By Mr Stuart Ralph, Principal

Welcome to Week 8 of Term 4.

This week, formal classes for our Year 10 students finished on Monday. On Monday afternoon, we celebrated the Year 10 Presentation Ceremony with the parents of our award recipients present. This was a wonderful celebration of the achievements of our Year 10 students. Tuesday saw our Year 10 students engage in a cultural day before heading off on camp for the remainder of the week at either Hobart or the Freycinet area.

Next Monday and Tuesday, we will celebrate the presentation ceremonies for our students in Years 7-9.

On Tuesday, we welcomed our Year 7, 2024 students to the College for their Orientation Day. Our Year 7 cohort comes from 18 different primary schools from across the region and interstate. It was wonderful to see so many smiling faces at the end of the day, and we look forward to watching each of them grow and flourish in our school community.

The College will be farewelling staff at the end of the school year. We wish Mr Joshua Mackie and Mr Keegan Powell well in their future endeavours. Mrs Wendy Kline, our Librarian, will be retiring after 17 years of service at the College. We wish Wendy a wonderful retirement. Deputy Principal of Pastoral Care, Ms Kim Walters, will be returning to NSW at the end of the year. We thank Kim for eight years of service to our community.

The College is pleased to welcome Mr Brayden Van Burren at the start of 2024. Brayden is a past collegian and will take up a position in Health and Physical Education.

As our year comes to an end, could I please ask for parents' support with regard to students wearing the correct uniform on each of the remaining days. Students who present in incorrect uniform may miss out on participating in events.

Year 10 parents, please note that your child's school bag will be available for collection from the Uniform Shop and you will receive a notification via email.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Stuart Ralph
Principal

"Christmas is joy, religious joy, an inner joy of light and peace". 
– Pope Francis

The 2024 St Brendan-Shaw College Booklists are now available and orders can be placed online at www.campion.com.au using “GPCH” as your code. If you would like to preview a booklist prior to ordering, copies are available on the College website together with an Ordering Information Sheet.

Orders are to be placed by close of business Thursday, 14 December 2023 with estimated delivery to the nominated address by 25 January 2024.

The delivery fee for orders placed on or before 14 December 2023 is $11.95 for the first child, $5.95 for the second child and free for the third and subsequent child.

Orders can still be placed after the due date however they will incur a $8.45 delivery fee for each item, with a maximum delivery fee of $23.95 per child. There is no delivery fee charged for digital resources.

If you require any financial assistance due to hardship, please contact the Business Manager, Mrs Karen Chugg, at kchugg@sbsc.tas.edu.au as orders will need to be processed by the College.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

The Midford uniform shop at St Brendan-Shaw College will close for the school holidays on Tuesday 12 December at 3:00pm and will re-open on Monday 15 January, 2024 at 9:00am.

Term 4 2023 Extended Trading Hours
Thursday 7 December 8:00am – 7:00pm

January 2024 Trading Hours (By Appointment)
Monday 15 January to Thursday 18 January 9:00am – 4:00pm

All families are asked to make new uniform-fitting appointments through our online system. 

Please use the booking button provided below.

Additional Extended Trading Hours

From Monday 22 January to Wednesday 7 February (the dates below), appointments are required between the hours of 9:00am – 1:30pm. 

Walk-in customers are welcome in the afternoon from 1:30pm.

Monday 22 January to Thursday 25 January: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Monday 29 January to Thursday 1 February: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Monday 5 February to Thursday 8 February: 9:00am – 4:00pm

Once school resumes, the Midford Uniform Shop will resume regular trading hours.

Regular Trading Hours

Throughout the school term, our regular opening hours are:
Tuesday 8.00am – 4.00pm
Thursday 8.00am – 4.00pm

By Mrs Crista Christie, Poultry Club Manager

The Poultry Club is currently enjoying a batch of 'easter egger' chicks hatched late last week by the SBSC Poultry Club. Easter Egger means the batch is a combination of different egg-coloured laying breeds; they could lay blue, green, brown, cream, white or olive-coloured eggs when they grow up. It will be a fun mystery for the five families taking chicks home on Friday.

