Mercy Messenger Term 2 Week 8, 11 June 2021

We are now drawing to the end of the first Semester, with students and staff looking forward to the upcoming holiday breaks. 

Wednesday 9 June was School Officer Day in Queensland. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge our hard-working ancillary staff, who support the teaching staff and students of the College. Without their help, many of the activities planned at the College would not be possible.

P & F News

At the next meeting of our P & F a discussion and review of our P & F structure and procedures will occur to enable a smooth transition for our new entity as a combined College in 2023.  Below is a link from the Catholic Parents Assn that I encourage you to read and I invite you to be active participants in our process.  

https://cspqld.schoolzineplus....

The P & F provide financial assistance to the College in a number of ways. This year, the committee will assist with funds for students attending State and Capricornia trials, equipment and resources for various departments including Religion (textbooks), HPE (camera) and Technology (magnet bender).  

Without this support, these events and College improvements would not be possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members on our College Board and P & F, who volunteer their time to enrich and improve our College community for which we are truly grateful.

NSIT Review 

Recently, we welcomed the National School Improvement Tool (NSIT) reviewing team to the College. The team consists of four members who hold conversations with all members of the Mercy community. The NSIT review assists schools to review and reflect on their efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The feedback received from this review will give the Leadership team at the College, improvement outcomes to focus on. I would like to thank the staff, parents and students who had a conversation with the review team during this past week. The findings of the review were extremely positive and I look forward to continue to build a school improvement plan that enhances our students journey of lifelong education.

Human Powered Vehicles

This weekend our amazing HPV teams will participate in the Inaugural Whitsunday STEM Challenge at Palmyra Dragway.

A huge thank you to Michael Duggan, Ben Palise, Sophie and Paul Haverda, Brett Comerford and Sandra Bayliss for organising this and for their guidance in this extracurricular activity. I would also like to acknowledge all our local sponsors for their support and we will provide updates and results in the next newsletter. 

Retreats and Reflections

This week, our entire cohort of students have been attending various retreats and reflection sessions throughout the Mackay area. This was an opportunity for development of a personal identity for students, as well as the development of their leadership qualities. It was a great opportunity for students and staff to get to know each other outside the classroom environment.  I am extremely grateful to have been able to witness the fun, challenges and team building exercises with students.

Sporting Teams

Congratulations to the various Mercy Sporting teams who have been competing recently. Our soccer team members who competed in the Bill Turner Cup, displaying outstanding defence, our Netball teams who competed in the Mackay and District Secondary School Netball Competition performing well in all divisions, and our League team who were also victorious in the first round of the Cowboys Challenge.  It was great to see Mercy dominate successfully throughout the Mackay Sporting Arena. 

Fame Musical  

Our talented Mercy and St Patrick College students have been dancing up storm in rehearsals.  Tickets are now available for purchase through the MECC.  Dates for the shows are:   Thursday 24 June at 7:00pm.  Friday 25 June at 11:00am and 7:00pm.  Don’t miss out, purchase your tickets today.

Mrs Janelle Agius

Over the last two weeks, our nation has been focused yet again on the COVID pandemic and the need to protect people from the virus, especially the lives of vulnerable people in our community. And during the same period, the Queensland parliament began a debate about legalizing euthanasia. There is a great irony in this situation; on the one hand our governments are prepared to go to great lengths in the pandemic to protect and save lives, and on the other hand, our elected representatives are very keen to enact laws to take away life. The other irony is National Palliative Care week was also observed at this time.  Hospitals all over Australia highlighted the advances in Palliative care and how people do not have to choose between a pain or death. Good palliative care makes an enormous contribution to our community that the question could be asked: with good palliative care, why do we need to legalize euthanasia and make our society vulnerable to the many moral dangers that such a step could bring? 

It seems these days that our Catholic faith with our core value of respect for life from conception until natural death often places our faith community on the other side of public opinion and the actions of public figures. Perhaps we should not be surprised. Jesus himself lived through the same experience because of his advocacy and care for the vulnerable. His teachings, as they are today, were often counter to the culture of his time. He knew what it was like to go against public opinion.

