eNews #1 Weeks 8-9

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[tab_item active="yes" title="From The Principal" tabs="tabs"]
Dear Parents

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[accordion_item title="Midsummer Nights Dream" accordion="accordion"]

I take this opportunity to congratulate Mr James Dove, Producer and Head of Arts, and Director Ms Kelsi Davis, along with all the staff and students who were involved in this whole school production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. It was an amazing performance by all involved, one of which they should all be very proud. The talent, creativity and passion displayed over the two night’s performances did not falter, and was a joy to watch. The lighting, music, costumes and makeup was excellent, and most certainly complemented the acting and dance, doing justice to this Shakespearean production.
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[accordion_item title="ACC Swimming Carnival" accordion="accordion"]

I also take this opportunity to congratulate our ACC Swim Team, who under the leadership of Mr James Howard, came fifth amongst all co-educational independent and Catholic schools in the A Grade Carnival, held at HBF Stadium on Wednesday. The Team, led by Swim Team Captains Talia Jakubans and Emilio Palazzo battled it out for minor placings in many events, by digging deep as individuals and as a team. Stand out individual performances included Claire Coten, Trent Weir, Kayla Weekes, Talia Jakubans, Liam Hall and Melvin Ding. I was also proud of the manner in which the students congratulated each other after swim events, and the respect they showed their teachers and coaches. Our cheer squad was clearly the best on the day, supporting the swim team admirably. Another highlight was the large number of former students who dropped in during the day to wish us all the best. Please check out Mr Howard’s more detailed report in the e-News.
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[accordion_item title="Opening and Blessing of the Memorial Garden and Place of Reflection" accordion="accordion"]

On Thursday 12 March, the College held a ceremony to open and bless the Memorial Garden and Place of Reflection, which was part of the Mater Christi Centre project. Former Parish Priest of St Thomas More Bateman, Reverend Monsignor Michael Keating, joined the family, friends or representatives of the students who had passed away whilst at Av�԰� Christi College, namely:

Others in attendance were former Principals Messrs Tony Curtis, David Heath and Vaughan Sadler and former Acting Principal Sister Leonie Mayne, Board Chair Mr Greg LeGuier, Principal from Yidarra Catholic Primary School Ms Carmel Costin, Mrs Suzanne Fox Principal from Sacred Heart Primary School, former Deputy Principal Dr Sue Baker, the College Leadership Team, current staff and student leaders from Av�԰� Christi College, and our wonderful music students who participated in the evening’s ceremony.

As part of the ongoing development of the College, we rebuilt the cafeteria and the central part of the College, a project that included changes to the memorial garden. The roses which formed part of the former rose garden are now adjoining the College chapel. We have created an area which past families and friends of the deceased students should feel very comfortable to visit at anytime.

The evening meant we formally blessed this wonderful space which both commemorates the lives of our students who have died and acts as a sacred space open to all students of the College, a place of contemplation, reflection and prayer.

As parents are aware, we also refurbished the College Chapel so that it is more contemporary in nature, yet still honours the past, encouraging our young people to visit our Chapel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Therefore, there are elements of the Chapel that remain and some of those present today, have contributed to those elements in the past. I now outline these elements:

Firstly, the Marian statue, a wooden image of Mary and Child was a donation from the Class of 1988 and remains part of the Chapel.
The College altar cloth used for all major College liturgies was a personal gift from Mr David Heath, (Principal 1994 – 1999), on his departure from the College.
The side memorial stained glass windows were a gift from the families of the Class of 2008, following the deaths of three students that year. The Left Side Window denotes the ‘Hands of Service’, with the inscription from John’s gospel, “As I have done for you, you should also do.” John 13:15..
At the Last Supper, Jesus left us the gift of Himself in the Eucharist and then proceeded to wash His apostles’ feet. In doing so, He demonstrated that to be His disciple meant to serve others with an open heart. The Right Side Window denotes the ‘Tree of Knowledge’, and from Proverbs the inscription reads: “Your education is your life; guard it well.” Proverbs 4:13.

