MRC Newsletter - Issue 15 - 13 October 2021

Prayer

Principal's Message

Welcome to Term 4, Mercy!  It was great to welcome our Year 7 and 8 cohorts back to our O’Keeffe campus this week.  They join our Year 11 and 12 students whom we welcomed back last week.  Just a couple of weeks longer for our Year 9 and Year 10 students who will have two days each on campus across this week and next.  All students will be back on site together from Tuesday, 26 October.  The end of Remote Learning v7.0 is nearly here!  We greatly look forward to having our community back together.  I do wish to once again commend all students, staff and parents for their continued dedication to ensure that learning continued and that we continued to be able to connect as a community, albeit virtually.  We know connection matters to us all and is vital for our mental health.   Thank you all for your efforts.

Our Years 12 and 11 students completing Unit 4 exams finally had the opportunity to complete the General Achievement Test (GAT) last week.  With just one and a half weeks left of onsite learning, our Year 12 students sitting exams are working hard with their teachers to ensure they are well prepared.  Many VCAL students and others choosing not to sit final exams actually finished at the end of Term 3 and have already begun their life after Mercy.  We look forward to being all together to celebrate their final year next week for their Graduation Liturgy and Awards ceremony (virtual) and their final day on Wednesday, 20 October.  How quickly it now seems to have arrived.  I thank and acknowledge VCE Coordinator, Mrs Danae Fraser, for her work over the term break ensuring the practice exams ran smoothly.  I also express appreciation on the College Community’s behalf for the Year 12 teachers who gave up time in the break to supervise and mark the practice exams.  This care demonstrates our core values.  Thank you also to Senior Community Leader, Mr Jeremy Baker, and Student Development leader, Mr Ben Brisbane, for their work in planning to ensure these last few weeks are enjoyable and safe for our senior students.

We welcome new staff member Matthew Crane to Mercy for Term  4, who will work within our Wellbeing Team.  We also welcome for Term 4, Mrs Margot Horan to the McAuley Resource Centre, and Mrs Anna Bourke to the Learning Support (LSO) Team.  Our new Deputy Principal Learning, Teaching and Innovation, Mrs Natalie Stephenson, will join us on Monday, 1 November.  We also welcome back from leave Mr Ian Nicholson, Mr Daniel Beard, Mr Brendon Norman, Mrs Janet Backhaus, and Mr Danny Gordon.  They look well rested and have shared enviable travel journeys with us!  This term also sees Mrs Berni Sinnott moving into her role of Deputy Principal, Students and Staff, and Mr Ben Brisbane takes up his position of Student Development Leader.

Currently we are operating according to Public Health Notice #5 which limits large gatherings and camps / excursions/ incursions/ guest speakers.  While these health restrictions are in place it is very difficult to plan with certainty for the remainder of the year and we are hoping restrictions may ease so we can achieve some of the extracurricular activities and celebrations we intended. 

We do need to be vigilant in ensuring that all COVID Safe regulations are implemented by students, staff and parents.  As the state moves to opening up and the increased movement and gatherings of Victorians, we can expect that the virus will enter our Mercy community.  Our responsibility as a community is to do the best we can to limit and contain any spread.  This includes mask wearing, enhanced ventilation and cleaning, physical  distancing, adhering to density limits, staying home when unwell, and getting tested if you do have symptoms or are notified to do so.  Families should be comforted by the fact that all employees at Mercy Regional College must have received at least their first vaccination dose by 18 October and to be fully vaccinated by 29 November.  Vaccination is not mandatory for students, however in alignment with health advice, vaccinations are strongly encouraged as the best way to protect individuals, families and school communities from further outbreaks and the spread of COVID-19. 

Don’t forget our 2021 Car Raffle with the major prize being a brilliant yellow MG3 Auto Excite!  The Early Bird Draw will take place this Thursday, 14 October.  You need to purchase 10 tickets for $100 to be eligible for this draw, plus you'll receive a bonus ticket.  The major draw is on Monday, 29 November.  Please share the link with your family and friends.  We appreciate your support.