As the year comes to an end, the Poultry Club would like to reflect on the highlights of our newly formed club. We have been able to hatch poultry each term since we 'enacted' as a club and have learned a lot along the way. As a result, eight, soon to be thirteen families have received chicks to take home and raise, ranging from purebred varieties such as Australorp and Orpington to crossbreds that result in interesting egg colours (such as a Legbar cross Maran - which could lay green/olive eggs). We also hatched quail in Term 3 - quail is less than half the size of a regular chicken 'chick', so that was quite a highlight for many students, handling something so small and yet so lively was intriguing. Jordan Hingston continues to rear those chicks and aims to breed a large white flock (which would be very rare).

The SBSC Poultry Club has accumulated quite a tally of members throughout the year! Thirty-five students and five staff 'subscribe' to the group, and we have a regular flock of students that turn up weekly to chit-chat and plan hatching and breeding schemes. In 2024, additional support will be offered to students who wish to enter 'showing', and connections with our Year 10 Agriculture class will fuel projects towards housing, feeding and cultivating the health of poultry.

The Poultry Club wishes to thank a few people who have made our journey and startup possible. Firstly, the school leadership team for their support and assistance with the behind-the-scenes paperwork and approvals that are part of the job but still very time-consuming. Mrs Petra Wilden has also allowed us to hatch in her science preparation space, and we appreciate her time and sacrifice. Miss Henry also donated a dedicated space in Lab 2 for a display and our meeting place during lunchtimes and has also shown considerable support with connecting our activities with Agriculture Studies the school has to offer. Agriculture is a valuable learning area nationwide, but particularly pertinent to us as Tasmanians, whereby agriculture plays an important part in our economy and resource management. Finally, thank you to the enthusiastic members who spend their lunchtimes with the Poultry Club!

The Poultry Club wishes to extend a very happy Christmas to its members and families this season and looks forward to another egg-cellent year in 2024!

Last Thursday, our Year 10s gathered for their last formal year-level assembly of 2023. 

The Awards Ceremony recognised students for excellence in service to the community along with academic achievement and endeavour. 

Next week, Years 7-9 will also attend their last year-level award ceremonies on their last day of school for the year. We look forward to seeing them share this special time together and celebrating their achievements.

We commend all students who demonstrated their commitment to doing their best this year and congratulate all students who received an award.

St Brendan-Shaw College ethletes are gearing up for the 2024 International Middle School Ethics Olympiad final following a win at their state competition.

The Ethics Olympiad is a competition in which athletes build and critique their own and other arguments as they respond to a question. Teams are provided with interesting cases to present with the aim of solving real-world issues, with the challenge being that each case presents a challenging ethical problem. Unlike traditional debate competitions, the Ethics Olympiad fosters a collaborative environment where students are free to agree on or defend the positions they deem correct, fostering a richer, more nuanced exploration of ethical issues. The event's unique format rewards students not for their oratory skills alone but for their ability to think critically and engage respectfully with differing viewpoints.

On the podium for the state competition are the teams which will be moving through to the 2024 International Middle School Ethics Olympiad:
Gold – St Brendan-Shaw College
Silver – St Michael's Collegiate
Bronze – St Patrick's College

Members of the winning representative team are Isabella Tilt, Tristan McGrath, Isaiah Shoesmith, Norman Smith and Lili Wild. 

The day-long international competition will be held in early February 2024 and have teams participating from Australia, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Congratulations to the team for their success this year, and we wish them all the best for their upcoming competition.

Parents of students leaving the College in 2023

A friendly reminder that if you haven't yet done so, please fill out your exit form and download and save your child's Academic Records and Learning Plans from SEQTA Engage. 

SEQTA Engage accounts close on Tuesday 19 December 2023.

Students leaving the College at the end of 2023 

Please be aware students who are leaving at the end of this year will lose all files in their College Google Drive data unless they back up or save their files to a personal storage device (or personal cloud service). Your College Gmail account will close in mid-January 2024.

To back up a Google Drive, please find instructions for Google Take Out here:

Sexual extortion is a growing, global trend detected by law enforcement in Australia and overseas.

