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Dear Parents & Friends,
What a busy and exciting start to Term 2. This week Year 10 students & parents were invited to hear about course options for Stage 6, we celebrated our Mother’s Day liturgy on Wednesday, Thursday was the feast day of Blessed Edmund Rice and today was our athletics carnival for Years 7-12.
The term remains busy as over the next few weeks will sift through the mountain of enrolment applications for 2023-2024. We will soon be contacting families who have been successful in having an opportunity to interview and interviews start on Saturday 21st May and run over a two week period.
Mother’s Day:
I would like thank the huge number of mums who were able to visit the college on Wednesday. It was great to be able to welcome back these important people after a period of COVID restrictions. We wish the Mothers, grandmothers and women who are significant in our lives a very happy Mother’s Day for Sunday.
Mothers are very special people and regularly are the busiest in the household. They are special because they frequently place others before themselves and demonstrate love through many acts of service. Mums are always great for hugs and know how to lift you up when you feel the weight of the world.
Kids are often self-centred and take mums for granted. On Wednesday we reminded them of the importance to stop and acknowledge their mums and show a bit of love. Happy Mother’s Day to all!
Edmund Rice Feast Day:
On Thursday we stopped to celebrate the life of one of the college’s two great patrons, Blessed Edmund Rice. Edmund was a great example of an ordinary person, inspired by God, doing extra-ordinary things in service of his community.
Edmund was well educated, a tireless worker and a highly successful businessman. He was a man of great faith and rather than limiting his wealth and success to his immediate family, Edmund focused on addressing the needs of his community. He saw poverty and injustice around him and decided to commit himself to make positive changes. Edmund established a school for poor children to educate them and give them an opportunity to be employed so that they could be liberated from a life of poverty. Edmund soon realised that this was challenging and complicated work. Poor children also need to be fed and clothed. They needed a sense of dignity before they could be educated.
Edmund’s work inspired others to join him and in a short time a movement of Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers who spread across Ireland and eventually internationally. His work was deeply rooted in social justice and that is why students of St Francis spend the day learning about Edmund, his life and work and how they too can be help commit to living in a more just society. Edmund is truly a great role model.
Athletics Carnival:
It was fantastic to see our senior students lead the carnival and encourage great house spirit and participation. All students are encouraged to ‘have a go’ and get points for their house team. In addition, we have a number of talented athletes and we are eager to see them perform at their best.
May God continue to bless you all.
Kind regards,
Simon Abernethy
It has been a wonderful week of celebration, starting with our Mother’s Day Liturgy on Wednesday. The entire College gathered together with over 400 guests to celebrate all our significant females. The Gospel we listened to celebrated the news that Mary was pregnant with Jesus, and her cousin Elizabeth was pregnant with her child who will become John the Baptist. In the passage, Mary said, ‘My spirit rejoices’, and it is this rejoicing of women in their children and the rejoicing of we children in our mothers that we celebrate. Although our own births were probably a bit more ordinary than the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, it is still true that every child’s birth is a witness to the miraculous and awesome power of God. It is through our mothers that God works this particular miracle.
The celebrations continued with Blessed Edmund Rice Feast Day. Our first K-12 mass with guests in the College hall was a beautiful way to acknowledge the many gifts of Edmund. We are fortunate at St Francis College to be able to experience and respond with the same courage and generosity to the call of Christ to the marginalised and outcast as Edmund did by participating in many social justice activities as part of our celebration. Many thanks to our guest speakers and guests including Chris Nolan from Caritas Australia, David Gearin and Matthew Turner from the Catholic Education Office Wollongong, Bonnie Faulkner from Eddie Rice Camps and Sharlene Gelle from St Vincent De Paul. Alongside our staff, these wonderful guests spoke with students about what service and outreach looks like in our community. Our senior classes and Year 8 packaged hundreds of snack packs and hygiene packs to donate to the Nagle Centre at Campbelltown. We are fortunate to be able to serve others just like Edmund did.
