Twilight Match | Reunion

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Annual Twilight Cricket Match | Old scholars/staff V Mercedes 1st X1
The annual combined old scholars and staff team played a 20/20 match against Mercedes First Eleven at Waite Oval in early March.There were some sensational cricket skills on show with teachers Logan Hill and Daniel Caire setting up the win with a great opening partnership. Congratulations to staff player Lane Trenorden for taking two wickets!
In 2022, the old scholars/staff team were the victors.

Class of 2017 5 Year Reunion

In early March, The Class of 2017 old scholars celebrated their 5 Year Reunion at The Torrens Arms Hotel, Kingswood.

The old scholars enjoyed catching up and sharing stories of their exploits since leaving Mercedes College. It is great to see that many of their cohort have retained their connection with the College through career mentoring, coaching sport and representation on the MOSA committee.

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Fair funding for Catholic schools

By Catholic Education SA

Ahead of the polls opening tomorrow for the 2022 State Election Campaign, the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools (SACCS) wrote to all political parties with candidates, asking them to provide their party’s response to the 7 key issues of significance to the Catholic education sector.

Only the Labor Party and Liberal Party responded. Here is their information on these issues.

College Leadership

Belonging at Mercedes

By Andrew Balkwill

Having a sense of belonging is important to our physical and mental health, and provides a protective factor that helps us to manage stress. That’s why we focus on creating a welcoming and enriching environment that fosters belonging for our students and their families.

When we feel supported, with help at hand, facing the challenges life throws at us is easier. Throughout the year we strive to provide a supportive environment and the opportunity for students to flourish academically, socially and physically. Major events like our annual Athletics Carnivals provide a great social occssion focussed on fun with students competing to achieve their personal best and be challenged physically by participating in events.

Athletics Carnivals

Last week we hosted the Year 3-6 Athletics Carnival at the college, and the Year 7-12 Athletics Carnival at the SA Athletics Stadium – both engaging our students to compete in athletic activities and fun events. Both carnivals provided inspiring displays of Mercy spirit, with a big thank you owed to everyone involved in organising and hosting each day.

Our Athletics programme inspires participation and achievement with students guided by committed and quality coaches and PE teachers. Most mornings during Term 1 and 4 you can see the dedication of our students participating in athletics training. They take great pride in representing their house – Barry, Dalton, Fitzpatrick and McAuley – and Mercedes College at the Catholic Co-educational Athletics Carnival. Our students always do their best to improve and be their best plus support the team and teammates.

Lent

Ash Wednesday, an important Holy day on the liturgical calendar, opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. While the Catholic community comfortably associates Lent with giving something up, this can evoke curiosity, or be seen as an eccentricity, yet it’s a practice with deep spiritual significance.

Lent is also a season of reflection and conversion. A time to acknowledge the ways we have turned away from God and an opportunity to focus our hearts and minds back. While we can deprive ourselves of some small pleasure or indulgence, we can also benefit from making better choices or replacing bad habits with a healthy behaviour. That might be swapping junk food for healthier options, and in so doing turbo-charging better choices, feeling fitter, healthier and happier, creating a positive impact on those around us. It is often through the small steps that we positively turn our life back toward what God wants for us.

Values in action

Recently hosting a college tour and talking with prospective parents, I reflected that rather than an extensive list of rules we have six Mercy keys – or values – that shape our behaviour as individuals and collectively. The Mercy keys are visible across the college and practiced by everyone.

Responsibility is one of them, and each day we encourage our students to be accountable for their learning. This takes many forms, and includes them actively participating in events, curriculum, extension programmes, being punctual and maximising their attendance.

Students with strong attendance records invariably achieve better academic and social outcomes. Studies show that non-attendance increases social isolation and lowers engagement with learning and peer connection. These impacts are cumulative and have a compounding negative impact. That’s why we encourage students to participate in all facets of learning and embrace the breadth of opportunities on offer.