It is also known as online blackmail.

Teenagers aged between 13 and 17 are being targeted.

The @ACCCEaus is seeing a significant increase in overseas organised criminal syndicates targeting Australian teens with threats to share their content.
If this happens to someone under the age of 18, it is online child sexual abuse. And it is a crime.

The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is warning parents, carers and young people about the trend and providing advice on how to take action.

If you, or someone you know is a victim of this crime and under the age of 18, you can report to www.accce.gov.au/report

The @AusFedPolice, @ACCCEaus and #ThinkUKnowAustralia have created an online blackmail and sexual extortion response kit to help you manage incidents of online blackmail involving sextortion.

Download the information kit below by clicking on the button below.

Introduction by Mrs Crista Christie and reflective writing by Axel Rootes (Year 8)

In Term 4, Year 8 students investigated the rise and fall of the Khmer Empire in the Middle Ages. Some aspects of the Khmer Empire's success and demise are largely unknown and archaeologists and historians have made inferences rather than know for certain what happened. One thing we do know, as it has stood the test of time to a large degree, is that a water management system (irrigation) of approximately 1000 square kilometres played a big part. 

To help students visualise the complexity of such a large water management system constructed without advanced technology, students were tasked with making their own water management system (on a small scale) using plasticine. It did not have to be the same as the Angkor design - but it must have a three-zone system inspired by the Angkor. 

Below are pictures of some of the models students worked on within a double lesson. 

Students produced some fantastic assessments throughout the unit, both written and practical. One written piece that really stood out to me was a reflective writing piece written by Axel Rootes. Students were tasked with answering the question: 'What were the successes and failures of the Khmer Empire? And which were most impactful in your eyes?' Axel's reflection not only summarised the possible reasons for demise, but also wove them together to form a story and a hypothesis for how these events and circumstances culminated. He wrote this reflection in forty-five minutes with only notes to refer to. Imagine if he had 90 minutes! Quite insightful for a young person, I thought.

Reflective Writing: The Rise and Fall of the Khmer Empire

By Axel Rootes (Year 8)

The Khmer Empire was a spectacle of its time, having many advanced techniques and technologies for the Middle Ages. However, the Empire wasn’t without its flaws, which may have led to the collapse of one of the most advanced ancient civilisations. The Khmer Empire lasted between 802 to 1431 CE. It has been speculated by experts that a massive drought and a lack of belief or motivation to serve their king may have been the main reason for its downfall. We'll go in-depth about each of these possible reasons for the Khmer Empire’s downfall.

Drought

Drought was one of the longest-lasting issues for the Khmer Empire. The Angkor lived in a region that had long wet seasons followed by dry seasons. The Khmer Empire compensated for this by constructing water reservoirs, canals and irrigation channels. The canals acted as roads for the water, and the channels branched off from the canals and into the rice farms they did not construct gates on these due to rice requiring high amounts of water to grow, this would serve as a weak point for the empire*. The canals they built also took six years with nearly six thousand slaves to construct. However, despite this system being one of their greatest achievements, it was also their greatest mistake, due to the fact that they became heavily reliant on the system. It is believed that when their religion went from Hinduism to Buddhism, the people started becoming lazier* and the canals broke due to a lack of care for the canals during the time the longest drought had hit them in their history, this was believed to be one of many reasons for the collapse of the Khmer Empire.

*1: During droughts the canals became pathways for invading enemies to enter the Khmer Empire.
*2: The next section goes in-depth about the religious changes they experienced.

Religious Change

Near the end of the 14th century, Buddhism ideals spread throughout the Khmer Empire, this converted many people. The introduction removed Hindu beliefs, which included one belief in particular; supporting the king's ‘supreme’ rule. This was one of the most important beliefs for previous kings, it was the beliefs of “God Kings”, kings who were chosen by god to rule a nation or empire. This was used by previous kings to have their people believe in their authority, however with this belief gone, people became lazy and without people working as hard as they used to, this led to the destruction of the canals, and thus the end of this remarkable empire.

