The College aspires to cultivate an ethos within the Boarding School which gives witness to our Marist Tradition, our sense of family and our desire to share our Christian vision with the young men to whose care we have been entrusted.

Integral to the achievement of these aspirations, we encourage the students in our care to become men of courage showing the characteristics:

Respectful
Confident
Engaged
Reflective
Compassionate
Self-Aware
Resilient
Creative

Throughout the course of the school year numerous celebrations take place. These range from major events such as the Inaugural Mass, Champagnat Day and Graduation to ongoing events including presentations at fortnightly assemblies and weekly House meetings to various informal rituals held in classrooms and by co-curricular groups.

The boarding community celebrates boarder of the week, monthly birthdays and recognises individual and collective efforts as part of boarders Mass, the Bugle and residence updates. Next week will see our Year 12’s embark on their final week at the College. This week truly is a celebration of our seniors and their tremendous contribution to their time at MCA. Prizegiving, Boarding Parent Dinner, Graduation Mass, Guard of Honour and Graduation Dinner are among the highlights. Graduation can certainly be emotional for family’s and boys none more so than our senior boarders who have called the College ‘home’ during their schooling!

Commemorating special occasions, big or small, appears to be an important part of human culture. They enable communities to understand their traditions and values, create memories and moments of joy and essentially help to make life more meaningful.

I wish our graduating students all the best as they head into their final week before being officially being deemed an ‘Old Boy’.

Reflection

Persistence

Persistence requires self-discipline and determination. There is a wise saying “a quitter does not win, and a winner does not quit.”

Persistence could be defined as characterised by a burning desire focused on achieving a definite result, developing an action plan to strictly follow, resisting discouraging opinions, and sometimes working with others in a team effort. It does admit of failure, but is not overcome by failure. Take Thomas Edison, who failed in more than 10,000 experiments before the feat of discovering the electric lamp. Any invention is based on overcoming loads of failure and moving on, for with persistence will come success!

In spite of opposition from Roman authorities and the Jewish establishment, Jesus persisted in preaching that there was one God, who required mercy and love, not emperor worship, or ritual sacrifices. This persistence led him to be crucified.

Fr John Boyd-Boland ofm

ICPA (Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association) FEDERAL CONFERENCE

‘Working together for equity of access to education for all students who live in rural and remote Australia’. I wrote last week of the importance ICPA plays within our boarding community. With a conference theme of ‘Stronger Together’ It was great to be part of the 50th Federal ICPA celebrations in Longreach last week.

Around the Grounds

La Valla Residence

Well, it is official! The boys have been crowned the 2021 Gardening Champions in the competition judged by our Head of College! We had a lovely afternoon at the vegetable garden where we shared a drink with Mr Newman and the boys had the opportunity to explain what they had been doing over the last couple of terms. Mr Newman heard tales of secret weapons from the chicken farm, the worm farm juice and the frustration at having their produce sampled without permission. Jim and Liam had timed their gardening perfectly so that they could harvest carrots and beetroot during the competition... Mrs Sedgwick had not thought that far ahead! The boys talked of their plans for expansion and how they hoped to carry on with the garden next year. Mrs Sedgwick is slowly recovering from the loss.

We also had a brilliant weekend of transition sleepovers, Jack, Angus, Jock and Jonah joined us for a very busy weekend. Two of these boys will be joining the current La Valla boys as they head into Year 8 and friendships were already made in this very short time. Again, the La Valla boys demonstrated that they are true Marist men in the kindness that they offered to the new students. We are very proud of our La Valla boys for so many reasons.

Montagne Residence

The 2022 AIC sport trials have already started up and it is great to see so many boys heading to the nets (cricket) or the courts (volleyball and tennis) to start their pre-season sessions. On that note, it is also positive to see many of the dorm heading to the gym in the mornings or afternoons. Persistence will pay off for those attending regularly.

In academics, we have had a few boys submit their draft assessments in late. With the amount of study time provided and support available every day, it is disappointing to get these emails from teachers alerting us that this is happening. Boys have been encouraged this week to plan ahead, fill out their diaries and utilise their assessments schedules that were provided last week. Exam block is less than a week away meaning that all other assessments should be complete before this time.

The Recreation last weekend kept the boys busy with lots doing. The photos that supervisors sent through were great and showed the boys really enjoying themselves. With the Street Party this weekend, we hope this continues!

Hermitage Residence - written by Landon Law-Palm

As all assessment begins to roll in, at the start of the week we saw all of the boys working extra hard in study, particularly on HPE and English. There are only a few weeks until the exam block and all of the boys are ready and prepared to finish their final exams for Year 9.

During the week, a guest speaker came in and talked to all of the boys about nutrition and how much we should be eating certain amounts of food as well as exercise. As many of the boys in the dorm wake up early to go to the gym and get the blood pumping, this talk really helped with answering a lot of questions the boys had.