Parents are welcome to attend our weekly College Masses, particularly their child’s Homeroom Mass, which are held each Friday (as per the College calendar) in the Chapel.
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[accordion_item title="Scholarships" accordion="accordion"]

Recently, I received notification that Class of 2014 Olivia Hill was awarded a Notre Dame University Scholarship worth $10,000 over four years, to study to become a teacher. Olivia was selected based on her high achievement in Year 12, suitability for the vocation of teaching, for the leadership she had shown in the school community and her understanding of the objectives of Notre Dame University in the context of Catholic faith and values. Congratulations Olivia!
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[accordion_item title="We are an eSmart school - tips for writing emails" accordion="accordion"]

Electronic mail is a quick, easy and convenient way to instantly link up with people anywhere in the world. To ensure our messages do not confuse or alienate others, it is important to practice basic e-mail etiquette. I share some of the strategies which are part of our College staff policy:

Av�԰� Christi College encourages e-mail between staff, students and parents as an efficient and time effective method of lower level communication.
Keep emails concise. Keep messages brief and to the point, but not so brief that it causes miscommunication problems. This includes deleting any irrelevant text when an email has been back and forth several times. No person wants to scroll down through pages of text in order to reach the message they want to read. However, if deleting that text will lose the sense of the email, then leave it in.
Allow time for a reply. E-mail messages are not usually required to be answered immediately, although it is good practice to do so. Before sending a reminder, allow some time for a response, sometimes even a few days. Not everyone is online 24 hours a day.
E-mails are not the appropriate form of communicating complex or emotive information. The preferred communication form in these instances is a face-to-face explanation. If in doubt, save the e-mail as a draft and re-read the following day before sending it. If a complex response is necessary, I would strongly urge a person to person discussion on the matter.
Finally, ‘anonymous’ messages that are unsigned or when a non-de plume is used, whether emailed or posted, cannot be taken seriously unless the recipient is known.

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Best Wishes and God Bless

Mrs Caroline Payne

Principal

I take this opportunity to wish Head of Arts and Producer Mr James Dove, and Director Ms Kelsi Davis, along with all the staff and students involved in the whole school production ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, all the best for the up and coming performances.

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[tab_item icon="" title="Middle School" tabs="tabs"]

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[accordion_item title="Awards Assembly Invitation" accordion="accordion"]

Parents are welcome to attend the Term One Middle School Awards Assembly on Tuesday 31 March.

Details:

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[accordion_item title="Progress Reports" accordion="accordion"]

Parents will access their child’s report through Coneqt-P. These will be available after 4:00pm Thursday 2 April. The College will not be posting out hard copies of reports.

To access Reports, please follow the following instructions:

Logon to Coneqt-P as you have previously done or access the link from the College Intranet - . (If you have not yet received your username and password then please contact the Coneqt-P Hotline on 6332 2502 or email rbarnett@corpus.wa.edu.au).
Click on Academic reports
When you access this section you will see a Report titled Term 1.
Under the Download section click on the pdf document that is there and access this as you normally would for a document of this type. (If you do not have a pdf reader installed on your computer this can be downloaded by accessing http://get.adobe.com/reader/).
Once the Report is downloaded you can now save and print this document if you wish.

The following are reported on:

Year 7 & 8 All subjects (except Health Education)
Year 9: All subjects (except RITE Journey)

Parent / Student / Teacher Interviews are scheduled for the following day next term:

Year 7 to 12: Thursday 30 April (12.30pm – 7.30pm)

Information regarding the process for booking appointments will be distributed shortly.

Frank Italiano

Deputy Principal Middle School
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[accordion_item title="Year 7 Term One" accordion="accordion"]

The end of term has quickly come upon us. The Year 7’s have had an extremely busy term with many new adjustments to be made, new friendships entered into and new routines to develop. One of the amazing steps many have taken is the step into leadership. Monday 23 March saw the presentation of Student Leadership speeches and then the peer voting for House Representative positions. Wednesday 25 March saw the announcement of the Year 7 Student Leaders for 2015. The following are the newly appointed Student Leaders:

I congratulate the successful student Leaders and commend all of the nominees for their willingness to serve others and for taking the step to stand up and be counted.

The Year 7’s have exuberantly and successfully begun their transition into High School and I encourage them to keep questioning and challenging themselves to strive for their best. To finish the term we will have an Easter Liturgy on Thursday April 2 and the annual Cross Country event. I wish all a Blessed and happy Easter holiday.

Yvette Pearce

Head of Year 7
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[accordion_item title="Year 8 Term One" accordion="accordion"]

On Monday March 23rd the Year 8 students their third Pastoral Session for Term One. A very special guest speaker Paul Litherland from Surf Online Safe was organised to come and address the Year 8 cohort. Av�԰� Christi College has used Paul before, as he is an expert in cyber safety and awareness. Paul followed on from a presentation I had given two weeks previously on Cyber Responsibility. My presentation can be found on the Year 8 Portal.

