College Captains

We are thrilled to have everyone back at school and get back into our old routines. Our website that we created during isolation, “MSJ Connect”, is still consistently being updated weekly to provide students with resources, fun competitions, challenges and ways that they can get themselves involved in the MSJ community. It’s been an ongoing project for us, but has really allowed us to reach MSJ students in ways that we might not have been able to in person, by basing a lot of our activities on things happening at home.

We’ve also been in contact with our sister school, Seirei High School in Nagoya Japan. As we’ve not been able to participate in our usual exchange program, we recently held a Zoom meeting between our leadership teams to talk about what we hope to achieve in the rest of this year, and to stay connected with one another. Our Seirei sisters also advised us that they have raised $750 in donations for the Australian bushfire relief appeal. We are so thankful for this generous donation that shows the strong connection between our two countries.

Wellbeing

Term 2 has been very busy for Sport and Wellbeing, with the May Minutes Marathon and the implementation of two new SCSA competitions.

The May Minutes Marathon encouraged students to maintain a level of activity during remote learning, by logging every 30 minutes of exercise that was completed in this time. Congratulations to Penola House who came out on top, with an incredible 2970 active minutes. Also, congratulations to Lauren Price, Bridget Lloyd, Deanna Caputo, Elise McCallum, Marizabel Saliba, Allison Webster and Sarah Fjeldstad for being the overall champions of their year level.

The two new SCSA competitions have been very successful also. There were two competitions open to students: a High Performance Running competition, which allows students to submit their times for either a 3km or 5km run, and the ‘Show Us Your Skills’ competition, which allows for students to send in their skills or trick shots in a sport. These programs were facilitated by the SCSA, as a form of inter-school competition in lieu of being able to compete traditionally in interschool sports. In very exciting news on Monday, it was announced that Ruby Sommerville of Year 12 was the winner in the seniors category for her results in the 5km High Participation competition, and came 2nd in the 3km event. Kate Lavers of Year 9 was also announced as the winner of the ‘Show Us Your Skills’ competition with her hockey ‘juggling’ entry.

Finally, on 23 June, MSJ held its own Olympic celebration, consisting of a House vs House relay race, as well as a Staff vs Student race on the oval, in order to commemorate the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. This was ultimately won by Kincumber House with a dominant display in the heat and then against the teachers in the final.

Arts

The Arts Team is so very happy to finally be back at school, after the time away. We have been very busy since returning with one of the most alternative, history-making MMADD Days of all time. The Team worked together to come up with a range of activities over the span of a week that all had a very special Disney theme. The week was a success with over 40 girls participating online. Overall, we are more than happy to be back in the grounds of MSJ and will work very hard to bring more creative, fun and exciting activities to MSJ.

Social Justice

The Social Justice Team is very happy to announce that our MSJ community wrote a total of over 150 letters to residents at Embracia Aged Care and staff at Western Health. This initiative was important as it allowed students to stay connected with the wider community during these times. The letters have been delivered to their destinations and were warmly received by the staff.

We also celebrated Refugee Week where the theme for this year was "celebrating the year of welcome" and it was great to see the Year 7 Pastoral classes enthusiastically participating in our ‘Welcome’ video. This will be posted on our MSJ Instagram so be sure to check it out! On top of that, it was amazing to see students taking part in the asylum seeker simulation during morning pastoral, which allowed them to gain a deeper insight and understanding into the struggles and challenges that many fleeing their countries face.

A huge thanks to all staff, students and families for continuing to support our initiatives whilst learning remotely.

Academic

The Academic Team was incredibly busy this term engaging and supporting students in online learning. Many activities that were planned incorporated critical thinking and teamwork, and with the physical absence of friends while at home, the ability to work together on a fun activity benefited many students.

At the beginning of Term 2, the Academic Team hosted a range of Kahoots that covered a variety of topics from Renaissance to Nutella. This activity was a success with several students participating in almost all Kahoots. Later in the term was ‘Taboo’, a guessing game that requires the partnership of communication and team work skills. With double the expected amount of students to participate, the Academic Team was thrilled with the enthusiasm and contribution from students participating. Four teams correctly guessed a minimum of 29 words.

In Term 3, the Academic Team will be focusing on Science Week from 17 August to 21 August to engage the MSJ community with a very fun and important domain.

On the behalf of the Academic Team, we would like to thank the students that participated in all of the Academic activities and congratulate all the teams and people that won them.

Ministry

The Ministry portfolio has been working very hard this term to keep the MSJ community to stay connected with faith. We have been very busy since returning back to school organising our annual celebrations of JJAMM Week and Feast Day for Term 3. We’ve come together to come up with a range of different activities to keep the MSJ community engaged with faith and we will be working hard to come up with more. Overall, we are so happy to come back to school and be together after being online, and we will keep working hard to keep this faith alive.

I would like to thank all the students who have participated on the ‘MSJ Connect’ website, chapel prayers online, Paschal Way of Light and all the other resources.