With kindness

Sharon Gillett
Principal

Learning at Mercy

7-10 Learning Matters

We are very excited to welcome back the Years 7-10 students on site this week.  Being back to onsite learning means plenty of opportunities to catch up on some hands on tasks such as PE and Science pracs, working with tools and materials in Woodwork and Art and Design, and cooking in Food Technology.  Practical classes are an important part of learning at Mercy and we are grateful to have the junior students back to complete these.

With the return to onsite learning, a reminder that students need to bring in any/all materials they had at home during the remote learning period.  They should also remember to fully charge their Macbook at home and bring it charged to school each morning.

Our Junior and Middle Years Tutoring program continues this term.  We have a number of teachers employed as Tutors in both Literacy and Numeracy.  The tutors are working both with small breakout groups and within classrooms to help students bridge gaps, prepare for assessments and boost skills and confidence.  The tutoring program is for a wide range of students of all abilities, and will be a complement to work done in the classroom by teachers and learning support staff.  We are pleased also that the government has committed to continued funding of tutoring programs in schools across the state next year.

Planning for 2022 continues and any students needing follow up regarding subject selections for next year will be contacted by one of the Learning & Teaching or Community Leaders.

Senior School Matters

Throughout the school holidays there were a number of VCE students onsite participating in revision programs for their respective subjects in preparation for their VCAA examinations.  This participation demonstrates the commitment of both our students and teachers to their studies. There were also a number of students who participated in online examination revision lectures. 

The first weeks of Term 4 are incredibly busy for our Unit 3 & 4 students as they complete their final school based assessments and continue their preparation for exams.  Although our Year 12 students finish their formal lessons on Tuesday, 19 October, students are still welcome to come to school to continue their study for the examinations.  Teachers are still available for students to access help and assistance during their normal scheduled timetabled classes.  The library will also be available to students throughout the school day.  The library is available after school every day until 4.30pm.  Returning Year 12 students need to sign in and out at the front office.  Mark Alexander is available on a Thursday for students who require additional tutoring in their mathematical studies. 

Last Tuesday, the students who are completing a Unit 3 & 4 study completed the General Achievement Test (GAT).  This was the start of the students' formal examination period.  The VCAA End of Year Examinations commence on Wednesday, 27 October and conclude on Monday, 15 November.  Throughout this period we have students sitting exams across 23 subjects.  All of the VCAA examinations will be held at the Camperdown College Hall. 

Our Year 11s returned to onsite learning last week and are also busy completing their Unit 2 studies.  This includes their school based assessment tasks, as well as revision for their Unit 2 examinations.  These examinations will be held on Monday, 15 November through to Thursday 18 November for all our Unit 2 students.  A timetable for these examinations will be included in the next newsletter. 

Many of our VCAL students have completed their studies here at MRC and have started their journey into employment.  The skills and knowledge learnt throughout their VCAL studies has ensured they are employment ready.  We are proud of our VCAL students and look forward to hearing from them about their careers. 

Our Year 11 VCAL students are continuing to participate in their work placement and VET courses, as well as their structured classes here at school.  The VCAL students have been working on the development of a recipe book, developing and trialling new recipes.  They are preparing proposals for attaining a new coffee machine for the growth of the Grow and Grind Coffee business.  Towards the end of Term 3, the VCAL students designed and produced stamped encouragement biscuits for all our senior school students. 

Unit 1 & 3 English and Literature Texts 2022

The early textlist for Units 3 & 4 English and Units 1 & 2 English and Literature are now available.  These will be distributed to students and are available at this link.  It is an expectation for students undertaking VCE studies to have read these texts prior to their study in class.

• Unit 1 English (Year 11) will begin with the novel, The Dressmaker, and the play, An Inspector Calls.
• Unit 1 Literature (Year 11) will begin with Henry Lawson Short Stories.
• Unit 3 English (Year 12) will begin with the novel, After Darkness, and the film, Rear Window,(available on MERCY media and other streaming services).

