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Friday, 7 June 2019, Term 2 Week 6

Dear Parents, Staff and Students

St Marcellin Champagnat

Faithful and ever present God,

Feast Day

This is a special week at MCK. Our feast day is Thursday, 6 June, which marks St Marcellin’s

death. However, this week is full of community building events and activities. Thank you to the

many staff who have planned and organised so much this week including handball competitions,

viewing of NBA playoffs, raffles, video game tournaments, homeroom trivia competitions, the

amazing talent quest, the staff versus student soccer match, just to name a few! Our whole

College liturgy on Tuesday was another prayerful, reflective and uplifting experience for

everyone. The celebrations conclude on Friday with our walkathon and BBQ. Thank you also to

our students who engaged so enthusiastically in all of these activities.

Anxiety

Following on from our College Counsellor, Ms Amy Martin’s inclusion in the last Newsletter and

her follow up in this Newsletter, I would like to note a few further points about anxiety. Anxiety

can be a very serious matter leading to severe and ongoing depression. We have seen instances

where a young person’s sleep patterns are disturbed, appetite is lost, school suffers and their

general quality and enjoyment of life is negatively impacted. In the most severe cases, students

self-harm or withdraw completely from all social interactions, including school. Students who

may be suffering from anxiety are encouraged to speak to their teacher who will guide them in

the direction of someone who may be able to assist them with appropriate strategies and

advice.

Catholic Schools

With the Federal election now over it is worth revisiting a few facts about the benefits

governments of any political persuasion gain from the existence of Catholic schools.

Independent calculations have proved that the 600 Catholic schools in NSW alone saved the

Government $480 million last year. Over the next five year period that is a saving of over

$2 billion. If Catholic schools were to close, as is the policy of some political parties, the

Government would also need to find another $7.9 billion to build extra classrooms and schools

to cater for our students. This is money that the Government can spend on State schools or

other projects that are basically funded by Catholic school parents. As I have said in previous

Newsletters, our parents are doing their bit therefore, it is not too much to ask Governments to

ensure parents receive a fair deal for their children in return.

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Mr John Riordan

Principal

Winter Uniform

Up to this point, Sydney has been experiencing a very mild autumn/winter. However, with the temperature dropping it is an

opportune time to remind everyone of uniform expectations. The College uniform for Terms 2 and 3 is clearly outlined in both

the Student Diary and on the College website. Variations to the uniform code are not acceptable under any circumstances.

Hoodies, tracksuit tops, beanies, coloured scarves, etc will be confiscated and students will be placed on an afternoon

detention. I often receive compliments from members of the public on our students’ presentation. Having a good reputation in

the local community is important and I would ask for parents’ support in this matter.

Upcoming Events

Monday, 10 June – Public Holiday

Tuesday, 11 June – Staff Spirituality day (Pupil free day)

Wednesday, 12 June – Day 3 of timetable

Friday, 14 June – Year 10 Reflection day

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Ms Lauren Abihanna

Religious Education Co-ordinator

Feast of Saint Marcellin Champagnat Mass

On Tuesday, 3 June the College came together to celebrate the Feast of Marcellin Champagnat at a whole school Mass with our Parish Priest Fr Yacub Barakat.

Marcellin Champagnat was born on May 20, 1789, the year of the French Revolution and died on June 6, 1840. He was a priest of the Society of Mary and the founder of the Little Brothers of Mary, a congregation of brothers devoted to the education of the young.

We celebrate the life of Marcellin and remind ourselves of our devotion to Mary and our God.

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Ms Lauren Abihanna

Religious Education Co-ordinator

Year 7 Bible Presentation

On Thursday, 30 May, Year 7 were presented with a Bible. Each year Mr Anthony Clearly, Director of Religious Education and Evangelisation Sydney Catholic Schools, provides Year 7 students in all Sydney Archdiocesan schools with a Bible. Students are currently studying the unit ‘Sacred Scriptures’ in Religious Education further highlighting the importance of our sacred text and the use of it in our everyday lives. Thank you to Mr Collins and Mr Riordan who presented the students with their Bible.

Archbishops Luncheon

Last Tuesday, Isaac Andrews and I attended St Mary’s Cathedral house in the city for a luncheon prepared by Archbishop Anthony Fisher. While we were there we were given the opportunity to ask the Archbishop questions and queries surrounding our adherence to Christianity. It was a great experience for us to strengthen our faith and I’m very grateful we were given this opportunity.

