Scholar’s Assembly Speech 2020

Good morning Ms Beltramelli, Learning and Teaching Adviser Townsville Catholic Education, Ms Tammi Webber, Indigenous Education Adviser Townsville Catholic Education, Parents, Teachers and Scholars. Every year here at Good Shepherd, during Catholic Education Week, we choose to mark the occasion by acknowledging our highest academic achievers at a Scholar’s assembly. Despite the disruptions of Term 2, our students have forged ahead with their studies and produced outstanding results, which we will acknowledge today. Each of the students here in front of us have demonstrated motivation, perseverance and rigour in regards to their studies and on behalf of the College, we congratulate them on their achievements.

This year across the state we are celebrating 175 years of Catholic education. Catholic schools, like Good Shepherd, strive to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and to reach their full potential as just, compassionate and life-giving members of society. We aim to do this at Good Shepherd through our pastoral care programs, Youth groups, volunteering at Jangawala, fundraising for organisations such as the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation and Caritas. In Mount Isa, the Good Shepherd point of difference is our commitment to developing the whole child - academically, physically, emotionally, culturally and importantly spiritually. Our charisms of Edmund Rice, Mary MacKillop and the Good Shepherd, are central to our school and influence our RE programs and teaching and learning. Our goal is for our students to leave Year 12 with a strong sense of spirit, purpose and direction for their life. 

One Year 12 student who has demonstrated to his teachers and peers what it means to be faith-filled is Darcy Ryder. Nominated this week for the prestigious Deus Caritas Est award, Darcy is a role-model for a student of Catholic Education. His support of his peers and involvement in socially just initiatives makes him a worthy recipient. Darcy received his award on Monday at the Catholic Education Week mass, but this is a fitting opportunity for him to be recognised for his award at this Catholic Education assembly. Can we please congratulate Darcy Ryder for receiving the Deus Caritas Est (or God is Love) Award for 2020?

Our first award goes to Christine Valentine for her long time commitment and dedication to the College. Christine has served in numerous capacities at the College, such as the tuckshop and her current role as Administration Reception. Christine is the happy and friendly ‘face of the College’ to all of our parents and visitors to the school. We thank Christine for everything she has contributed to the school community. Please congratulate Christine Valentine.

Our second staff nomination for the Spirit of Catholic Education award is Dorothy Frew (or Dottie). Dottie is a much loved member of the College community and is nominated in the Aunty Joan Hendrick’s category for service to Reconciliation. At our NAIDOC celebrations on the last day of term, we officially launched our Reconciliation Action Plan and we have Dottie to thank for driving this project over the last two years. Dottie is a strong advocate for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, successfully overseeing their participation in the Emerging Leaders’ program. To present her with her acknowledgement today we welcome Ms Tammi Webber - Indigenous Education Adviser to the stage to make the presentation. Let’s please put our hands together for Dottie Frew for her special award.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our teachers, school officers, office and auxiliary staff for their extraordinary commitment to the success of Good Shepherd Catholic College. Thank you for your continued dedication to making this the best possible Catholic school. To our parents and carers, thank you for putting your trust in us and for partnering with us everyday in the teaching and learning of our students. We also could not do the work we do without the support of Fr Mick Lowcock, Fr Emene Kelemete and the local Parish. Connection to Church is vital for the success of any Catholic school. 

Thank you to everyone for coming this morning and congratulations again to our academic achievers on their accomplishments today.

Scholars’ Awards

This week, during Catholic Education Week, we celebrated the Semester One achievements of our students. Congratulations to all award recipients for their efforts!

SPOLIN

Our Year 10s are trialling their Senior subjects for the remainder of this year. This is an exciting new step in their schooling journey. In Week 4, Good Shepherd will host the Senior Phase of Learning Information Night where students and parents can find out more about the subjects on offer and the pathways our Seniors can take to complete their QCE.  More information to follow.

College Photo Day

I wanted to remind students and families that our College Photo Day is scheduled next week on Wednesday, 5th August.  Photo packs were handed out to students this week in Homeroom for students to give to parents to complete with the photo pack options preferred. This must come with students on Wednesday to hand directly to the Photographers.

