‘Enlivened by the Spirit’

Anzac Road Menai NSW 2234 Phone 9543 0188 Facsimile 9541 0398

info@aquinasmenai.catholic.edu.au www.aquinasmenai.catholic.edu.au

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

AQUINAS CATHOLIC COLLEGE MENAI

22 August, 2016 The Year of Mercy Vol.24.No.24

We are looking forward to tomorrow’s annual Envirowalk and hope the weather conditions hold to the forecast. The entire Aquinas community will connect as students, parents and staff participate in the clean-up walk and fundraiser that has been part of the Aquinas narrative since the College’s foundation just over 24 years ago. Community building, care for the environment and fundraising for the Aquinas learning environment are still the three key elements of the event. I would like thank Mrs Fensom, along with Mrs Gerke for their efforts at school in harnessing student and staff involvement. A big thankyou also to our parent volunteers who will cook for over a thousand hungry walkers. Finally, but by no means leastly, thank you to Mrs Haavisto and Mrs Hogan for their hard work in attending to the myriad of details that such a large scale undertaking requires. We are asking students to ensure they do their absolute best in collecting all of the monetary pledges made to them for Envirowalk. Catholic schools have a remarkable tradition of building schools for current and future generations, we have inherited the hard efforts over the last twenty four years and will help lay the basis for the next twenty. Sporting events continue to crop up in our calendar and the last week has was no different;

Congratulations to our netballers who recently competed in the NSW Combined Catholic College gala day @ Penrith. Especial congratulations to the Junior Girls Team who were placed 2

nd in their

division & the Intermediate Team were placed 3rd!! Well Done!!

2015 Envirowalk College Oval circa 1990

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Assistant Principal

Key Dates Week 6(A) Term 3

Monday 22nd August BOSTES HSC Industrial Technology major works marking at College

Tuesday 23rd August 2016 ENVIROWALK

BOSTES HSC Drama practical marking at College

Wednesday 24th August Year 12 Parish Mass today at 8.20am

Year 7 Reflection Day in JPII Hall

Some senior students attending St Mary’s Cathedral this evening for the ordination of two new Auxiliary Bishops of Sydney

Thursday 25th August Numeracy during Pastoral in morning session

Friday 26th August Winter Sleep-out in the JPII Hall from 7pm to 7am

HSC Preparation seminars and explanation of internal results impacting on HSC result with Ms Mirabello during sport

Year 12 Biology excursion

WYD 16 pilgrims re-union at Liverpool Catholic Club at 7pm

Winter sport finals

Week 7 (B) Term 3

Monday 29th August Year 11 Assessment free week

Tuesday 30thAugust “AWE’ Writing Program for Year 7-10 during Pastoral class

Year 12 lunchtime talk-Western Sydney University

Wednesday 31st August Year 7 Parish Mass today at 8.20am

Eucharistic Minister training day

Year 9-2017 Electives Information Night in the hall from 7pm to 8pm

Thursday 1st September Swap of day on timetable-today will be Thursday A lessons to accommodate an Envirowalk award giving assembly next Thursday Week 8

Numeracy during Pastoral in morning session

Aquinas Music night from 7pm

Friday 2nd September HSC Preparation seminars during

Year 11 U turn the wheel program

Senior Blood Bank visit

Sport trials

Please keep Charlotte Baker [Year 7] and her family in your thoughts and prayers as her grandfather passed away over the weekend.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

James Corcoran Principal

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Robert Nastasi Assistant Principal

ENVIROWALK – Tuesday 23rd August Just a reminder that tomorrow is our annual Envirowalk fundraiser along the foreshore of Cronulla ending at Shelley Park. Money raised from this event goes back into repairs & maintenance of school facilities, hence your support of this is greatly appreciated, with the general expectation being that each student raises and hands in as a minimum $20. Also note that this is a compulsory school day and attendance appears on your end of year report. Students are expected to wear FULL College sport uniform, including joggers as per sport. It would be a good idea to wear a hat of choice and to bring a water/drink bottle. Given it is expected to be around 17 degrees and cool students should consider wearing the College hoodies and/or tracksuit. No other clothing to be worn other than school sport uniform and no other items to be brought along such as portable speakers etc. A reminder to bring a plastic shopping bag tomorrow to collect rubbish along the way to support the environment, with plastic gloves being provided to the students. There will be no canteen facilities available however, a BBQ lunch/drink will be provided at the park at lunchtime free to all students, hence students need only consider brings some morning tea. A great day is planned and we are all expected back at school just before 3.05pm with only Year 12 allowed to leave early if we get back before the bell. NO Year 11/12 student is to drive to the venue, all students are to catch the buses provided Student use of mobile phones whilst driving