We also acknowledge that attendance during a global pandemic can be challenging, and we appreciate the responsible actions being taken to minimise the spread of COVID-19. Senior students needing to isolate or quarantine, yet well enough to study from home, can access lesson information, task sheets, assessment tasks and class notes via ManageBac plus engage with their classroom teacher/s via email.

Like all schools navigating the challenge of COVID-19 cases we observe the directions set by SA Health and regularly report to them. While there has been an easing of community wide restrictions, please remember that across the education sector some constraints set by SA Health remain.

As we all play our part to stop the spread, there are simple measures we can all follow, including:

- wearing face masks inside (all staff and Year 7-12 students, plus recommended for Year 3-6)

- practicing good hygiene

- keeping 1.5 metres distance from others, and

- staying home when unwell.

Symptoms to watch for

Anyone experiencing any (not all) of the following symptoms, no matter how mild, needs to be promptly PCR tested for COVID-19:

- fever (a temperature of 37.5˚C or higher) or chills

- cough

- loss of taste or smell

- sore throat

- tiredness / fatigue

- runny or blocked nose

- shortness of breath / difficulty breathing

- nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea

- headache

- muscle or joint pain, or

- loss of appetite.

Supporting the college

Shortly we will tender for the builder of our new Arts and Sports Precinct project, providing Tier 2 construction companies an exciting opportunity to work with us. Throughout the year there will be opportunities for you to contribute to this project, including through our Annual Giving Programme. In the interim, remember The Athletes Foot (Burnside store) donates $5 from every child’s school and/or sports shoe sale to the College – you just need to let them know you are part of our community.

We also partner with the Credit Union of SA. As beneficiary of their School Community Rewards Programme, they donate 0.20 per cent of Mercedes College families’ home, car or personal loan amounts to us each month. Last year that amounted to around $20,000. Contact them about their loan products, and if you sign-up, nominate Mercedes College as your School Community Rewards beneficiary.

Both of these partner programs provide a regular and valuable financial benefit to Mercedes College that’s invested across our campus. Funds raised during 2022 will supplement the allocation to these new purpose-built spaces for the performing arts, sport and greater community connection.

Andrew Balkwill
Principal

Junior Journeys

Congratulations Junior School Leaders

By Kellie Osborn

Developing leadership is an important part of building a strong school community.

In the Junior School, we have student leaders who work collaboratively to develop initiatives for our cohort and across the College. These students also support a range of community and social justice projects throughout the year.

Being an effective leader requires students to develop qualities and skills in themselves and to nurture those of others. We aim to build upon their understanding and skills of leadership and assist each student to become a respected leader who acts responsibly with integrity and models ethical behaviour. It is in this way that our students develop the personal attributes and capacity to lead at any level, both wisely and with compassion.

Our Student Representative Council (SRC) leaders work cohesively to enable and support student voice from their classroom in support of Junior School specific initiatives, planning and events.

The Year 5 student leaders work closely with the Junior School students and staff in these areas:

- JS Music Leaders

- JS Physical Education Leaders (For each House team: Dalton, Barry, Fitzpatrick and McAuley)

- JS French Leaders

- JS Student Mentoring Programme Leaders

- JS ICT Leaders

- JS Library Leaders

This week, we held our Junior School Leadership Induction ceremony. Our Junior School Leaders were all very proud as they received their badges in front of their peers and we shared a blessing for them. We know that through their words and actions that they will demonstrate our Mercy Keys – loyalty, integrity, compassion, justice, mutual respect and responsibility – and lead in a way which supports our Junior School to be a place where all students have a voice and experience kindness, care, support, positivity and connection through their relationships and daily experiences.

