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9 February Newsletter 2023 |
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Principal's MessageDear Parents, The 2023 school year has started well, thank God. Our students have come back from holidays in good spirits and eager to be with their classmates. The teachers have come back refreshed and eager to deliver engaging curriculum. Thanks so much to all parents for getting your children ready for school ensuring they have all their books, resources and uniform. I pray that they all have a successful year ahead. 2023 College Theme  Our College Theme for 2023 is: **We are called to Care for Creation** In 2015, when Pope Francis, visited the Phillipines, he made a speech calling us all to care for Creation. We will learn more about this at school. Year 9 student Ghazal Almaari designed the College Banner which will be used for 2023. Congratulations to Ghazal. Thank you to all students who entered their design.
Who are the Maronites? The Maronites are those Christians who gathered around a monastery called Bet Moroon or the House of Maroun built in 452 on the Orontes River, after the Council of Chalcedon and the request of Pope Leo. Those Christians who defended their faith in Jesus Christ, human and divine, were called Maronites after a hermit priest, St. Maroun, who was a great saint in that region of Syria. Read more on Maronite History https://www.stsharbelpa.org/the-maronite-church
St. Maroun lived on the mountains of Cyrrhus, near Antioch, in the 4th century AD, in the open air. God bestowed on him the gift of healing, which made his fame spread in the entire region. St. Maroun died around the year 410 AD. His disciples continued his mission. Abraham the hermit, the apostle of Lebanon, converted the Phoenician inhabitants of the mountains of Lebanon. Jebbet Bsharre and Mnaytra adopted Christianity. The Phoenician pagans became Maronite Christians. Click to watchvideo of the Monastery of St Maroun in Annaya, Lebanon. Also place of St Charbel's tomb (the hymn is for St Charbel - another special feast day for the Lebanese) Happy St Maroun Feast Day! We ask St Maroun to intercede on our behalf and pray for our Maronite College in Melbourne, all staff, students and their families, and all those around the world who strive to follow his example of devotion to Jesus our Saviour. College UpdateCedar Campus  During the summer break Cedar campus upgraded their current Vegetable Garden Area. The update included additional garden beds, benches for students to sit and resurfacing the ground. Students
are provided with the opportunity to work as a team and grow vegetables
throughout the year. The garden program is integrated into the
curriculum. Students are involved in procedural writing, creating recipes with
vegetables grown and eating them! Currently
the maintenance team is working on setting up a vegetable garden for our junior
year levels alongside Nicholson Street. This includes 5 garden
beds. The
holiday break provided the opportunity for our builders to refurbish all
student toilets at Cedar Campus. This included tiling, painting, new
flooring and toilets.
The school purchased 80 iPads for our Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 classes. Students will be able to access a variety of educational learning apps to compliment all learning taking place in class. Cedar Campus Staffroom was upgraded with 2 x 75-inch Monitors, new pin boards and furniture to accommodate and enhance viewing for staff during collaborative meetings. Click here to read more and for photos - Mr Abraham Diab St Joseph Campus Over the Christmas break the St Joseph Campus staff room was refreshed and 10 new short throw data projectors were installed in classrooms, replacing the previous data projectors that were over ten years old. Work continued on completing Stage Two of the Master Building Plan at St Joseph Campus, which will include the following new facilities:
The building works commenced in January 2022, with a completion date for the new buildings and learning spaces estimated for the start of May 2023. These new facilities will completely transform the learning and teaching spaces at St Joseph Campus. Click here to read more and for photos - Mr Robert Fomiatti Teaching & Learning Update The St Joseph Campus staff had professional learning in their updated staffroom on Monday and Tuesday while waiting for building works to be removed from the yard. The staffroom has been painted, a large tv screen installed for presentations and new communal furniture that encourages a space of collaboration and work. At VCE we are offering a new program called the Vocational Model which provides a broader range of subjects for students who may have previously left the College to pursue alternative pathways specifically those that prepare students for work. At Cedar Campus the work completed throughout last year trialling different literacy program options has come to fruition with the following implementation:
The AHA program for high achieving students is continuing to provide extension and challenge opportunities alongside the quality differentiation happening in the classroom. Students in F-2 have the opportunity to participate in Reading Extension groups, there is STEM Extension across Year 3-10 and a student magazine developed across both campuses to engage our creative writers and illustrators. At Foundation – Year 8 we have introduced Essential Assessment for Numeracy. This is a diagnostic and teaching tool. It provides pre and post assessment and the ability to assign differentiated activities to our students that target their needs identified through the testing. Our teachers have been provided with ongoing professional learning which included the sharing of experiences from teachers who trialled the program last year with great success. The Pedagogy of Encounter is being introduced gradually to support our students’ faith development and our approach to teaching and learning in RE. Pedagogy of Encounter helps build connections between faith and life and a life informed by faith. It places students’ lives and questions at the centre of the learning, with dialogue as both the process and valued outcome of Religious Education. We have provided professional learning to teachers through our MACs consultant. The Music program continues to develop, with school choirs, music concerts and Harmony Day events in the calendar. - Ms Ria Coffey School PhotosOur Annual school photos including sibling photos will be taken by Arthur Reed Photos on
There is no need to return any forms or money to school.