Attached below is a copy of the uniform requirements for each Year level and the expectation that all students will arrive on the day in their full Academic Uniform.  Failure to not wear the correct uniform will mean that students will not have their photo taken. Additional reminders are that NO students should be dressed in their PE or Engineering Uniform on the day and all students in Year 10 to 12 are required to wear their blazer for photos.

Road Safety / School Arrival and Departure

As you would all be aware, the roads around GSCC are very busy before 8:30am, and particularly at 3:00pm. We ask that our families use caution when dropping off and picking up students each day.

Parking rules apply around schools, especially around school entrances. The following information has been adapted from the School Zone Parking and Pick Up section of the Queensland Government website:

In the school zones around GSCC there are several expectations of motorists:

• All roads surrounding the College are 40km from 7:30am - 9am, and 2:00pm - 4:00pm please ensure you adhere to these limits and take note of the signage. 
• Parking restrictions - half of the car parks at the front of the College (Mary Street) have a 2 hour parking limit. Students should be mindful of this when parking in the morning.
• There is a pick-up and drop-off area where parking is not allowed—but where you can collect your children in a fast and safe way. These are located on both Camooweal Street and Mary Street. Please take note of the signage when using these areas.
• Yellow edge lines (stopping and parking is prohibited). Please note that the areas near the pedestrian crossing on Mary and Camooweal Street are covered by these yellow edge lines. Please do not park here when dropping off or picking up your child as it impedes the view of the pedestrian crossing for oncoming traffic.

There can often be queues at drop-off and pick-up areas outside schools.

When using a drop-off and pick-up area you:

• must use the area like a quick moving taxi rank.
• need to move forward in the queue of vehicles to the signed area.
• can get out of your vehicle to quickly help your children get in and out safely (once in the signed area)—however you must not walk away from your vehicle.
• are only allowed 2 minutes in the signed area (if you take any longer you can be fined)—if your children are not ready to get straight into your vehicle at pick-up time, you will need to drive round the block and queue to enter the area again.
• should only let your children out once you have pulled into the signed area (it is dangerous to let them out while waiting in a queue).
• should teach your children to look out for your vehicle and to get in quickly when you pull up.
• must enter front in (never reverse).

With a focus on Catholic Social Teaching and Social Justice in our Religion classes this Term, I was interested to see Pope Francis saying “Today Christ is knocking from inside the Church and wants to get out.” This is encouraging us to deepen our relationship with God by living in community and experiencing Christ through our interactions. The Catholic Social Teachings are teachings that provide a holistic approach to how we live our lives in community. They are principles that have the Dignity of the Human Person at its centre and gives us a guide on how we should be living with each other on Earth.  

The Catholic Social Teachings include:

• The Dignity of the Human Person

We are ALL made in the image of God and therefore have inherent worth, are good and deserve to be treated with dignity.

• The Common Good 

As we live in community the rights of individuals must be balanced with the wider common good.

• The Preferential Option for the Poor

This asks us to look at the world through the eyes of the poor, the needs of the weak and vulnerable should come first.

• Solidarity

We are one family in Christ and so as such we stand together.

• Care for Our Common Home

The Earth is God’s gift and we share this habitat with all kinds of plants and animals and as such we have a duty to respect and care for it.

• Subsidiarity and Participation

As a rule of social organisation, subsidiarity affirms the right of individuals and social groups to make their own decisions and accomplish what they can by their own initiative and industry.

As we celebrate our Good Shepherd Catholic College Feast Day on today, we are inspired by the work of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of St Joseph who came here and provided Catholic education to this region. We remember Edmund Rice, Mary MacKillop, Caroline Chisolm and Bishop Ray Benjamin who lived by the principles outlined in Catholic Social Teaching, who put those less fortunate first.

Mount Isa, Brisbane, London, Tokyo the world!

Year 11 Geography students have just completed and submitted a data report examining the challenges to effective transportation in Brisbane in the light of that city’s growing population. The focus is on sustainable futures, liveability and affordability. The new Term 3 unit of study focusses on Megacities and global urbanisation. Students will explore the factors leading to the growth of Megacities, the challenges posed by urbanisation and planning that will promote sustainability and the wellbeing of the people who live there. We love Geography and are planning post-pandemic world travels.