Wellbeing at Mercy

Commencement Return to Onsite

We look forward to welcoming all students back to onsite learning.  Whilst the staggered start is a little different, it is great that we can come together and interact in person again. 

Students have started returning onsite; to allow for transition back to school to be a smooth one, we have implemented the following for Years 7 to 10:

• Uniform: You may wear any school uniform to school.  This can include wearing your correct PE uniform every day if you wish. Please make sure that you don’t mix and match your uniform, it should be either summer, winter or PE.
• Mercy Jackets: Jackets are allowed to be worn in class
• Extended HR:  This occurred for Years 7 and 8 on Monday and will occur for Year 9 and 10 when they are back onsite full time.
• Implementing sport afternoons
• Extended recess and lunchtimes
• Hats: Your Mercy hat will be required outside and we look forward to the sun coming out!
• Please remember your masks (indoors & outdoors, including the bus) - hopefully for not much longer.

We understand remote learning has been a challenge for many reasons and some of us may be feeling a little worried or nervous to come back to school, this is very normal.  There will be many opportunities for you to seek support or clarification on different things from your teachers, teacher aides and reception.  All staff are more than willing to assist our students and cannot wait to see you you all!

We need to be kind to ourselves and others as we transition back into normal school life. 

COVID Guidelines

A reminder that we do have guidelines in place to prevent the spread of COVID in our community.  Please ensure you comply with restrictions, mask wearing and hygiene requirements to ensure we keep each other and members of our community safe.

Mental Health Month

October is Mental Health Month and World Mental Health Day was on Sunday, 10 October.  That means you can plan 31 days of activities to look after your mental health and wellbeing.  To do so, please click on the link(s) below, download and print off our Mental Health Month Calendar.  Provided is some simple, fun activities to help you prioritise your mental health each day.  You can stick it on your fridge, in your home or work office, and send it to friends!

Wellbeing Team

Library Resource Centre Report

Welcome back for Term 4!

If you are a regular visitor to our wonderful MacAulay library you will notice some changes.  Firstly, Mrs O’Loughlan is taking some well deserved Long Service Leave and will be returning at the beginning of the 2022 school year.  While Mrs O’Loughlan is on leave, Mrs Henry and I will be in the library to assist you.  Mrs Henry will be in on Monday and Friday and I will be in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Another change is that we have had a reshuffle of the fiction and non-fiction books enabling a designated study area to be incorporated in our library.  This area will have a flexible layout to accommodate study groups. 

We have some new novels on display on the borrowing desk; take the time to have a look at these books.  If you are wanting to read a specific book and it isn’t in the library, please ask and we will try to accommodate your request.

Remember that you can also access a wide variety of eBooks and audiobooks via the Wheeler website. Follow the link below for instructions to access these books.

Drop into the library to see the changes that have been made, look at our new books and please make yourself known to me.

Margot Horan
Interim Library Manager

MRC Car Raffle

MRC Car Raffle Early Bird Draw

The Early Bird Prize of the MRC Car Raffle 2021 will be drawn on Thursday, 14 October at 4pm.

To be eligible for the Early Bird Draw, purchase a bundle of 11 tickets for $100 by 12pm on Thursday, 14 October.  We will automatically add your ticket numbers to the manual draw for a special prize of a $300 MRC School Fees Voucher.  With each bundle of 11 tickets, you will get one free ticket included.

The draw will take place at the College and will be livestreamed, you can view it by clicking on the button below.  Make sure to join us to find out the name of the lucky winner!

What happens if the Early Bird winner has no students at MRC?

The Early Bird Prize is not redeemable for cash.  You can gift or resell the College Fees Voucher to a person with a College fee account. Or if you do not know anyone who attends the College, you may like to donate the voucher as a scholarship for a Mercy student in 2022.

All the proceeds from the 2021 Car Raffle will be used to purchase new-generation interactive furniture for our Mercy classrooms.  More information about the raffle and the prizes is available on the College website: www.mercy.vic.edu.au/community/car-raffle/

We sincerely thank our community for their continuous support of our Car Raffle.

