They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.
We will remember them
Lest we forget
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
They shall grow not old,
as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.
We will remember them
Lest we forget
I am pleased to share with you highlights from our recent ANZAC Day Assembly, where we gathered as a community to honor and remember the sacrifices made by the brave men and women of the Australian and New Zealand Armed Forces.
During the assembly, we had the privilege of hosting Mr. James Steedman, President of the Caulfield RSL, who delivered a poignant address to our students. Mr. Steedman's words served as a reminder of the significance of ANZAC Day and the importance of paying tribute to those who have served and continue to serve our country with courage and dedication.
In addition to Mr. Steedman's address, we had the honor of welcoming back Old Collegians who have served in the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Their presence served as a powerful reminder of the strong bonds forged within our St Mary's College community and the enduring legacy of service and sacrifice.
As we observed a minute of silence and laid wreaths to commemorate the ANZACs, our students showed a deep sense of respect and reverence, embodying the values of remembrance, reflection, and gratitude that lie at the heart of ANZAC Day.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr. James Steedman for his inspiring address, as well as to our Old Collegians for joining us on this important occasion. I am incredibly proud of our students for their respectful participation and engagement throughout the assembly.
ANZAC Day holds special significance for our nation, and it is essential that we continue to educate and inspire the next generation to honor the sacrifices of those who have served our country.
As we reflect on the lessons of ANZAC Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to peace, unity, and the values of mateship and solidarity that define our Australian spirit.
Lest we forget.
Mr Darren Atkinson
College Principal
This week has seen one of the true expressions of our College participating in, connecting with, and serving the community.
This week has seen one of the true expressions of our College participating in, connecting with, and serving the community.
The dawn service at the Caulfield RSL is more than another opportunity for our very capable musicians to perform. It requires our students to play styles of music that are not necessarily their normal area of interest, such as our drummers leaving the rock band behind to march down St Georges Rd. Or our choir to sing with strength and volume to an outdoor audience of around 1000 people.
The most impressive part of what took place at the RSL on Thursday morning was the deep sense of service, reverence and purpose behind our presence and the music we brought to the community.
In a private moment before the ANZAC assembly at school the next day, Caulfield RSL President James Steedman made a point of acknowledging the quality of musicianship and thanking the band and choir for their significant role in this most important event.
As the Deputy Principal of this school, I was and am incredibly proud of each student present on Thursday morning, led by Mrs Lawless. I’m also grateful to the family members who ensured they were up equally early so that their son or daughter could perform and provide such a meaningful act of service.
Shaun Lancashire
Deputy Principal
For many Easter, may seem like a long time ago.
For many Easter, may seem like a long time ago. The Easter holidays are well and truly over, Easter chocolates are long gone from the supermarket although, I have still seen some hot cross buns on the shelves. For the Church however Easter has not finished! The Easter Season is the second-longest liturgical season of our Church calendar and this ongoing celebration within the Church is a beautiful reminder of the depth of the liturgical calendar.
The Church celebrates the Easter season, also known as Eastertide for fifty days which culminates in the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles, and many recognise Pentecost as the birth of the Church. You might see red in your parish on Pentecost Sunday (May 19) as the colour symbolizes the fire of the Holy Spirit.
To recognise Holy Week, our College community gathered for Holy Thursday, a time to commemorate the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. Our Liturgy was celebrated by Fr Jerome Santamaria and Yr. 12 readers Jack Gallagher, Callum Roe, Cillian Gallagher, Sam Evans, Noah Douglas, Jerry Lyu, Ronan Greenwood and Thomas Stedman.
During the time of Lent the College raised funds for Caritas, culminating in the Easter Raffle. Thank you to all who generously donated Easter Eggs for our hampers. I hope the winners shared the eggs! Each campus had 7 Easter Egg hampers due to the generosity of our community who donated so much, thank you. ERC Campus also held a Caritas Carnival with lucky dips, chocolate toss and lolly jar guess raising $254.16! Thanks to Ms Dickson and Ms Driver for running this event. The lolly jar winners were Charles Daffy and Julian Salemme. These efforts not only contributed financially to Caritas but also fostered a sense of togetherness and shared purpose within the school community.
This weekend we will celebrate the fifth Sunday of Easter and hear the popular passage from John 15: 1-8, I am the vine you are the branches.
We are the branches and Jesus our gardener, who continuously fertilizes our spirit. The Yr. 12 Religion & Society class also saw evidence of vines featuring in parts of the St Mary’s parish church with a recent study tour.
