Student Leadership

College Captains' Report

To kickstart the 2018 school year, Elli and I attended the annual JJAMM (Joseph, Julian and Mary MacKillop) leadership conference held in Sydney from the 10-14 February. Throughout our five days at this conference, we were able to gain a better understanding of what it means to be leaders of a Josephite school and familiarise ourselves with Josephite values and traditions. The JJAMM Conference was a great opportunity for us to meet fellow leaders from various Josephite schools from all over Australia and New Zealand, and become inspired by the ideas that they want to implement during the 2018 school year. It was ultimately an unforgettable experience that introduced us to new people, new ideas and reminded us of the incredible things that we as a Josephite community are capable of achieving. We would like to thank everyone involved for making this opportunity possible, and we cannot wait to start working on all of the ideas we’ve come up with for 2018

By Elli Kyriazopulous and Dhriti Modi

Wellbeing Report

The Wellbeing Portfolio has begun this term by trying to build house spirit in preparation for the 2018 Swimming Competition which will be held at MSAC on 5 March. With many students signed up in all events, especially in the junior year levels, it should be an exciting day to see which House can come out on top. House Captains have been able to hold whole house meetings, which they have utilised to help perfect House chants ready for both the upcoming MSJ Swimming Competition and MMADD day.  There are a number of other opportunities this term for girls to try out for different sports with SCSA tennis, indoor cricket and golf trials being held. We hope all the students will continue to participate and enjoy House and sporting activities and display their house pride. The Wellbeing Portfolio is looking forward to this busy first term and hope to have many more opportunities for girls to display their skills throughout the year.

By Chelsea Gray

Academic Report

To begin 2018, the Academic Portfolio has commenced the year with a renewed program, Tutoring Tuesday. Every Tuesday, after school from 3.15pm – 4.15pm. Tutoring Tuesday gives the opportunity to all students to be mentored by VCE student tutors.  This is a great way for students to form subject study groups while seeking assistance from senior students to support their academic needs. Students are able to check the tutor roster in the LRC to see the range of subjects available each week.

Homework Club is still running this year which allows students to study efficiently in the Learning Resource Centre after school until 4.30pm every day and catch up on their homework. LRC staff and Learning Support Officers are also readily available to help students in specific subjects.

Next term will be a busy but exciting term for the Academic portfolio. We have many challenges and opportunities for students to test their capabilities with many academic challenges. Stay tuned for further developments in the Academic Portfolio.

By Niroshi Dikmadugodage

Arts Report

What an amazing and busy start to term 1 for the Arts Portfolio. To kick off the year with a bang, this year’s musical, ‘Seussical’, has been cast and is in the beginning stages of rehearsals. 'Seussical the Musical' will be on stage at the Altona City Theatre next term on the 11 and the 12 May and tickets will become available very soon for family and friends of the cast and the wider MSJ community.

In other news, the Arts Portfolio has been planning for the second House day of the year, MMADD Day. This year the theme is ‘iconic battles’ with each House colour going against each other. The Year 7 and Year 12 students specific themes will be based on their House. Penola will be the 2000's music and they will battle Kincumber with the 80's music, Solomon is Girl Bands and they will battle Cameron with Boy Bands; and the final battle will be McCormack as Pop taking on Providence who are Rock. MMADD Day will be in the last week of term 1 on the 26 March.

The Arts Portfolio is looking forward to not only a busy first term but a busy first semester, and we hope all of you are just as excited about what we have planned for the coming year.

By Hannah Clarke

Ministry Report

So far this year, the Ministry Portfolio have been working tirelessly to promote Clean Up Australia Day, to be held at Cresser Reserve, Seaholme from 10am-12:30pm on the 4 March. The Ministry Team made an engaging and light-hearted promotional that was shown to all in hopes to spread the word and get students interested. We are pleased to say that over 200 students have registered for Clean Up Australia Day.

On 20 February, the Social Justice leaders celebrated UN's World Day of Social Justice by running  activities during lunch that encouraged students to become more engaged with the Social Justice issues that affect our community.

With the beginning of Lent, we would like to thank the McCormack House Leaders, Youth in Action members and everyone else that helped out with the Shrove Tuesday pancake sale which raised $578.95 for Caritas’ annual Project Compassion. Congratulations to all the Year 11 and 12 RE ministry students who worked together to organise and run the Year level Ash Wednesday liturgies.

On Friday 23 February, MSJ held the Opening College Mass, the combination of voice, dance and prayer engaged students as we celebrated the year ahead. Following the Mass, the Harmony Day celebrations were held. With a shared lunch on the oval including a range of delicious foods from different cultures, African dancing, Bollywood dancing, Latin dancing, cultural flag and rock painting, Chinese Dragon performance, henna art, Club MSJ, world map activity, Winter Olympics and many other activities, students were able to express their own culture and appreciate the diversity within our school community.

Chapel prayer has also began this year and is running at 1:20pm in the Chapel at lunch on Wednesdays. We encourage students from all year levels to attend as it is a great chance to relax and reflect. The Ministry Portfolio are so excited for what is to come so do not forget to keep an eye out for more videos and notices in the bulletin.

 By Maddy Bateman