September is the Season of Creation in the Catholic Church. This season embraces the four Sundays of September before the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Ecology on the 4th October. The Feast of St Francis is a special feast day for the St Agnes community because we were founded by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. The school maintains the Franciscan spirit of simplicity, acceptance of all and a deep personal love of Jesus. St Agnes staff will be spending our Staff Spirituality Day at the end of this term developing a greater understanding of St Francis and how we at St Agnes can show our Franciscan charism.
The Season of Creation encourages us to make this a special time of prayer and action in caring for our common home.
St Agnes Staff will be participating in a Spirituality Day on Friday 23rd September 2022. This has been on the St Agnes calendar since the beginning of the year. The focus on this day is to gain a greater understanding of St Francis and how his example influences what we do at St Agnes.
Next week we will formally farewell our Year 12 students with a Mass at Mary Queen of the Family Parish, Blacktown and a Graduation Ceremony, at school, for students and their families. This is a significant milestone for these students, ending 13 years of schooling. They will continue to prepare for their final HSC examination which commences on Wednesday 12th October. I encourage all our Year 12 students to remain focused and work hard as they approach their exams which is the most important component of the HSC.
Yeasterday afternoon, 15th September, St Agnes participated in the PCYC Pacifica Haka Warriors competition. The students were successful, winning the Most Outstanding Fijian Performance category. The students had been meeting and practising their performances for a number of months. I would like to congratulate the St Agnes team who put on a spectacular performance at the Sydney Coliseum Theatre, Rooty Hill. These students included: Talia Afungia, Cadence Autagavaia, Maretta Fuimaono, Megan Fuimaono, Jocelyn Graf, Christopher Hifo, Melehifo Kaumavae, Rosemary Lealiiee, Saifagaloa Lotovale, Delilah Matuu, Evangeline Nio, Jocelyn Nisa, Cynthia Peckham, Chantelle Pese, Helen Piliae, Rilie Roberts-Taia, Elizabeth Seru, Dalovinya Taiki, Edwina Toleafoa, Karina Tuuina, Shilohbella Tuuina, Saane Vailala and Cassandra Vunipola.
I would like to especially like to thank Mr Zucco, Ms Padovani-Ginies and Ms Gale who worked with these students over countless afternoons, as well as during lunch and recess. Also, I would like to thank the parents who have been assisting and supporting the students.
Mrs Holland
Principal
Our Year 12 students are rapidly coming to their final days here at St Agnes and will complete their 13 years of schooling. It is always at this time of year I reflect on the purpose of our work as teachers. Over these years of schooling, all of the teachers and staff along the way have always been committed to supporting parents in their formation of these fine young people. At this stage, the students need to be pondering the feedback they received from their teachers regarding the Trial HSC and planning their next steps as they move into their Study Vacation prior to the examinations.
1. KNOW YOUR MATERIAL
The more confident you are about the topic(s) in your test, the less stress you will feel come exam time. Make sure you stay on top of your school work and homework throughout the term. Follow up with your teacher, or another subject matter expert, if there are things you do not understand, well before the exams. Trying to understand new concepts the night before a test is very stressful.
2. PRACTISE
Make sure you do practise papers if they are available, or practise questions. This might include multiple choice, short answer or essay style questions. Always study in the way you will be tested. Work out a plan of action so you know how long you are going to allocate to each question type, what question types you will start with and what you will do if you come across things you are not sure about. Learn more about this in the Active Studying unit.
3. FUEL YOUR BODY AND YOUR MIND
In the days leading up to an exam make sure you get enough sleep. Being tired makes it harder to concentrate and remember. Fuel your body and mind by eating well and drinking plenty of water. Learn more about this in the Lifestyle and Balance unit.
4. MANAGE THE PHYSICAL SIGNS OF STRESS
Familiarise yourself with how your body feels when you are stressed. Do you get headaches? Tension in your neck or shoulders? Does your heart race faster? What happens to your breathing? Whenever you feel these effects, quickly start some relaxation exercises. A good one to try during an exam is to breathe in deeply for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds. Do this a few times to calm yourself down and allow yourself to refocus. Learn more about this in the Managing Stress unit.
