Mater Maria New Life Magazine - Spring 2015

NEW LIFE

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Blessed are the Merciful In March, members of the College Choir had the privileged opportunity to join with other vocalists from the Catholic Parish of Pittwater and the greater Diocese of Broken Bay to record the Australian English translation of the World Youth Day 2016 theme song. World Youth Day will be celebrated in Krakow, Poland in July 2016.

to participate in World Youth Day in 2016 and to open their hearts to a life of compassion and a deeper relationship with Jesus. The students provided a stunning accompaniment to the vocal soloists who included Erin Barwell, Amy Horton, Caroline Mulvenna and Elke Lanzon, all ex-students of Mater Maria Catholic College.

From all accounts, it was an awesome experience and was the result of the hard work and prayers of so many in the Catholic Parish of Pittwater, especially Samantha Shaw (Music Minister - Pittwater Parish), Simon Hyland (Director of Youth Ministry - Pittwater Parish) and Fr George Kolodziej sds, Parish Priest of Pittwater.

World Youth Day is an international meeting of youth who gather together in one place with their catechists, priests, bishops and the Pope and profess their faith in Jesus Christ. The founder and first host of World Youth Day was Saint John Paul II who gathered youth in Rome (1984, 1985, 2000), Buenos Aires (1987), Santiago de Compostela (1989), Czestochowa (1991), Denver (1993), Manila (1995), Paris (1997) and Toronto (2002). Since that time World Youth Day has continued with gatherings in Cologne (2005), Sydney (2008), Madrid (2011) and Rio de Janeiro (2013).

This special opportunity transpired after Fr George, Samantha and Simon translated the lyrics from Polish to English to create an adaptation of the original score specifically designed to capture the essence of the hymn for Australian youth. It was a challenging process to ensure that the rhythms matched the native version of the song and that the translation of lyrics was an accurate reflection of the original Polish composer and writer’s intent.

The end result is a beautiful song which captures Pope Francis’ call to the young people of the world

Congratulations to all the students, past students and parishioners of our Diocese of Broken Bay on their incredible contribution to sharing the World Youth Day story.

The recording is available from http://www.wyd.org.au/ resources/pastoral/world-youth-day-song

New Life is available digitally To subscribe visit www.matermaria.nsw.edu.au/new-life-subscription

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Mr Doug McGrath, President of the Ninth Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment Association, with Mr Marc Reicher, Jake de Kort (College Vice Captain), Brooke Ferro (College Vice Captain) and Mr Philip Mau.

Welcome Welcome to the Spring 2015 edition of New Life.

It has been another busy six months since we last made contact with you and this opportunity to reflect makes me very thankful of the energy and commitment of the staff and the students over this time.

Our staff undertook an engaging reflection and consideration of the themes from Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium (the Joy of the Gospel) at their spirituality day in April which was a wonderful opportunity to stop, pause and enjoy the seven challenges Pope Francis presents to us in this encyclical. The commemoration of the Centenary of the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli was marked by a number of events at the College. A solemn and moving liturgy was held in the open air overlooking the Warriewood Valley for all students and staff on Friday April 24, 2015 and allowed each student to

reflect on the values and qualities of past generations and the importance of remembering their service and courage.

Consecrated Life we gave special thanks to the Sisters of the Good Samaritan who founded this community in 1962.

The College launched the student portal of our web-based management system Edumate which represents an exciting time in the education offered at the College. This portal enables students to track their own learning and wellbeing in real time and will lead to more effective College-wide communication between home and school.

I invite each past student and friend of Mater Maria to continue to stay connected to your College community and hope you may be able to join us for any of the events detailed in this publication.

Please remember to keep us informed of your story and be assured that you are always welcome at Mater Maria Catholic College.

In May we welcomed Fr Joseph Lam OSA to the College community for the first time. Fr Joseph is the new Parish Administrator at the Lakes Catholic Parish and we look forward to his involvement in our College community over the coming years. May was also the month when we celebrated the 53rd anniversary of the College and in this Year of

With best wishes

Marc Reicher Principal

World Youth Day 2016 - Extended Registration Time An incredible opportunity exists for past students to travel to World Youth Day Poland in 2016.

