Welcome to our Mercy Community.   

After a slightly longer break, I was so pleased last week to welcome our teachers, families and students back into the Mercy learning environment.   I hope all students have enjoyed their time with family and friends over the holidays and prepared themselves well for learning this year.  I am honoured to serve both Mercy and St Patrick's Colleges as Principal.

Our official first day on Monday 7th February was a wonderful day for me.   It was my privilege to witness students entering the College and seeing their gleaming eyes and happy faces peeking over their masks.  Students seemed ready and full of excitement to be here. I’m sure in future years, students will remember the start of the 2022 school year. 

As you would realise, the COVID pandemic has not just impacted us but the whole world has had to make various changes to how we educate students.   It is fantastic to be back to face to face learning which facilitates students to achieve deeper engagement with subject areas and receive immediate feedback from teachers.  The safety and wellbeing of staff and students is our key priority at all times.  We will continue to work closely with Queensland Health to ensure that all necessary health advice is followed.  Should you have any concerns please contact our College office on 49694199.

During our Zoom Assembly last week, I reminded students that the future is now.  What they do today will determine and affect their future. I believe everyone is talented in their own way and all students have their own unique potential.   While students are here at Mercy, may they believe in themselves and always set goals that will challenge and expand their knowledge base.  May they be the best they can be and try different things. But most importantly, may they enjoy what they are doing and be proud to be a Mercy student.

Thank you all for being a part of our Mercy family.  I wish you all a successful year.  

Janelle Aguis

I look forward to servicing the Mercy College Community again in 2022.  It is a privilege to work with such a professional leadership team consisting of Adam Skoczylas (Deputy Principal), Scott McSherry (Assistant Principal - Curriculum), Joe Kelly (Assistant Principal - Mission), Brendan Gunning (Assistant Principal - Admin) and Chris Sorbello (Assistant Principal - Students).

We all share a strong commitment to continue with the proud tradition of Mercy College enhancing relationships between students, staff, parents and the wider community.  Please do not hesitate to contact myself if you have any queries or suggestions. We appreciate feedback to assist in future planning and improvement. 

Mercy College wish to welcome the following new teachers Suritha Du Preez, Su Kim, Rachel Kendle, Michael Du Preez, Lisa Radford, Lisa Norris, Kasey Maunder, Jessica McNamara, Ian Schifilliti, Ebony Walker, Brandon Finnegan, Ashley Miles and Darcie O'Grady to the College community.

We would also like to welcome our ancillary staff members Rania Heke, Julie Rasmussen, Ethan Roberts, Deborah Chimes, Chris Karas and Bianca Miles.

Melissa Russell will also be the Indigenous Liaison Office for both Mercy and St Patrick's Colleges.

As I write this article, it is the 14th February and I can hear female staff on the corridor asking if their husbands had got them anything for Valentine’s Day?  Mercy College have had posters up around the College last week to encourage students to participate in a fundraiser for Project Compassion today.

It is interesting that we don’t know who Valentine was, but there are many legends about him.  One of the stories names him as a bishop when the Roman Emperor of the time made it a law that no Roman soldier should be allowed to marry.  The Emperor thought that his soldiers would not fight well in his many wars if they were afraid to risk dying in battles because of great love for their wives and families.

The story tells us that Bishop Valentine said that the Emperor’s law was not right; it was unjust – men and women have the right to marry and have families.  Soldiers began to approach the Bishop, and so he arranged marriages secretly.  Word got back to the Emperor, but Valentine was courageous in speaking before him: “I have promised to serve God who loves us, and I obey his laws”.  According to this legend, Bishop Valentine was put in prison where he died on this day – a patron saint of all who are in love.

May we all try to “seek and serve” God with the vigour of Bishop Valentine.

RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program – I have been approached by parents about conducting an RCIA program with any of our Secondary aged students who would like to start or complete their sacraments (baptism, reconciliation, eucharist and confirmation) and have not already done so.  In consultation with our Parish Priest, Fr Don White, we are hoping to start this program after school one evening a week (possibly Tuesdays) 3.30pm – 4.30 pm.  If any student in Yr 7-12 would like to join this course, please email: joseph_kelly@rok.catholic.edu.au to register your interest by Friday 4 March.  

Joseph Kelly 

Mercy turned a sea of red on Valentine’s Day, with single red roses and heart shaped lollipops dotting the usual backdrop of teal, white and navy. The College’s St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) Committee have already begun its fundraising efforts for 2022 with the annual Valentine’s Day fundraiser. Lots of single red roses and heart-shaped lollipops were delivered to homerooms on Valentine’s Day in support of Caritas’ Project Compassion. The Vinnies Committee, led by 2022 Committee Chair Flynn Cureton, and teacher helpers had fun sorting out the pre-sold items into homeroom groups on Friday 11 February. A big thankyou must go to Mrs Hardwick, Mrs Fehlhaber, Mrs Bennett, Mrs Bugeja and Ms Zimmerman for their assistance.  