Throughout Term 2 we looked at how we could show gratitude to those close to us. 

Fr Mick visited the College to share some time and he suggested we also extend this gratitude for those special people in the community that have helped during this year and may not be acknowledged or thanked regularly. Last week during Pastoral Care Year 7 wrote letters of thanks to the Laura Johnson Home staff and residents, the Police Force who have protected our Indigenous communities and the Queensland borders and also the nurses at the Mount Isa Hospital. 

Genuine gratitude and respect was shown and these letters are being delivered by students to these wonderful people.

NAIDOC 2020

Good Shepherd Catholic College NAIDOC celebrations were held on the last day of the term and students were encouraged to wear indigenous shirts or colours with a gold coin donation being donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We started the morning off with our elders morning tea in the library, and instead of having our regular assembly for our liturgy, this was filmed with just a few invited teachers and students which was shown during homeroom.

Some of the activities our students got to do was some deadly TSI sit down dance/move it mob style with Aunty Valerie Craigie, Jacob & Tutu from Mob Fm which had the students showing how deadly they can move, and our students even got to perform and sing Taba Naba which they totally enjoyed.

Our fabulous art teachers Alex Pallett and Saskia Brown facilitated the Chalk Art session which had the students drawing around the school grounds indigenous art symbols and drawings. We also had our deadly PE teachers out on the school oval facilitating the Indigenous games which our students were highly engaged with. 

The Trivia rotation (kahoot) which was run by Willie Morganson and his helpers had students thinking on the spot with knowledge on Indigenous Australia.

During lunch breaks we also ran a touch football game and face painting that Lasharna Hegarty who is one of our emerging leaders was in charge of. 

To end the celebration with the help from James Coghlan (school chaplain) and some of our deadly school officers we had a whole school BBQ.

The day would not have been successful without the recognition of all our teachers/leadership and school officers help.

Certificate of Appreciation from the Indigenous Literacy Foundation

Last Term, and during the school holidays, a number of students undertook Work Experience within various Industries. We thank the following businesses for supporting our students:

• Clancy Corporation
• Mt Isa Veterinary Surgery
• MAS Mechanical
• St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School
• Ultimate Kitchens
• Shaine Hunter Locksmith
• A.R.T. Air Conditioning and Sheet Metal
• BAM Auto Electrical
• Kretschmann Engineering
• EB Games
  

Some pictures of our students on placement.

Term 3 Work Experience Applications Now Open For all Year 10/11/12 Students

Collect an application form from the Careers Office. If you need help securing a placement see Mrs Coghlan. Applications close 21st August

QTAC “How to Apply to University” Information Session

On Tuesday 18th August at 5.30pm the College will host an Information session for Year 12 students and parents about how to apply to University. This information will be delivered via ZOOM. Students and parents are invited to attend the session at GSCC or login remotely.

We have had a great week in sport here at GSCC, with our house competition getting off to a roaring start. We congratulate Rice house for taking out the touch football competition last Friday, beating Mackillop house in the final. This week saw the houses battle for the bragging rights in our house Netball competition, in which Mackillop took out the top spot. Below is our current house sport tally for this year and we look forward to house Volleyball next Thursday.

In the upcoming weeks we have 13-15 Year boys and girls Cricket nominations due for North West trials - If your child is interested in this please ensure they find Mr Harries at school to fill out the appropriate paperwork. 

Confraternity rugby league team

As a team we have had a tough year with the COVID-19 restrictions, however, we are very happy to have been able to gift our students with team polo shirts that they can take with them to remember the Charters Towers trip they were involved with, and the trainings that brought them together as a team, and as mates. This was only possible due to our amazing sponsors that were directly involved in providing funding for these polo’s. 

Our amazing sponsor team involved: 2Sea’s Catering, Brumby’s bakery, and Mount Isa Mining Supplies - The school and our young men appreciate you and your contributions to them this year.

Another massive thank you goes out to Pharmacy First for sponsoring our strapping and first aid needs whilst we were away earlier in the year for our tournament in Charters Towers. Also thankyou to the P&F of GSCC for their contribution to the Charters Towers trip.