Jed Efremidis

College Vice-Captain

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YOUTH MINISTRY 2019

Champagnat Week Walkathon – Marist Solidarity

As part of the Champagnat Week celebrations the MCK students will be taking part in the

Marist Solidarity Walkathon. This week we celebrate all things Marist and hope to raise

money for many communities across the world, supporting Australian Marist Solidarity.

The theme of Australian Marist Solidarity in 2019 is ‘Step into my Shoes’ giving students a sense of solidarity with the wider

Marist Community.

Australian Marist Solidarity (AMS) is the agency for the aid and development work of the Marist

Province of Australia throughout Asia and the Pacific Islands. AMS works with the people in this

region on a combination of long-term and short-term development projects. These projects aim

to develop, or support, locally sustained education opportunities for the young people in these

regions.

In order to achieve this we facilitate partnerships with communities focused on overseas aid, education and community

development activities of the Australian Marist Brothers. To better fulfil this role, and to maintain the highest standard of

transparency, AMS became a signatory organisation to the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of

Conduct in 2008.

Through the extensive network of Marist Schools around Australia, AMS is supported by current and former students and their

parents, associates and the wider Marist Community. Through this network AMS presents a national forum for awareness and

fundraising campaigns for the development work we support.

Leaders ‘Afternoon of Spirituality’

On Wednesday, 29 May, some of the student leaders of MCK and I went with Mr

Curran to Champagnat College Pagewood to attend an ‘Afternoon of Spirituality’

with other leaders from schools around that area. During the evening there was a

guest speaker, John Nguyen, who enlightened us on the aspects of servant

leadership, helping us develop these qualities in our own lives. We gathered in

groups to look at case studies of examples of servant leaders in our current world,

cultivating additional aspects that we can integrate into our leadership styles.

Overall, this time was a great opportunity for the leaders to meet others in our

position and together work on ways to become servant leaders in our school

communities. Jed Efremidis

Year 12 OCEANS OF MERCY - SHIRE EVENING WITH FR ROB GALEA

Our next Youth Evangelisation event, hosted by Sydney Catholic Schools, is Oceans of

Mercy. We are lucky enough that it is in the Shire and lead by an excellent example of

leadership in our modern Church, Fr Rob Galea.

When: Friday, 28 June 2019 Time: 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm Where: St Aloysius, Cronulla Fr Rob Galea will lead the young people through some Catechesis and Adoration. There will be food and social connections for the young people in the Shire and St George districts.

Adoration is very apt for such a devotion where young people can have that prayerful timeout whilst connecting with other young people.

Any students who are keen for a great night engaging with their faith in an exciting way please see Mr Curran by Monday, 17 June.

Mr Daniel Curran

Youth Ministry Co-ordinator

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Tourism... an economic activity Taronga Park Zoo...An economic enterprise

The focus of this study is a geographical investigation of economic activity (Tourism)

integrating the local and global context. On Friday, 24 May, Year 12 Geography students

conducted a geographical study of an economic enterprise operating at a local scale-

Taronga Park Zoo.

This case study explored:

the nature of the economic enterprise locational factors

ecological dimensions including environmental constraints, climate, and human impacts on the environment such as pollution and ecological sustainability

internal and external linkages and flows of people, goods, services and ideas

effects of global changes in Tourism on the enterprise.

The excursion to Taronga Zoo, allowed the geography cohort to gain a greater understanding of tourism and economic enterprises. As we went through our syllabus dot points, we were able to participate and experience first hand the many features of the zoo. The interactive and first hand learning was beneficial in the clarification of concepts. Thus, the day was a success as we were able to further develop our geographical skills and spend time with your friends. (Year 12 HSC Geography students)

Mrs Kylie Watson

Leader of Pedagogy

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MCC SPORT

Last Thursday saw Round 3 of the MCC Winter competition take place against Champagnat Catholic College, Pagewood. Another outstanding display from our Soccer teams saw the College make a clean sweep of their games. A fantastic start to the season sees all of our teams sit atop of their respective competitions except for the Under 14's, however, they do have a game in hand.

In Rugby League, our Under 14's and B Grade teams had great wins in their respective matches. I would like to make special mention to our Under 14's who played the entire game with no reserves on the bench, but still managed to post a strong 30-16 win for their first win of the season.