On the weekend, we hosted the Somerville girls for one of the first times at the pool. The following night, St Margaret’s hosted the Year 7-9 boarders for a night of games including dodge ball and basketball and at the end of the night, we all sat down and ate a bit of ice cream at Cold Rock. On Sunday, a bunch of boys went to Southbank for a few hours before returning to school for Sunday mass on Sunday and other study.

Fourviere Residence

One week closer to the pointy end of the term and the boys continue to nudge the books as they prepare for final assessment submissions and exams for the year. As always, the downtime was full of plenty of activities such as; Term 1 sporting trials for Cricket, Volleyball and Australian Rules football, boarder’s touch and trips to the gym. An interesting presentation on nutrition was well received and so to was the last Friday Arvo Feast for the year provided by the wonderful Boarding Parent Support group who we are always forever grateful for. Probably the highlights of the week, were the weekend activities; the Year 10 and 11’s enjoyed a trip up to Caloundra on Saturday afternoon for a swim and twilight BBQ. The entire group had a great time body surfing, surfing and playing games in the park. And finally, it was great to see that the Staff were once again victorious, continuing their undefeated dominance in the annual Boarding Staff v Students Cricket match. An enormous thank you to Mr Blair Whitlock for organising the trip and for his wonderful efforts in organising recreational activities to keep the lads busy and entertained throughout the year.

Br Terence Residence

The Year 12 boarders experienced a very busy week with maths exams and the preparation for the exams across a number of the science subjects taking place. It has been great to see a number of the boys really apply themselves to their study again this week with notable efforts from Angus Brown, Jack Condon and Lochie Dudgeon. Away from the study, the remaining Year 12 boarders participated in the annual Staff vs Students cricket match on McMahon Oval. While a few Year 11 boys joined the student team, Jackson Munn opened the bowling and the crowd enjoyed Leon Simonetti’s fielding and bowling efforts on the day. Sam Miller led the commentary on the microphone with a number of cameo performances from our Year 11 boarders who were part of the student team. It is always a great event that allows the boys to compete against the boarding staff. Br Terence supervisors Ben Howard and Paddy Podbury were notable performers for the staff team and they enjoyed some of the boys’ humour during the match.

This week it was our Year 11 boarders who made the trip to Caloundra for a Twilight Beach Trip and BBQ on Saturday. With their busy exam block not far away, it was perfect timing for the boys to enjoy some downtime before their exam preparation. Our Year 11s also received some advice on nutrition during the week with a special guest speaker addressing all of our boarding students to provide them with some tips on healthy eating. The surprise birthday celebrations were back this week as well with the Year 12 boys recognising Hugh Ford’s 18th birthday in style on the Cyprian deck, while Elliot Gubby and Dwayne Ludwick also celebrated their birthdays during the week.

Boarding Recreation - Mr Blair Whitlock

The boys had a very social weekend on the rec front which started off on Friday with a visit from Somerville House. It was great to finally get a social off the ground with Somerville after several postponed events from last term! With the weather warming up it was the perfect night for a BBQ and Pool party. Thanks to the Year 11 lads (Connor, Sam, Jono, Fletch and Doyley) for firing up the BBQ and making sure everyone was well fed!

With Cricket season around the corner, there were several boys heading out early on Saturday for various matches around Brisbane. The rest of the lads enjoyed a sleep in before jumping on the bikes and heading out to the Blue Nurses around midday before a swim to cool off. The Year 10 and 11’s loaded up the bus and headed to Kings Beach for their Twilight BBQ. The boys were turning heads as the Budgie Smuggler crew took over the beach. A few tried their luck surfing in some inconsistent waves which resulted in a few epic wipeouts!! It was a cracking afternoon rounded off with a BBQ put on by a different crew this time around (Gubby, Hugh, Dom, Harry and Charlie). Meanwhile, the Year 7-9’s headed over to St Margaret’s for an evening of competitive dodgeball and Cold Rock for dessert. We’ve had several socials with Margs over the last couple of terms and it’s great to see the boys building some positive relationships. You can’t beat a good game of dodgeball and the boys were full of stories on the way home.

Sunday morning saw our traditional Staff vs Students Cricket match take place on McMahon Oval. With a six-year winning streak to boot, the staff were confident heading into bat as ‘winning is a habit’. Ben Howard (MoM) and Mal Grealy did not disappoint with a decisive opening partnership putting the boys firmly on the back foot. A mid-innings wobble (due to some dubious umpiring) was offset by a tidy Priddis/Temperly partnership to post a total of 113 from our 20 overs. What followed was nothing short of a demolition. Mr Podbury, Howard, Kuiters, Palmer, Temperley and Ms Livingstone put on a bowling clinic as the boys folded under relentless pressure. Pat Mahony and Harry Masel hinted at a late rally but their inevitable dismissals were the final nail in the coffin. Another convincing staff win and we look forward to next year.

We headed down to Southbank with the other boarding schools for the final activity of the weekend before heading back to school for mass. Another busy weekend in the books with only two to go!

Ephrem House News

Mr Tony Byrne - Head of Ephrem House