Paul had the Year 8’s captivated and judging by the “ohhhh” moments, a lot of students may now have experienced an awakening regarding their online behaviour and habits.

Through Paul’s experience as a Police Officer and counter cyber surveillance operations, he quickly established the cyber habits and behaviours of those students who use social media networking sites.

Paul found that:

students would “friend” him without them knowing who he was. An example of this was wishing him “happy birthday”
they were careless with their personal and security settings.
they have multiple social media accounts (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)
they used devices after midnight.

This presentation caused all who listened to reflect on their behaviour online. Paul gave many anecdotes from his experience as a Police Officer and how he would track criminals and examples on how our personal information is being ‘traded” with media outlets. This was a sobering thought, when you believe that your privacy settings are set at the maximum, yet companies still have the right to share bulk information of their users.

I believe it would be provident that we all examine our digital behaviour and take steps to protect our children on social media.

Some tips would be:

Turn WIFI off at a certain time each night
WIFI password
No devices in bedrooms
Limited device usage after a certain time at night
All devices set aside in a secure place until the morning
Up skill your understanding of social media

Email - paul.litherland@surfonlinesafe.com.au

Web - www.surfonlinesafe.com.au

Scott Connery

Head of Year 8
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[accordion_item title="Education Support Middle School Av�԰�" accordion="accordion"]

Last week the students of Years 7, 8 and 9 attached to the ESC enjoyed two nights at York. The camp theme was history and farming, where students explored the local museum, the old Tipperary School and dressing up in old day clothing. In the evening they worked on the farm, brushing the donkeys, feeding alpacas and collecting chicken eggs for breakfast. Congratulations to all the Middle School ESC students for their exceptional behaviour and applications to their camp activities.

Kellie Jones

Director of Learning Support
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[accordion_item title="Da Vinci Decathlon Gala Day" accordion="accordion"]

Congratulations to Tyler Savy, Mya Chan, Julyan Tan, Amy Riordan, Matthew Rossi, Lara Mylan, Justin Alvaro, Abbey Janssen. Amelia Swan, Josh Canestraro, Jodi Gagner, Brittany Wassell, Olivia Fuderer, Phoebe Holmes, Owen Thamrin, Alea Go for making the Da Vinci Decathlon Squad.

Thank you to all students who have been taking part in the Da Vinci Decathlon preparation sessions. Students have participated with great enthusiasm and commitment in the various sessions that have taken place during the last four weeks in the lead up to Gala Day at Wesley College on 31 March (Year 9 and 10) and 1 April (Year 7 and 8).

I would like to thank the teachers and students who gave of their time to prepare the students in the different categories; Mrs Jean Hein, Mr Isaac Ramshaw, Mrs Marian Lavelle, Mrs Kelsi Davies, Mrs Lidia Di Giuseppe, Mr Greaves, Alyssa Bay and Ben Ring.
We wish the final Da Vinci Decathlon Squads the best of luck on Gala Day.

Filipa Carvalho

Head of Academic Excellence
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Parents will access their child’s report through Coneqt-P. These will be available after 4:00pm Thursday 2 April. The College will not be posting out hard copies of reports.

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[tab_item icon="" title="Senior School" tabs="tabs"]

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[accordion_item title="Excelsis Club 2015" accordion="accordion"]

At the College Assembly on March 11 the members of the Excelsis Club for 2015 were presented with their badges. Congratulations go to the following students:

Year 11

Year 12

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[accordion_item title="Year 12 Retreat" accordion="accordion"]

The Year 12 Retreat experience will take part from Wednesday 22 April to Friday 24 April.
Many thanks to Ms Farrington, Mr Keane and all staff involved, who are working towards making the retreat experience rich and rewarding for our students. If parents have queries regarding retreat please email Ms Farrington (sfarrington@corpus.wa.edu.au).
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[accordion_item title="Progress Reports" accordion="accordion"]

At the end of the term a Progress Report will be provided for Senior School students. These reports will be accessed by parents via Coneqt-P and therefore will not be posted out. A letter will be emailed to all parents outlining how to access these reports once they have been uploaded. If you do not receive this letter, please contact Miss Sara-Ann Low at slow@corpus.wa.edu.au.
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[accordion_item title="Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews" accordion="accordion"]