It has been brought to my attention that several of our senior student drivers have been seen using their mobile phones whilst driving too and from school. This is not only dangerous to the driver, passengers, other drivers and pedestrians but is governed by the following laws in NSW: Mobile phone road rules Learner and provisional P1 (red Ps) drivers and motorcyclists. Learners and provisional P1 licence holders are not permitted to use a mobile phone at all while driving or riding. This includes when waiting at traffic lights or stuck in traffic. You must be parked out of the line of traffic to use your phone in any way. These laws encourage learner and P1 drivers and riders to concentrate on developing their vehicle control and hazard-perception skills. Mobile phone use can distract novice drivers and riders from the driving task. From 22 January 2016, learner and P1 drivers and riders penalised for illegally using a mobile phone (four demerit points) will exceed their demerit point threshold and face a three-month licence suspension. Changes to help keep L and P plate drivers safer From 1 December 2016, P2 licence holders will no longer be permitted to use a mobile phone at all while driving or riding. P2 licence holders will have the same restrictions as learner and P1 licence holders.

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St Vincent De Paul Winter Sleepout and Appeal

This term the Social Justice Committee have been selling Hot Chocolates on

Mondays and Thursdays to raise funds for the Winter Appeal.

Year 12 are invited to attend the Winter Sleepout for Vinnies THIS FRIDAY night

in the JPII Hall from 7pm to 7am on Saturday morning. Members of the Vinnies

local chapter and Fr Mani will be there as well as our wonderful enthusiastic staff

for supervision.

We will be selling Hot Soup, sausage sandwiches, cakes and drinks to raise funds on

the night. Donations from families are gratefully accepted.

See next week’s newsletter for photos of the night!

Australian Red Cross Blood Bank

Each fortnight we have students donate blood at the Blood Bank at Miranda. Each

donation can save three lives. We have 4 Blood Bank ambassadors, two in Year 11,

Blake Diamond and Olivia Lavidis and two in Year 12, Michael O’Brien and

Georgina Skinner. They have worked tirelessly to ensure we have 6 student donors

every fortnight, organizing groups, speaking at year group and whole school

assemblies and giving out and collecting permission notes. The program would not

run so smoothly without the help of our fine ambassadors! Thank you!

As a College we have saved 234 lives this year already! Can we once again

encourage family and friends who donate to ensure their donation counts towards the Aquinas Catholic College Menai total by

filling out a RED25 form when they donate at any collection centre.

Next term we will start to ask Year 10 Students over the age of 16 to volunteer to donate. Between the ages of 16-18, donors

can donate once every 12 months. For more information please go to: http://www.donateblood.com.au/

Any questions about any of the initiatives above please see Mrs Monk. The Social Justice Committee meets

every Thursday A at lunchtime in room 55. All welcome 7-12.

Mrs Julie Monk - Social Justice Coordinator

Social Justice @ Aquinas

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Learning and Curriculum Matters This Week's Assessment Tasks

