1459 Ignatian Newsletter - Friday 18 March 2022
PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Dear Members of the Loyola College Community,
The last couple of weeks have seen many events take place in the life of our College and I am pleased to be able to share these with you in this newsletter.
Activities Week
Last week was an energising and rewarding week for our students. Each year level engaged in various activities and events including Science Days, STEM Day, Reflection Days and Camps for Years 7, 8 & 9, Retreats for Year 12, Resilience and Careers training for Year 10 students and Christian Service for Year 11 students. It was wonderful to see the students out in the fresh air, socialising, enjoying new challenges, free from the constraints of remote learning as experienced in the previous two years.
Organisationally this is an enormous undertaking. The week went very well, and I thank with Mr Davis and Mrs Musgrove for their assistance in overseeing the staffing, the various staff leaders for each event, all the staff who worked with students and the students themselves for their cooperation and engagement in the programs. Such programs can only be successful if all involved give of their best and this was certainly the feedback that I received. I thank the staff for their incredible generosity of time, particularly on the overnight programs.
ACS Swimming
A big thank you to the students who enthusiastically represented the College at the ACS swimming carnival on Tuesday 15 March. The students were in good spirits and brough a great sense of community, commitment and excitement to the day. Loyola College came fourth, which was a tremendous effort. I congratulate Alex Basile who broke two ACS records (50 metres backstroke and 50 metres butterfly). Alex was also named male swimmer of the meet (100 points) and Rohan Wein came in a close second (94 points).
The team work and willingness to step up on the day were evident and indicative of the true Loyola spirit. A big thank you to Michael Gowan and Jacinta Lawrence who prepared the swimming team, supported by our new Director of Sport, Ms Jacqueline Wade, and our Head of Co-Curriculum, Mrs Lauren Hartigan.
Catholic Education Week
This week was Catholic Education week in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. We celebrated the significant contribution that our Catholic system has made to Victoria and its impact on the community. More than 330 Catholic primary and secondary schools employ 17,000 staff to teach more than 150,000 students across Melbourne. This annual event is held to promote the ethos of Catholic schools and highlight the inspiring activities that take place in Catholic schools every day. As part of this week, our College Captains attended the annual St Patrick’s mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral and some of our Art students visited the Creative Arts Exhibition
Lenten Season
We are now in the third week of Lent, a time for doing good works, making sacrifices and engaging in personal prayer. There are many ways in which students can focus on these three areas at school. These include spending some quiet time in prayer and reflection in the Chapel, giving up personal time to assist another person (a staff member, or another student), and giving up canteen money to donate it to a good cause like Project Compassion.
Lent also provides us all with an opportunity to examine more closely our relationship with God and, where necessary, restore the balance in terms of God playing a role in our lives. It creates an opportunity to take time out of our busy lives and consider what is really important.
Let us all make a concerted effort in the weeks ahead to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter by deepening our awareness of the presence of God in our daily lives and by seeking opportunities to serve those around us.
Mrs Alison Leutchford,
Acting Principal
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tickets for the first 4 rows will be on sale this Sunday night at 8pm. $5 (plus booking fee). All other tickets are free.
TEACHING & LEARNING
Subject Specific Conversations April 28 and 29
Just a reminder that our first round of Subject Specific Conversations will take place on April 28 from 2:15pm to 8:30pm and April 29 from 1:00pm – 5:30pm. Communication with further details will be sent out over the next fortnight.
Term One Interim reports will only be available for you online. Therefore, I would suggest that you either print a hard copy or save as a PDF if you would like to refer to it during your Subject Specific Conversations.
The purpose of these Subject Specific Conversations will be to discuss the learning that has occurred in Term One and, in particular, look at the academic successes and challenges that your child may have encountered in Term One.
Letters of Learning Concerns at Loyola College
Parents/Guardians will receive an automated learning concern email notification when your learner's marks are below 55%. When having a conversation with your learner on this, it is good to reflect on why this may have occurred.
Some great questions to start off the conversation may be:
- What was the topic about?
- What was interesting?
- What was challenging?
- What could be done to seek help for the next assessment?
- Who could the help come from?
Sometimes in the haste of a lesson, pockets of information are missed or misplaced. Having a central place for coordination of tasks and setting times to seek clarification with Teaching Staff is one strategy that has been proven to work. Our College planner offers such a space.
