Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten period. Lent is a time to renew and restore our relationship with Christ. In what ways can this be enabled and supported in the school community?

Each Gospel concerns an encounter with Christ that challenged people to open themselves to God, faith, truth, and life. Catholic schools provide opportunities for such encounters throughout the year, but Lent demands a special effort. These opportunities might include:

• providing regular prayer and meditation sessions (daily or weekly, for individuals and groups)
• reflecting on the Lenten readings
• using images of the face of Christ for prayer and meditation
• ensuring every classroom, gathering space and public space contains an image or symbol that is not only a reminder of Catholic identity, but an invitation to be open to Christ’s presence
• encouraging participation in Project Compassion, not just in donating or raising money, but in opening our eyes to the suffering around us and making a compassionate response.

Lent is a chance to encounter Jesus, to remember again His invitation to chat, to come and see who He really is. It is a rich season for schools to look upon the face of Jesus, not merely in our churches and classrooms with crucifixes and other images. Every encounter we have with a student, colleague or staff member can lead to a more profound realisation about our lives in Christ.

Parents & Friends Association

This year we are looking to further develop our Parents & Friends Association as we see this as a very important support group for our College. Unfortunately, last year due to COVID-19 restrictions we were unable to meet regularly and hold our usual social events. Meetings are open to and attended by interested parents/carers, friends of the College, teachers, and administrative staff, as well as the Principal or one of the Deputy Principals.

Everyone is welcome to come and meet other parents, to learn more about our wonderful College, as well as to participate and share in general discussion often relating to significant issues about school events. We are currently awaiting an update to the CECV School Operations Guide to provide further information regarding the health and safety guidelines for these meetings. Further information will be published when it becomes available.

We request interested parents to please email the College at principal@crccs.vic.edu.au

Staffing News

It is with great pleasure that I welcome the following new staff into the CRCCS community:

• Rebecca Galicia - College Counsellor (full-time)
• Jordyn Bartolo - Student Tutor (part-time)
• Cassie Hayes - Student Tutor (part-time)

We welcome back Bridget Crowe from parental leave on Monday, 8 March 2021. We also wish replacement contract teacher Gabriela Bond all the best as her contract concludes on Friday, 5 March 2021.

Lenten Prayer

O Father, most merciful,
in the beginning You created us,
and by the passion of Your only Son
You created us anew.

Work in us now, both to will and to do what pleases You.
Since we are weak and can do no good thing by ourselves,

grant us Your grace and heavenly blessing,
that in whatever work we engage,
we may do all to Your honour and glory.

Keep us from sin and empower us daily to do good works,

that as long as we live in the body,
we may always perform service to You.

After our departure, give us pardon of all our sins, and receive us to eternal life;
through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St Anselm, 11^th century

The Season of Lent
In our daily lives we are often preoccupied with working towards achieving personal goals such as, working hard to build financial stability, going to the gym to keep fit or equipping ourselves with mental strategies to cope with the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ of life. Although there is nothing wrong with these goals, we often neglect to tend to our spirituality, our soul.

Lent which commenced last Wednesday is a great opportunity to take time to do this, to grow closer to Christ as we approach the feast of Easter. There are several practices the Church encourages us to engage in during Lent such as prayer (spending time talking to God, going to Mass, reading the bible, participating in the Stations of the Cross), self-denial (not eating meat; not eating sweets or dessert; giving up entertainment to spend time with the family, abstaining from things that do not draw us closer to God) and Helping Others (special attention to someone who is poor, sick, elderly, lonely or overburdened, or in other ways in need).

In his homily, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, reflected on Lent as a journey of returning to God and as an opportunity to deepen our love of our brothers and sisters. “God”, said the Pope, “is appealing to our hearts and our entire being, inviting us to Him. It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends.”

I encourage you to open your hearts to Christ by accessing the many resources available to you during this Lenten Season.