_________________________

There is an agreement between Mercy Regional College and Lighthouse Group Pty Ltd trading as RaffleLink (ABN 83 161 197 860) to promote and conduct this raffle for reward. Permit number 10454/21.

Careers

• University applications – Victoria: important dates, reminders, scholarships and accommodation
• Apprenticeship resources
• VCE Summer School (current Year 11 students)
• Hansen Scholarships (current Year 11 students)
• Australian Catholic University – upcoming events
• Film competition
• Youth Employment Program
• Medicine and Dentistry webinar
• Year 12 university scholarships
• STEM webinars – technology & cyber security and future energy careers
  

• University of Melbourne Hansen Scholarship (Year 11)
• Get one-to-one course advice from universities
• Helping people with eye disorders – orthoptics and optometry
• University and TAFE applications – reminders
• Focus on VET pathways (TAFE, traineeships and apprenticeships)
• Interesting STEM articles – the A-Z of STEM careers and marine biology careers
• Train to become a flight attendant
• CSIRO Digital Careers initiative – take the free test!
• Endeavour College of Natural Health Open Day
• Federation University – online webinars (OT, Psychology, Nursing & Midwifery)
• Australian Defence Force – gap year program and upcoming events
  

Canteen Menu - Spring/Summer

With students returning onsite, the canteen is now in full operation and the menu has been revised for the spring/summer seasons in Term 4. 

We would also like to remind our families that we have an online ordering option available for Dinny’s Diner, the canteen situated at McAuley Campus, Camperdown which services both Mercy Regional College and St Patrick’s School.  Below is an information sheet to assist you with online ordering and where you can access the ordering system.  Any online orders will attract a fee of 50 cents.  This amount covers the cost of the payment system to a third-party provider.  The online ordering system is an optional alternative, families will still be able to order through the existing cash-based system.

College Fees

Uniform Shop

We are working with Noone to enable the reopening of the Uniform Shop and we are hopeful that the easing of restrictions over the coming weeks will assist.

In the interim, parents are welcome to purchase uniform items through Noone's online portal by clicking on the link button below.  Online orders can be collected by the students at our McAuley Campus or sent over to the O'Keeffe Campus for collection at reception.  

Please contact the uniform shop if you require any assistance.

Phone: 03 7020 2625
Email: MercyRC@noone.com.au

Student Achievements

We are proud to share an inspiring story of our Year 11 student, Charlie Poustie, who was featured on the ABC recently.  Charlie is successfully running his own business of breeding miniature goats, which has been his passion since he was 13.  Charlie's hard work is rewarded through his growing herd of now over 20 miniature goats and the happy reviews of his customers.

Read the full story about Charlie's entrepreneurism here.

Some of our students, alumni and staff have picked up awards recently across both the Warrnambool District and Hampden Football Netball Leagues.

Congratulations to everyone who played this season on their efforts!

Alumni News

Georgia Wareham (Class of 2017) Makes Test Debut

We would like to congratulate Georgia Wareham on making her test debut for the Australian Women’s Cricket Team on 30 September 2021.  Georgia was among four young debutantes selected for the one-off test against India.  

She had a quad injury earlier in her career and has taken her place after narrowly missing selection in the 2019 Ashes Test against the UK.  

Georgia left Mercy Regional College in Year 8, but she is remembered dearly by many staff members and former students who follow her fantastic sporting achievements.

Upcoming Dates and Events

Thursday, 14 October - MRC Car Raffle Early Bird Draw closes and Prize Drawn

Friday, 15 October - 2022 Student Investiture (postponed to 5 November - virtual)

Monday, 18 October - Year 12 Graduation and Mass (virtual)

Wednesday, 20 October - Year 12 Final Day

Tuesday, 26 October - All students return to onsite learning

Wednesday 27 October - VCAA Examinations Commence

Monday, 1 November - Student Free Day / Staff Professional Practice Day

Monday, 2 November - Public Holiday, Melbourne Cup

Monday, 29 November - MRC Car Raffle Ends and Prizes Drawn

Our school calendar is always available to be viewed through the Parent Access Module (PAM).  Further details for school events, student excursions, camps, and student assignment due dates, etc, can all be found on the PAM calendar.