It is by working together that we learn more than we can learn on our own. A culture of sharing successes and challenges helps us all have a clearer understanding of how best to support learning. Parent/Guardian engagement in these reflective conversations with our learners forms a great basis for our College Subject Specific Conversations coming up in April.
Educational Growth Mindset
In keeping with Loyola College’s commitment to Positive Psychology through an Ignatian Lens, our Heads of Learning looked at ways to further develop our student’s educational growth mindset. Students in Years 7 - 10 at Loyola College will be given the option to re-submit assessment work (not exams) if the final mark falls below 55%.
If a student decides to take up the option of re-submission the following needs to happen:
- Student contact will need to be made with the Subject Teacher in a timely manner. It is important to make that connection with the Teacher for a number of reasons.
- Firstly, to enable a conversation based around learning between the Subject Teacher and student;
- Secondly, to improve learning outcomes and look at where the assessment criteria were not met and how best to address this;
- And finally, for the conversation then to translate into improved learning outcomes for any future endeavours.
2. Completion of, and resubmission of, work within designated set time frame.
Once the re-submitted work has been re-marked the maximum possible achievement level for that piece will be 55%. This will be denoted on the report as an ‘R’ and automatically adjusted in their overall mark.
Please be mindful that this initiative is about student learning growth and improving outcomes. Growth occurs when our students have been active participants in the learning process.
VCAL
As part of our VCAL program, our Senior VCAL students are in the middle of a Moving Out of Home topic. We have collected information on;
- Where we would like to live
- Costs to move there
- Food
- Assets – bedding, kitchen appliances, couches and other deemed necessary goods
- Cost of living in another country
However, the greatest lesson so far was when we had to plan, cost and cook a meal.
Thank you to Ms Staub for our recipe of ‘The Big MAC Decoded’. (It comes highly recommended by the Senior Numeracy VCAL students!)
The Big MAC Decoded Recipe:
280g lean beef mince + 1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon finely ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 sesame seed buns
1/2 white onion, finely diced
1/6 head iceberg lettuce, finely shredded
2 slices processed cheese
2 large dill pickles, thinly sliced
To make the patties, season the mince with salt and pepper and form into 4 balls using about 1/3 cup mince each.
Place each onto a square of baking paper and flatten to form into four 10cm circles.
Heat oil in a large frypan over high heat. In 2 batches, cook beef patties for 1-2 minutes each side until lightly charred and cooked through. Remove from heat and keep warm. Repeat with remaining two patties.
Using your serrated knife, carefully slice two of the three burger buns in half. Very carefully, shave the lid and the bottom off the third bun, and slice it in half. This will form your ‘middle’ bun.
To assemble the burgers, spread a little Big Mac sauce over the bottom base. Top with some chopped onion, shredded lettuce, slice of cheese, beef patty and some pickle slices. Top with the middle bun layer, and spread with more Big Mac sauce, onion, lettuce, pickles, beef patty and then finish with more sauce. Top with burger lid to serve.
Special Sauce Recipe:
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons gherkin relish
½ teaspoon white vinegar
Pinch of white pepper
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.
Mrs Suzanne Pola,
Deputy Principal
Teaching & Learning
STUDENTS
Early Finish: March 24 – Years 7, 10, 11, 12
The Opening Ceremony for our newly renovated Cardoner Building will take place on Thursday March 24, commencing at 2:30pm. In order for the ceremony to take place, the following has been organised regarding our students for the afternoon:
- Years 8 and 9 will continue with ACS/LCS as scheduled for Thursday 24 March.
- Years 7, 10, 11 and 12 will be dismissed from school at 1:15pm.
- Our College leaders will attend the Opening Ceremony and therefore be required to stay on campus for the afternoon.
We trust that our students will appreciate the new learning environment and the facilities that have been created for them.
Mrs Anna Salmic,
Deputy Principal
Students
ICT
Cybersafety Part 3: Do you know who your children are talking to?
In a previous edition of the Ignatian we looked at Cybersafety and the perils of putting information about oneself on the Internet.
In this edition we’ll be looking at ‘stranger danger online’.
Real friendships involve face-to-face contact, whereas social media sites such as Facebook foster fake friendships between people who have not met.
