Mount St. Joseph Girls' College was lucky to be chosen to host the state finals of the Aurecon Bridge Building Competition on Wednesday 18 September. Aurecon Bridge Building Competition offers secondary school students a ‘real-world’ experience of what they can look forward to as future engineering students and professionals. Students are given a set of specifications and they use them to build the strongest bridge possible. The College team that builds the strongest bridge that is able to sustain the greatest weight is named the winner.
Congratulations to the MSJ student team, Augustina Baw Baw, Tam Maryoe and Sarvleen Kaur who won first prize and $500 prize money for the College. This is an outstanding achievement to beat 42 other Colleges from across the State. Thank you to their teacher, Thy Nguyen who has supported the students throughout the competition and organised MSJ to be the host College.
We look forward to seeing what these 3 very talented potential engineers achieve in the future and life beyond MSJ.
On Friday 30 August, our school hosted the annual Mary MacKillop Today Fundraising Dinner. The Year 11 VCAL class had been exceedingly busy over the previous few weeks planning, designing, creating and preparing for one of the biggest events hosted by the College. The weeks leading up to the special day were filled with hard work and dedication. In Personal Development Skills, we had to work together in a team to design the menu, napkins, placemats, floral arrangements, centrepieces, table runners and the name tags for the evening. A numerous amount of our classes, lunch times, school nights, and weekends were spent working extremely hard to achieve our goal to have the greatest Fundraising Dinner that has ever been held at MSJ - and this most definitely happened!
In our Food Technology classes, we tested, modified and assessed a numerous amount of different recipe options for the evening. There were four food tests to be done prior to the evening, and this helped us to decide which food item was best suited for the fundraising dinner. There was a broad selection of delicious appetisers, soups and take-home sweet bags, all made and prepared by the Year 11 VCAL class. There were some challenges and obstacles along the way, but as a team, we all managed to support and motivate each other throughout the entire experience.
The night of the fundraising dinner was filled with all types of emotions. It was chaotic trying to get our appetisers served before it was time to serve the soup. It was fun, moving around the dining area serving the food and trying to do it as swiftly and as best as possible. It was a learning experience for all of us. We had learnt and gained new skills, whether it was confidence, self-motivation, communication, leadership or teamwork - we had all definitely blossomed in our own ways.
We can unquestionably say that this was a great experience to let our inner ‘party planner’ shine, and to have an enjoyable night, engaging and connecting with the Sisters of Saint Joseph and other members of the local community.
By Marissa Robotis Year 11 VCAL
Gemma and I were fortunate enough to be the recipients of the 2019 Olympic Game Changer award. On Wednesday 4 September, we attended the Melbourne Summit with other award winners to discuss our community and how we can help to drive change around us.
The day started with some various activities including giant tennis and basketball. This was followed by an icebreaker game of giant bingo where students went around asking each other questions, such as ‘Have you travelled to Japan?’, hoping to find someone that did these things in order to achieve bingo. I won that game and received a basketball.
Afterwards, we heard some inspirational speeches by some current and past Olympians and how they faced challenges but also how they used their resilience to overcome them. The day was concluded with a speech from Steve Hooker, an Australian icon. He even brought his gold medal which was rather impressive. Gemma and I feel very privileged to have received this award and will continue to strive towards making positive changes in our community.
By Layla West Year 12
All fees are required to be finalised by 28 September unless alternative arrangements have been made with the Business Manager.
It would be appreciated if families could make sure their accounts are up-to-date.
Noel Kennedy - Business Manager
The College Administration Office will be open Monday to Friday during the school holidays from 8am to 4:00pm.
From Wednesday 6 November 2019, Academy Uniforms will be opening a store in Deer Park.
The address is 10/85 Mt Derrimut Road, Deer Park.
The trading hours will be Monday – Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm & Saturday 9:00am-12:00pm.
From Friday 1 November, there will no longer be a uniform shop at the College. The Academy uniform store at Thomastown will no longer stock the uniform. MSJ parents can visit the new Deer Park store or continue to purchase online.
CBCA's Book Week 2019 at MSJ was held from 19-23 August and featured a collection of events, activities, presentations and competitions for the entire College community. With so much to get excited about, there were many highlights throughout the week, all made possible and thanks to the creativity and passion of the LRC Team and support of additional staff. Special thanks to two incredible authors we had at the College, Asphyxia and Trace Balla, for their engaging and entertaining workshops for the students. The culminating event, our LRC Trivia Competition, held on Friday at lunchtime was a resounding success with "The Weirdos" being crowned victors. Thanks to our amazing students who participated in all the events and made the whole week an outstanding success.
Book Week Trivia Lunch
Winning the trivia was really exciting! Once all the questions had been answered, my group and I thought we had little hope of winning because all the other girls were older than us. When our group name ‘The Weirdos’ was called, we were so surprised but, at the same time, really happy. We spent the rest of the day feeling really proud of ourselves! It was an amazing and interesting experience competing against 100 other students from all year levels - but I think I speak for my group when I say the lollies and the cupcakes on the table were probably the best part!! By Jackie Kwawang, Year 7
Well done, everyone!
Jenni Neenan - College Librarian
This term, the Year 10 Outdoor & Environmental Studies classes went to Cliffhanger in Altona North. Most of us had not rock climbed in a long time or ever. Walking into Cliffhanger, it was quite overwhelming as you were instantly faced with walls with hundred of ‘rocks’ of various colours that surround you as you walked through.
In the first lesson, we learnt how to do the basics of rock climbing; how to wear a harness correctly, how to belay correctly, and most importantly how to climb the wall safely. It was a rocky start for all of us but our instructors, as well as our teachers, made us feel safe, but challenged, and ensured that we had a great time.
In the second lesson, we had already learned all the basics of rock climbing which meant we only had to do a quick refresher on how to belay and climb. Many of us had a goal in mind whether it was to go a couple of rocks higher than we had previously done, to climb the ladder or even to try the self belaying wall. Whatever the goal, the encouragement of our fellow peers motivated us to keep pushing and try our best.
Rock climbing at Cliffhanger was a very rewarding experience and prepared us well for upcoming camp to the You Yangs, where we will be climbing a real, natural rock.
By Vivian Dao, Solomon 1