Last Sunday we observed Corpus Christi Sunday, celebrating our belief in the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, and the Body of Christ that is the Church. At the heart of Corpus Christi is the belief that we are called to live in union with Christ; that is what the Sacrament of the Eucharist helps us to do – to see Christ and to be conformed to his image. This idea of being in Christ’s image that at the heart of any moral issue we need to evaluate, whether it be abortion, euthanasia, care for the poor and vulnerable, or care for the environment. In those issues how do we conform to the image of Christ within us? Our answer about euthanasia is simple: Certainly not by deliberately taking life away.

Often, the values of compassion and dignity are used to advocate for euthanasia. The Premier used these in her speech to introduce the proposed legislation. From a Catholic perspective, there are well-defined understandings of compassion and dignity. There is an important phrase in medical ethics – one used to describe Catholic health care-. It is worth remembering the Latin phrase “Primum non nocere” meaning “first and foremost, do no harm.” Practically this means, “heal if you can and if not, then simply care.”  It is the core principle of palliative care. It informs our approach to euthanasia. Good palliative care is the expression of compassion, as are the prayers of our community for the sick and the vigil that families keep at the bedside of their loved ones.  But always, the starting point for a compassionate approach to health care is “Do no harm.”

The value of dignity begins with the notion that it is God-given. Dignity is not a commodity; it cannot be measured. It is not about quality of life but about being made in the image and likeness of God and seeing life as God’s first gift. It is the first and foremost human good and it must not be intentionally taken away. Simply the objective truth of “Thou shall not kill” reinforces that dignity never leaves us. 

All of this makes our faith counter cultural, but that does not mean we have to feel weary.  We always have Christ and his message of hope for the world, especially so when the end horizon of this earthly life appears and the great promise of the Gospel begins to open before us; that if we are conformed to Christ in this life, we will be with him forever.

Fr Don White

Parish Priest Southern Cluster

Recently Our Brekky Van and four of our Mercy College Mackay students attended Mackay's Homeless Expo, for those who missed it see the Daily Mercury article regarding the Expo.

Ms Cecelia McLoughlin

Mercy College has been lucky enough to receive these beautiful hand made drums for our use, I would like to thank Mr Aice Sambo for making these drum's for all to enjoy. Below is a little history on Aice and the drums he has made.

Aice Sambo is from the Meuram and Dauareb tribe from MER (Murray Island, Eastern Torres Strait). The drums are called Mukes in the Meriam Language or Warup in Torres Strait Language. These drums are used mostly for keeping the beat when singing and when performing ceremonial dance.

Mrs Melissa Russell

Mrs Cherie Hess and Mrs Vikki McGrath

On Friday 4 June, students were encouraged to wear their State of Origin colours to support the St Vinnies Winter Appeal. Many students and staff got involved to support this worthwhile cause. $189.05 was raised and donations of blankets and tinned food will help those in need this winter. 

Mrs Louise Mullaney

The Hockey Season is well underway with our boys and girls’ team games on Saturday mornings. The college is greatly appreciative to our team coaches for 2021 who are Gav Walker – Team Coach for Mercy Girls U-16, Dean Anderson and Andrew Morgan – Team coaches for Mercy Boys U-16s. 

This week we interviewed Gav Walker to gather some insights into the sport and in the next newsletter we will introduce Dean and Andrew. I am sure you will agree we are lucky to have such experienced coaches in the sport working with our students.

What is great about hockey? 

Hockey is a fun sport to play that keeps you active. You can represent your school, and if you practice hard you may have the opportunity to represent your town, your state and in some cases, even your country. There has been a number of Australian Reps that have attended Mercy College over the years. Most of all, it is a chance to play sport with your friends and those friendships that you make, can last forever. 

What has been your major contributions to Hockey over the years?  

I have been involved in hockey for approximately 45 years and coaching for more than half of this. I really enjoy coaching and passing on my knowledge of the game to players, parents and also other coaches. I have coached many junior teams at St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School and Mercy College Mackay where my children have attended school. Many of the Mackay representative teams from U13’s through to Senior Men’s teams have attended Queensland State Titles. I am also an avid supporter and promoter of Indoor Hockey here in Mackay which is a great sport to get involved with when field/outdoor hockey finishes its season.  Some of my highlights include coaching the Queensland Country Men’s team in 2008 at Australian Titles in Busselton Western Australia. 