Year Subject Date

12 Drama (submission) 22.08.16

11 Biology 22.08.16

10 Multi- Media 22.08.16

8 PDHPE 22.08.16

12 Drama (performance external marking) 23.08.16

11 English Studies 24.08.16

11 English Standard 24.08.16

11 English Advanced 24.08.16

12 Design and Technology 25.08.16

11 Design and Technology 25.08.16

10 Mathematics 25.08.16

10 Music 25.08.16

8 Visual Arts 25.08.16

11 Extension English 26.08.16

9 Mathematics 26.08.16

Post Trial HSC Participation Over the coming days, Year 12 students will receive Trial examination results which herald the end of formal internal assessment tasks. There is a misconception, amongst the few, that this also heralds an end to formal classes. This could not be further from the truth. Teachers and students are now in the very fortunate position of knowing, as the product of their Trial HSC results, exactly where they need to improve and lessons are catered to these weak areas. As the internal competition for rank order has now ceased, students are also encouraged to share all resources and to work together to maximise their results in the external HSC examinations. I will explain, in detail, how this works at this Friday afternoon’s seminar, but, suffice to say that students who are not in class, every day, making 100% effort, are not only letting themselves down, but their peers, as well. I trust that this week we will see close to 100% attendance so that Year 12 finish their schooling in the most respectful way possible and in a manner that allows them to maximise their potential as individuals and as the class of Aquinas Catholic College 2016. Year 9 2017 Electives Information Evening Current Year 8 students and their parents are reminded that there is a compulsory Information Evening regarding the selection of Elective Courses for 2017 from 7pm until 8pm in the John Paul ll Hall on Wednesday 31th August. The evening will include a subject market where students can ask specific questions of the teachers and see a selection of the work from each subject. Students were reminded at their pastoral meeting on Thursday that they will select four options in rank order of preference and that they will end up studying two of these electives. Wherever possible, students are allocated their top two preferences, but they may end up studying their third or

fourth choice due to subject clashes, class sizes, or in the instance where there are insufficient student numbers to run a class. Each elective course runs for TWO years and students will not be permitted to change their electives mid-course, so careful consideration is essential. I reminded Year 8 that they might be well served to ask three questions when considering subject selection. 1. What will I enjoy most about this subject? 2. What will I enjoy least about this subject? 3. What does an assessment task in this subject look like? Lisa Mirabello Leader of Teaching and Learning

Each week Maths Recall is included in the newsletter to encourage junior students to regularly focus on non calculator skills. Please show your answers to your maths teacher during your next lesson, as it shows interest and excitement about mathematical skills. 1. What type of polygon has equal sides and angles?

2. What is the angle sum of a pentagon?

3. What is the quick way of deciding if 3 is a factor of

1035?

4. Calculate –2 ÷ -10

5. Simplify x + x + x + x

Mrs Catherine Fensom Assistant Mathematics Coordinator

MATHS DEPARTMENT RECALL CORNER

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National Science Week at Aquinas Science week was celebrated in a variety of different ways and each was designed to highlight both the importance of Science to our daily lives as well as the many applications of science that will one day replace many of the careers that currently exist. The theme of Science Week as Drones, Droids and Robots. Each morning every class had the opportunity to look at the ways that drones, droids and robots are used or may be used in the future. Robots are already employed in many manufacturing and production line activities as well as performing visual surveys, such as looking for sharks at beaches, and as robot guides in museums. Robots are expected to perform many of the unskilled jobs that humans currently do, however this does not mean there will be less jobs, but instead people with programming and design skills as well as engineering, maths and science skills will be employed in designing, manufacturing and building these automated devices as well as analysing data they gather. After all a drone can fly over a beach and send images to a computer but without human intervention, neither the drone nor the computer can identify sharks in the water and raise the alert. Lunchtime activities were held each day to allow students to interact with drones and robots in a range of activities organised by Mrs Gerke. On Monday students from Year 7 – 10 started a week long online competition – the Science World Series. Aquinas is one of almost 1 000 schools across 24 countries competing in this online competition in which students answer questions directly related to their classwork and score points for each correct answer. After 140 hours of completion, and with only 27 hours remaining, Aquinas remains in 12th position in the world. Across the world students have answered almost 14 and a half million questions while Aquinas students have answered almost 200 000. While the points and our world position are great news it is far more inspiring that students have spent 1 980 hours learning during this competition. In other words Aquinas students have spent the equivalent of 82 and a half days online over the last 6 days, learning science. Two Aquinas students have scored more than 10 000 points – Alexander Firtko and Aidan Puse; four students have scored over 3 000 points – Jasper Gadd, Christian Yacoub, Raphael Chahine and Dennis Lykouras; three students have scored over 2 000 points – Ben Jehnic, Olivia Branco and Tony Hollmann while 19 students have scored over 1 000 points and a further 18 have scored over 500 points. Congratulations to all students who have participated in this learning challenge. On Tuesday we were visited by 7 teachers from Japan who were in Australia on a Sony sponsored teacher exchange program. These teachers visited 7 Silver Science with Mrs Moffitt and Year 7 Maths with Mrs Finnerty and in Period 3 Mr Watanabe of Sakushin Elementary School presented a very hands on activity to 7 Red Science. These teachers were impressed by the school students in each class and were amazed by the level of technology in each class. Students used iPads to complete work and interact with questions on online programs as well as to photograph experimental observations. In Japan teachers still use chalkboards or white boards and there are no computers used in class by teachers or students. The Science department hosted a science-based morning tea on Tuesday also with a green robot cake, made by Mrs Lyons, as well as science equipment