A big congratulations to all  student leaders, l know you will do an amazing job in your new roles this Semester:

Junior School Music leaders
Lily Bickle 5MB
Kian Bilsborow 5AK
Hailey Hiew 5MB
Jonah Zandona 5AK

Junior School PE Leaders
DALTON – Chiara Favrin 5MB
MCAULEY – Chloe Smith 5AK
BARRY – Ben Mills 5MB
FITZPATRICK – Nathan Lee 5AK

Student Mentoring Program leader
Harry Goldsworthy 5MB
David Simmons 5AK
Priya Batra 5AK
Ellie Digney 5MB

JS French leaders
Tyler Procter 5MB | Gabrielle Lefevre 5AK

JS Library leaders
Lucy Everett 5AK | Mia Pivato 5AK

JS ICT Leaders
Winston Schunke 5AK | Darcy Muller 5AK | Aidan Baynes 5AK

Semester 1 SRC Leaders
5MB
Dionne Hnoudis | Alexander Giannias

5AK
Mia Pivato | Theo Black

4HM
Bianca Hull | Walker Whittaker

4KH
Annabelle Hosford | Scott Sargent

3PL
Eloise Dickson | Nate Ghaffari

3NB
Riani Themistocleous | Andrew Giannias

2FI
Ashlyn Boiwko | Lachlan Everett

2NM
Georgia Hawcroft | Henry Drabsch

1DB
Nell Schultz | George Guo

1DG
Sass Jones | James Chan

RBP
Edith Ashmead | Lucas Bronicki

RLC
Mila Callisto | Luka Ripa

Middle Moments

Much to celebrate in Middle School

By Ben Dray

We’ve reached the end of Week 7, Term 1 already! There’s much to celebrate with our Middle School students maintaining their great start to the year.

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (Friday 18 March)

Today, is the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence, and an important opportunity to come together and demonstrate #kindnessCulture for bullying prevention for Australian school communities.

Our students engaged in various teacher-led activities throughout the week, culminating with our Middle School Assembly where all of our students signed a pledge in support of this initiative. Thank you to our Middle School teachers for providing important learning opportunities for our students in their GPS lesson’s. Topics of discussion included:

- promoting bullying prevention initiatives

- raising awareness of how to prevent and respond to bullying

- highlighting steps to create inclusive school communities that are safe from bullying

- sharing how students can take action and empower young people, staff, families and the community to be part of the solution

- sending a clear message that bullying is not accepted within the school gates or beyond.

The students showed maturity, empathy and understanding in these discussions and are to be congratulated for their support of this important event.

Middle School Leadership

Congratulations to all students who nominated for 2022 leaderships positions. I particularly would like to acknowledge our Middle School Leaders Kai Randall, Millie Park, Samuel Glasson and Gina Barreto. They have already participated with Middle School events and demonstrated their excellent leadership skills with outstanding service to the Mercedes community. They recently attended Young Leaders Day Conference, here are their reflections:

On Wednesday of Week 6, the Middle School Leaders attended the Young Leaders Day Conference at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. During this experience we were spoken to by some amazing modern-day leaders such as Lachy Smart, the current world record holder for youngest male to fly around the world solo, Alex Ross from the Sydney Thunder BBL side, South Australian Marathon Olympian and mother Jess Stenson (Trengove) as well as Guy Edmond, Author, and the creator of Emmy award winning TV show series Hard Ball.

All these people were brilliant leaders and role models. They shared with us their incredible stories and explained to us how they got to where they are now and what they had to do and why they did it. Halogen did an excellent job of introducing themselves and the speakers, getting the crowd involved with some Q&A and hosting the event. The speakers seem all very different but, they have a lot in common in the way they go about it! All the speakers had worked hard to get to where they are today, to achieve their goals and all were very wise and had inspiring advice.

The main lessons that were learnt from this experience were: Being persistent, not giving up hope on dreams and goals, doing what you love and being yourself, hard work pays off, good thing take time and to believe in yourself and your dreams. Being a leader doesn’t just mean pleasing everyone it's about making the right discissions and being confident in yourself.
Kai Randall, Millie Park, Samuel Glasson and Gina Barreto