Year 7 to 12: Thursday 30 April 12:30pm to 7:30pm (early closing day)

This is just reminder that information regarding these interviews will be emailed out to parents. The email will contain your username and pin and an attachment to the email will explain how to book appointments using the PTO system.
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[accordion_item title="Term One Senior School Assembly and Awards" accordion="accordion"]

At the Senior School Assembly on Tuesday 31 March students in Year 10, 11 and 12 will be presented with Certificates of Outstanding Achievement and Certificates of Improved Achievement for Term One. A list of award winners will be published after the awards have been presented.
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At the College Assembly on March 11 the members of the Excelsis Club for 2015 were presented with their badges. At the Senior School Assembly on Tuesday 31 March students in Year 10, 11 and 12 will be presented with Certificates of Outstanding Achievement and Certificates of Improved Achievement for Term One.

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[tab_item icon="" title="Av�԰� General News" tabs="tabs"]
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[accordion_item title="Ministry News" accordion="accordion"]

Rice Bowl Day – Wednesday 18 March

Rice Bowl Day occurs during lent each year at Av�԰� Christi College and is a tradition that has occurred for over 20 years. The intention of the day is to draw awareness to the challenges that face us in terms of poverty and hunger throughout the world. Students were encouraged to draw a link between the amount of food that appears on their plate at dinner, and the fact that some people have only that small amount of food to feed their whole family… for a week. For some, they have even less.

Project Compassion 2015 focuses on Food for Life. It throws a spotlight on global food issues and how Caritas Australia is empowering the world’s poorest people to establish sustainable food sources for life.

Last Wednesday our cafeteria served only rice and water. It is an opportunity for us to reflect on how privileged we are, and spend a little time feeling just like many people in our world do - hungry.

Every student and teacher was encouraged to abstain from recess and/or lunch and replace this meal with a simple bowl of rice. The day was organised by the Student Leadership Team and on behalf of them I wish to congratulate the community for once again embracing this important occasion. The cafeteria staff cooked 65kg of rice, with all proceeds being directed towards project compassion.

Weekly Homeroom Masses – Fridays 8.00am in the College Chapel

A reminder that all members of the community are invited to celebrate the Eucharist with the Year 12 Homerooms. Weekly Mass commences at 8.00am on Fridays in the refurbished College chapel.

Holy Week

On Palm Sunday, we celebrate the first joy of the season, as we celebrate Our Lord's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem where he was welcomed by crowds worshiping him and laying down palm leaves before him. It also marks the beginning of Holy Week, with the greatest tragedy and sorrow of the year.

Jesus triumphant return to Jerusalem is only one side of the story.

By now many of the Jews are filled with hate for Our Lord. They want to see him stoned, calling Him a blasphemer, especially after offering proof of His Divinity during a winter visit to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Dedication.

After this, Jesus went to Perea, where he was summoned to Bethany. There he raised Lazarus from the dead, a miracle which wins Him such renown among certain Pharisees that they decided finally to end His life.

Jesus took refuge at Ephrem returning six days before Passover to Bethany, triumphantly entering Jerusalem. That evening, He leaves Jerusalem and returns Monday. He spent time with Gentiles in the Temple, and on Wednesday left for the Mount of Olives. Here he foretold the apostles the events of the next several days, including His impending death.

He returned to Jerusalem on Thursday, to share the Last Supper with His apostles. He was subsequently arrested and tried. He was crucified at Calvary on Friday, outside the gates of Jerusalem.

He was buried the same day, and arose three days later, on Easter Sunday.

All of this is done by our Lord for forgiveness of our sins, and for life everlasting with Him.

God so loved us, that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us, so that our sins maybe forgiven.

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[accordion_item title="Parents Taking Online Control" accordion="accordion"]

On Monday night we had approximately 90 parents at the Hall to listen to a fantastic presentation by Jordan Foster from ySafe Solutions. This is the second time Jordan has presented to the College and the main focus of her presentation was on security settings and gaming following feedback from the parents who came to listen to her last year.

There were many visible ‘light bulb’ moments from the parents and I think many found it comforting to know that they were not the only ones who had been experiencing the same concerns. Jordan’s top tips for parents trying to gain some control over their children’s gaming are:

No gaming consoles in their bedrooms
No more than 2 hours per day on games (on school days)
Change wifi password at a set time at night
No games 2 hours before bed
Be aware of the rating of the games they are playing
Limited access to credit cards
Find alternative methods to gaming that provide a similar reward.