All these results, along with competition tables can be found by visiting the MCC Sports website: https://mccsport.com.au/

NSWCCC Representatives

The NSWCCC Under 16 Football selections were held last Wednesday at the Kareela Sports Complex, in which we had 5

students selected to trial for this team. To be selected to trial is an outstanding achievement in itself, as there are only 60

students from Catholic schools across the State invited to these trials, so I would like to congratulate Luke Prsa, Julian Dal

Bianco, Peter Grozos, Benjamin Astudillo-Valenzuela and Peter Salachoris on this achievement. Special congratulations must

go to Julian Dal Bianco and Peter Grozos who were successful in being selected to represent NSWCCC at the NSW All Schools

Championships later this month.

Also, earlier this week we had 3 of our A Grade Football players (Lucus Camilleri, George Salachoris and Tony

Mrencevski) travel to Valentine Sports Park, for the NSWCCC Championships as part of the Opens MCC Representative team.

In an outstanding achievement, the MCC team went through the competition undefeated without conceding a goal. A major

reason for this was the outstanding play of our two central defenders Tony and Lucus (who unfortunately suffered an injury on

Day 2). George's calmness on the ball and passing game enabled him to set up numerous attacking play other members on the

team. As a result of the team's performance, two of our students (George Salachoris and Tony Mrencevski) were selected to

represent NSWCCC at the NSW All Schools Championships later this month. We wish them all the best at the Championships

and Lucus a speedy recovery from injury. Mr Chris MacDougal

Sports Co-ordinator

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Mr Peter Fitzpatrick

Careers/VET Co-ordinator

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For Students that wish to follow a Medicine pathway

Simulated UCAT Day - SYDNEY Sunday, 9 June 9.00 am - 6.00 pm (venue: UNSW Kensington Campus) Saturday, 22 June 9.00 am - 6.00 pm (venue: Blacktown Max Webber Library) https://www.nie.edu.au/ucat-courses/simulated-ucat-day-workshop?idU=3

Any students who are in Years 10, 11 or 12 who are considering a career in medicine or dentistry, will need to sit a compulsory entry exam known as UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) before they can apply for relevant placements in the above fields with the universities. While the Simulated UCAT Day is extremely beneficial for Year 12 students who will be attempting the real UCAT in July, this workshop is also highly recommended to anyone in Years 10 - 11 aiming for a head-start in UCAT preparation, finding out details about the test, how to guide their exam preparation over the next 18 months, as well as building up and strengthening personal profile for the medical school application and entry.

Year 10 Twilight Careers Meeting

On Tuesday, 18 June I will be available to talk to any parent and student that have questions regarding career pathways.

I will present JobJump the one stop website for parents and students that wish to explore future career pathways.

This will be an informal meeting to provide information and guidance in Year 11 Subject Selections, University entries, TAFE, School VET, External VET, School Based Apprenticeships and Traineeships, UAC, ATAR and Careers.

Time: 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm

Date: Tuesday, 18 June

Where: McDermott Room

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From the College Counsellor

My child is anxious, what do I do? By Michael Grose, Parenting Ideas

If you’re the parent of an anxious child, you’re most certainly not alone. Millions of

families all over the world are right there with you. Though it’s helpful to know, we

understand that it doesn’t make the challenging role of parenting an anxious child

any easier. What will is developing and deepening your understanding of childhood

anxiety and the important role you play in helping them manage it.

While at first parenting an anxious child can feel overwhelming and difficult, I want

you to think about it differently. Take a moment to recognise that you, your anxious

child and your family have been presented with an opportunity. You can’t change

what is happening right in front of you. You can’t undo it. What will help your anx-

ious child to flourish, despite their anxiety, is first and foremost someone recognising

they need assistance.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety triggers part of the brain to fire up the fight-or-flight response or, as some aptly call it, the fight, flight, freeze or freak

out response, to protect us from danger. It’s an emotion, and like other emotions it has a start, a middle and an end. Except

when it doesn’t. That’s the experience for an estimated half a million plus Australian kids and 117 million worldwide

experiencing an anxiety disorder. That’s how far reaching and common anxiety has become.