Archbishop Peter A Comensoli Lenten Message

Catholic Podcasts 
Holiness for the Working Day (Podcast) 
Pints with Aquinas (Podcast) 
https://pintswithaquinas.com/episodes/  

Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese (Lenten Resources) 
https://melbournecatholic.org/lent2021  

Catholic Apps 
Laudate: This app is wonderful year-round, not just during Lent.  It provides the daily readings, reflections, and a vast collection of prayers.  
Lent #Pray40 Challenge from Hallow Take the Lent #Pray40 Challenge from Hallow – the Catholic Prayer and Meditation App!  

Catholic Devotional 
In the Footsteps of Christ  

Daily Text Messages 
Flocknote: Flocknote is offering a daily Lenten reflection that you can choose to receive as either an email or text message.  

Catholic Email Subscriptions
Best Lent Ever by Dynamic Catholic: Catholic Speaker Matthew Kelly provides daily emails with videos and reflections to help you “Rediscover Jesus” this Lent.

Catholic Video Reflections
Lentsanity Reflections: Every Sunday throughout Lent, Benedictine monk, Fr Ananias Buccicone O.S.B. will share a new video giving you amazing and profound reflections and instruction on how to grow in faith.

Student Lenten Program – The Search
During Lent, students will have the opportunity to open their hearts to Jesus through learning about the Catholic faith and prayer during Thursday lunchtimes. ‘The Search’ explores the questions: How do I know if God even exists? Do I have a soul? What's the purpose of my life? 
Using philosophy, science, art, history and theology, we will be screening an exclusive series to explore life's ultimate journey in all its richness and beauty.
Please encourage your children to attend. Students can register via SEQTA notices.  

Friday 8:00am Mass – St Catherine of Siena Parish Church
Students, parents and their families are invited to attend 8:00am morning Mass.
Friday during Term 1, 8:00am to 8:25am
St Catherine of Siena Parish, Caroline Springs
The Eucharist allows us the opportunity to receive so many graces from God. Strength, forgiveness and hope are some of the graces we receive. However, the most important is growing in a deeper love for Christ from receiving him in the Eucharist. It is a wonderful opportunity to spend some time in silence and prayer and move our focus away from ourselves and on things we may need to work to allow Christ to reign in our hearts.

The 2021 Investiture of Student Leaders Ceremony, held on Wednesday in the hall, was the first of our three formal events for the year; the others being Graduation and Evening of Excellence.

The live-streamed ceremony was a fantastic celebration of our community and its values.

We were very privileged to have Ms Mariam Koslay as our Guest of Honour. Mariam was the inaugural College Captain, in 2010, and is a journalist, advocate for black people and events and is Communications Manager at Parkville College, which operates within Victoria’s youth custodial setting. She is the creator of the rolling photo series #YourBlacknessisBeautiful, which I encourage the community to support. Mariam’s message to the students around leadership as affecting your own circle of people was very powerful. She is an extraordinary young woman and we were very proud to welcome her back to the CRCCS community.

We were grateful to have Deacon Chris Creo who officiated the blessing of the badges and incoming leaders. Significantly, nearly all family members attended via the live-stream and have commented that they were extremely proud to witness their daughter/son being given the opportunity to lead.

The Investiture Ceremony has become the occasion where we highlight one of the significant leaders recognised in the naming of our homerooms or buildings. This year Deputy Principal Dr Andrew McAlindon focussed on the life and leadership of Simon Wonga, a highly respected ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri people.

A special part of the Investiture was the handover of Leaders Candles and Leaders Perpetual Diaries by the 2020 College Captains to the 2021 leaders. It was also wonderful to have other past student leaders participate in the ceremony and join in the College song. We extend a very big thank you to the following past Captains and CRC Sydenham students for giving their time generously to continuing to build strong links and leadership pathways for our students:

