The Old Testament makes numerous references to rules that suggest that when a person makes another suffer, then they too must also suffer. If someone causes another to lose an eye or a tooth, then they too should suffer the same consequence. This Sunday's reading was taken from the Gospel of Matthew and recounts another portion of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches his disciples to not only refrain from retaliation by matching evil deeds with evil deeds, but to also ‘turn the other cheek’. The message here is not to allow evil forces or actions to succeed, but to encourage us to both recognise that, as the saying goes, ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’. In doing so, He challenges us to consider ways that we can overcome negativity through positive actions, just as He did throughout his ministry and in no better example than at his crucifixion, praying for the soldiers, “Forgive them father. They do not know what they are doing”. 

It seems as though the College year has only just begun, and we are already starting to turn our attention towards next year, with preparations for the 2023 Open Afternoon now well underway. Earlier this week I had the pleasure of visiting St Clare’s in Narellan Vale, St Paul’s in Camden and St Anthony’s in Picton, accompanied by our outstanding Year 8 SRC members. While I was pleased to be able to speak to the various Year 6 cohorts, I was most impressed with how Cayliah, Sienna, Henry and Dylan from Year 8 spoke so positively about their experience of the Magdalene Way and how the community assisted their transition from primary school into high school. 

I remind all the families and friends of the College that our 2023 Open Afternoon will be held on Monday 27th February from 3:45pm - 7:45pm, with tours operating for the duration of the event, and a presentation taking place in the Alan McManus Hall from 6pm. Registration is essential so please visit the College website for more information. Enrolment packages can be collected from the front office or at the enquiries counter outside the hall on the night and are due back to the College by Friday 31 March. 

Towards the end of last week, students in Year 12 participated in their Senior Retreat, with the groups spread between Tahmoor and the Blue Mountains. Having had the opportunity to visit both sites over the three days, I was pleased to see the level of maturity, camaraderie and cohesion among the cohort. These qualities are invaluable in creating a dynamic across the group that will aid a successful and rewarding HSC journey. I am conscious of the fact that when students reflect back on their Year 12 experience, the memories forged on retreat will feature prominently. For this reason, I extend my sincere thanks to the many teachers who gave up their time over the three days so that the students could be afforded this opportunity. 

Finally this week, I remind our community that the first P&F meeting for the year will be held this coming Tuesday 21st February in the College Library from 7pm. You are all invited to join us for this gathering which will also double as our AGM for 2023. I look forward to seeing you, and meeting you then. 

Wishing you all the best for the week ahead, 

David Cloran

Principal

The next Parents & Friends meeting will be the Annual General Meeting and is scheduled for Tuesday 21 February at 7pm. It will be held in the College Library.

Welcome to our Literacy Matters news for Week 4!

We all know that reading, apart from being an enjoyable habit, expands our word knowledge and consequentially widens the way we look at things. If our goal is to develop lifelong readers then what is it that sparks a hunger for reading.

Mem Fox, an Australian children's writer tells parents to ‘just read with your children’. Further to this she asks that we make this fun, even when the young reader wants to read the same book night after night, day after day. The habit of reading grows communication skills.

A recent article on ‘How to raise a reader’ gives these tips:

1. Read to the little and the big kids. Why? Because reading aloud grows confident speakers and builds correct pronunciation.
2. Discover book series. We are so lucky that we have many wonderful bookshops and libraries around that can help in this area. 
3. Count on old favourites - the oldies engage generations helping storytelling to flourish which enables the invaluable talk around reading for everyone regardless of age. ‘Narnia”, ‘Lord of the Flies’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and many more provide insights into the way stories and storytelling change over time.
4. Pick books you love. Give permission to readers to choose and self-select their books.
5. Feed funny stories to readers. Humour connects us all to the happy and positive nature of the silliness that alleviates those busy moments in life.
6. Value reading. Who knows where it will lead us.

Regardless of these tips our College values reading as a way of expanding our perspectives, our curiosities and our wonderings that life offers us.

The Premier's Reading Challenge has started. If you know anyone up for the challenge to read daily, share the link below:

And remember… learning 4000-5000 words a year keeps us literate in the adult world.

Please take note of PAGE 12 in the Student Diary, which explains the Administration Procedures at Magdalene Catholic College. In particular, section 2 outlines the procedure for students who need to leave school early. 

Stage 6 Drama

OnStage is a presentation of exemplary performances and projects by HSC Drama students at the Seymour Centre, presented by the NSW Education Standards Authority, and the NSW Department of Education. 

Our Year 11 and Year 12 Drama class travelled into the Seymour Centre on Monday the 6th of February to witness the outstanding Individual Projects, Individual Performances and Group Performances on offer in this year's program. Our students were very impressed with the standard of work samples to inspire their own HSC. Here are some of their thoughts on our trip to the city; 

“Attending OnStage was really helpful to me since it allowed me to see the calibre of commitment required to get the band 6 I'm after. Additionally, I believe that OnStage allowed me the chance to draw inspiration from many works and performances. From this experience, I feel that I now understand how to accomplish my goals for the HSC.”