For these kids, their experience of anxiety doesn’t pass when the threat, danger or stressful situation has passed. The anxiety

they experience can disrupt their day to day life and family life in both predictable and unexpected ways. Anxiety has the

potential to stand in the way of kids being kids and their ability to enjoy the quintessential elements of a happy, relaxed,

carefree, playful childhood; but it doesn’t have to.

Anxious kids have a brain that works really hard to protect them from danger. A part of their brain is similar to the sentinel

among meerkats who is always on their tippy-toes watchfully assessing the environment for threats. This means that anxious

kids spend an inordinate amount of time with their fight or flight response in full swing.

It’s not by choice. It’s exhausting, and not just for the kids. Whether the threat is real or imagined, the brain and body react in

the same way. An oversensitive brain will protect, protect, protect, even if the ‘threat’ seems innocuous to everybody else, or

possibly isn’t even noticeable. Once the senses signal to the brain that danger is apparent, it’s comparable to opening the

floodgates. The anxiety cascade begins as does the fallout, making a hard job more challenging for parents of an anxious child.

How to know if your child is anxious

Anxiety exists on a continuum ranging from high calmness through to low calmness, mild anxiety through to high anxiety. This

is different to the traditional view where anxiety is ‘present’ or ‘absent’. Noticing if your child is moving away from a more calm

and relaxed persona to feeling more stressed, along with any accompanying behavioural change, is your cue to ‘watch and

wait’ over time to see if these changes in fact point to anxiety. Similarly, helping your child move in the direction of calmness

helps buffer against stress.

Signs and symptoms of anxiety are grouped according to their impact on children’s emotions and physiology, behaviour and

thinking.

Emotionally and physically

It’s common for anxiety symptoms to be physical given the changes that happen in the body

when the fight or flight response is triggered. These include chest pain or discomfort, nausea,

sleeplessness, tiredness, regularly crying over small problems, rapid heart rate and often

appearing nervous.

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Marist College Kogarah

52 Wolseley Street Bexley, NSW 2207 Telephone 9587 3211 Facsimile 9556 1790 Website: www.mck.nsw.edu.au

Email: info@mckogarah.catholic.edu.au

From the College Counsellor

Ms Amy Martin

College Counsellor

Behaviour

It’s hard for anxious kids to concentrate when they’re feeling worried. It’s equally challenging to concentrate when their body feels revved up like a race car that is stuck in the pits. It’s no wonder anxiety shows in behaviours such as excessive fear of making mistakes, perfectionism, avoidance of activities that they feel worried or scared about, refusing to attend sleepovers and many other behaviours. Thinking

As the minds of anxious children are often on the lookout for threats and

danger, they’re thinking all the time: reflecting on events of the past, analysing

situations and reactions from every angle, wondering what’s going to happen

next and worrying. If there was a ‘Worrying Olympics’, anxious kids would be

gold medallists. Worrying and overthinking is a sign of anxiety.

How to help

There is so much you can do as a parent or teacher to assist your child to better manage their anxiousness. Start with the

following three approaches:

1. Learn how anxiety works

A thorough understanding of the physiology and psychology of anxiety, the events that trigger anxiety in your child and

how your child typically responds is the most important step you can take. This knowledge will increase your confidence

which, in itself, will be a considerable source of calm for your child.

2. Give your child the tools to self-regulate

Anxiety won’t disappear on its own. Children and young people need tools to recognise and regulate their emotions so

they are able to function when anxious moments appear. Self-management tools such exercise, deep breathing and

mindfulness will reduce their dependence on you, allowing them to manage their anxious states. These lifelong skills are

invaluable for anyone who worries or who has a tendency towards anxiety.

3. Develop a lifestyle that minimises anxiety

A child’s lifestyle also impacts massively on their anxiety. Anxiety management tools will never be totally effective until

it’s supported by a lifestyle that promotes a healthy mind and body. These seven lifestyle factors in their own way

decrease the likelihood of a child experiencing anxiety: sleep, nutrition and gut health, play and movement, green time,

knowing their values, volunteering and fostering healthy relationships.

While parenting an anxious child is an emotional rollercoaster, try to see each day as an opportunity to build greater

awareness and resilience in your child.

Each day is peppered with pockets of time in which you can extend your child’s understanding of anxiety, where it comes from

and why, as well as guiding them to practise the skills that show their amygdala they’re safe, calm their nervous system and

restore their thinking brain back into action.

Link to article https://www.parentingideas.com.au/blog/my-child-is-anxious-what-do-i-do/