• Mariam Koslay 2010 College Captain (Inaugural & Guest of Honour)
• Tiobstia Alemu 2017 College Captain
• Alicia Azzopardi 2018 College Captain & 2020 CRC Syd College Captain
• Martin Nguyen 2019 College Captain & 2021 CRC Syd College Captain
• Jade Simunja 2020 College Captain
• Isabella Lipscombe 2019 Deputy College Captain
• Eliza Soriano 2019 Deputy College Captain 
• Trista Zerafa 2020 Deputy College Captain
• Megan Mangion 2020 Deputy College Captain
• Janine Sequeira 2020 Deputy College Captain
• Ebony Mangion 2020 House Captain – Jackson
• Jordan Magro 2020 House Captain – Franklin
• Trinity Castellanos 2020 House Captain – O’Reilly
• Carly Madigan 2020 House Captain – Norman

Principal Jamie Madigan then presented the College Captains and Deputy Captains with their badges and then they in turn presented the rest of their team. It was a wonderful example of our College’s culture of excellence and pride in being a Catholic Regional College student.

College Captain Alexandra Wood delivered a very beautiful inaugural address to the community, highlighting her growth, passion for leadership and gratefulness at being a part of our College.

The full investiture footage and the 2021 team are included below.

(Alexandra Wood's speech can be found at 57:50 and Ms Koslay's speech at 21:35)

College Captain
Alexandra Wood

Deputy College Captain
Thomas Cheal, Joshua Di Lullo, Maria Ranasinghe 

Franklin House Captains
Tiana Baba (Year 10) and Isabella Vignogna (Year 9)

Jackson House Captains
Carlos Antonio (Year 10) and Ivanka Portelli (Year 9)

O’Reilly House Captains
Madelyn Hartley (Year 10) and Lachlan Colaco (Year 9)

Norman House Captains
Patrick Calingin (Year 10) and Eniola Tiamiyu (Year 9)

Year 10 Leaders
Noor Elia (Transition Leader) 
Anthony Galea  
Kristina Ivic 
Emanuall Kolaj 

Year 9 Leaders
Meena Babawy 
Monique Cefai 
Ava McFarlane 
Alyssa Piazzese 
Angelica Powell 
Chantelle Randan 
Christina Stanford 
Katherine Sulewski 
Angel Yesudas 

Year 8 Leaders
Rahma Alkateb 
Stacey Culas 
Zalaika Farrugia 
Ella Hall 
Augustha Morris 
Ava Nesci 
Charli Nugara 
Maya Simunija 
Kiara Trimboli 
Liam Wilkins 

Our Student Leadership Model
At Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, student leadership is an essential aspect of our culture and tradition. We believe that leadership skills and practice can be both innate or learned, depending on individual characteristics and traits. Leaders emerge differently and the pathways to leadership must be varied and flexible in order to capture students with unique leadership gifts.

Our model of student leadership nurtures steady growth, responsibility and independence. In Year 7, each homeroom has a Class Captain elected for each of Term 2, 3 & 4, exposing 27 students to leadership roles. At Year 7, this is a unitary system that sees the students taking responsibility and being a voice for a group of 26 students each.

Year 8 sees a progression to a horizontal model of leadership where up to ten students are given the opportunity to represent the whole year level. There is not necessarily a leader from each individual homeroom.

A vertical aspect of leadership is introduced in Year 9 whereby House Captains are elected to support Year 10 House Captains. They take responsibility for encouraging all students from Year 7 to Year 10 from their House to participate in events and activities. As well, another ten students continue the horizontal model as Year 9 Leaders.

Four House Captains take on a pivotal role in Year 10, while ten Year 10 Leaders continue with the year level. Then ultimately, four students are invested as College Captain and Deputy College Captains and they take on a whole-school leadership profile.

School Fees

2020 school fees are now overdue unless you have a payment arrangement in place.

If you have any concerns with school fees, please contact the finance department by email on mkrsteski@crccs.vic.edu.au. If you are experiencing hardship financially please contact us.

2021 School Fees

School fees payment arrangements for 2021 are still available. Please download a direct debit form from the link below and return it to Reception at your earliest convenience. Hard copies are also available from the College office.

Direct Debit Form

School Fee Statements

Please note that school fee statements are now being sent out by email. For the month of January only, statements were also mailed home.

Year 7 Camp

Year 7 camp invoices will be sent home with your child this week. Payment of $390 is due in full by Friday 5 March, 2021.