World Youth Day has become the most recognised faith experience that the Catholic Church offers young people on a global level. Since 1985, these international pilgrimages have called young people from every corner of the world to gather with the Pope in an atmosphere where faith is contagious, and lives are changed. World Youth Day 2016 Krakow is a major undertaking for the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay and Bishop Peter Comensoli has asked that we aim to send 500 young people to WYD from across the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay in 2016.

Three pilgrimages are being offered. They depart Sydney on July 13 and return on August 5, 2016.

Each pilgrimage starts in a different country but all come together in Krakow for World Youth Day week. The pilgrimage options are: (1) A journey through Italy/WYD Poland; (2) Saint Paul’s journey/ WYD Poland or (3) A journey to the Holy Land/WYD Poland.

Applications are open to young people aged 16-35. This will be a life-making event. For further info, please visit www.dbb.org.au/wyd.

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A moment of thanks - the 53rd Anniversary Mass The Mater Maria community gathered in the Marana Complex to celebrate the community’s Anniversary Mass on Tuesday May 26. The College was delighted to welcome Fr Joseph Lam OSA from the Lakes Catholic Parish to celebrate the special occasion which was joy-filled and acknowledged the abundant blessings that continue to be bestowed on the community.

This year marks the 53rd anniversary since the Good Samaritan Sisters established Mater Maria Catholic College, initially as a girls’ school. From 1962 until 1990, twenty-five Good Samaritan Sisters served at the College. The mass was a special opportunity for the College to also celebrate Pope Francis’ Year of Consecrated Life. On the First Sunday of Advent last

November, Pope Francis announced that 2015 would be a year dedicated to the promotion of consecrated life, and invited the Church's religious sisters, brothers and priests to "wake up the world" with their testimony of faith, holiness and hope. During the reflection, archival photographs of the Religious Orders who have served in our community over past decades were displayed and highlighted the outstanding gift of service and pastoral care they have provided to so many in our community.

The guest of honour for the Mass was Mrs Yvette Waters. Mrs Waters commenced at the College in 1986 as a teacher and coordinator of Visual Arts.

For the next ten years Mrs Waters was a dynamic and enthusiastic teacher extending students into

various fields of practical art including ceramics and photography. In late 1996 Mrs Waters suffered a medical emergency that meant she was unable to continue teaching. In honour of her commitment and courage in the face of adversity, the College established the Yvette Waters Award for Special Achievement which is presented annually at the Presentation of Awards to a student who has overcome a major setback or challenge and achieved through perseverance and persistence more than they thought possible. During Mrs Waters’ address, she invited students to make the most of every moment, to be joy-filled and courageous. She also encouraged everyone present to take care of themselves and each other, to make the most of adversity and the opportunities it reveals.

Vale, Pamela Rice In March, the College community was saddened by the death of Mrs Pamela Rice, a former teacher and the founding librarian of the College. Mrs Rice accepted the position in a part time capacity early in 1970 and continued working at the College through to 1995 holding a key role in the opening of the new library in the Ducker Building in 1981 and the computerisation of the collection during the early 1990s.

A requiem mass for the repose of the soul of Mrs Rice was held on Monday March 30, 2015 at St Joseph’s Catholic Church at Narrabeen.

At the mass, a representative group of students and staff attended as they offered thanks for her life and contributions to our College community.

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Forever in our thoughts Commemorating the Centenary of ANZAC In November 2014, Mater Maria Catholic College embarked on a project to connect students, staff and the broader College community to the Centenary Commemoration of the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli in 1915. During term 4, staff planned how they could incorporate aspects of the ANZAC Centenary into their teaching programs for courses offered in Years 7 to 10. This cross-curricular approach saw students learn about all facets of World War 1 and the contribution of our diggers to our Australian way of life. Each subject area approached the learning tasks in different ways and enhanced the students’ understanding of the sacrifice and service of the men and women from World War 1 to the current conflict in Afghanistan.

Students also had the opportunity to participate in local community events such as the Furlough House ANZAC Service in Collaroy, the Spirit of ANZAC message wall at the Pittwater RSL Club, the Collaroy Beach SLSC 100 years 100 boats ceremony, the Warringah Council and MacKellar Centenary Commemoration and also supported the Catholic

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Parish of Pittwater - Friends of Soibada by sewing cloth poppies to raise money for aide work in East Timor.

