Good Luck to Our HSC Students
A message from Executive Director of Sydney Catholic Schools Tony Farley to our HSC students
Our Unearthed High finalist
Meet our triple j Unearthed High finalist: Indie musician Abby Taylor of Brigidine College, Randwick. The incredible singer-songwriter talked with us about her music, how she creates it and performed a cover of one of her favourites.
Abby’s entry ‘Sink’ was among more than 1700 uploads from talented high schoolers across the country and was selected as a finalist. You can hear it at triple j Unearthed
Discover more of Abby’s music on SoundCloud 
Classroom comes to parents
To reduce separation anxiety caused by parents being unable to enter school grounds due to COVID-19, this school created a way to bring the classroom outside the school gates.
Up, up, and away!
Watch what happens when students from Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School Cabramatta and Patrician Brothers’ College, Fairfield pair up to design and build their very own airplanes.
Students make cyclone-proof houses
Can students create better housing than the experts?
Year 8 had a great day on the Science and Engineering Day. They had to design a model cyclone proof house that met certain building specifications and could survive the wind test (a fan and leaf blower) and the rain test (2-3 litres of water from a watering can) and within budget.
Read full article Year 8 Science and Engineering Day
Watch the video to find out which Bethlehem College in Ashfield students made the best cyclone-proof houses and how they did it!
Tony Farley’s Weekly Message 7 Aug 2020
Executive Director Tony Farley discusses the future of our schools and the importance of ‘Enrolling Now’ before places fill up in our wonderful schools.
The Indigenous girls who designed an NRL jersey
The Indigenous round holds great importance in the NRL calendar. This year, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs entrusted the design of their special commemorative jersey for round 12 to the students of all-girls Bethlehem Catholic College in Ashfield.
“It’s breath taking,” said one of the designers, Bethlehem College student Chanel, of the Kamilaroi and Gomeroi nations.
“Being involved in this project makes me feel proud and happy to be a part of something so rare. As a young Indigenous woman, I feel more connected to my culture and more recognised by the community.”
The design was created by a team of students at her school of various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, who did extensive research into the local area’s peoples, their traditions, totems and key flora and fauna as part of the project.
Taryn, of the Wiradjuri nation, said the inspiration for the jersey design came from the stories and lands of the local Aboriginal tribes, including the Wangal tribe.
“This design is about community, identity, and solidarity with the symbols used portraying players, supporters and the wider NRL community coming together to celebrate our culture” – Taryn
The jersey features the Cooks River, an important geographical point for traditional owners, according to fellow student Darci, of the Wiadjuri and Dunghutti peoples.
“The Wangal people used the river as a resource for food, water and to bathe in,” said Darci.
“Myself and the rest of the girls used our time to design and research about the Dreamtime stories, land and people. We also told a few of our own stories, to have a complete understanding of the whole project.
“We used animal tracks, such as the emu, snake, kangaroo and echidna. The stars (on the jersey) represent the Indigenous players’ ancestors. …
Have your say on remote learning
On Monday the 20th of July we sent out a survey to members of the Sydney Catholic School Community to get your feedback on remote learning. Check your e-mail inbox and spam filter and make sure you tell us how you felt about remote learning and ways we could improve if we find ourselves in that situation again.
Your feedback is important to making sure we deliver the best possible teaching and learning environment to all our students. The survey closes on the 3rd of August, so don’t miss out.
Video: Vivid innovation in Mosman
Vivid Sydney has quickly become a staple of the state’s event calendar, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to view light shows and art installations while sharing ideas and food.
In 2020 that kind of crowd is a no-no, with the potential for spreading COVID-19 considered much too high. So the Vivid festival was cancelled, unfortunately.
The students of Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School Mosman took that as a challenge, rather than a defeat, and decided to create Vivid in their classroom.
In science, they crafted an artistic façade of a famous Sydney landmark, then lit it up with LED lights.
Lachlan’s project was inspired by his 2019 visit to a Catholic icon. “I picked St Mary’s Cathedral,” he said. “I think it’s really cool how there’s so many parts of it that are lit up.”
Creating a circuit on a canvas wasn’t as easy as the students imagined, however.
As Elena explained, “My problem was the lights would only stay on for a few seconds, then flicker on and off. My dad helped me by making the copper wire thicker so it would conduct more electricity.”
Problem solving was a huge part of the STEM project, STEM being short for Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“With the copper tape, you don’t just put it on – you need to double it to do copper on copper so the circuit runs,” said Lachlan. “If I could go back I’d change some joints to foil, as it’s thicker and conducts electricity better.”
But getting the circuit to conduct electricity was only one step. Students also had to learn about computer programming.
“We stuck a microbit into the Chromebook, then coded it to program the light,” said Sam.
It took some work for the budding programmer to get it right.
“Getting the lights to light up was quite difficult,” …
End of Term 2 Message
Dear parents and carers
Term 2 has concluded, it was a Term filled with the many challenges of this unique time. I want to send a special thank you to the teachers, teachers aides, parents and carers who have come together to ensure our students have been given the best possibility to grow and achieve.
At Sydney Catholic Schools we look forward to a bright future for the remainder of 2020. While there may still be challenges ahead, we will face them together and support each other to the best of our abilities.
To our students, parents and wider family, Godspeed and enjoy your student vacation time.
God Bless,
Tony Farley
How are HSC students doing?
With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions Sydney Catholic Schools’ executive director, Tony Farley, has been visiting schools in the network. While at Marist College Eastwood he had the opportunity to sit down with two HSC students to discuss how they are approaching their path towards their trials and final assessments in the coming weeks for his Weekly Message.
Tony Farley’s Weekly Message 12/06/2020
Tony Farley’s Weekly Message for the 12th of June 2020, looks at the return of face to face teaching and a look ahead at Refugee Week 2020
Bottling Friendship
Sydney Catholic Schools take wellbeing and connectedness between students very seriously. Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary has taken this to a new level as part of the UR Strong Program.
The focus of the program is wellbeing, health, social skills and happiness. And the key to it all is Fantastic Friday!
Each week students take part in a unique activity like meditation, games, stretching, along with staff check-ins.
Most recently Mary Immaculate was inspired by the classic message in a bottle and rebranded it as Friendship in a Bottle.
Dana Kurford from UR Strong highlighted the importance of programs like this during covid-19.
“Accessibility to our online world is handy right now, however taking some time to slow the pace down for our kids is vital,” Ms Kurford said.
“We can use this time to empower our kids to deeply reflect on what makes a friend precious and then share these reflections with their bestie.”
She said friendships are pivotal to developing social skills and self confidence – Friendship in a Bottle lets students send a special friend a message, some in person, others leaving it for classmates to find when they return to class.
One student convinced Mum and Dad to drop it in their friend’s letter box as a real surprise.
Principal Lisa Wahab has noticed how well her students have responded to the program.“The students have loved this,” Ms Wahab said.
“The activity is designed to help kids keep the lines of communication open in a creative and fun way to foster strong foundations in their friendships.”
Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary Bossley Park website CLICK HERE
- p: +61 2 9604 3877
- f: +61 2 9609 4988
- e: info@mibossleypark.catholic.edu.au
What it’s really like back at school
This week Executive Director Tony Farley’s Weekly Message does something a little different. Tony has invited Year 2 student Madeline to tell him about how schools are handling covid-19 first ahnd
