College Captains

Mia and I have had an amazing start to the year, and have been super busy around the College. This term gave us some incredible opportunities to learn more about leadership and social justice initiatives, the most pivotal experience being our time at JJAMM.

From 16-20 February 2019, we travelled to Sydney with Ms Curnow to embark on a journey of leadership and an exploration of our faith. The JJAMM conference is an annual meeting of young leaders from over 40 schools around Australia and New Zealand, who come together to learn about how to lead a Josephite school. JJAMM was more amazing than we could have ever hoped, and we learnt so much from Ms Curnow, Sister Jan and our fellow leaders.

Whilst in Sydney, Amy and I engaged in social justice initiatives and learnt more about the mission of the Josephite sisters, Mary Mackillop and Julian Tenison Woods. We were lucky enough to visit the final resting place of Mary Mackillop and reflect peacefully at her tombside. As well as this, we had the chance to do some sightseeing around Sydney, and we enjoyed being tourists for a day. Our time in Sydney allowed us to make lasting friendships with students from as far as Western Australia, and we are so thankful to Ms Dishon, Ms Fairthorne and the Stewardship Team for organising our travel and allowing us to attend.

As well as our time at JJAMM, we have enjoyed supporting our amazing leader in WAAM and all the initiatives that they have running around the school. We are so proud of the incredible work that every member of SLT has put into this year so far. If it weren’t for their tireless effort and persistence, the MSJ community would not be flourishing in the same way that it currently is. We can’t wait for the rest of MSJ to see what we have in store for the rest of the year!

Video by Gemma Srijan

Wellbeing

The Wellbeing portfolio has had a busy start to the year with the Swimming carnival early this term and the Athletics carnival shortly afterwards.

Swimming, being the first House day for the year, called for lots of excitement, chanting and House spirit and certainly started the year off with a BANG! It was great to see so many people giving it a go and participating to earn points for their House. A huge congratulations to Providence, who took the trophy home, but also to the rest of the Houses who showed great House spirit - it was certainly a close race. I would also like to take the time to thank Sue again for all the work she did to organise the day and make it enjoyable for all those who went, and for the teachers and students who helped out on the day.

On 21 March, MSJ celebrated World Down Syndrome Day. Organised by Layla West (Year 12), teachers and students participated in the "Lots of Socks" initiative to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. This initiative encourages us students and teachers to wear crazy, odd mismatched socks to school which allows everyone to symbolically empower their differences while raising awareness for Down Syndrome. It was so great to see lots of odd socks worn at school on Thursday and supporting this great cause.

Not only this but on Tuesday 26 March was the Athletics Carnival, which was a fun and colourful day for everyone. It was so great to see everyone participating and supporting one another. Congratulations to McCormack who took home the trophy for Athletics. It was such a close race, with only a few points separating each House. Every House should be congratulated.


Academic

This term, the Academic portfolio has focused on getting Aced It! Tutoring up and running. It’s been a great success so far with 12 girls from Year 11 and 12 volunteering as tutors. We’ve already had a total of 39 students sign up over the time it’s been running. We hope to see many more students signing up for some extra help with their studies!

On another note; there will be a new event coming to MSJ! It will get you to form teams with your friends and race through a circuit style course involving some fun challenges. Look out for ‘Academic Olympics’ next term, at lunchtime on Friday 26 April in the TWLC.

For those of you who do not know what 'Aced It! Tutoring' is, you can watch the ‘advert’ below, directed and edited by Gemma Srigan.



Arts

This term, the Arts portfolio have been planning for a ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ competition held on 2 April. The portfolio were busy creating posters, powerpoints, collecting music, and helping organise every detail to ensure the competition was perfect! We had a large amount of entries into the competition and we had a huge crowd cheering on the contestants. The groups and individuals are eager to show off their talents on stage and compete for the title of best dancers at MSJ. It was an event that encouraged all students to come, watch, and be entertained by the amazing performances lined up.

Last week was also an exciting time for the arts at MSJ. After many weeks of planning and organising, the 2019 MMADD Day theme was finally able to be revealed. I had created a video and presented it to the MSJ community at an assembly, sparking much excitement and suspense as to what the theme was. Upon the theme of Movie Musicals being announced, excited gasps and cheering could be heard. It was a proud and memorable moment for the arts at MSJ, as it proved the excitement MMADD Day and all of the arts can bring people. We are extremely excited to continue planning MMADD Day for 24 May and ensure it is the best one yet!

Ministry

The Ministry portfolio has had a very exciting term so far. We have worked alongside McCormack to organise some fun ways to raise awareness for Caritas. Some of the ways we have fundraised so far are: Shrove Tuesday, by putting nutella, jam and golden syrup on some delicious pancakes made by the Youth in Action students. We would like to thank the Youth in Action students who cooked us pancakes before school, snack and lunch, as well as 70 pancakes for the Year 6 students at Queen of Peace Primary School. This was our first year cooking pancakes for the primary school and they loved it. We raised $675 for Caritas and we would like to thank all those girls who bought pancakes on this day.

Ash Wednesday and the International Women's Day Breakfast are some of the other things that we have been involved in to raise money for Caritas. We are currently planning a House vs. House dodgeball, a Dunk the House captains/teachers, and an Easter raffle. We would like everyone to please get involved and donate to this important organisation, as fundraising together is a great way to build community and show solidarity with people around the world.

Here are some ways that you can donate this Lent:

  • Caritas boxes in all pastoral classes
  • Donate the change from the canteen
  • Create inter-house competitions such as Coin trials
  • New this year, we now have a MSJ fundraising page for Caritas, https://lent.caritas.org.au/mountstjoseph-2019

Thursday 21 March was Harmony Day, and Solomon House organised some fun activities for the day. It is a time to celebrate Australian multiculturalism, and the successful integration of migrants into our community. Australia is one of the most successful multicultural countries in the world and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. Harmony Day is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural background, united by a set of core Australian values.

Video by Gemma Srijan