Student Representative Council

I would also like to acknowledge the following Student Representative Council (SRC) members who will work with Mr Lachlan Jones, our Middle School SRC Coordinator.
6TB Marco Russo
6BZ Mabel Hille
6CO Lucy Glasson
7LH Alice Lee, Charles Lawlor
7BG Harvey Chapman, Briana Telford
7JA Lucy McConnochie, Darby Burvill
7EM Edie Davies, Lucas Grigg
7JP Evie Wright, Alice Thompson
8SK Thomas Stirling
8DC Samuel Doan
8KY Hunter Wood
8LT Annabelle Phillips
8TN Claudia Paterson
9 SRC Charlotte Kroeger, Lily Gosnell, Annabelle Keane, Tess Gallagher

Year 7 Reflection Day

Last week our Year 7 Students participated in Reflection Day. Below is a snippet of their feedback:

"It was fun – I particularly enjoyed learning about the school and it’s rich history on the College tour.” – Chelsea Bence (7EM)
“Catherine McAuley is very inspiring, she sacrificed a lot in her time and she is a pillar of strength in our community” – Giselle Gray (7EM)
“It was fun and enjoyable to be able to have the opportunity to reflect on the great opportunities that we have at Mercedes College.” – Ned Whiting (7BG)“I liked learning about the school and how it came to be” – Ethan Hinora (7BG)

“It was fun, my favourite activity was learning about Catherine McAuley, she was an inspiring lady.” – Charlotte Tibbot (7LH)
“Catherine McAuley was a wonderful human.” – Logan Hill (Yr 7 Teaching Staff Member).

Thank you to Therese Wilson, Director of Mission, Mr Matthew Andrigo our Year 7 Leader and to all our staff involved in planning and delivering a positive day for our learners. It was a great opportunity for our new and continuing students to re-engage with the Mercy spirit.

Year 7 Bike Education Programme

Our Year 7 students participated in a Bike Education Programme to prepare for their Camp in Term 2. Students had the opportunity to build their confidence and abilities in mountain biking as well as develop key skills in technique, along with understanding safety and responsibility. Thank you to Mr Peter Thornton, our Camp Program Coordinator and Matthew Andrigo for leading this piece of work.

Middle School Assembly

Today we held our first Middle School Assembly, a great occasion to gather and share in a positive celebration that showcased some great achievements for an encouraging start to the year. Thank you to the class of 9LJ for organizing our Assembly. The strength of coming together was evident and the Mercy spirit of our students was truly on show.

Middle School Welcome BBQ

I look forward to meeting families at the Middle School BBQ this evening. Our Middle School Leadership Team will be there, and we’re all looking forward to chatting with you.
As always, feel free to contact me at any time to talk about matters related to our Middle School.

Ben Dray
Head of Middle School

Senior Stories

Experiences aplenty in Senior School

By Michael Francis

Some serious competition was on display at our Athletics Carnival, with some amazing facial expressions during the Tug of war!

Our Year 12 students first Religious Education Seminar Day as a Year Level asked them to identify ways they can take action to address matters of social injustice in 5 minutes through to 5 months. During the session they also had an opportunity to reflect on their social advantage through a nature walk and meditation.

Outdoor education students have completed sailing expeditions, rock climbing, and bush walking while our artists have been engaged in workshops and performance rehearsals.

Our Year 10 students have been building their martial arts skills and today the Middle and Senior School observed the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.

Academic support

As the Term progresses, some students are starting to face challenges in balancing competing demands around managing deadlines, extra curricula activities, family commitments and work. Please remember the support opportunities available.

We are committed to building a successful and rich experience for each student and welcome your questions and feedback so please reach out to your child’s Home Group teacher and Year Level Leader via SEQTA Engage or give us a call on 8372 3200.

Upcoming events

I look forward to seeing you at our:

• Senior School BBQ next Friday 25 March
• Year 12 Learning Reviews in April (Wednesday 6 and Monday 11 April)

Michael Francis
Head of Senior School

Director of Mission

Time to be present: season of Lent

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“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ……Consider how the lilies of the field grow….”
(Matthew 6:27-29)

Year 7 Reflection Day

Our Year 7’s embarked on learning and experiencing our Mercy traditions, history and values and understanding our Mercy Key of Loyalty, Lent and spending time together enjoying each other’s company.
Students engaged in activities with their Year 7 teachers, enjoying a history tour of our college, the chapel, understanding the significance of Catherine McAuley’s legacy and investigations of our sports Houses – Barry, Fitzpatrick, Dalton and McAuley.