CSEF

CSEF applications are now open for 2021.

Please complete the below application form and return the completed signed form along with a copy of your current health care card to the College office as soon as possible.

CSEF Application Form

Dear Families,  

At Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, we support the rights of all members of the school community to be provided with, and engage in, a safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environment. Consistent with this philosophy we have recently updated our ICT Acceptable Use Policy, which includes measures for the appropriate, effective and equitable use of ICT at the College.  

This extends to the use of digital tools and online communities and is underpinned by our expectation of safe and responsible behaviour of all members of the school community.

At Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, we:

• educate our students to be safe and responsible users of digital technologies
• raise our students’ awareness of issues such as online privacy, intellectual property and copyright
• supervise and support students when using digital technologies within the classroom and establish clear protocols and procedures when working in online spaces. This includes reviewing and considering the safety and appropriateness of online tools and communities
• provide a filtered internet service, but acknowledge that full protection from inappropriate content can never be guaranteed
• respond to issues or incidents that have the potential to impact on the wellbeing of our students including those reported through online services and know that some online activities are illegal and as such we are required to report this to the appropriate authorities.

The ICT Acceptable Use Policy has been endorsed by the College’s Leadership Team and our Federation Compliance Manager and is now enabled within the College.  

Please click here to read over this policy with your son/daughter(s) to ensure you understand and are familiar with all the elements in the policy.  

If you have any questions relating to the ICT Acceptable Use Policy, please contact the Digital Learning Services Manager.

May I take this opportunity to introduce myself to our new families. My name is Lucy Swan, and I am the Deputy Principal, Learning and Teaching. I look forward to working in partnership with you in guiding our students through a successful year and ensuring that they achieve the best possible results.

Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs prides itself on setting high expectations for all. This year will present your child with many challenges as they adapt to having new journeys, new teachers, new subjects, more homework and new friends to make. We have an excellent team of teachers at the College who continue to support every learning challenge with compassion and care.

At Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, we believe homework should be a meaningful and worthwhile experience for students and is most effective in supporting learning when it has a clear purpose. Your child will be receiving regular homework throughout the term. For our new families detailed information regarding our Homework Policy is available on our learning management system (SEQTA engage) and can also be accessed via this link.

Homework provides students with opportunities to consolidate their classroom learning, pattern behaviour for lifelong learning beyond the classroom and involve family members in their learning. The setting of homework considers the need for students to have a balanced lifestyle. This includes sufficient time for family, recreation and community and cultural pursuits.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce/remind you of our Code of Academic Integrity (which can be accessed via this link and located on our SEQTA engage). Please take the time to familiarise yourselves with this information. As members of the academic community at Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs, we value academic integrity in all aspects of our work. Respect for one’s own academic work as well as respect for others’ work, is a vital part of integrity. For such reasons, we acknowledge others’ contributions and efforts in our work.

Our College values academic integrity and therefore has a zero tolerance of plagiarism or cheating. We take these breaches of academic integrity seriously and are committed to making sure all students understand and acknowledge the importance of maintaining academic integrity at all times.

Assessment Re-sit Policy

A 100-minute assessment re-sit period takes place each Tuesday from 3:20 - 5:00pm in the College cafeteria. This re-sit period is supervised to allow for students who have missed in-class assessment tasks to complete these, without the need to be absent for additional class time. Students attending the re-sit period are required to be present until 4:20pm for Assessment Tasks of 60 minutes duration or less, or until 5:00pm, for Assessment Tasks longer than 60 minutes. All parents/carers have signed a year-long Operoo Permission Form for their child to be eligible to attend the after-school assessment task re-sit period.

Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs continues to offer a wide variety of extra-curricular clubs and activities to support your child’s all-round development as well as academic excellence. We are fortunate to have so many staff members who give freely of their time for the betterment of the students. I would like you to join us by encouraging your child to participate as fully as possible and take advantage of the opportunities available to them. Information can be found on SEQTA engage. Alternatively, please click this link to download the file.

Thank you in advance for your continued support.