Reflecting on the symbolism of the vine and branches adds another layer of depth to our spiritual journey. Understanding the significance behind the religious symbols enriches one's faith experience and deepens the connection to the traditions of the Church.
This is my last contribution to the St Mary’s College newsletter; however, I will continue to read and support all the wonderful things happening at SMC, a place very dear to my heart.
Kate Johnston
Director of Identity
To support our students in their Leadership journey at the College
To support our students in their Leadership journey at the College, this year we have introduced the role of ‘Class Captain’ for each Pastoral Care Group.
To apply for this role, each student was required to write a statement explaining why they would be great for the job. We had the pleasure of reading many high-quality applications, highlighting the strengths and passions of our students.
We are looking forward to our Class Captains representing their peers and the College throughout the year. We are also looking forward to working with these students to develop our student voice network and make positive changes at the College.
To highlight our wonderful leaders, the week we introduce our Y7 team and what they want to achieve this year.
Left to Right
Edison Lehocz (7C)
Edison would like to see more sports training for Interschools competitions such as Basketball.
Olivia Kotroulis (7T)
Olivia would like to introduce a colour fun run at the College.
Michaela Lea (7R)
Michaela would like to run a free dress day to raise money for charity
Summer Garcia (7T)
Summer would like to introduce more academic clubs at the College
Congratulations to our successful Year 7 students and we look forward to working with them this year.
Jen Howard
Director of Students
Everyday our world is full of happenings
Over recent weeks, we have been confronted with the distressing news of events not in distant or foreign places but in our own country, close to our homes and our hearts.
These events have caused us to stop and consider not only how precious life is but how quickly life can be altered and changed forever.
Everyday our world is full of happenings, positive and negative. These occur in our personal lives, our community, our country and elsewhere across the world. That is the ongoing nature of life and is as it should be: this is life, the good and the bad.
Depending on the event, we can react in either a positive or negative manner, but we are not always challenged by the event.
When an event is negative, we can be challenged on several levels. We are made to consider, respond, react, and confront what can sometimes be our deepest fears.
This week, as a nation, we have been forced to do this.
We were confronted with a deeply awful sadness – lives lost through the senseless actions of a troubled individual. The people killed or injured were simply living life, doing ordinary things while shopping. They were not in an unsafe place, they did not do any harm to others, but they will never return home.
The mundanity of the situation where these people found danger challenges us on many levels and the outcome of the event forces us to reconcile the actions of a disturbed individual and the system that failed him. It forces us to consider the grieving of people we do not know, and at the same time manage our own emotions, while still considering those of our immediate family members, our community, and our Nation.
The positive of this is – we can, and we did.
Life forces us to adapt, to cope, to confront, to move on and at the same time to acknowledge the preciousness and fragility of our humanity.
Actions and events in the world around us impact on our thoughts about our own sense of safety and the unknown in an ever increasingly difficult world. They may lead us to increase our anxiety and want to be over vigilant, worrying about those we love around us even more.
It is okay to feel uneasy, it is okay to grieve.
It is also okay to acknowledge that there are others who act with bravery, with love, with courage, and who rise above in moments of need.
It is essential we remember that there is both good and bad in humanity. When we see courage and power in the actions of others, we can find hope and strength in the human spirit.
It is important we allow ourselves to talk about how we feel, what we are worried about, reflect and share these worries and concerns with others. They may be feeling the same.
It is also important to remember we can seek help if the level of anxiety impacts on the daily functioning of our lives.
There are many people here at the College to assist your child if anxiety impacts them and, as College Counsellor, I am one of them.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if needed.
Kind Regards
Trish Maguire
St. Mary's College Counsellor
NCCD Funding Fact Sheets
The ACC swimming was held at MSAC on March 27th
Harry Charlesworth and Tom McMahon as captain and vice-captain led the strongest ACC swimming team the school has ever entered in the competition.
The ACC swimming was held at MSAC on March 27th with 7 Division 1 schools and 6 Division 2 schools participating. In our school of such long standing, 146 years, records in athletics and swimming are extremely hard to come by. Only 4 new records in athletics have been achieved in the last 10 years, Courage Tailey, Kyrell Barton, Sam O’Brien and only 1 in the last 7 years, Finn Davis last year in high jump.
Incredibly, 10 new swimming records were set on March 27th including 1 new ACC record:
Harry Charlesworth: (Who now has 13 school records!)