Year 12 Seminar Day

Year 12 students had the fabulous opportunity to engage in what it means to have ‘Loyalty to our Global Family’, they listened to speakers working in social Justice in Adelaide and participated meditation, ethical consumerism, prayer and hiked up Carrick Hill.

Our guest speakers - Umes Acharya, Youth and Community Engagement Officer at St Vincent De Paul and Meng Liu, an advocacy officer at Working Women Centre SA were both dynamic and engaging, speaking about ‘Why they do what they do, for others…’ They both also spoke about their work in advocacy campaigns addressing wage theft and worker exploitation, providing real life examples of their social justice and advocacy work.
It was a wonderful and uplifting day, with the most stunning weather and a wonderful sense of togetherness.

Blessings to all
Therese Wilson
Director of Mission

Good Sports

Sporting achievements

By Tamae Ninos and Josh Archer

The first round of the summer season has seen some pleasing results from our Boys teams:
Volleyball, Water Polo and Cricket teams all achieved great success, as well as our Drive Tennis team who had a great performance in their first match.

Round 1 for our Mercedes Girls Summer sport competition kicked off in Week 5. It was so great to see the girls battle it out against other schools, with one game putting two Mercedes’ teams against each other. The best aspect of the match was the sensational, team spirit and most importantly, watching the girls enjoy playing sport with their peers.

Open Mercedes 2 and 3 Touch Football teams after their Round 1 game against each other.

With many students playing as part of a new team, or a sport for the first time it’s great to see our students having fun, attending trainings and playing in the right spirit.

Student Achievements

Congratulations to Claire Warburton [Year 11] (pictured above) for her selection in the State U18 Softball team. Claire will be heading to Blacktown in New South Wales during April to compete in the National Championships. She has also been selected in the State Open Women’s Baseball team competing in the National Championships in Adelaide in April. Good luck Claire, and particularly with the preparation required for these events. Congratulations Claire, our Mercedes community is right behind you!

And huge congratulations to Zoe Prowse [Class of 2021] on her debut with the Adelaide Crows in the AFLW Round 10 match against St Kilda in Melbourne. After being the first player drafted to the Adelaide Crows at Pick no.17 in July 2021, Zoe has been training with the Crows. Zoe’s hard work paid off with this incredible achievement. The Mercedes community is extremely proud of the way she represents herself on and off the field. Congratulations Zoe!

Congratulations also to Olivia Sandery [Class of 2020] for claiming a Silver medal alongside her teammates in the Australian Women’s Under 20 team at the World Athletics Race Walking Championships in Muscat, Oman earlier this month. Olivia produced the fastest time for the Australians in the Women’s event, crossing the line in 5th place. Congratulations Olivia.

Communication

Please remember to let coaches know if you’re unable to be at a training session or game. Simply message your coach if you are unable to attend, or be late.

Team App

Team App is where we share fixtures, information and results for Mercedes College Sport. Please choose ‘Mercedes College Girls / Boys Sport’ and the access groups that relate to your child, so you are not missing out on any important information. Team information is published only in the relevant Access Group. Remember when you download this application to turn notifications on.

First Aid

Please ensure your children provide their coach with clearly labelled personal medication (including puffers and epi-pens) before training and games if they may need it during sessions or while competing.

Winter Sport Update

Winter Sport trainings for our senior teams will start from Week 10 onwards to prepare students for the season ahead. Sports include Football, Soccer, Basketball, Hockey, Table Tennis, Cross Country, Chess and Debating. If your son wants to join a particular sport please SEQTA direqt message Joshua Archer mindful team nominations will be finalised early next week.

Share your sporting news with our Mercedes Community by emailing the details and photographs to PEoffice@mercedes.catholic.edu.au

ARTStanding

Dance | Theatre

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Dance is now a subject on offer in Semester 1 for our Year 10 students.