Social Justice Leadership day is designed for team members to come and spend a day together, celebrating their importance within the College community. During this time, the team have the opportunity to embrace their role, while listening to and learning from greatly inspiring individuals.

Representatives from Edmond Rice, St Vincent De Paul’s, Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Human (ACRATH) and Refugee and Asylum Seekers organisation, took the time to share their wisdom and experiences with the team. The information provided was insightful and uplifting, teaching us that there is always a way for us to step in and make a difference in the lives of the people around us, in turn, stressing the importance of the 2021 Caritas motto, ‘Aspire not to have more, but to be more’ – Oscar Romero.   

The team spent the remainder of the afternoon planning for the term ahead, sketching up ideas on ways they can make a difference within our community.  Thank you to all involved in the organising and planning of this remarkable day.   

Ms Matilda Mattar
Social Justice and Service-Learning Leader 

We would like to thank all involved for organising an amazing social justice leadership day on Tuesday 23 February. We were blessed to have Mrs Mattar, Mr Sammut, Mr Madigan & a range of guest speakers present to us all things social justice. We learnt about forced marriage, slavery, shopping ethically and how we can make a positive difference in our communities. We spent the afternoon planning a range of projects, activities and events for our school community which we cannot wait to begin actioning!

Ivanka & Jessica 
Social Justice Members

CARITAS – PROJECT COMPASSION

WEEK 1 STORY

Jamila is a Rohingya refugee living in a camp in Bangladesh with her elderly mother and baby daughter. With the support of Caritas Australia, and through Caritas Bangladesh, Jamila has been able to access to emergency food, shelter, counselling, and vocational training that will help to support her family.

Jamila's story can be found here:  https://lent.caritas.org.au/week-1

On Friday 19 February 2021, we celebrate a belated Carnevale Day by enjoying the famous Italian summer treat of gelato!

Carnevale is usually celebrated in the week leading up to lent, on Shrove Tuesday. It is a vibrant celebration which typically marks the beginning of the Lenten period.

Due to the 5-day lockdown, we had to shift things around and celebrate the day a little later than usual, but with the sun shining down on us, it was the perfect day to celebrate this wonderful time!

Thanks to the wonderful support we received from the students of CRCCS, we were able to raise $240 from the sale of the gelati and we can’t wait to donate it to Caritas.

A big thank you to the students of the Languages Club. We could not have done this without all of your help and support on the day!

The Languages Team

Dear Parents/Carers,

In 2022, the College is proposing to change the current day structure from six 50-minute periods per day, to five 60-minute periods per day.

With the proposed change in day structure, a change in the scheduling of recess and lunch times is necessary. The College is seeking parent’s feedback on two different options for the structure of the day.

Parents are asked to provide feedback on their preferred day structure using the following form by Friday, 5 March 2021.

During Term 4 last year, the VCAL group were successful in gaining a grant from the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools. Using the funds, the class designed and created an Indigenous garden. Working in teams the students learned valuable skills that would be transparent and necessary in the workplace. They looked at Work Health and Safety of the working area, planning, budgeting and purchasing.

With the assistance of the College groundsman Mr Charlie Giordimaina, the students were guided in implementing an irrigation system, planting native trees and shrubs and moving a whole lot of soil and bark.  

Over the summer break, the garden continued to grow and was overtaken by the native weeds. This year’s VCAL class has started the clearing of weeds, planting new shrubs and getting it back to its original condition. This is a great starting point for working in a group and the students are excited by the prospect of working on various projects throughout the year.

Thank you to Charlie, Tim and Tanya for supporting the students during the project.

Now that we are at the end of Week 3, some students might start feeling the need for further support with their Mathematics learning. If students would like some extra assistance to complete their Maths work, to prepare for an upcoming assessment or simply to revisit some concepts and skills covered in class so far, then after school Math Support can help them.

A reminder that these sessions are now held on Tuesdays and Thursdays in room MM2 from 3:20 - 4:15pm. Please refer to the attached timetable for the Term 1 dates. Students can either attend part of, or stay for the duration of the session.

Please click here to view the Math Support Sessions for Term 1