Community Notices

Under the Microscope and Lighthouse Theatre presents an online streaming of the performance of Mental as Everything on Tuesday, 12 October at 7.30pm.

Bringing mental illness and music together with transparency, comedy and a deep personal narrative.

In this two-man show, Damon and his musical cohort, Adam Coad, will take the audience on a brilliantly unique and often awkward journey inside their own heads with hilarious onstage buffoonery and songs pertaining to Mental Illness. Featuring both original music and a few existing songs, written by well-known artists that have experienced mental illness.

Mental As Everything is a raw and honest cabaret performance that explores the multifaceted nature of mental illness. Creator and performer, Damon Smith, takes you on a journey of his deeply personal experience of living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar disorder, backed up by his anxious musical cohort Adam Coad.

Lions 2021 World Sight Day Plans

Lions World Sight Day this year is Thursday 14^th October, a day when Clubs worldwide promote the importance of regular comprehensive eye examination every two years from the age of 45, and highlight the importance of Children’s eye care.  Camperdown Lions are keen to promote “Fly a Kite for Sight” as an ideal family outdoor activity if Covid restrictions are sufficiently eased by then, or we suggest it as an October activity if not on the actual date!

Studies show that outdoor activities and sunlight may protect young eyes against near sightedness (Myopia).  Recent news reports indicate at-home learning, and shutdowns which are limiting outdoor activity have impacted on vision with increases of up to 30% in Myopia detection in children from Primary School age through to senior High School age.  So, why not “Fly a Kite for Sight.”

The Lions Club of Camperdown are keen to recommence the free vision screening sessions introduced locally in 2019 at our Primary Schools as soon as possible be it later this year or in early 2022.  Hopefully, we will catch up with all children who missed out in the past two years whilst we are able to get ready access to screening cameras which are likely to be in heavy demand soon.

A reminder that Lions Australia screening cameras can accurately detect indications of a range of vision problems which can require immediate treatment or longer term monitoring by an Eye Health Professional. A print out is provided with referrals to take to the Optometrist. Tests for vision acuity (wall chart) perception of colours, and depth perception are also included with the camera screening.

Message to Parents:

If your child brings home an invitation to be involved in Lions Vision Screening from School during the remainder of this year, or early in 2022, make sure you take advantage of the opportunity for this free assessment. Children who wear prescribed spectacles, or under other vision care of Eye Health professionals can be excluded.  Any questions about the program!  Contact a local Lions member.

For more information about Eye Health and the importance of Eye examinations, and “Fly a Kite for Sight” visit the Lions Eye Health Program website at: https://www.lehp.org.au

MyGolf Programs

Local golf courses in Cobden, Terang and Camperdown are offering an introductory golf program for 5-12 year olds, MyGolf.  Please refer to brochures below for dates and other information.

MyGolf will be commencing at Terang Golf Club on Saturday, 16 October.  No experience is required and golf clubs will be available if you don’t have your own.  The program will run for 9 weeks and the cost of the program is $45 or $84 if you would like a MyGolf participant pack. There are 2 programs:

• Beginners (5-12yrs) 9:00–10:00 Skills development and on course sessions
• Juniors (12+ yrs) 8:30-10:00 On course experience (hole play)

You can register online at https://www.golf.org.au/mygolf/facility/Terang+Golf+Club or by googling MyGolf and searching for Terang.

Please contact Community Instructor Phil Beasley on 0438 921 213 or go to https://www.mygolf.org.au/ for more information.

Lifeguard Positions Available

If any students (or parents) are interested in becoming lifeguards over the summer season, please scan the QR code in the image below for more information.