Bronze Awards
Congratulations to the following students on achieving their Bronze award recently:
Year 1
Grace P
Kane Q
Christian L
Year 2
Adriana S
Minesh K
Year 6
Kevin B
Marco V
Emilia S
Year 8
Isaiah J
Aarush C
Athena J
Pocholo A
Lyla D
Year 9
Jobandeep K
Orlando F
Mariah V
Dylan C
Calvin P
Robert K
Nikhil S
Dominic S
Year 10
Raaghan A
Alicia J
Jazmin P
Ryan H
Johan M
Silver Awards
Congratulations to the following students on achieving their Silver award recently:
Year 2
Emily P
Amanda J
Amelia I
Alisdair R
Year 3
Sofia P
Maria I
Faye M
Kia Q
Eisley Q
Year 4
Amara C
Elora C
Nathan B
Ephraim B
Baani S
Isabella J
Arjan K
Thomas T
Year 5
Abner A
Myron M
Year 6
Laverne D
Jaytani V
Tayte H
Mithi B
Saira S
William B
Amelia H
Jayden S
Angelina D
Mia C
Niya N
Year 8
Serwah A
Year 9
Mai D
Irene D
Year 10
James K
Leia J
Luka K
Christina K
Year 11
Payal K
Ciarra M
Mirelle D
Daniel M
Nishtha A
Year 12
Aman T
Aaliyah S
Gold Awards
Congratulations to the following students on achieving their Gold award recently:
Congratulations to Bella and Stephanie G who competed in the Australian Age Swimming Championships earlier this month.
Stephanie qualified for her 2nd nationals for 4 events which is an amazing achievement in itself.
Bella competed in her last age Australian Championships and took away 7 medals:
- 2 medals 1st place Gold 200m and 100m Butterfly
- 4 medals for 2nd Silver Place in 200m and 200m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly, mixed 4x 50 relay
- 1 metal for 3rd Place 200m Freestyle
Bella 200m Butterfly time puts her in the top 13 swimmers this year in the world for Open Womens.
Australia Open Swimming Championships which is a selection event for the Commonwealth and World Championships
On the 25th April we commemorated all Australian and New Zealander service men and women who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. ANZAC day acknowledges contribution and suffering of all those who have served and continues to support and give gratitude to those families of these men and women.
James and Jaidon, two of our Youth Engagment Leaders represented SFCC at the Dawn Service at the Ingleburn RSL. They laid a wreath on the centotaph and met with local service men and women, community officials and local members.
- George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was inspired by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who directed many period/historical dramas, including The Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress. In Japanese, the word for 'period drama' is JIDAI GEKI. The term 'JEDI' came from this.
- The helmet worn by Darth Vader was designed based on a samurai helmet.
- In Star Wars, the light sabres used in battles are long and narrow like samurai swords. The style of fighting with the light sabres looks likes the Japanese martial art of Kendo (Japanese fencing).
- The character, Yoda, speaks using word order similar to Japanese (English: He is playing in the park vs. Japanese: He in the park is playing)
If you would like to learn more about Japanese culture, please feel free to contact Ms Tooby about joining the Japanese club, which runs fortnightly in room M1.07.
Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Adventurous Journey 2022
Last weekend, 14 students from years 9 and 10 undertook their practice Adventurous Journey for their Duke of Edinburgh Awards at Glenworth Valley, close to the Central Coast. Students spent two days learning to survive in the bush. They entered the journey with a sense of excitement and fear, but over the course of the two days this turned into a great adventure. The first day saw students kayaking along the beautiful Popran creek towards the Hawkesbury river. The weather and tides were in our favour as we glided (and crashed) our way for 3 hours improving our kayaking skills and making new friends along the way. We had a beautiful evening by the camp fire where students learned how to set up their tents and light a camp fire from sticks and flint. This was the perfect setting to learn to make dinner using a tiny camp stove and torch light. Surprisingly some tasty meals were produced alongside the pot noodles!
Saturday started with a misty morning in the valley, listening to the sounds of the 250 horses on the property, a fabulous sight first thing in the morning. We journeyed by foot to Emerald pools, but this time with the added challenge of a million leeches and pouring rain. Another chance for the students to learn - this time how to remove leeches and to make sure you put on lots of insect repellent! The best part of the hike was arriving at Emerald pools for a swim and then making it to the top of Mount Olive for the spectacular views.
The energy and enthusiasm from the students over the weekend was just fantastic. I am so proud of all they achieved in the short 24 hours in the bush. For all students it was definitely a challenge but one they are looking forward to repeating in term 4 when they do their Qualifying journey.
A massive thanks to Miss Allen for giving up her personal time to support the students on this journey. I know the students appreciated your presence and advice over the two days.
Mrs Lyons
Duke of Edinburgh Award Leader
Just a reminder that over recent weeks we have had a substanial amount of lost jumpers, hats, and other items of clothing be brought into College Reception.
Please ensure your child/ren check their bags and our lost property basket located on the verandah near our College Reception. We ask that you label your child/ren uniform in order for them to idenitfy any missing pieces.