shortbread made by Mrs Moffitt. Acidic chips and lollies placed to represent food webs as well as a conglomerate rock model – rocky road – chocolate spiders and a variety of other food items. On Wednesday Year 8 attended an incursion from the Surfing Scientist who dazzled them with a demonstration of the use of lasers and how they are being used to treat diseases that are otherwise untreatable. He also demonstrated liquid nitrogen which is always exciting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the Science department as well as all the students competing in the World Series competition for making Science Week 2016 and exciting event at Aquinas. Mrs Maree Woods

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NSWCCC NETBALL GALA DAY Last Tuesday morning our Representative Netball squad made their way to Penrith to compete in the annual NSWCCC Gala day. The girls were full of positive energy and ferocity as we set out to compete against some of the most elite and toughest netball players in NSW.

Our squad consisted of a Junior, Intermediate and Senior team, competing in separate divisions and played a total of 7 games throughout the day.

Each team played their own game and were determined to put in their best efforts in each competitive match.

We are very proud of the excellent sportsmanship of our girls on and off the court.

I would like to thank Mrs D'Astoli, Mrs Martin and Ms Small for all of their coaching efforts and support of the girls throughout the day and in the lead up of this competition.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank all of our wonderful parents who came and supported the girls and coaches on the day. We look forward to seeing you all again at our Netball gala day in 2017.

Yours in Netball, Nicole Katrib

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AQUINAS FAMILY FUN & FITNESS MORNING

We all know that exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle but did you know that taking part in daily fitness activities as a family has numerous benefits as well? **There will be a session to cater for a variety of fitness levels**

EXERCISING WITH FAMILY WILL HELP TO:

Establish lifelong goals

Provide extra motivation and encouragement

Allow for some meaningful family bonding

Here at Aquinas Catholic College we value our students and their families’ well-being so we have devised a programme called “FITNESS AND FUEL”. Students, along with their parents are invited to try out one of our morning exercise sessions, followed by breakfast.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED OR WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION

PLEASE CONTACT/ RSVP TO MRS KATRIB OR MR BURKE AT:

nicole.katrib@syd.catholic.edu.au peter.burke@syd.catholic.edu.au

When: Wednesday 7th September Time: 7:15 – 8:15am Where: Aquinas Wellbeing Centre

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UNIFORM SHOP

Thursday 25 August

8:00am—9:00am

Please note the Uniform Shop only sells Sports Uniforms and School bags

The Uniform Shop does not accept Eftpos or

Credit cards

CANTEEN ROSTER

TIME: MONDAY-THURSDAY 10:00-1:35, FRIDAY 9:30-12:45

MONDAY 22/8 ANITA MORTON TUESDAY 23/8 ENVIROWALK WEDNESDAY 24/8 KAREN BRADSHAW THURSDAY 25/8 MELINDA HUMPHRY, LEANNE CARPENTER, SKIE DENHAM FRIDAY 26/8 JENNY KNOKE, VERONIQUE THIBAULT, REBECCA HARRIS MONDAY 29/8 BERNADETTE COLEMAN, KEVIN HUFF, MARINA KOUZMENKO TUESDAY 30/8 ROBYN GRAHAM, MARIA TINNING, KATE KARPENKO, REBECCA MAZZORE WEDNESDAY 31/8 SARAH RAYMOND, CATHY PRATT, CAROLYN RAMSAY THURSDAY 1/9 MARGARET MOUSSA, SALLY DONOVAN FRIDAY 2/9 MARIA SKARENTZOS, LISA ALLEN, MARIE BERROA

MATHS CHALLENGE ANSWERS

Maths Department

1. REGULAR eg. Equilateral triangle or square

2. 3 x 180º = 540º

3. Add digits 1 + 0 + 3 + 5 = 9 this is a multiple of 3,

so also 135

4. 1/5 = 0.2

5. 4x

From Week 2 as a trial a range of freshly made soups will be added to the Canteen Menu.

We will be offering

A variety of soups with a slice of bread

$3:00

St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal

The Social Justice committee will be selling Hot

Chocolates each Monday and Thursday at RECESS

for $2 (with a marshmallow) to raise funds for St

Vincent De Paul. Get warm and support Vinnies at the

same time.