Unfortunately teenagers may not be so selective! Picture this: It’s a quiet night in front of the television. The family’s had dinner, the dishes are washed and the lunches are made. The children are playing quietly on the computer, chatting/texting with friends on their mobile phones, on social media or just playing Internet games. It’s great to be able to just put your feet up. Except for one thing: there’s an unseen paedophile lurking in the house…
Mr Victor Dalla-Vecchia,
ICT Manager
COMMUNITY
Morning Tours 2022
Morning Tours for Semester 1 will be take place on the following dates from 9.00am – 11.00am:
Monday 28 March
Thursday 28 April
Monday 9 May
Monday 6 June
Monday 18 July
Year 11 Presentation Information Night – Monday 28 March
On behalf of the Presentation Ball Committee we would like to invite expressions of interest in participating in the 2022, Year 11 Loyola College Presentation Ball.
The Presentation Balls will be held at the Manor in Epping on:
Monday 19 September & Tuesday 20 September
All students participating in the Balls, must be present Year 11 Loyola Students.
There will be approximately 7 rehearsals which take place on Sunday evenings in the Loyolas Companions Hall from 6:30pm – 8:30pm.
An Information Night will be held on Monday 28 March at 7:30pm in the Theatrette of Loyola Companions Hall. Interested students and their parents are required to attend this evening.
If you do not have a partner at this stage, please feel very welcome to attend the Information Night.
If you are interested in attending the Information Night, please register via the link below:
2022 House Degustation Dinners
Please join us for a wonderful event.
The degustation dinners will take place over two evenings from 6:00pm - 8:30pm.
COST - $30 per person. Drinks available at bar prices
Numbers are limited – 60 people per dinner.
CHISHOLM, McAULEY & MANNIX HOUSES - Thursday 24 March
FLYNN, MacKILLOP & XAVIER - Thursday 31 March
To book please click the links below:
2022 House Masses
We welcome your attendance to our annual House Masses. Year 7 and Year 12 students will be presented at each House Mass.
Our Lady of the Way (XAVIER HOUSE): Sunday 20th March at 10am
Donation of Loyola Uniform
If you have any Loyola uniform items that you no longer require, please leave them at Reception. They are great to have for families in need, student accidents and our Exchange students. Donation of blazers and girls' school dresses would be much appreciated.
2022 PWP Meeting
Monday evening – 9 May 2022 at 7:30pm
2022 LPFA Meeting
Wednesday evening – 27 April 2022 at 7:30pm
Mrs Dianna Alonso,
Community Liaison Officer
LCAA
Celebrating Loyola Alumni
Congratulations to Brianne Keogh (L: 10-15) on the recent recognition of her work in the Nillumbik community.
The contributions of some of Nillumbik’s most outstanding young women have been recognised and celebrated at Nillumbik Shire Council’s Young Women Leader Awards.
The awards, which were presented at Council’s annual International Women’s Day event last week, recognise and celebrate the contribution of young women in Nillumbik to their communities.
The evening began with a Welcome to Country performance by Wurundjeri women’s dance group Djirri Djirri, followed by performances from a recent contestant on TV show The Voice, Janaki Easwar, and the Performing Older Women's Circus. Nillumbik Mayor Frances Eyre said it was important to recognise the contributions of the young women in our local community. “Each of the award recipients has played a role in shaping a stronger and more empowered Nillumbik through their significant contributions to the wider community,” she said. “I hope that the work of these young women will help to inspire other young people in our community to make a difference. I would like to congratulate not only the winners of these awards, but all those who were nominated.”
Young Gender Equity Leader Brianne Keogh is a dedicated member of the Nillumbik Youth Council, where she acts as a voice for young women in the community. Brianne’s continuous advocacy for the young women of Nillumbik has been pivotal in ensuring gender equity is represented in the new Nillumbik Youth Strategy throughout all priority areas. Brianne was also integral to the development of the Nillumbik Youth Council’s recent 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence youth-led video. Brianne is a natural leader and shows this through her voluntary work with the Youth Council where she consistently provides constructive feedback and ensures all voices are heard.
In addition to her gender equity work within the Nillumbik Youth Council, Brianne is a long-standing member of Diamond Valley Basketball Association, having played at the club since she was 8 years old. Brianne’s commitment to the club is also demonstrated through her leadership role. At both Diamond Valley Basketball Association and Marcelin College Football Club, where Brianne plays in the women’s football team, Brianne keeps gender equity at the front of her mind through advocacy for equal female entitlements and representation
Ms Monica Agius,
LCAA Secretary