As we rapidly approach the end of term, we remember the significance of Lent and Easter for the Catholic community. The past five weeks have been a time of reflection and repentance and our focus has been on prayer, fasting or abstaining and doing good for others. At Good Shepherd, we have acknowledged the significance of prayer in Lent by holding our Year 7 and 8 Masses in RE classes and this Friday our Year 9 and 10 students will have their Mass in the Parish starting at 8.30 am. Due to the larger venue, we can invite our parents and families to be part of that. Our staff have participated in the Lenten Program and also examined what the Gospel value of Compassion looks like at Good Shepherd. Teachers will deliver short lessons across the year to reinforce the 2021 theme of Compassion.

Our Project Compassion initiatives have been very well supported by students (and families). Thank you to our staff, students and parents who have assisted with Free Dress days, bake sales, talent shows, Random Act of Kindness events and raffles of Easter Eggs and lollies. All of the proceeds from these fundraising activities will go to Caritas to support them in their work helping the needy. For more information about Project Compassion, please visit their website.

Staffing News

At the end of this term, we will farewell Claire Denton (Administration Officer) who has been at the College for the last three years. We will miss her especially in the Uniform Shop where she has done an amazing job keeping our students supplied with correct uniforms. We will also say goodbye to Alex Pallett in the first week of Term 2. Mrs Pallett is moving to Western Australia with her family. We thank Mrs Pallett for her contribution to the Art and Design Departments of the College.

P&F Trivia Night

We look forward to seeing you at the P&F Trivia Night this Friday.

NAPLAN Practice Tests

On Monday, 29 March, and Tuesday, 30 March, Year 7 and 9 students will partake in two ‘practice tests’. These tests will not record students' names nor their results, and is solely to familiarise students with the software. This is a great way to not only test the school’s domain and compatibility with student’s devices, but will minimise the uncertainty or stress for students in May when they sit the NAPLAN tests, on 29 and 30 March.

Year 7 and 9 students will complete the NAPLAN Practice Tests in their English and Maths lessons. This has been scheduled into the sequencing of lessons for the term to ensure students are not missing any core teaching and learning from their classes.  

Students should have fully charged devices and wired headphones to access these tests.

For more information about NAPLAN, including fact sheets, FAQs and examples of NAPLAN questions, visit www.nap.edu.au.

Term 1 Report Cards

Next Thursday, students and families will gain access to the Term 1 Interim Report Card. These report cards are issued online, through the Compass Parent Portal. We will notify parents and students when report cards have been uploaded, and you will have immediate access to them at this time. Please see the document below for instructions.

Term 2 Parent Teacher Student Interviews

Parent Teacher Student Interviews will take place on Wednesday 28 April (Week 2). Bookings for these interviews will be made through the Compass Parent Portal (either phone or desktop versions) and will open at 5pm on Thursday 1 April, after Term 1 Report Cards have been uploaded to Compass. The bookings will close at midday on Friday 23 April.

The Easter Holidays are almost here! Students deserve a well earned break after a busy term. School will resume for Term 2 on Tuesday 20 April.

End of Term 1 Celebrations

RSVP for the Family BBQ and Liturgy by filling in the link below:

RSVP: Term 1 Family BBQ & Easter Liturgy

Ephesians 4:32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

This year our College theme is Compassion.  During the term, we have tried to find many opportunities in pastoral care to give students examples of how they can be compassionate to themselves and to others.

Compassion is defined as the feeling that arises when you perceive another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering.

Compassion can arise from empathy, the more general ability to understand and feel others’ emotions but goes further by also including the desire to help. Of course, we can feel compassion without acting on it, and not all helpful acts are motivated by compassion.

When compassion does lead to action, we often call the result kindness. Kindness always includes the intention to benefit other people.

At Good Shepherd we believe that practicing kindness and compassion can improve not only the individual but strengthens our whole College community. Practising compassion and kindness makes our students:

• Feel happier and safer at school;
• More resilient to rise up against challenges;
• Healthier in their body and mind;
• Improve their relationships with those around them; and
• Achieve better in class.

I have witnessed many students showing kindness and compassion to those around them already this term and look forward to these actions continuing throughout the year and beyond. 

