have access to Landmark agronomists, Local Land Services field officers, CSIRO researchers, precision agriculture experts, machinery technicians and a range of independent researchers and advisors."
Agriculture students will be showcasing their investigative research trial results at the FarmLink Field Day on September 14.
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With more students choosing to complete Year 12 at St Mary MacKillop in Tuggeranong, the College celebrated the blessing and opening of two new buildings.
The sustainable design of cutting edge learning spaces provide students with six modern science laboratories and six new classrooms, as well as collaborative learning areas, flexible study spaces, and a new senior courtyard.
Principal Michael Lee (pictured) said it was fitting, during the College’s 20 year anniversary celebrations this year, to name the buildings in honour of Mary MacKillop’s Sisters of St Joseph and the co-founder - Fr Julian Tenison Woods.
“Catholic schools all over this archdiocese and indeed around the country were built by our ancestors, often with their own bare hands. Communities built them so
their children could go to a Catholic school, for their grandchildren, and for the children of generations beyond the reach of their imagination,” Mr Lee explained.
“This school acknowledges the life’s work of each of the Sisters of St Joseph who educated generations of Australian children for 150 years. What we want to do
here is to continue their work, and to flavour the lives of our students with a story of faith, courage, hope, and of trusting in God’s providence.”
Two St Monica’s Primary School Evatt students have proudly participated in the 20th Anniversary of the iconic Leukaemia Foundation World’s Greatest Shave to help raise awareness of blood cancer that has touched the lives of family members.
Ava Platts and Jack Howlett proudly shaved their heads in front of the school in an effort to raise funds for vital research and emotional and practical support for families facing blood cancer.
The students have helped to raise a whopping $8000 for the Leukemia Foundation who are kindly transforming hair clippings into wigs for cancer patients and ‘floating blooms’ that absorb oil spills at sea.
If you would like to donate to their cause, or just give them a message of support, you can head to their Team Fundraising Page: http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/gorjasekids.
Year 10 Merici College student Samantha Trafford has been crowned Australian Capital Territory Simpson Prize winner for the 2018 in an ANZAC based history competition against Year 9 and 10 students from around Australia.
As part of the Simpson Award, Samantha will be accompanied by Merici teacher Liza Laird to participate in an overseas tour to the Western Front in France for two weeks in April, including attendance at the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Villers-Bretonneux.
The competition required a response to a quote and question that competitors then had to agree, debate or challenge from an individual, national and global perspective.
The 2018 Essay Question was “Some historians have described 1917 as “the worst year of the Great War” for Australia and Australians. To what extent is this assessment accurate?”.
We look forward to catching up with Samantha and Liza after their trip.
The year is off to an exciting start out at St Patrick’s Parish School, Cooma, who are celebrating fresh innovation and educational initiatives in and outside the classroom.
A new creative wellbeing program has been introduced this year that provides students with invigorating morning yoga sessions, silent lunchtime discos, gardening clubs and a Sing for Joy choir.
The revitalised camp and expedition program for Secondary has new options for Year 8 and 9 students, making use of the beautiful mountain area that connects students with what it means to be a ‘School with Altitude’.
St Patrick’s has given new energy to their community service program, sending care packages to the Armed Forces. This year students have also supported Shave for a Cure, St Vinnies, Caritas, Tathra Appeal and the senior citizens in the community.
The school has competed at regional and Archdiocesan levels in cross country, athletics and rugby league, with one student competing at state level in swimming. The Monaro Representative Basketball team is guiding the younger students through an intensive sport program this term to build confidence and competence.
Students have achieved considerable creative success at local competitions with exhibits at local art venues, photography on display at Cooma Show and participating at the Lake Light Sculpture in Jindabyne.
Principal Frances Robertson says that her school fosters creativity to open the mind to all kinds of learning, self-discovery and expression. We look forward to seeing what the Term 2 will bring for St Patrick’s Cooma.
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On National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence our wonderful Catholic Schools spread the word that bullying is never okay. We asked students at Holy Family Primary School Gowrie their thoughts on bullying and we heard them loud and clear! As Year 6 student Daniel Baraniecki said, "Bullying is a terrible idea. It just makes the world a very negative and bad place," and we couldn't agree more.
Check out our photo gallery from NDA, featuring students from Holy Family Gowrie, Holy Spirit Nicholls, Sacred Heart Central School Temora, Saint Francis Xavier, St Joseph's Adelong, St Joseph's Boorowa, St Mary's Moruya and Trinity College Goulburn.
St Bernard’s Primary School teacher Jenny Smith has been selected to provide valuable input into the developmental process of the National Assessment Program Science Literacy (NAP-SL) test through partaking in ACARA’s first three-day National Assessment writing workshop.
With Mrs Smith’s assistance, the items generated from the writing workshop will be added to the pool of items to be tested in the NAP-SL field trial in June, in which her school is participating.
The valuable and informative professional learning experience will equip Mrs Smith with the skills to write effective and valid diagnostic test items that can then be incorporated into online tests and into the classroom.
Year 6 students have participated in the NAP-SL test every three years since 2003 and this year will see the introduction of a Year 10 test to be delivered in an online environment.
The faces of St Gregory’s Year 1 students lit up as they entered their new classrooms that been transformed into a desert, the ocean, a wetland and a rainforest overnight.
The students explored and investigated the many different habitats using adaptive thinking to document their thoughts and record what they could see, feel and touch.
The different temperatures, textures, plants and animals have raised an interest and peaked curiosity in the cohort, that will be enhanced further across the science unit which is a great example of incorporating STEM in our schools.
