College News

Celebrating NAPLAN

St Augustine's Day Celebrations

On Thursday 27th August our Whole College will celebrate the Feast of St Augustine of Hippo. We invite parents and friends of the College to join us for our events on this day.

College Mass

Our Whole College Mass begins at 11.20am in the Brigidine Centre. This special celebration will bring our community together to acknowledge and celebrate St Augustine and our Catholic tradition, stories and rituals.  Our 2027 College Captain applicant speeches will also be presented during Mass.

Cupcakes

As is our tradition at St Augustine's, each student will receive a cupcake to celebrate the day. We are seeking the help of families to bake cupcakes. If you can assist with this task, please complete the St Augustine's feast Day - Cupcake Form.   

Please note: NO NUTS.

Cupcakes can be delivered in clearly labelled containers to the Brigidine Centre between 8.30 and 9.00am on Thursday 27th August.

The College will prepare cupcakes for those students with special dietary requirements. (Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Vegan, Nut free).

Family Picnic

Families are invited to bring a picnic lunch for your family to enjoy following Mass. To ensure a smooth transition from Mass to the picnic area, we ask that you please bring your picnic food and picnic blanket/chairs with you to the Mass.

We look forward to celebrating the special Feast Day with our College community.

Congratulations Shylee

We are incredibly proud of Year 11 student, Shylee, who recently completed the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.  We hope you enjoy reading Shylee's reflection on her amazing adventure....

In March of this year, I submitted an application not knowing that I would be privileged enough to have the opportunity of completing the trip of a lifetime. I submitted an essay explaining why I wanted to complete the Kokoda Trail and why I believed I was a good candidate. Out of the many students that applied I was one of 15 to be offered an interview. From this interview 10 students were cut, leaving only five Year 11 students across the Murray Plains electorate as recipients of the Colin Sinclair Scholarship, allowing us to fly to Papua New Guinea and complete the Kokoda Trail.

I went through many months of training, completing a few hikes including Mount Ida in Heathcote, Gentle Annie in Gippsland and the 1000 steps in Dandenong with my fellow scholarship winners. When the time finally came for myself, along with 34 other students from across Victoria, to fly to Papua New Guinea on the 28th of June, I was terrified. I had never travelled overseas before and I was about to complete one of the hardest hikes in the world. The trek consisted of hiking 139 kilometres, a total ascent of 6658 metres and a total descent of 6683 metres in nine days.

The majority of my days spent in Papua New Guinea consisted of waking up around 5am to complete 8-10 hours of hiking, covering roughly 15-20km in distance, with many steep climbs and even steeper descents. Whilst it is painful on your knees, ankles and feet going downhill, I still think I prefer it over struggling to maintain a steady pace and breath going uphill.

The Kokoda Trail was definitely the hardest thing I’ve done and will probably ever do in my life, however I had it easy compared to the soldiers. Each day I had three meals cooked for me, a tent set up for me to sleep in and a large portion of my stuff carried for me by my porter, Joel, who also caught me the many times I lost balance. We were also fortunate enough to have a very dry track for the first six days of the trek and only got rain on the last three days after we had reached our campsites. On the other hand, the soldiers had to carry everything they needed, attempt to survive in the tough conditions and continue to fight whilst wounded, otherwise would face death.

Each of us students were given a local soldier to carry across the trail with us. The soldier given to me was Bob Watt from Kyabram who was a private in the 2/14th. He was killed in action around September 5th, 1942, between Efogi and Myola, although sadly his body was never recovered. When we visited the Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby, I was able to find his name on rememberance panel 4 and leave a poppy for him. I went to one of the many headstones representing the soldiers whose bodies were never recovered and left a poppy there as well, whilst I talked to Bob. I told him about everything I had just experienced and expressed my gratitude for being able to live the way I do today because of the brave Australian soldiers that fought in the Kokoda battle, also known as the battle that saved Australia.

When you think about the war it is hard to fully understand and grasp what these soldiers went through. You hear about the number of casualties there were and yet I never realised how big that number was until I saw all of the headstones representing each Australian life lost during this particular battle. I was able to see the battle sites first hand including some remaining weapons and armour used by both the Australians and the Japanese.

This truly was an experience of a lifetime that I would love to have the opportunity to complete again. Through this experience I have gained a deeper understanding of the war, made many great friends across Victoria and proved to myself what I am physically and mentally capable of.

St Augustine's Got Talent

We are on the countdown to our St Augustine's Got Talent event on 9th September.  Our contestants have been busy practising their talents and are excited to showcase them to our community.  We have provided a schedule of the line-up for the night.

Date: Wednesday 9th September

Time: 6:00pm

Place: Brigidine Centre

Price: Free 

To book seats please email Miss Grant to indicate how many seats you require: chloegrant@sakyabram.vic.edu.au

SOLE Stars

Congratulations to our Term 3 Week 5 SOLE Stars.

RCIA Inquiry Evenings

Inquiry evenings for the RCIA program will begin on Monday 5th October at 5.30pm in the Presbytery.

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) is a process of Christian formation for those who are seeking full communion with the Church. The RCIA is a process, not a program.  It is a process which responds to Christ’s invitation to unbaptised (catechumens) and to candidates (those who have received Baptism in other Christian denominations), to come and see how the Catholic community live, pray and worship. The process supports  those seeking to deepen their personal relationship with Christ through developing familiarity with the Gospel teachings, deepening the personal experience of prayer and worship and helping discern the movement of the Holy Spirit.

For further information please contact Annette Ryan 0408 502 858 or Mary Zobec 0427190282.