Mrs Roselynne Marino

On Wednesday 2 June Mercy College competed in the Rugby School Boys League Grand Final:

Three Year 7/8 Mercy College Teams participated in the 16 team competition with all three teams finishing in the top six positions. The Year 7/8 Mercy Blue team made the Grand Final but were unfortunately defeated by Mackay North SHS. From the three teams a division one team will be announced to take on other schools in the district in the 'Division One Competition'.  Well done to all of our Mercy boys for an excellent season.

The Year 9/10 Mercy Blue and Mercy Teal were the two dominant teams in the 12 team competition which resulted in the two teams facing off in the Grand Final. The Grand Final was a game of two halves with the Mercy Blue team jumping out to a 20 - 0 half time score. The final result of 20 -12 indicated how tight of a game the final was.  Mr Paul (Coach) said that the commitment and attitude of both teams were to be commended.

Mr Matthew Paul

On Monday the 23rd of May, Mercy attended Mackay Christian College to compete in the Gardiner Chess Interschool Tournament. The four members of the team (Jake Rickards, Riely King-Muscat, Maddison Burgess and  Owen Franettovich) were accompanied by Mrs Ashlea Kennedy and Mr Lincoln De Thomasis, performing admirably and represented Mercy with pride.

The students should be extremely proud of their efforts, as they overcame a significant age difference with the rest of the competition to finish 8th out of 21 teams. With our team ranging from Year 7 to Year 9, we are excited for what the future has in store. Particular commendations should be given to Owen Franettovich, who finished on 5 wins out of his 7 games, only 1 point away from 3rd place and earning a ribbon of merit in the process.  

Looking forward to bigger and better results as Mercy College aims to return to competition in Terms 3 and 4 to build on our achievements. 

Mr Lincoln De Thomasis

Mackay District Secondary Schools Netball Finals:

Several of our Mercy College Netball teams made the finals of the MDSSN played on Wednesday 9 June and all of our teams performed well, displaying the Mercy Spirit. Congratulations to all of the girls and coaching staff who participated in the competition this season, all teams performed admirably and we look forward to next year's competition. 

Mrs Dianne Bailey

Year 8

Easy chocolate Weet-bix slice

INGREDIENTS

250g butter

2 cups self raising flour

2 cups crushed Weet-bix

1 cup caster sugar

¼ cup cocoa powder

Icing

1 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 tablespoon water

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a slice tin with baking paper.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Melt butter in a microwave safe jug in a microwave for about 1 minute and pour over dry ingredients.

Mix together well.

Press into pan firmly with the back of a spoon. 

Bake for 18 minutes.

Sift icing and cocoa powder together in a bowl, add water, and stir until smooth.

Ice with chocolate icing while warm and refrigerate.

Remove from pan when cool and cut into squares.

Year 9 

Cheesy Chicken Schnitzel Burgers    

INGREDIENTS

1 chicken breast

½ beaten egg

1½ tablespoons milk

½ cup breadcrumbs

¼ cup plain flour

1 tablespoon parmesan cheese

Salad

¼ red onion

1/2 sliced tomato

2 lettuce leaves

2 wholemeal buns 

olive oil spray

METHOD

Cut chicken breast into thin slices.

Add egg and milk together in a bowl, beat.

Place flour onto a plate. 

Mix cheese and breadcrumbs together place onto another plate.

Roll chicken pieces in flour, dip pieces in egg and milk mix, roll in crumb mixture.

Place chicken pieces on paper lined tray. Bake in moderate oven for 10 -15 minutes.

SALAD: 

Slice onion and tomato thinly, shred the lettuce. Assemble bun with salad ingredients.

Plate and garnish chicken burger for presentation.

Year 10

Flourless Chocolate Cake-Gluten Free (Serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup boiling water

200g butter-chopped

180g dark chocolate-chopped

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

4 eggs-separated

1 cup caster sugar

2 cups almond meal

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tin.

Place butter, chopped chocolate, cocoa powder and boiling water into a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook stirring until chocolate and butter are melted. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks and sugar, using an electric mixer, for 5 minutes or until thick. Set aside.

Using your electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

Add the chocolate mixture and almond meal to the egg yolk mixture. Mix until combined. Gently fold the egg whites into chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan. Serve with cream and strawberries.