Tamara Roldan, Year 12

“OnStage was extremely beneficial as it has given me some very favourable ideas to include in my Individual Performance,  as well as demonstrating the expectations I'll need to meet in order to achieve a Band 6 in Drama. This experience has inspired me to be as creative and out of the box as I possibly can with my performances, as I can see that the more unique the performance is, the better it will turn out. The performance that stuck out to me the most from the evening was definitely 'Soccer Mums' as I found it the most entertaining as it included humour, dancing, and singing.”

Aleira Arrowsmith, Year 12

I certainly look forward to seeing how this experiential inspiration encourages our Drama students in the classroom here at Magdalene. 

Mrs Marino

Drama Teacher / CAPA Leader of Learning

Performing Arts News

Year 10 Dance Elective

On Thursday 9th February, year 10 travelled by train to the Seymour Centre in Chippendale to view Callback Performances. Callback is a celebration of the outstanding talent of students who presented their work as part of the 2022 Higher School Certificate Dance Practical Examinations.

This showcase included exemplary dance works presented by students from across the State, from all school systems in the areas of core performance, composition and major study performance. These presentations provide insight into HSC Dance standards and outcomes for current dance students.

This excursion proved to be invaluable to the dance elective students who later this term will create compositions and perform exercises in relation to safe dance practice. Students who attended the excursion have provided reflections from the day.

My experience at Callback was really entertaining. I loved spending the day in the city with the girls and Miss Cupillari and most of all watching the show. The show itself was absolutely amazing, I loved it. My favourite piece was one of the core compositions and it showed the story of someone getting in a car crash. The dancer who performed this piece was such a strong performer and he portrayed the story so well, it started to get a bit emotional. Overall Callback was a great opportunity, I would definitely go again. - Ainslie Saliba

This experience really helped me understand what HSC dance was about and made it sound easier to conquer. During the Q&A the dance students made the theory component sound like it was achievable and discussed steps to help with that. The practical part was amazing to watch. Watching these dancers make up their own story without saying a word was really memorising to see. - Ella Somerville

MISA Dance Team 2023

MISA Dance has always had an enormous amount of interest and this year was no different. 

On the 7th February a junior audition was held and saw an enthusiastic group of 40 students turn up and trial on the day. With the help of current year 12 students Deanna Corte and Brinna Skinner, the students were taken through a warm-up, technique consisting of turns, jumps and leaps and a commercial jazz style combination. 

After holding callbacks I selected a very energetic and vastly different group of 36 dancers ranging from years 7 to 12. I want to congratulate both the successful dancers and everyone who took the time to audition and those who stepped out of their comfort zone or decided to try something different.

The MISA Dance team will be performing at various events throughout the year, starting off with our Open Afternoon on Monday 27th February. Events taking place in Term 2 include Magdalene Shines here in our College Hall, and the Annual MISA Dance Showcase held at The Cube. Selected dancers and performances will also be entered in competitions throughout the year.

Congratulations to the following students

I am looking forward to working with such a talented group of dancers at our College this year.

Miss Tahlia Cupillari 

Dance Teacher

From the 13 to the 16th of January, six Magdalene students took part in the Australian Space Design Competition, hosted by the University of Queensland on their Brisbane campus. This competition required students to design their own space settlement in two days, working with schools and students they had never met before. With these students they formed companies to present a tender proposal similar to those seen in engineering industries all across the world. For this competition the students were sent to the year 2030, and asked to design a base that would be situated on the moon. The students were accompanied by representative Science teachers, Mr Wray and Ms Boughton. 

Yr 12 Student reflections from the event: 

ASDC was a terrific experience, and presents a really unique challenge for everyone involved. Working with so many new people, in our case nearly 20 other students, and with such a constrained schedule, ASDC forces you to learn to work with maximum efficiency and effectiveness through teamwork and communication. Meeting so many new people was an awesome experience, and to hear from and have the chance to meet industry representatives from companies like Boeing was an unbelievable opportunity especially for someone like me who wants to make engineering a long term career. 

Marcus Attard 

This year’s ASDC competition was extremely rewarding, speculating the technologies available to industry in only 10 years time was easily the most difficult aspect of this competition. It became essential to ‘think back’ 10 years to the technology we had available then, including the iphone 5, original Ps4 and XBox one and then project forward to 2030 to understand the development of devices. But, as challenging as this seems, it was extremely rewarding to present in front of a large crowd and explain our concepts, after sleepless nights worth of collaboration and teamwork. 

Zacchary Saprun 

Mr Bailey Wray and Ms Aimee Boughton 

Canteen Roster