Santa Sophia Catholic College Newsletter

By Kerrie Bollard

Our school held its first PEN event where Dr Justin Coulson came and spoke to us about how to raise a resilient child.  300 parents who attended were able to listen to a very captivating and inspirational talk at the same time as Justin being very entertaining. 

Every parent's dream is to raise a child who will bounce back from adversity and challenging times. 

Justin presented us with various ways to help build resilience in our children. 

 Justin told us that our main jobs as parents were to be hope-givers.  We need to focus on the positives.  He used phrases to share with our children such as “Look how far you have come, now how far can you go?”. 

He explained that all children will have uphill battles everyday but to remind them that these uphill battles will only ‘make them stronger’. 

Our role is to help our children build their identity.  Being supportive parents without being helicopter parents will help us build resilient children.  When times are tough we can tell our children not to ask “Why me?” but rather say “Try Me”,   a phrase I will be using with my kids moving forward as it’s a great way to turn the situation into a positive. 

Justin ended the night with explaining less screen time and more green time may help improve the mental health of our children and there is nothing better than giving our children our time. 

I look forward to using all of these techniques to help my children become more resilient. 

Thank you Mrs Castellino for organising a fantastic speaker and I look forward to the next event.

**Our next Parent Education Network meeting will be on Wednesday July 31st at 7:30pm at our Hambledon Road Campus**

To keep updated and receive further parenting support visit Dr Justin Coulson's website: https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/

by Ms Pintado

In Term 1, the Year 8 Visual Arts students completed a unit on Portraiture where they participated in the Santa Sophia Archie Competition.

The students were given the task to create a portrait of an influential person to show recognition for their influence and to express their identity. Many of the students chose their family members, sport icons and various celebrities.

This project was a reflection of the Archibald Prize held by the Art Gallery of NSW every year. The Archibald Prize is an open competition for all Australians, awarded to the best portrait, 'preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in art, letters, science or politics'.

Year 8 had the privilege of seeing the exhibition this year, and for a lot of students this was their first time to the Art Gallery! The students enjoyed seeing an array of amateur and established artists showcasing their best work.

The portraits brought up some great discussions about what constitutes an artwork to be considered fine art, and how artists show the inside of a person on the outside. It was a privilege to be able to show the students where their work might be displayed one day! 

By Mrs Kihi

On Wednesday 22nd May our Stage 4 students gathered for the entry event into an integrated HSIE (History) and English project that centred around the concept of using drama texts as a way to tell the story of Conquest of the Aztec people by the Spanish.

The entry event into the project was enriched by the expertise of teaching artist, Christopher Tomkinson, from Monkey Baa Theatre Company. On the day of the incursion, students participated in a series of drama activities led by Mr Tomkinson, that encouraged students to think about ways to use their bodies and voices to tell stories. Students engaged in improvisation, prepared short scenes, and practised using dialogue with one another. It was wonderful to see many of our students step outside of their comfort zone and really embrace the experience!

The purpose of the entry event was to encourage our students to begin to consider how drama texts studied in English can indeed, tell stories about people and their culture. Students were also introduced to the idea that they too, can be part of this story telling process in their own creative compositions. Thus, the fundamental learnings that our students can transfer into their world is that story-telling, in its various textual forms, can be used as a way for people to explore the history of civilisations throughout time

We look forward to the learning that will occur in this unit!

By Mr Faccin

Sports Coordinator

On Monday 27th May, Santa Sophia attended the PDSSSC Football Gala Day. Our teams got off to a slow start however they made great improvements throughout the day.

A special thanks to Mr Castellino and Mr Knight who supported both the boys and girls teams throughout the lead up to the event. 

The very next day on Tuesday 28th May we had our athletics carnival at Blacktown International Sports Park. It was great to see so many of our students getting involved in the different activities and being active throughout the whole day. A special thanks to the staff and students from Saint John Paul II who kindly allowed us to attend the day with them.

Throughout the day we had many new records set and broken. Not to be outdone, our Kindergarten students also had a great day at their sports carnival on Tuesday 11th June.

Congratulations to the following students who were named age champions:

12yrs Girls - Aleida Boltjes

12yrs Boys - Aiden Zammit

13yrs Girls - Holly Keyvar

13yrs Boys - Aiden Stacey

14yrs Boys - Aiden Carle & Kurt Seget

14yrs Girls - Sadie O'Niell & Nikisha Kumar

Term 3 will be a very busy term for sport with PDSSSC Athletics, Netball, Dance Futsal, Basketball and OzTag.

It is important that students regularly check the Sports or Stage 4 Google Classroom pages for update for nominations and information for these gala days.

If anyone is able to assist our teams with umpiring any of these sports our staff and students would be very grateful for their assistance and shared experience.

Tuesday 23rd July:

Students commence Term 3

Friday 26th July:

NSW All Schools Cross Country

Wednesday 31st July:

Parent Education Network meeting: 7:30pm at the Hambledon Road Campus.

Thursday 1st August:

Santa Sophia Feast Day

Thursday 15th August:

Feast of the Assumption 

Friday 30th August:

Father's Day celebration