The culmination of these learning opportunities and participation at these events was a solemn and moving liturgy that was held in the open air overlooking the Warriewood Valley for all students and staff on Friday April 24, 2015. The liturgy celebrated the human qualities of courage, mate-ship and sacrifice and called everyone present to give thanks for the service of those who fought and died for our great country and for the abundant blessing that we have all been bestowed as a result of their service. A highlight was the keynote speech provided

by Mr Doug McGrath, President of the Ninth Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment Association. Mr McGrath asked each student to reflect on the values and qualities of these past generations and the importance of always remembering their service and courage.

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Gallipoli Campaign brought to the Stage The pages of Peter FitzSimons’ Gallipoli were turned into a moving performance by forty Year 10 students at Mater Maria Catholic College in April. It was a stunning multimedia production that focused on those enlisting for the Great War, the training of officers in Egypt and their landing; before ending with the evacuation of the campaign.

To commemorate the Centenary of the Gallipoli landing, the College’s Drama teacher, Michael Rulli, after reading Peter FitzSimons’ book, wanted to bring history to life and selected sections from the book were scripted and performed in the Byrne Theatre.

A stunning chalk drawing was worked on behind the actors as they performed and depicted the unfolding scene of the campaign from the cliff tops to the beach of what was to be later named ANZAC cove. These students added much to the narrative being performed and the drawing was a grand masterpiece following the five performances to the College community.

Additionally, other multimedia including the projection of archival film footage, music, words from war diaries and the chilling beats of a drum reminded the audience of the unforgiving rawness of war. It was poignant and at times emotional.

The performance captured the doom of the entire ill-fated Dardanelles campaign and the devastating human toll. It was a stunning production that commemorated and reminded students and the wider College community of the sadness and reality of this Great War, one century on.

JOIN US FOR OPEN DAY! Sunday March 13, 2016 11.00am - 2.00pm At Mater Maria, the Catholic tradition in which our students are educated provides them with gifts that enable them to make contributions to others in unique ways. Our co-educational community is focused on learning, collaboration and rich and positive relationships. Our young men and women are called to nurture curiosity and be globally focused, ready to make an impact on the world in ways that matter. We invite your child to embrace our spirit of freshness, innovation, community and wonder.

Enrolment Applications for Year 7, 2018 close on April 6, 2016.

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Parent & Student Portal In July the College launched the student portal module of the College’s integrated Student Information System. This milestone represents an exciting and transformative time in the education offered at the College and enables our students for the first time to track their own progress, learning goals, assessments, attendance and well being using the College’s information management system.

The web based solution, known as Edumate, integrates all the features of a traditional school management system including administration, curriculum, reporting and attendance information so that it is shared between teachers, parents and students. The introduction of this system commenced in 2011 and in 2014 the College opened the parent portal module so that parents/ carers could have enhanced real time access to information to assist them in the task of engaging in their child’s learning.

With both the parent and student portals now open, there are new possibilities in how the College tracks student performance and monitors student development including options for real time reporting

and using analytics to longitudinally track all students across their entire learning lifecycle. Another exciting prospect is the use of learning alerts to assist parents and support students. This allows the College to provide notifications so to enhance the student’s learning experience.

The opening of the student portal also enables more effective College-wide communication, knowledge

management, student profiling and other school activity enhancement. Along with the Parent Notes Portal, our non-public facing website, parents and students are now supported in a deeper way.

The College is insistent that students are better supported if there is open communication between parents and staff and the portals are improving the College’s capabilities to communicate more effectively between the College and home.

Parent Engagement through Parent Network opportunities There is much research to support the assertion that parents’ attitudes, behaviours and actions in relation to their children’s education have a substantial impact on student learning and educational attainment. Over the past two years our College Board along with the Parent and Friends’ Association have been reflecting on ways to create opportunities for parents to be more actively engaged in their child’s learning. Providing such opportunities has been identified as an annual target of the College’s School improvement Plan so that parents are supported and are provided with conditions and skills that re-define the boundaries of learning and foster educational aspirations at home as well as at school.

Two parent network seminars have now been held to promote the partnership of families and the College in the learning and development of students. In May, the P&F hosted an evening entitled ‘A Conversation about Adolescent Anxiety’ which provided tips for supporting and managing

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anxious adolescents. This evening was presented by the College Counsellors, Richard Morgan and Emma Pratt along with a local clinical psychologist, Michelle Hopkins, who guided the discussion and shared strategies to assist young people.

