From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s almost EKKA time in Brisbane! I hope that you have enjoyed the stunning days of the past fortnight - what a treat it is to live in such a beautiful part of the world. In the evenings, I feel sure, like many of us you have been transported to Paris and have watched with pride our Australian Olympic Team smash records, beat personal bests and realise the culmination of personal dreams and years of dedication. At Mt A we also continue to see so many of our students yield the fruits of their hard work, dedication and engagement across their academic programs, sporting achievements, music, debating and service. We have so much to proud of and grateful for. 

The Queensland College of Teachers recently announced the shortlist for the 2024 TeachX awards, and we are thrilled to share with our community that Tamara Richardson (Head of Greccio House) and Daniella Curcuruto (Music Teacher) are on the list! Congratulations to Dani and Tamara, you are indeed exceptional educators and so very worthy of this acknowledgement.

Over the past two years, Mount Alvernia College has made significant strides in advancing our systems infrastructure, bringing several exciting updates and enhancements to better support our community. I invite you to read about what we've achieved below. 

MyMtA Enhancements: Launched two years ago, MyMtA continues to evolve with a host of new features and functionality. Parents and carers can now effortlessly access academic reports, courses, news items, detailed information about their child, and much more, all at the click of a button. With further developments on the horizon, stay tuned for the release of even more exciting features.

New and Improved College App: Our newly updated college app is now fully integrated with MyMtA, offering a more streamlined and intuitive experience for parents and carers. I encourage all families to update the app and explore its features. Some of its key functionality we’re proud to highlight include:

Co-curricular: 

• Sign your child up for co-curricular sports and activities, and access their training, meet, and game schedules.

Learning: 

• View your child’s timetable, academic reports, and class information.
• Explore the diverse range of courses offered at the college, along with comprehensive details on academics and future pathways.

College Coin: 

• Easily add funds or set up automatic top-ups for your child’s ID card.

La Sartoria - Online Uniform Shop: We are pleased to introduce La Sartoria, our new online uniform shop. This platform offers a convenient and efficient way for families to purchase school uniforms. No doubt this service has been a pleasing user experience for our Mt A families. It’s been wonderful to see plenty of orders coming through online! La Sartoria is also available on our new app and under the ‘Uniforms’ tile on MyMtA. 

Improved Permission Management with Edsmart: Our upgraded electronic permission form platform, Edsmart, is transforming the way we handle parental consent. This system simplifies the submission of permission forms, ensuring a more efficient and user-friendly process for all families.

These advancements reflect our ongoing commitment to leveraging technology to enhance the educational experience at Mt A and look forward to continuing to support our students and families with these innovative tools. We thank our Parent Partnership Panel for their ongoing involvement in the ‘roll out’ of these features in the testing and trialling phase, and we give particular thanks and acknowledge the work of our Head of Engagement, Marketing and Communications - Emma Velthuis and Head of IT and Systems – Bill Fisher (and his team) for their time and dedication in animating it all for us.

On Sunday 11 August we celebrate the Feast Day of Santa Chiara.

For Clare, the encounter with “her” Lord was the raison d ’être (reason for living) of her entire existence as a woman, expressed in the sign of her total belonging to Him. This was her life and her desire.

As a school in the Franciscan tradition, we follow in the footsteps of Christ, Clare and Francis. 

Our prayer is that Clare inspires and nourishes us. May we recognise the poor, humble Jesus Christ in our midst. It is a gift and commitment that touches and enriches everyone in the community, because goodness circulates and makes one grow in love and in vital communion with Christ. This is what motivates us to remember each other in prayer on this day.

Peace and all good,

Samantha Jensen 

Principal