If you enjoy celebrating, you’re going to love the MSJ community recipe book Let’s Celebrate.Students were invited to send in recipes their families make for special occasions. We have dishes from around the world and across the calendar, including Eid al-Fitr, Diwali, Maori New Year, Valentine’s Day, Wear it Purple Day and Christmas.Let’s Celebrate makes a terrific Christmas or graduation present. Don't miss out. Orders close Friday, 6 October. Cost $12 plus Trybooking fee.
Order your copy today HERE
We read books, bought books and talked books for one glorious week in August. Book Week, the best week in the year, was chockers full of books and book-related activities.
Author Tristan Bancks dropped in for an online chat with the Year 7s. The students have been studying Tristan’s book, Detention, and had lots of awesome questions about his writing technique and how he invents characters and plots. One student pointed out Tristan has lots of characters with really short names - Tristan hadn’t even realised that!
AFLW podcaster and author Nicole Hayes shared the secrets to podcasting success with some of our keen podcasters. The new podcast studio has been inspiring lots of the girls to experiment, play and speak about issues important to them, so Nicole’s tips were super helpful.
The highlight of the week was the Book Swap and Sale, which had books for every budget – from $5 to free!! More than 250 books were sold or swapped – which means there’s a lot of students with new worlds too explore and new and interesting characters to meet.
The lunchtime Trivia Extravaganza was fantastic fun. It featured 100 book-loving participants and some really tough questions about classic literature and Harry Potter. Congratulations to the The Biblicals as the winning trivia team, with The Bookworms a close second.
The three book competitions were hugely popular. The book review competition Books we Love Tokking About received an exciting and imaginative selection of entries. Congratulations to Lola Gough who won with her crime-scene photo review of A good girl’s guide to murder.
For the Can you Name the Book competition we shredded one of our retired library books and students had to try and work out what it was. Only a few students correctly answered: We’ll always have summer by Jenny Han.
Students were encouraged to look at the CBCA shortlisted books and Judge the Books by their Covers. The cover voted the best was Evie and Rhino by Neridah McMullin – a beautiful cover and an amazing story!
Challenge accepted: Congratulations to the students who completed the 2023 Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge - Orlaith Bethell and Olivia Claughton (Year 7); Veronica Byrne (Year 8); Isabella Wong (Year 9); Nuala Bethell, Anya Kang and Naomi Boyall (Year 10); Sukhneet Kaur, Pooja Kamath and Malaika Boyall (Year 11); Avneet Kaur, Deanna Caputo and Amrithaa Ellinavaalu (Year 12). To complete the challenge students had to read 15 books. Pictured are Orlaith and Deanna with some of the books that were read. Orlaith's favorite was Evie and Rhino by Neridah McMullin. Deanna's favouite was The poppy war by R F Kuang.
Happy reading everyone from the LRC team
To RSVP, please click HERE
During my month in Berlin, I had the privilege of receiving opera training through the Berlin Opera Academy Summer Festival Singer’s Program. The program encompassed daily German classes, vocal masterclasses, individual accompanist coachings, and vocal coachings. In addition to these enriching classes, I engaged in daily rehearsals for Mozart's opera 'Die Zauberflöte,' where I studied and performed the role of Dritte Knabe. I also successfully studied and passed my cover role examination for Komponist from Strauss' 'Ariadne auf Naxos.' I even had the opportunity to perform in front of a German agent!
Rehearsing and performing opera in Berlin was an incredible experience. I made lifelong friends and collaborated with extraordinary opera singers who imparted invaluable insights into the art of performance. Working with world renowned opera singer Dominic Barberi was a highlight!
In Austria, I delved deeper into my role study cover as Komponist with the incredible guidance of Jennifer Condon, improving my connection with the character and the German language.
My adventure in Berlin and Austria not only shaped me as an opera singer, but also as an individual. I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to perform opera in Berlin, with the Berlin Opera Academy, and to study overseas with the most incredible coaches. This experience will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Emilie Washiongton - Current vocal teacher at MSJ and former student
Statements have been emailed to families with amounts owing as of 7th September 2023.
Families that do not have a scheduled payment arrangement, are reminded that:
If you already have a payment plan in place, please retain the statement for your records.
Your assistance in ensuring that your account is up to date is greatly appreciated.
Daniel O’Malley - Business Manager
On the Friday 18 August, MSJ hosted the annual Mary MacKillop Today Victorian Fundraising Dinner here at the College. The Year 11 Work Related Skills students supported the MMT Foundation to plan and prepare for the evening. They created invitations, table settings including beautiful flowers as the centerpiece and table numbers which identified the supporters of the evening and prepared a grazing platter for each table on the evening. The students displayed their teamwork and organisational skills in the lead up to the evening and spent the day itself setting the tables and preparing the MMC for the evening itself. The students welcomed the guests and the evening was a huge success with the MMT proudly declaring a profit of almost $20,000. Thank you to the Year 11 VM students, Ted and the team at Mary MacKillop Heritage Centre and Nicole Magee and the Maintenance team at MSJ for all of the support in the lead up to the event.
Spring is here and so is hay fever season!
At the far end of Mount Saint Joseph Girls College is the Truganina Coastal Park, with an abundance of native flora and fauna. It is very common for students to suffer from multiple hay fever symptoms. For this reason, students are encouraged to carry on themselves antihistamines if they are known to suffer from allergies.
Students diagnosed with asthma are also urged to carry their asthma medication to and from school. Hay fever and asthma commonly occur together. With 3 out of 4 people diagnosed with asthma at a higher risk of developing hay fever symptoms, it is important to treat both symptoms when they occur.
Thursday 12th October, 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM (ONLINE)
Parents of a twice-exceptional child, who possesses both high intellectual abilities and a learning difference or disability, often have specific concerns and questions about how to best support their child's unique needs. If you are a parent or educator wanting to learn more about how to support your child/student, please join us for an informative discussion session. The session will include how to advocate for your child, how to balance strengths and challenges, supporting their social-emotional well-being and more.
Try Booking Link: https://www.trybooking.com/CLIBJ
Medieval Day Reflection
On Monday 21 August all of the Year 8 students at MSJ participated in a Medieval Day. We spent the day doing many fun activities and learning all new things about the dark ages. We started the day in four groups switching from activity to activity. These activities included; weapons, archery, dance, crime and punishment, a class feast and a tournament. We learnt many new skills such as how to shoot a bow and arrow, what we would do as training knights, what weapons, armour and clothes we would have worn, how we would get punished and what for, what we would have eaten and what dances we would have done. All of the Year 8 students enjoyed day and we appreciated the time and commitment from the Humanities Year 8 teachers and in particular Ms Borrman Head of Humanities who organised the event.
Isabel Calyk 8A