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[accordion_item title="ACC A Division Swimming Report" accordion="accordion"]

The ACC A Division Swimming Carnival was held at HBF Stadium Mt Claremont on Wednesday 25 March 2015.

It was a challenging day for our committed Av�԰� team who battled hard to keep our A Division aspirations alive. Our junior swimmers were out of their depth against talented and more experienced opposition. Our senior more seasoned athletes, remained focused on the job at hand. They were not rattled and remained true to our proud and strong mantra.

Determination, grit and a ‘team first’ attitude enabled Av�԰� to realise its overall performance goal of Top Five among the co-educational schools. Simply put, it was a pleasing, dependable performance from the Av�԰� swimmers who now remain alive in A Division for 2016.

ACC A Division Swimming - Combined Aggregate: Sacred Heart 1255; All Saints’ 1079; St Mark’s 1075; John XXlll 989; Av�԰� Christi 921; St Stephen’s Duncraig 857.

Boys Aggregate:

Av�԰� Christi 441

Girls Aggregate:

Av�԰� Christi 480

Senior Girls Shield

Mercedes 326; John XXIII 305; Sacred Heart 298; Av�԰� Christi 298; St Mark’s 236; St Brigid’s 234; All Saints’ 228; St Stephen’s Duncraig 207.

Senior Boys Shield

CBC Fremantle 319; Mazenod 307; Sacred Heart 302; St Mark’s 292; Av�԰� Christi 263; All Saints’ 243; John XXIII 186; St Stephen’s Duncraig 179.

The Av�԰� Team was superbly led by our Captains Talia Jakubans and Emilio Pallazo. Av�԰� had a number of standout individuals on the day. Congratulations to the following swimmers who finished in the top 4 in Age Group Champion standings.

Big thanks must go to our wonderful coaches in Mia Behsman and Paul Bajada, whose professionalism and positivity has been inspiring. To the sensational Health and Physical Education team at Av�԰�, Mr Stephen Kingwell, Mrs Deborah Santaromita, Mrs Lesley McAuliffe, Mrs Renee Ging, Ms Wendy Quint, Mr Ian Bean, Mrs Allarice Barendilla, Mr Simon Messer, Ms Naomi Larsen and Mr Peter Sackett who have all supported with early morning training, swim camp and carnivals - you have all been vital to the success this season.

All results from the A Division Swimming Carnival are now available on the ACC web site: www.accsport.asn.au Carnivals – Swimming – Results. Previous year’s results can sometimes be stored in web cache and you may need to refresh the files to open the current results.

Results can also be accessed via the , under ACC Results.

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[accordion_item title="Last Day of Term Early Closure" accordion="accordion"]

All students and parents are reminded that on Thursday 2 April the College will dismiss students at 1.30pm.

School special busses will not be in operation on this afternoon so alternative means of transport from school will be required.

The College Library will be open until 3.15pm for any student requiring supervision after the 1.30 dismissal.

Please contact jelliot@corpus.wa.edu.au should you have any further queries.

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[accordion_item title="Uniform Shop Opening Hours - April School Holidays" accordion="accordion"]

Please note that the College’s uniform shop will be open during the upcoming school holidays during the following hours:

Appointments Only (via Trybooking): Opening times 9am-3.30pm

Appointments can be made using the above links. Please note that bookings made via the website close at 11.59pm the night prior to the appointment. If you have booked an appointment via trybooking and you wish to cancel or change it, please contact Ms Low on Tel: 6332 2505 or Email: slow@corpus.wa.edu.au

General Opening:

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On Palm Sunday, we celebrate the first joy of the season, as we celebrate Our Lord's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem where he was welcomed by crowds worshiping him and laying down palm leaves before him.

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Dear Parents. I take this opportunity to wish Head of Arts and Producer Mr James Dove, and Director Ms Kelsi Davis, along with all the staff and students involved in the whole school production ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, all the best for the up and coming performances. Please support the cast and crew of this important cultural extracurricular event by booking your seat to the performance, which will be held this Friday and Saturday night at the Octagon Theatre, University of Western Australia.
Tags:eNews, news

eNewsAv�԰� Communications30 March 2015