Fifth Week of Lent (school week beginning 22nd March)

Caritas Australia, through  Caritas Bangladesh, helped Halima with shelter, cooking equipment, hygiene and sanitation training. She took on the role of community trainer herself, organising the cleaning of washrooms, wells and toilets. 

Halima aspired to “Be More” and is proud that she is able to earn a small income, while maintaining the health of her family and the cleanliness of the camp community.

In the Cox’s Bazar district, women and children make up 78% of the total refugee population where 52% of children are aged 0-17. (UNHCR)

 Watch a short film about Halima’s story here.

 “Aspire not to have more, but to be more.”

Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

Holy Week 2021

Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) 28th March 2021

• Mass Sat 6.00pm, Sun 7.30am, 9.00am and 6.00pm
• Peace March, 28th March 2021 4pm, assemble at Kmart (March to Civic Centre)

Healing Mass, Monday 29th March 2021 at 7:00pm

Easter Mass for Laura Johnson Home, Thursday 1st April 10.30am   

Holy Thursday, 1st April at 7:30pm

• Mass of the Last Supper at 7:30pm - Followed by all-night vigil in the Church until 7:00am Friday (sign up for a time at the Church door).

Good Friday, 2nd April 2021

• 10.00am Stations of the Cross
• 3.00pm Lord’s Passion
• Ecumenical Service at the Cross on The Hill at 6.00pm

Holy Saturday, 3rd April 2021

• Easter Vigil Mass 7.30pm Service of Light, Renewal of Baptism Promises

Easter Sunday, 4th April 2021

• Ecumenical Service at the Lookout 6.30am
• Mass 7.30am, 9.00am, 6.00pm

Reconciliation/Confession Times 

• Friday - After Stations of the Cross at 10:00am & Lord’s Passion at 3:00pm. 11:30am-12:00 noon

A Little Now, a Lot More Later

I got my first job when I was 16 as a trolley boy and got $36 per week. That money was spent on things it shouldn’t have been and so when I started my apprenticeship three years later I did so without any money in the bank.

At that time everybody at the Mines was paid a bonus but all apprentices did not receive it in their pay but rather it was put into an “Apprentice Trust”. You could also put extra in yourself (which many did) and at the end of your four years it was yours to do with what you wanted. 

A couple of my mates did an unbelievable thing; they bought a house. The rest (most) of us laughed at them and either bought brand new high powered cars or just had a good time. 

I was in the latter group and spent 12 months in Brisbane enjoying the delights of World Expo 88. I didn’t work for 10 months, instead I made the rather brilliant decision to live off the $13,000 from my Apprentice Trust.

Yep, I was a real genius. See the average house price in Brisbane at the time was $71,000, in Mount Isa it was $65,000. In essence I had 20% of the house which meant it would have taken me 6 years to pay off a house at $1,000 per month or 15 years at $500 per month.

In other words I could have owned a house by the time I was 30 and possibly set myself for life financially. So why am I telling you about my wasteful spending?

Let's say kids today start work and get $10 per hour and work for the maximum 12 hours. If they start in Grade 10 and put away $10 a week they will have $520 at the end of the first year and $1,500 when they finish school.

Put that $1,500 into a managed investment account and continue to pay into it when you go to university/start your first job but raise it to $200 per month and you will have $33,000 when you turn 27. Most are beginning to look at settling down at that point in their life so it is a very handy deposit amount.

If you decide that after you finish your university degree/apprenticeship/or worked for 4 years you have an ability to raise it to $400 per month, when you turn 27 you will have just over $50,000.

I tell you my wasteful ways to help you see the opportunities I blindly and naively let pass which now sees me playing catch up. Your parents may have similar stories or they may have more successful ones; either way you can learn from them.

I’m not saying don’t have a good time, just put something away and party with what’s left. If you do that then when your partying days start to slow down and become less frequent you will have a nice little nest egg to begin the next phase of your life; even though that is sooo far away.

Youth Group this week is at Good Shepherd Catholic College from 6:00pm-8:00pm SATURDAY. It is for Year 7 and above and will be an Amazing Race with the teams to be selected on the night.

Come at 6:00pm and we will start at 6:15pm and finish in time for a drink and a feed to celebrate the final Youth Group before Easter.

Anyone who is here Good Friday and available for the Passion Play at the Church please let me know.

Where are they now?

