Director of Pastoral Care

I am extremely impressed by the enthusiasm and pride students have tackled the beginning of term 3 with. Every day the College is buzzing with the energy that the students bring to their learning and other activities. This is highlighted by the commencement of our brand new College Radio! Over the holidays the MCC Radio was installed which has the potential to fill the entire College with music. It is still in its trial phase and we have kick started the project by offering YR 11 to host a segment every lunchtime this past week. The intention of this is to supply the students with another opportunity and learning experience. It also benefits the wellbeing of the whole College by adding another dimension to their lunchtime experience. In the future, we are hoping to see it utilised in a variety of ways to showcase different year groups and promote talk shows, a variety of music genres and also College announcements. A big thankyou to Miss Ravanello who is leading the Media Club and directing the use of the MCC Radio. I would also like to thank all of those who volunteered their time this week and congratulate them on a great job.

On another note, I was also extremely proud to see so many students receiving awards through Yrs 7-10. There was an abundance of Principal’s Awards handed out during the ceremonies and this is for outstanding effort across all subjects. Amongst these recipients was also our first Marian All Star for the term. Amos Salvestro who received a Marian All Star for recently representing NSW in Ten Pin Bowling. It was a great effort from one of our Yr 7 representatives and a pleasure to recognize this from a College perspective. I am actively encouraging recognition of positive behaviors in my role as Director. This has seen the Marian All Star highly promoted this term with new links placed on the student and teacher portal for easy access. This directs to a form that the students and teachers can use to nominate and highlight another student’s ability to demonstrate a personal best in any area either within the College or beyond the College. There has seen over 47 responses so far.

Amos Salvestro of Year 7 was selected to represent  NSW in Tenpin bowling

Academic Pastoral Care also started in week 2. This is the first of four sessions this term. I invited the leadership group to visit a range of different classrooms where we were highly impressed in the engaging and meaningful activities taking place. This was evident in the Yr 7’s who were conducting a session on recognising emotions and how to deal with them. The Yr 10’s were engaged by a session that was guiding their decisions around future subject selections and other years were busy focusing on their particular Academic Pastoral Care. We are currently working with all middle management to improve this program and hope to have the remaining sessions available to view online by the College community in the near future to welcome feedback.

I would like to remind students and parents to ensure that all of their property is labelled clearly. Our lost property is overflowing at the moment with clothing that is not labelled. If you are aware of your child missing any items please send them to the office to check the lost property.

A reminder also to students who are absent. You must notify the office with a note explaining your absences. If you accumulate more than 5 unexplained absences you should be expecting contact from the College asking for an explanation.

Finally, Brainstorm productions visited the College on Monday with a piece on Cyber safety. Yrs 7 – 10 all attended and it raised issues on the irresponsible use of cyber technology when dealing with life’s challenges. I encourage all of you to have a conversation with your child on what they saw and what they were able to get out of it. It was a very informative and relevant workshop that carried a message of the importance of communicating with your family and friends in person to overcome personal challenges. It is definitely worth discussing and thinking about.

Kind Regards and God bless,

Heath Neville

Director of Pastoral Care (Acting)