New members are always welcome, so if you would like to join Vinnies, please come to our fortnightly meetings on Fridays of even weeks each term (Weeks 4, 6, 8 and 10 in Term 1).  These meetings take place in C01 from 11.10 am at First Break.  All are welcome to attend and help raise money for charity.

Louise Mullaney

Vinnies Coordinator

Mercy College aims to be a community were student protection is paramount, and the safety and well being of all students is promoted and protected. Here as Mercy College, we have implemented strategies to prevent harm to students and to ensure an appropriate and supportive response where harm is caused or suspected.

Some of these strategies include:

• Publishing guidelines and processes regarding student protection throughout the school.

• Delivering professional development for our staff in student protection concerns.  All staff complete a 2 hour mandated training on this each year, as well as compulsory Code of Conduct training.

• Appointing trained Student Protection Contacts and officers in the school.  These contacts ensure there is a capacity to act appropriately in all situations relating to student protection.  This year, the Student Protection contacts are Janelle Agius (Principal), Chris Sorbello (Deputy Principal Students), Dee Trannore (Counsellor) and Adrianne Mifsud (Midas House Coordinator). 

To obtain any further information or discuss any concerns you may have, please contact the front office on 4969 4199, or alternatively, send an email to donnetta_trannore@rok.catholic.edu.au

Dee Trannore

Guidance Counsellor

School Counsellors use their expertise to provide short term counselling to support students achieve academic success, social and emotional wellbeing and psychological health. School counselling occurs during school hours when a student is able to be absent from their lesson without it impacting on their learning, for example, during assessment time. A school Counsellor can assist you and/or your child by providing support and strategies to help at school and/or home. This might include support for: parent/child relationships, stress, grief and loss, or significant changes at home. At school, your child may require support with: goal setting, decision-making, learning difficulties, mental health issues, anger management, self-esteem, resilience and negotiating friendships.

Here at Mercy we have two counsellors to support the students.  This year we welcome Darcy O’Grady joining me in the counselling office.

Referring your student:

• Students above the age of 13 can self refer to the school counsellor.  In these situations, the Counsellor will make an assessment as to whether the student has a good understanding of the process and sufficient maturity to provide informed consent, or whether parental consent is required.
• Parents can also refer their student by contacting the office or their student's House Coordinator and asking for a counselling referral form.  You can also contact me directly through email (donnetta_trannore@rok.catholic.edu.au). 
• Leadership, House Coordinators and teachers can also refer students.
• If your student has been referred and does not want to engage with one on one counselling, we will work towards an alternative method of supporting your child.  

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a very important part of counselling. This means that any information presented during a session will not be disclosed unless you or your child has provided consent,  or deemed essential in accordance with Schools Privacy Policy.

Parent/guardian/carer involvement is encouraged and can be important for ongoing change. However, parents/guardians/carers need to be aware of confidentiality and its limits within the counselling process. If your child gives consent to engage in counselling, then the Counsellor will discuss this with your student as to how they wish to involve the parent/guardian/carer.

If you have any further questions regarding the counselling program or would like to discuss referring your student, please contact me on the above mentioned email, or contact the College office. 
Thanks,

Dee Trannore
Counsellor Coordinator. 

On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd publicly apologised, on behalf of the Federal Government, to the Stolen Generations – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities by successive colonial and Australian governments.

The Stolen Generations refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities as children.

The trauma of this still can be felt and impacts upon so many of our First Nations Peoples.
When we can come together to listen, understand, and walk beside each other in unity we can heal. Just like Jesus asks us to listen and love one another, we ask to be heard and ensure that the true history of First Nations peoples is shared so that this never happens again. 

Mercy College has developed a Service Learning Program where all students in each year level will participate in a model of service to develop their awareness of Catholic Social Teachings, which encourages students to grow as active citizens in their local and wider community. Encouraged by the teaching of Jesus Christ and inspired by the vision and courage of Catherine McAuley and her vision of being of service to others, the College Service Learning Program aim is to nurture and empower students to embrace and live out Compassion, Hope and Justice.

This year, our Year 7 students will be participating in our Mercy Market Garden composting program and worm farm. Students will assist in our garden through weeding, watering, planting, digging, composting and caring for the worm farm before Homeroom on a Tuesday morning. We are hoping to use the produce in the College or donate them to local charities. The Market Garden program started this week, and a roster has been sent home to parents so you are aware which week your child is rostered on.