Tara Gavan

Name, graduation year and House: My name is Tara Gavan, I graduated in 2019 and actually spent time in 2 houses at Good Shepherd. From grade 9 -11 I was in Chisholm, then due to there being 2 Chisholm people selected to be a part of the student leadership team, I decided to make the move and take Mackillop under my wing. 

What did you think you would do when you left school?

Due to the copious amount of STEM related excursions, work experience and activities held in town/at school, I definitely thought I wanted to study chemical or civil engineering after school. I also had a phase where I wanted to become a dietician as at that point in my life I started to care a lot more about what was going into my body. Medicine had always been in the back of my head since I was young but I guess I strayed away from it due to the abundance of STEM encouragement at school and also a fear of not being good enough to study medicine. 

Did you follow that pathway and/or what are you doing now?  I definitely fell out of interest for the engineering and dietician pathways and spontaneously applied for medicine at James Cook University. Without regret, I am now in my second year of studying a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery at James Cook University. 

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt since leaving school?

I remember Mr Harrop would always mention this, but the jump from the year 12 type of learning way out west in Mount Isa to the university style of learning anywhere is huge! Despite being seen as a high achiever at Good Shepherd, once I was at university, I realised that I need to work 100 times harder and more efficiently than before if I want to keep up with my cohort. Universities take in people from all types of backgrounds, whether from a city or country school or even postgraduate and the standard is not adjusted depending on your background, you just have to work hard to meet it.  

Favourite tuckshop food: My favourite tuckshop food is 100% the burritos. No more needs to be said. 

Favourite teacher:  I had too many favourite teachers to mention. The ones that stood out to me the most however, and they know who they are, are the ones who would yarn to me of a lunchtime in their office or out on duty.

Best school memory:  I will always remember our year 12 retreat. That was a mission and a half to even achieve but the end result was worth the setbacks. To name a few setbacks: in early 2019, the North Queensland roads fell subject to flooding and damage so the renowned Mareeba trip could not go through and; when the organisation of another trip, to go to Magnetic Island, came through, one of the large windows on our bus got smashed the morning of leaving. We really did not think a year 12 retreat was meant to happen that year but as we waited the few hours for our bus to get fixed, the stars began to align and we finally hit the road for a trip I will never forget.

What do you miss most about school?  I miss the 8:30am-3:00pm days that allowed me plenty of time in the afternoon to go hang out with friends, train or play in sport and even just relax.

Best piece of advice for current students:  If you are an indecisive, last minute decision maker like myself, set yourself up with subjects/prerequisites that allow you to be flexible with your decisions down the track. I am very grateful for the grade 11 me as she did this and it allowed for me to be considered for pathways I mentioned previously.

What do you hope to be doing in 10 years?  In 10 years I hope to be well and truly graduated (I should be by 2025) and working in either Mount Isa or Cloncurry as a doctor. What I want to specialise in is still a hard decision to make and probably going to take more than 10 years to achieve, however it has pondered my mind quite a lot to be a part of the Royal Flying Doctor's Service or maybe even a dermatologist which I was surprised to hear Mount Isa does not have yet. 

Queensland Training Awards

We wish Caitlyn all the best with her nomination.

What does an Electrician do?

Check out this short video to find out more.

https://studyworkgrow.com.au/2019/06/20/electrician/ 

Library Easter Raffle Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the Library Easter Raffle, Lewis McCoy, in Year 11. Lewis has requested that the 2nd basket of Easter Eggs be given the staff at the Laura Johnson Nursing Home.

Have your Holiday Reading sorted with Sora eBooks and audio books

Congratulations to the following students who attended regional trials in the following sports:

• Pratik Seegoolam, 13-15yrs Football (Soccer) - Northern Regions Trial
• RJ Cooper, 16-19yrs Football (Soccer) - Northern Regions Trial
• Elena Brown, 12-15yrs Volleyball - Capricornia Region Trial

These students represented Good Shepherd proudly at their respective trials, and we thank the Northern Region and Capricornia Region for allowing our students to participate in their trials.

I would also like to congratulate Connor Blythe who participated at the Northern Regions Trial for Hockey on the 9th of March. I am pleased to announce that Connor was selected for the 16-19yrs Hockey team and will compete later this year at the State Championships in May. Goodluck Connor.

