The Visual Arts Faculty is pleased to share that artwork created by our students has been selected for the 2025 Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition. Out of nearly 400 submissions, their pieces were selected, highlighting their dedication and creativity.
Catholic Education Week is an opportunity for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne to celebrate their Catholic identity, the pivotal role they play within their local community and the strength of the sector.
The theme for Catholic Education Week 2025 is ‘Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you (Is 60: 1)' which draws from the motto of the Holy Year, the Year of Jubilee, and the Australian Catholic Youth Festival’s theme – ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
Congratulations to the following (2024) students:
| Artist name | Year | Artwork Title |
|---|---|---|
| Ava Scott | 12 | Third Gen, 2024 |
| Sinead Todd | 11 | Soft Winds and Blooming flowers |
| Etienne Green | 12 | Dream On |
| Amelia Leung | 11 | Wei of Water |
| Alannah Peterson | 11 | Moeto Cohce, My Sunshine |
Thank you David Meilak and Laura Dalta-Viota, for your teaching and developing these students as creators and also the dedication of the Visual Art faculty for their commitment to challenging and developing our students' creative and artistic skills.
The 2025 Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition will be a great opportunity to showcase young talent. We encourage parents, students, and staff to attend and support our students’ work. Keep an eye on this link for further details as they are confirmed
Creative Arts Exhibition: The Creative Arts Exhibition will be held from Sunday 16 March to Saturday 22 March 2025
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you (Is 60: 1)
Year 12 Politics and Legal studies class was visited by Tim Watts MP Federal member for Gellibrand. From Tim Watts facebook page:
"It was a pleasure to discuss my role as the local federal MP and Assistant Foreign Minister with the Year 12 politics and legal students at Mount St Joseph’s Girls College in Altona this afternoon. Melbourne’s West has a strong history of women in leadership and women in politics – from our first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard hailing from Altona (see her visit with me more than 10 years ago!) to our first woman Victorian Premier Joan Kirner representing Williamstown. Their legacy has helped build the first women-majority government in Australia’s history. I appreciated their insightful questions as well as their kind welcome."
Photos also include a flashback to Tim's visit to MSJ with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2013
One of the first big tasks of the new school year is to welcome our new Year 7 students to the Learning Resource Centre (LRC or library). The best way to do this is with a Scavenger Hunt, so the students have lots of fun exploring the space and discovering how to borrow a book, where to charge their laptops, how to use the Podcast Studio, what clubs they can join, where they can do quiet study, what tech toys they can access, and where they can hang out with their friends.
This year we also invited our Year 8 and Year 9 English classes to start the year by borrowing a book, so they can engage in daily reading. We encourage all students to read for pleasure because of the many benefits reading brings, including an increased vocabulary, more empathy, an improvement in maths and problem solving, and a better night’s sleep. Library staff can help with recommendations and students are able to suggest titles to purchase. New books are added to the collection every week.
This year we have already added the Top 10 most popular books from the local council libraries to our school collection. We collaborated with Hobsons Bay, Wyndham and Maribyrnong to create lists of the most popular YA and middle grade titles. New books include: After the Lights Go Out by Lili Wilkinson, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess by Akira Himekawa, Cold by Mariko Tamaki, Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood, Vega Jane by David Baldacci, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Drama by Raina Telgemeier, The do-over by Lynn Painter and Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.
The Word of the Day display is up again. Every day our student volunteers put up a new word, sourced from the school dictionary. The idea behind the display is to encourage students to explore the English language and expand their vocabularies. Words this year include: po-faced, larceny, empower, polymath, noughties, drippy, drack and zesty. There is a Best Sentence competition every Thursday with chocolates awarded for the best sentence.
Lego Club (Wednesday) has been added to the list of clubs running in the LRC this term. Other lunchtime clubs include Gaming and Board Games (Monday), Tech Club (Tuesday), Chess Club (Wednesday), Literature Club (Thursday), Makerspace and Book Club (Friday). All students are welcome to try out these clubs with one visit or more.
We celebrated Library Lovers Day on February 14 (also Valentine’s Day) by putting our Junior House Leaders in charge of the library at recess and lunchtime. It was a stack of fun. We also offered students the opportunity to enjoy A Blind Date with a Book. Books were wrapped in plain paper and the first line printed on the cover. The title, author and genre remained unknown. More than 50 books were borrowed by students keen to try this novel approach to choosing a book.
Remember to encourage your children to read by setting an example and showing them how much you enjoy reading.
Rebecca Green
Librarian
It is always busy in the extra-curricular Performing Arts, especially when it comes to music. This year’s musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ has started rehearsal with a cast of almost 60 students! The performances are in August this year, so we have plenty of time to make it amazing. We will be looking for more students to be involved as the date gets closer, we will need backstage crew, props, costume helpers etc. Our stage manager will be Amy White, who is currently in year 12 and has lots of experience with local theatre companies that she can bring to the table. The show will also have a predominantly student filled band; the band leader for the show is Caitlyn Marshall, who played drums for our last musical as well as last year’s Variety Night.
The instrumental program has begun for 2025. There are still some vacancies if students would like to start lessons with one of our fantastic teachers. We have been joined by two new teachers, Mrs Charmain Heaney teaching voice and Mrs Bridget Halloran teaching piano. We welcome them to the program and look forward to having them share their skills and experience. Charmain teaches voice but once played trumpet at the Sydney Entertainment Centre with the Marching Koalas, and Bridget Halloran has been a church pianist since she was 11.
Fun facts: did you know our drum teacher, Taylor, is also a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt and has won various state, national and pan pacific titles!
Updated statements were issued mid February.
For those accounts that were paid in full by the 21st February 2025, the ‘Early Payment Discount’ of $200 shall be applied to your account early March.
If you are yet to commence 2025 payments, it would be appreciated if you bring your account up to date in accordance with the fees schedule (refer link below).
Deduction forms (Direct Debit / Debit or Credit Card / Centrepay) can also be accessed via the link below.
https://www.msj.vic.edu.au/enrolments/tuition-fees
Families who hold an eligible health care card (HCC), pensioner concession card (PCC) or veterans’ affairs gold card, permanent carers and temporary foster parents are strongly encouraged to complete the CSEF application (located on our website) as it provides a significant reduction in fees.
Families who applied for CSEF in 2024 through the College and remain eligible need not complete a new form for 2025. However, new families (including new 2025 students) who have not already applied and hold a Health Care Card (HCC) will need to lodge an application as soon as possible.
N.B: The CSEF funds ($250) with the HCC Concession ($1,000) will be applied to your MSJ account once received by the College, approximately early / mid March 2025.
Should you have any queries in relation to your account please contact Mrs Heather Rinaldi (msjfees@msj.vic.edu.au) or 8398 2000 (Option 3)
Your continued support is appreciated.
Daniel O’Malley
Business Manager