In conclusion, despite being more technologically advanced than other empires, they still contained many flaws that would’ve led to the eventual collapse of this spectacular empire.

Watch Now: Presented by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

Happiness is defined as the balance of positive and negative emotions, combined with overall life satisfaction. Happiness and gratitude have been studied in positive psychology for many years and researchers have found that gratitude is always strongly associated with greater happiness. Although everyone has their own definition of happiness, many of us want to feel more positive emotions than negative ones. However, negative emotions are still important. They have a lot to teach us and alert us when things need to change. Practising gratitude helps people feel more of the positive emotions, enable us to relish good experiences, improve our overall health, deal with adversity and build strong relationships. 

Click to view the Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Newsletter.

Sunday 10th December, 2023
Second Sunday of Advent Year B

By Mr Sam O'Keeffe, Sports Coordinator

On Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 of November, the College team SATIS T20 Cricket team travelled to Launceston for the 2023 SATIS T20 Championships. This was a fantastic two days of cricket and the team was led well by Captains Trent Steven and Jonah Evans.

Day One saw the team take on a challenging Launceston Church Grammar School and Launceston Christian School. In a tough first game, the Saints men set LCGS at a target of 78, which LCGS chased down in 14 overs. Game Two for the first day was fantastic. The Saints set a score of 114, with LCS needing 115 to win. With one ball remaining in the innings and LCS needing four runs, a solid strike from their batter sent the game into a super over. LCS was sent back into bat and made eight runs off their six balls. Team leaders Trent and Jonah took to the crease for their super over and steered to team over the line for the Saints to get their first win of the day.

On Day Two, the Saints would take on a talented St Virgil’s. Bowling first, the Saints struck early and quick with St Vigirl’s 3-44, and they looked to have St Virgil’s on the back foot. This was helped by the sharp bowling of Aiden Reynier, who took 3-15 off his 4 overs. St Virgil’s would finish 10-84 off 19 overs. However, the Saints could not back up their super bowling innings and were bowled out for 55.

Game Two on Day Two saw the Saints take on Scotch Oakburn College. In a must-win game, the Saints set SOC a solid target of 112 to win. This was off the back of some good batting from Jade Doherty (21) and Jona Evans (37), Miller Young and Thenula Idirimanna also reached double figures. The bowlers bowled a very tight 20 overs and held on in the finish to win the game by six runs.

Well done to all the players involved and thank you to Mr Ryan for his support over the two days.

Wonderful support work for people living with dementia is performed every day by volunteers and workers in our local community. 

Donations of the following items (unused or used in good condition) will be gratefully received at the Caritas office. 

• Pencils
• Textas
• Colouring books
• Pencil cases
• Puzzles

This year, Devonport's Christmas Parade is on Friday 8 December at 6.30pm.  The parade will traverse a route taking in Clements Street, Bluff Road, Victoria Parade and James Street. The marshalling area will be situated at the Byard Park car park. There are some great viewing spots right along the route.

Devonport Country Club has obtained funding from The Australian Golf Foundation (AGF) to support six lucky teenage girls to pursue the sport of golf. No previous skill is necessary.

Scholarships are open to girls aged 9 to 16. Girls new to golf may also be engaged in this program should they demonstrate a commitment to learning the sport. A willingness to learn a new skill.

'This is a terrific opportunity', said Helen Plaister, DCC Scholarship coordinator.

'Not only will girls receive 24 coaching sessions with Alex Hamilton PGA Professional but also a one-year junior club membership that carries playing rights, to ensure girls can participate in club competitions and obtain a handicap'.

The Scholarship program is part of a national campaign to get more girls playing golf. Along with over 160 other golf facilities across Australia, DCC will be working closely with golf’s national body Golf Australia, throughout 2024.

'All we ask is that applicants display a desire and willingness to learn and improve golf skills, obtain a handicap, play in club competitions (or at least social play) and engage in any extra-curricular activity that fosters friendships between scholarship holders'.

A total of six scholarships will be available at DCC for 2024.

For further information and to apply, please contact:

Helen Plaister

Email: helen.plaister1950@gmail.com