In what has been a busy term in sport, the end of Term 1 has started to quieten down. We look forward to a big Term 2 which includes our School Athletics Carnival, the Good Shepherd vs Spinifex Rugby League Tri Series, as well as more MISSA and NW sport beginning with 12-19yrs Cross Country.

Term 1 has been a very busy but productive term for our students in the technology department. They have been designing, cooking and producing amazing projects. Students have gained many new skills in a real world context. It is really exciting to see the exceptional work the students have produced. Below is what their projects consisted of.

Food and Fibre Productions

Year 7 - Junior Masterchef and wheat bag

Year 8 - Healthy Takeaways

Year 9 - Bush Tucker Food

Year 10 - Foods for Special Occasions

ICT

Year 11 - Newspaper article about the impact of social media on youth today

Year 12 - Short film production - learning about hardware and software in the film industry

Design

Year 8 - Create a design and use photochromatic ink to add the design to go on a shirt or cap

Year 9 - Gidgee Healing Stationery

Year 11 - Project - Redesign the Mount Isa City Council Logo

Year 12 - Human Centred Design - Repurpose a space and design a hospital staff lounge and meeting room

7 Manual Arts

Timber and acrylic pencil case

Woodwork

Year 8 - Photo Frame

Year 9 - Nail Caddy

Year 10 - Jewellery Box

Metalwork

Year 8 - Metal Box

Year 9 - Carry All

Year 10 - Cantilever Tool Box

Furnishings

Year 11 - Carry All and Bedside Table

Year 12 - Outdoor Furniture

Engineering

Year 11 - Steel Box

Year 12 - Camp Shovel and Telescopic Selfie Stick

This Term, our College leaders have had the opportunity to attend various events such as the Bishop’s Youth Leaders Commissioning Celebration in Townsville in Week 4. Students learnt a lot from the event and guest speakers, Jill Gowdie, Sean Choolburra and Emma Fraud about leadership, but especially about being leaders of faith in our Catholic context. Each of the speakers spoke about their leadership and faith journey and helped us to reflect on how we can lead our College this year. 

Students also had an opportunity to visit the NRL All Stars Rugby League game. 

We have also had a number of big events that the Year 12’s have been involved in leading. Firstly, the 2021 Swimming Carnival, which was a great success. Year 12 students and our House Leaders, Prosper, Charlie, Carly and Caitlyn were extremely busy in the lead up to the carnival, preparing their house groups for war cries and dances on the day. Here are some photos of our 12’s in action at their house assemblies and at the swimming carnival. 

Although students were successful in the staff vs student relay race at the Swimming Carnival, they could not ‘seal the deal’ for the Year 12 vs Teachers Volleyball last week, with the teachers winning 25 - 23. Thank you to all that came down to support the last big event for our Year 12 students before Exams and TAFE block.

Thank you also to students who got into the spirit of St Patrick’s Day and have been supporting the Project Compassion fundraising activities throughout this term. Thanks also goes to our female College Captains who attended QRC/WIMARQ 2021 International Women's Day Breakfast in Week 7. The breakfast aims to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women in society and to encourage gender diversity in the mining and resources sector. It was an inspiring morning, and very encouraging for our upcoming female leaders. 

Congratulations to our students this week, who have just finished their exam block and all the best for those attending TAFE. I will be going on long service leave from Week 10 this term, and will be back Week 3, Term 2. I would like to wish Mr Travis Roberts all the best, as he steps into the role whilst I’m away. Wishing all staff, students and families a very happy Easter! May your home be filled with hope, love and joy these holidays. 

Did you know that GSCC has a chess club? Meeting each Friday during the first break, a group of students have been playing friendly games and building skills together. Later in the year we will be having a school tournament to find the GSCC Chess Champion for 2021. Everyone is welcome, from beginners (we have a lot of those) to Grand Masters (still looking).

Every Wednesday morning from 7.00am - 8.45am. Parents and Friends are invited to The Arili Thina Cafe to purchase your morning coffee and breakfast.

By doing so you are supporting our Hospitality students to achieve their competencies towards their Certificate ll in Hospitality and all profits go towards their Hospitality Camp to the Gold Coast in August. 

There are a range of coffees, cold drinks and breakfast food available. Please see our Menu. Our students are becoming fantastic baristas. Come see for yourself how good they are.