Mrs Natalie Goodair says the inaugural cohort of students will develop their experiences in dance through participating in technique classes, composition and appreciation tasks.

“Students will explore dance styles and genre, including classical ballet, contemporary and Jazz technique, with performance-based dance assessments and composition tasks part of the program,” she explained.

“We’ll also develop an understanding around safe dance practice through analysis of skeletal structure and by exploring ideas around safeguarding the body.

“I look forward to continuing to guide our students on their dance journey at Mercedes throughout the Semester, with exciting performance opportunities on offer for students to showcase their work,” Mrs Goodair said.

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Shadow play 

As students of SACE Drama and IB Theatre, each will use this experience to reflect on themselves as emerging artists as they take inspiration from Slingsby’s key conventions and techniques to create their own pieces of theatre in the coming weeks.

Our Senior Drama students participated in a workshop run by Andy Packer, Artistic Director of Slingsby Theatre Company. An Adelaide based company, Slingsby has toured the world with their imaginative shows Emil and the Detectives, The Young King and this year bought to life This is Tree is a Story.

Students learnt about the company’s key techniques of storytelling through the use of narration, shadow play and miniaturisation, before experimenting with their own shadow puppets and narratives.

In groups, students workshopped short scenes and performed them for Andy who provided feedback about how they could continue to develop their work.

Wellbeing

Supporting children

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The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is distressing, and our prayers go out to everyone affected by it. In the college, there is a heightened awareness about it, with students talking about it and its implications. They’re asking questions about what’s happening, with some anxiety about what will happen next and its effects on us in Australia. It is natural for children to look for answers and seek support, and it can be challenging to know what to say when we may also be confused and upset by media reports.

There are a number of recommendations you can use when supporting children, mindful we cannot entirely shield them from it, yet we can support them to stay calm, and understand its impact here.

Take care of yourself

Be aware of the impact news reports are having on you. Children rely on parents as barometers on how they should react to events. If you remain calm and pragmatic, children can mirror this reaction and respond similarly. Be honest if you are also uncertain and worried about what is happening, as we all feel for the people who are affected.

Listen to them

Children’s exposure to news media is passive, which means that they do not have the opportunity to respond and ask questions. Be available to listen to their reactions and questions. Try to answer their questions in an age-appropriate manner. If you do not know the answer, that’s ok, and you can use that opportunity to find out the answers together.

Remind them that the conflict is far away, and they are safe. Some children may be more vulnerable at this time, particularly children who have previously experienced trauma, so it is particularly important to listen to them and support them. It is also important to reinforce that we do not have a lot of control about what is going on, yet your child may be interested in finding small ways they can help.

Use news media wisely

It is easy to be bombarded with reports and images of war on news services and social media. Support your child by limiting their exposure to these images. This could include ‘no screen times’, , and having boundaries around social media use, particularly with unfiltered and unverified videos circulating. However, it is important not to block the news entirely. Support your child to access age appropriate and credible media together. Use news services like Behind The News to explain the conflict and enable discussion about what’s happening.
The aim is to have calm and open conversations with your children. For more suggestions to support your children visit the ABC and ReachOut.

Anxiety study

While anxiety can be helpful when dealing with new challenges and novel situations, feelings of nervousness, worry and fear, brought on by experiencing certain triggers or events, and/or the expectation that this is too frightening, or difficult to cope with, can lead to children not coping in many situations.

If your child has anxiety you may be interested in a new study. The online Australian Childhood Anxiety Treatment Study (ACATS) conducted by Griffith University Queensland is offering children aged 7-12-years the opportunity to participate. The project will examine two treatment conditions and determine if they are as effective as each other in alleviating children’s anxiety disorders. For more information contact the Project Coordinators, Dr Rachel Sluis or Katherine Ryan, cadrp@griffith.edu.au or (07) 3735 3351. This study has received Catholic Education SA ethics approval.

Andrea Fairlie
College Psychologist R-12