Our Year 8 and 9 students will be taking part in a Buddy Reading Program at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, to assist with the development of young students’ reading and reading activities. All students will be rostered on to visit St Mary’s before Homeroom on Thursday mornings, to read with Year 1 and 2 students. Unfortunately, due to the current COVID restrictions, we will begin this program in Week 7, with the first group visiting on 10 March. A roster for this activity will be sent home closer to this date.

After a successful year with the Mercy College Brekky Van last year, our Year 10 Students will assist with the cooking and serving of breakfast for those in the community who are disadvantaged. The aim of the Brekky Van is to empower those struggling in our community with something as simple as a nourishing meal. All Year 10 students will complete an orientation and training for the Brekky Van over the next few weeks and will be given an opportunity to register their name and preferred Wednesday or Friday morning shift. Each shift will require two male and two female students who will be accompanied by three staff members. Students will be asked to discuss roster dates with parents as they will be required to be at school at 6.15am on their shift. We are proposing the start date for the Brekky Van Service to be Wednesday 9 March, and more information will be sent home closer to this date.

Kelsey Wallace

As we announced to our College community last year, St Patrick’s and Mercy Colleges have the hosting right to the 2022 CQUniversity QISSN and Confraternity Carnivals. We are now in the final countdown to what will be a wonderful occasion for our combined College and the region.

This is a very significant event. The Confraternity Carnival involves 60 teams, both boys and girls, from around Qld, and the QISSN event attracts up to 70 teams. This means we will be host to around 2000 students, and when combined with coaches, families and supporters, Mackay could see an influx of up to 6000 visitors to our region in that week.

Other regional centres to have hosted the Carnivals have experienced a $5M-$6M boost to the local economy. We hope to exceed that and bring a sustained, economic boost to our region by hosting the best Carnivals ever. The opportunities for local businesses, tourism and hospitality operators and retail stores are extremely substantial. We are very pleased that we have some excellent support already in attracting Gold sponsors, and we will announce these in the coming weeks. Shortly after that we will open up to Silver and Bronze sponsors. As you can imagine it is very expensive to put on a carnival like this, and through support of our corporate partners we can offer terrific exposure for their businesses.

We will be seeking the assistance of our combined College communities to assist in running the carnival.  The involvement of our families to bring about a successful event is essential, and the benefits this will bring to our College communities will be long lasting. We will need assistance with event planning, sponsorship, hospitality, catering, laundering, field marshalling, car park control and fundraising. Planning is well underway and we have already gained unequivocal support from the Mackay Regional Council, Tourism Mackay and Catholic Education - Rockhampton Diocese that will be vital in putting this event together.

Next month, we will be holding a parents forum to outline our vision for these carnivals and to garner support. Once we are aware of any new Covid restrictions for gatherings at school we will provide a date. We will be able to, at that time, list the roles and responsibilities that we will need support with.  I have every confidence that we will gain from you the support we need to make Confro/QISSN Mackay 2022 the best carnival of all time, and to put our combined College and our region in the national spotlight. Please stay tuned for updates as we move closer to the date. I hope you all join with us to be a part of this historic event.

School photography day is coming up soon! Group and portrait photographs can be purchased by following the link below. 

https://www.advancedimage.com.au/PublicPortal/Home.aspx?nbnhmHqqedDwbeBQB9Ivjw== 

Or visit:  www.advancedlife.com.au and 

enter the online order code:  C5E BWX M1Z 

Advancedlife now offers Latitude Pay!  To take advantage of LatitudePay and split the cost of your order into 10 small easy payments, simply order your school photos online as usual, set up a Latitude Pay account in just a few clicks and pay no interest or fees when you pay according to your payment schedule. It’s that easy.

3 easy ways to purchase:

1. LaittudePay – Click on the link below, set up an account during the online order process and split your payments across 10 weeks with no interest or fees, if you pay on time
2. Visa, MasterCard or PayPal
3. Cash - Collect an envelope from the College office to complete and return to our photographer on photo day.

 School photography information:

Online orders - do not require an envelope returned to your school.

Late fees - a late fee will be applied to each package purchased after photo day due to the additional cost of producing these packages separately.

Package delivery - photographic packages will be returned to your school for distribution approximately six weeks after photos are taken.

Students are to wear formal uniform on School Photo Day and pack their HPE uniform if it is required.