Senior 200m freestyle old record set in 2017
Senior 50 freestyle old record set in 2008
Senior 50 butterfly old record set in 2023
James Hay
Under 16 50 breaststroke old record set in 1992
Under 16 medley relay old record set in 2021 (backstroke leg)
Noah Chapple
Under 15 100 freestyle old record set in 2017
Under 15 50 freestyle old record set in 1970 and 1991 and 2017
Under 15 50 backstroke old record set in 1970 and 2017
Under 16 medley relay old record set in 2021 (butterfly leg)
Milo Dressel-De Bruyn
Under 15 50 breaststroke old record set in 1991
Under 15 ACC 50m breaststroke
Under 16 medley relay old record set in 2021 (breaststroke leg)
Joe Charlesworth
Under 16 medley relay old record set in 2021 (freestyle leg)
In under 13 Hugo Devine and Michael Tsaglas were outstanding winning two races each and both stepped up to help the under 14 medley relay team with the backstroke and butterfly legs respectively.
Unfortunately, our strongest under 14 swimmer, Finn McNamara, who never missed a training session, was sick on the day and unable to compete, but we look forward to his events next year. Thank you to all swimmers who competed, especially those who were willing to do events that were not your strength or specialty, but you did the events anyway for the sake of the team. Despite such a strong team, winning outright was not possible as we were up against St Pat’s Ballarat who have 1000 more boys to choose from! After 3 years of dominating division 2, I’m sure the ACC will finally realize they need to move to division 1 where they will surely have a chance of victory against swimming powerhouse St Bede’s.
Coach Kaufman
We travelled out to Salesian, and we were met with magnificent conditions for football, blue sky, and a fantastic surface. We came out strongly and asserted our dominance on the game. Our tackling and pressure on the ball carrier forced the opposition to turn the ball over. This was a key element of our play all day. Fraser dominated the ruck in the first half giving our mid-fielders McMahon, Wilson and J. Waghorne first use of the ball, which our key forwards, S. Daley, Mathieson and Bentley then took full advantage of kicking 7 goals to Salesian’s 2 in the first quarter. We controlled the game from then on and eventually won by 74 points.
We as coaches were also impressed by the on field leadership, especially by McMahon. We were also delighted with our transition, especially through the corridor.
We had some excellent role plays, especially Charlesworth, Yin, Kouteris, de la Mere and Lowe. It’s a solid start to the season but there’s a lot to improve on, as the objective is to become a finely tuned, connected outfit.
Goal kickers:
J. Waghorne 9
S. Daley 4
Skordakis 2
Mathieson 2
Bentley 1
Yin 1
Best: Wilson, J. Waghorne, S. Daley, Mathieson, McMahon.
Great work Russell and Curran on umpiring duties never forgotten.
Coaches Harper/Figueroa/Cavolo
Our girls competed in CGSAV Basketball today. Full report next week.
We were able to practically see the energy system interplay happening...
On Wednesday 24th April, our Year 12 VCE PE students had an incursion run by METS Performance Consulting, where Mannie Collins completed in a VO2 Max Test and Hugo Speldewinde completed a Wingate Anaerobic Capacity Test. We were able to practically see the energy system interplay happening during physical activity, which relates to the learning we have been doing for our upcoming Unit 3 SAC.
Lucy Dickson
Year 7 Pastoral Leader/VCE Phys Ed Teacher
Register for Elevate’s Parent Webinar Series This Term
Register for Elevate’s Parent Webinar Series This Term
Elevate Education delivers high-impact workshops to our students that help to develop their study skills, motivation, and exam preparation. Over the next term, you're invited to join their parent webinar series, where you can help support your child at home by reinforcing the skills they're learning at school.
Upcoming Webinars:
Register for the series by clicking the link below and learn some great practical strategies to help support your child this year.
Brendan Tollit
Year 12 Pastoral Leader
We are excited to announce that all fundraising efforts will be directed towards purchasing a new bus for the College.
We are pleased to share with you the highlights from our recent Parents and Friends meeting, held on Monday night. Here's what we discussed:
Thank you to all who attended the meeting and contributed to the discussions. Your involvement and support are greatly appreciated as we strive to make a positive impact at St Mary's College.
Warm regards,
Images of our school in action.
Register for Elevate’s Parent Webinar Series This Term
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Register for Elevate’s Parent Webinar Series This Term
Elevate Education delivers high-impact workshops to our students that help to develop their study skills, motivation, and exam preparation. Over the next term, you're invited to join their parent webinar series, where you can help support your child at home by reinforcing the skills they're learning at school.
Upcoming Webinars:
Register for the series by clicking the link below and learn some great practical strategies to help support your child this year.
Brendan Tollit
Year 12 Pastoral Leader