Registration is simple, just follow the 3 simple steps on your child’s personalised flyer once you receive it and remember to add the codes for all your children attending this school. Even if you registered last year, it’s important that you do again this year using your child’s 2023 image code to link their images for the current year with your contact details. When images are ready to view and in the webshop, all parents who have registered will be notified by SMS and email. Once registered, please wait for notification that 2023 images are online to view before making your purchase. Click here to read more and to request sibling photo for St Joseph Campus Click here to read more and to request sibling photo for Cedar Campus Cedar Campus Deputy Principal's Message Once again, we welcome all our families back to school. A special and warm welcome to the new families to our school this year, especially our Foundation students. We look forward to working with you throughout this year and the rest of your child’s primary schooling. We have had a terrific start to the year with all classes quickly settling into the school routine. I have been particularly impressed at how well the students have remembered and been following our whole school rules. We congratulate the following students who have been chosen as their class representatives on the Student Representative Council for 2023. I would also like to thank and congratulate the many students from Year 5-6 who applied for the positions but were unsuccessful on this occasion.
Social Justice Co-Captains: Martine Abou-Zeid & William Farah
Nail polish and excessive jewellery are not permitted. If your child is not in full uniform, please inform us as to the reason. Students who are not in correct uniform and do not inform staff, will receive an incident report note and we expect that correct uniform is worn immediately following the note. - Mr Abraham Diab Faith Development - Ms Tanya Khattar
First Holy Communion 2023  First Holy Communion will take place on Saturday 9 September. To register your interest please click here https://bit.ly/FHC23 . For more information please contact Sr Veronique on 9354 1377 Learning and WellbeingICT Acceptable Usage Agreement We are seeking a PAM permission from all families to acknowledge they have read and commit to the ICT Acceptable Usage agreement. All students will read and sign the agreement this week. It is important we all understand how to keep ourselves and others safe online and use, store and manage our devices appropriately. Please see a link to our Digital Technology Handbook that includes our ICT Acceptable Usage Agreement and all relevant information: https://bit.ly/AntonineDigHandbook22 For further information and resources regarding online safety: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/webinars February 7 is Safer Internet Day? Safer Internet Day is a global event that brings together communities, families, schools and organisations from more than 200 countries to help create safer online spaces. This worldwide initiative is celebrating 20 years in 2023, making it a great time to reflect as well as look forward. Technology has evolved dramatically in the past two decades and the benefits have been huge. These developments have also exposed us to many risks with real-world impacts, making online safety awareness even more important. Reflect before we act – by taking a moment to consider how what we do and say online may affect others. Protect ourselves and others by taking action – by telling family, friends or colleagues about eSafety and how we can help. - Ms Ria Coffey
Year 2 Kindness  Year 2 is learning about WELLBEING. They explored the value of kindness, and how being kind to other people makes you feel good. They talked about the notion of a ‘kindness boomerang’ – if you are kind to others, that kindness might come back to you, and somebody could show kindness to you. - Ms Simone Hocking Reader’s Workshop at Cedar Campus  This year, all classes at Cedar Campus have started to teach reading using a new structure, called “Reader’s Workshop.” Reader’s Workshop is a lesson structure designed to help students become more effective readers. It includes mini-lessons, independent reading, a range of group or whole class activities, and sharing. In independent reading, students apply taught skills, strategies and behaviours to just right books that they choose themselves.
- Ms Mori Milholland and Ms Janine Wanda VCE VM Vocational Model – Public Transport Challenge  The Year 11 students studying Personal development Skills and Literacy completed a Public Transport Challenge. Students had to work in two separate groups and plan their journey using different forms of public transport and make their way to a set destination within a given time. Social awareness, interpersonal skills as well as literacy were all a focus of the challenge.
Click to read more and for photos - Mrs Maureen Vitetta ARABIC - St Joseph Campus We have started the new year at Antonine College with wonderful and encouraging news for the Arabic VCE students, which is the student Emmy Yaekoub has ranked first in Victoria.  Emmy completed the Arabic language course with distinction in year 11 and received a study score of 47/50. She is a diligent, ambitious, and very organised student. We wish Emmy all success in her VCE results this year and in her future, and we also congratulate her parents on this success.
- Ms Layla Issa Upcoming Dates:
9 February: Feast of St Maroun Opening School Liturgy 20 February: St Joseph Campus Student Photos 22 February: Cedar Campus Student Photos 27 February - 3 March: Year 8 Camp 13 March: Labour Day Public Holiday 30 March: Parent Teacher Interviews (No classes) 3-5 April: Year 7 Camp 6 April: St Joseph Campus House Athletics Carnival 6 April: Last Day of Term One 7 April: Good Friday We are called to care for CREATION - 2023 College Theme |
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