5. BE PREPARED ON THE DAY
Make sure you have packed or prepared everything you need for the test the night before. Have a plan for how you are going to get to school on time - including a back-up plan if necessary. Eat a nutritious breakfast and make sure you are hydrated. Learn more about this in the Test-Taking Techniques unit.
6. VISUALISE
Use visualisation techniques to help reduce your stress on the day. Every day in the weeks prior to the exam, last thing at night and first thing in the morning, visualise yourself calmly walking into the exam room, preparing your equipment, reviewing and completing your exam paper and feeling good about how you did. Learn more about this in the Managing Stress unit.
7. INVOLVE YOUR PARENTS IN YOUR SCHOOLWORK
Throughout the term talk to your parents about what you are studying. Show them your bookwork and homework. The more your parents understand about what you are doing and how you are going along the way, the better they are able to manage their expectations. They may also be able to help you study by testing you on what you are learning.
8. TALK TO YOUR PARENTS ABOUT REALISTIC GOALS
Keep talking to your parents about what you want to achieve, in individual subjects, at school overall and in other aspects of your life. Focus more on the learning and developing skills instead of just marks. Involve them in helping you to identify where to concentrate the most effort to achieve your goals. Learn more about this in the Goal Setting unit.
9. UNDERSTAND EXPECTATIONS
Many students feel like they are not meeting their parents’ expectations. Often this is a result of poor communication about expectations by both parties. Assessment and reporting systems also change over time and are different in different schools and systems. Making sure your parents really understand what your report means may help them to understand what you are actually achieving. Your school can assist you to explain these to your parents if need be and most schools provide booklets of explanation. Often students are achieving, but reporting structures may not clearly represent this to parents.
10. ASK FOR HELP
The most important way to deal with stress is by talking to people and asking for help. Do not try to go it alone. Your school, teachers, parents and friends are your support structure so keep lines of communication open (that means talk to them!) and let everyone know how you are feeling and what help you need.
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Mr Kemmis
Assistant Principal - Learning Transformation
Pace e Bene, Peace and Blessings to the St Agnes community,
A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.
We can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love of two human beings has joined with God in his creative work. The loving parents have shown hope in a world filled with angst, and pain.The new child has the potential to be a channel of God’s love and peace to the world.
This is all true in a magnificent way in Mary. If Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s love, Mary is the foreshadowing of that love. If Jesus has brought the fullness of salvation, Mary is its dawning. Next to the birth of Jesus, Mary’s birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the world. Each time we celebrate her birth, we can confidently hope for an increase of peace in our hearts and in the world at large.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrating the three moments in history related to the Holy Cross of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. On this day we mark the moment when the True Cross, the actual Cross on which Jesus was hung and nailed on, was discovered by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.
The most important triumph that this Feast celebrates is the great triumph that Jesus has won for all of us, as He raised His Cross and was Himself raised on it, for the salvation of all the whole world, of all of God’s beloved children. Through His Cross, Jesus has shown us the perfect manifestation of God’s love as well as the perfect obedience of Man, through which God reached out to us and Man reached out to Him, with Christ forming the important Bridge through His Cross, reconnecting us and God.
St Matthew the Apostle is also known as Levi. He was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. Before being called by Jesus, he was a tax collector. He is the author of The Gospel of St Matthew. He preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea and later went to other countries. We celebrate his feast day on September 21 every year in the Catholic Church.
Mr Madigan
Head of Mission
Paddock to plate
This semester Year 8 have been learning about Eggs and refining their baking skills. This is all leading up to their practical exam next term.
They have enjoyed making and decorating Scones and Cupcakes.
Over the past 2 weeks, the St Agnes Faith in Action Team, otherwise known as FIAT, have been organising donations for the Ignite Food Store in Emerton run by Jesuit Social Services.
On Wednesday, 7th September, the FIAT students ran a bake sale through both recess and lunch containing scrumptious desserts such as brownies, cupcakes, cake pop, cookies, chocolate crackles just to name a few. The bake sale was extremely successful with the students raising $880 which will go towards purchasing items for the store. It was wonderful to see the generosity of both the FIAT students who made all the desserts themselves and by the school community in participating and donating.
On the same note, myself and Mr Goco, would like to thank the St Agnes community both students and parents, for donating so many food items for the store. It is heartwarming to see students and their families make the effort to assist those who are less fortunate and in turn live out the Franciscan values of compassion and service to others.
Mr Zucco
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