A second seminar entitled ‘Are you Informed?’ was held in July and was a hands-on seminar where parents were guided in accessing the Edumate Parent Portal and Parent Notes Portal using desktop computers or an iPad. Parents were provided with the skills to take education beyond the school gates so they can engage in learning and well-being conversation with their child using the information provided through these portals. It is hoped that parents, using this information can foster educational aspirations and be better equipped to support their child during their adolescence as they grow in autonomy and independence. The College will be offering more seminars in 2016.

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Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation In April this year, the staff had the pleasure of engaging in a day of reflection and consideration of themes from Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium the Joy of the Gospel. In a session with Deacon David McKenzie, staff pondered and responded to the seven challenges posed by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, released on 24 November 2013.

Evangelii Gaudium is packed with rich themes, challenging pastoral teachings, and ‘quotable quotes’. We encourage you to read and apply it to your own lives. We invite you to reflect with our Assistant Principal, Brenda Timp, on the challenge of “Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of community!” (#92) from Evangelii Gaudium.

One of the challenges that Pope Francis extends is to be people of community. The Pope expresses his concern about the potential of modern communication technology to lead to isolation a decrease in face-to-face contact with people through “escaping and taking refuge in the comfort of our privacy, desiring interpersonal relationships facilitated by sophisticated equipment, by screens and systems which can be switched on and off at command”

(#88 Evangelii Guadium). Here at Mater we witnessed an amazing sense of community.

How fortunate we are to have so many parents willingly working alongside staff in supporting their children’s learning.

In thinking about Pope Francis’ challenge to not lose community, however, I recently engaged some of my Year 11 students in conversation about their perspectives on the causes of increasing anxiety amongst our adolescents.

They ranked social media as having the biggest impact on their sense of self and self-worth.

We noted in our chat the irony that at a time when technology enables us to be so highly “connected”, the superficial nature of the communication via social media is resulting in alienation from the self and others. On social media, people are marketing themselves and their apparently perfect and desirable lifestyles; this form of competitiveness not only increases pressure on our young ones (and ourselves!) but it can lead to individuals feeling inadequate about their apparently comparatively plain lives.

And of course social media provides a platform for both subtle and blatant denigration of others.

The ethical framework of Jewish believers is informed by, amongst other things, the notion of “Tikkan Olum”, or “Repair of the World”. Jews are called upon not just to do the right thing in nurturing the world and everything in it, but to actively seek opportunity to put things right with God and with others and in the world. That is, to be affirming and life-giving members of our communities.

We have a complex challenge, I believe, to engage collectively in Repair of the World by addressing the impact of technology on our lives.

Used in positive ways technology is such a boon for humanity. Used in ways that negate the dignity of people it is a very destructive tool.

I encourage families to have as a topic for discussion the impact of technology on their humanity. This will lead to such questions as “what makes us truly human?” and “how can technology be used to support rather than undermine our humanity?” Who knows…..this may even lead to families constructing pacts about “technology free time”! Let us reflect on the quality of our relationships and foster genuine encounters with one another.

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Expanded Interest drives Rugby League at the College Rugby League continues to increase in popularity at Mater Maria and this season players have really proven their worth achieving some fantastic results in all divisions. Both our girls and boys have been chomping at the bit to be involved and the College has been highly competitive in the weekly after-school competition, gala days and at the elite NSW State level.

Girls’ interest in rugby league is greater than ever and the College has fielded teams for the Kieran Foran Cup in the U15 and Open divisions in 2015. This competition is an after-school 9-a-side modified game involving secondary schools from across the Northern Beaches. Mater Maria was the proud Premiers in the U15’s division in 2014 and is keen to defend this title and show our force in female rugby league again in 2015.

For the third successive year, the Year 7 boys’ team has played in the local afterschool competition, the Jamie Lyon Cup. This team had great success and progressed through to the Grand Final playoff but unfortunately went down to Cromer High School in a close battle. The College’s U13 and U14 boys’ representative teams had some stellar wins and remained undefeated at the gala day. This saw them progress as regional champions to the NSW All Schools State Rugby League Carnival at St Mary’s. Our squad matched their ability and skill against some elite NSW school boy teams and only just missed out on reaching the semi-finals, going down in their last game by only four points.

These awesome results highlight the fantastic rugby league talent that exists at the College and the hard work of our Rugby League manager, Gail O’Connor. Congratulations to all the students who are representing the College.

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