Jackie French, one of our great Australian authors (and one of our most prolific!) once said, “The measure of a good book is one where you are the better for having read it!” (Connections, Issue No.97, pp 1-2, www.curriculum.edu.au/scis/connections)

Mercy College not only encourages reading to access information and knowledge, but to read simply for the joy of reading. To help achieve this, we have implemented a program called USSR (Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading) where the entire school stops for 30 minutes on a Tuesday morning and devotes that time to silent reading. In today’s fast-paced world, I believe that silence is truly a gift.
 
Additionally, our purpose is to encourage as many students as possible through our doors. The library can be seen as a sanctuary and an opportunity for quiet reading; or a busy, active space catering to the learning needs of our students by offering research facilities, homework facilities, and tutoring (English tutoring is every Monday afternoon from 3 – 4.15 pm); as well as providing for students’ social needs such as: board games, card games, the Chess Club (who meet every week on a Wednesday), or the Book club (who meet every odd week on a Thursday).
 
The library is open from 8am - 4pm every day except Friday, when we are open until 3pm (p 22 of the student diary). Therefore, if your child needs to stay at school for whatever reason until 4pm, then you can be rest assured that the library can cater to their needs. They could make use of the various facilities on offer, all in a safe and secure environment. There is always something to do in the library!
 
Thank you and please encourage your child to commit to participating in our USSR program and even ask them, “So, have you read a good book lately?”

Stephen Crocker

 

Last year the staff at Mercy College decided to hold a silent auction to raise money for charity. The staff could even bid on which charity they would like the money raised to go to. 

A total of $3000 was raised, with the money begin shared between four different charities. 

Thank you to all the staff, businesses and members of the public that donated goods or services to our auction.

Maths Tutoring                              Monday 3:00pm to 4:00pm             D04

Chinese Five Spice Chicken 

Ingredients 

• 1 large chicken breast 
• 2 teaspoon sesame oil 
• 1 teaspoon Chinese spice 
• ½ teaspoon caster sugar 
• ½ onion sliced 
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce 
• 1 teaspoon garlic 
• 1 teaspoon crushed ginger
• 1 cup rice 
• 2 spring onions 
• 1 carrot sliced 
• ½ red capsicum 
• 10 snow peas 
• 80g broccoli 
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce 
• 1 tablespoon additional soy sauce 

Method 

1. Rinse rice and place in rice cooker with 1½ cup of water and set to cook. 
2. Cut chicken into cubes; slice the onion, capsicum, carrot and show peas. Chop the broccoli into florets. 
3. In a bowl, combine the cornflour, sesame oil, Chinese spice, caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce to create marinade. 
4. Coat chicken cubes in the marinade and set aside for 5 minutes. 
5. Heat vegetable oil in an electric fry pan. 
6. Add chicken and fry until cooked. Remove and set aside in a small bowl. 
7. Fry onion, garlic and ginger until soft. 
8. Add the rest of the vegetables, water, oyster sauce and extra sauce then stir-fry until water has evaporated. 
9. Add chicken and stir until flavours have combined and ingredients are cooked. 
10. Serve on a bed of rice. 
11. Garnish with curled red capsicum or green spring roll leaves.

Pikelets

Ingredients 

• 1 cup of self-raising flour 
• pinch of salt 
• 2 tablespoons of caster sugar 
• 190ml milk 
• 1 egg 
• oil spray 
• 1 tablespoon of butter 
• jam

Method 

1. Sift flour and salt in a medium bowl.  
2. Stir in the sugar. Whisk milk and egg together, then add to dry ingredient, whisking until smooth. 
3. Heat a non-stick frypan over medium heat and lightly spray with oil spray.  
4. Drop level tablespoons of mixture into the pan and cook for half a minute or until bubbles appear on the surface. 
5. Turnover and cook other side for 1 minute until golden. Allow to cool and serve with butter and jam. 

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
• 125g softened butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 185ml milk
• 12 cupcake paper cases

Glace' Icing

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon warm water

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line cupcake tin with paper cases.
2. Sift flour into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add sugar, butter, vanilla essence, eggs and milk and beat well.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared patty tin.
5. Bake for approximately 15-10 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
6. Cool and decorate as desired.

I would like to welcome all our Mercy College Tuckshop volunteers for this year. Thank you for offering your help - it is greatly appreciated. 

All volunteers have now been emailed the current roster. If you have not received yours, please contact me on 49694155 so a copy can be forwarded to you.

I am still seeking volunteers. If you are able to assist us this year, we would love to hear from you. Volunteer hours are from 9am until 2.30pm. Our busiest times are in the morning and serving the lunch break. Even if you can only come for a short time - it would be very much appreciated. Please remember all volunteers need to provide their COVID vaccination certificate.

I look forward to seeing everyone this year.

Margaret Floyd

Tuckshop co-ordinator