Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Saint Blessed Mary Mackillop, Australia’s first Saint.

Last Wednesday night, our new Archbishop Peter Comensoli referred to Mary Mackillop in his Homily, on taking the ‘first step’ in proclaiming Jesus Christ:

‘We need only to take a first step. Here, in Melbourne, we have a home-grown example of one such first-stepper, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Just up on Brunswick St, in the ACU quadrangle you will pass on the way to the reception this evening, there is a statue of a young Mary on the threshold of saintliness. She is sitting on a bench looking out, poised for her future, about to get on the move. I’ve come from the city (Sydney) where Mary completed her missionary journey, to the city where she began it. You are the Church that produced Australia’s first saint. And as Mary sits eager and expectant to what lies before her, I now join you on this threshold, poised in anticipation of what we are to do in Christ Jesus.

CRC Sports Stadium

Parents will have noticed a lot of progress in the building of the Sports Stadium in the last month as shown in the photo below.

Year 8 Coordinator

Congratulations to Jordan Reithofer who has taken over the Year 8 Coordinator position. Jordan can be contacted at jreithofer@sfcc.vic.edu.au for any Year 8 enquiries.

Fees

Re-enrolment occurs during August. Parents are reminded that school fee payments need to be up to date before re-enrolment.

2019 Subject Selections

Year 10 and 11 students need to finalise their 2019 subject selections this week with their Final Selection page (from Selection Guide) and copy of their WebPreferences receipt due Friday, 10th August. Please ensure these are submitted on time as late submissions may result in subject preferences being missed due to VCE numbers being processed and initial blockings completed. Students will be given their initial allocations later in the term. VCAL students will be notified of their application success or not.

Year 9 students and parents/guardians are invited to join us at 7pm this Wednesday, August 8 for our Year 10 2019 Information Evening. I strongly encourage all families to attend as the Year 10 Elective selections are by far the most complicated over all year levels.

Buses

It has come to our attention that a small minority of students are not boarding Bacchus Marsh Coaches in a safe manner. Parents of students whose behaviour endangers others in boarding will be contacted. Students will be at risk of being excluded from using the buses.

Our Parent Access Module (PAM) has undergone an update and will now email parents when a teacher assigns a letter to a student. This means parents will receive instant notification of the assignment of a variety of letters including Unsatisfactory Performance Letters, Attendance Letters, N Redemption Letters and VCE N Letters. These letters allow parents to monitor their student’s academic performance and support the achievement of successful academic outcomes for their student. In the coming weeks, teachers will no longer notify parents of the assignment of a letter via an email, the system will do it automatically using the email you have registered on your PAM account.

All parents/guardians are required to log in to the Parent Access Module to check that the email registered is correct and monitored daily. If the email is not correct, please note you will not receive these notifications and it will remain your responsibility to log in to PAM periodically to check for learning feedback in the form of letters.

Narelle Layton

Director of Learning

On Thursday 23rd of August the College will be having a casual clothes day to support the students going to the Ignite Youth Conference in Brisbane in the September school holidays. It is a conference where students from all over Australia come together to deepen their faith and meet other like-minded students. It is a great opportunity for our students and we are excited to take a number of students for the first time from Catholic Regional College, Melton.

Any student who wishes to support the Ignite group is asked to donate $2 on the day and can then wear casual clothes. The theme is, "Keep warm and dress for the cold". Students are expected to wear appropriate clothing for the day and any student that is not dressed appropriately will be asked to go home and change into their full school Winter uniform. We thank everyone for their support.

Louise Crocitti

Ignite Youth Conference Organiser

Congratulations to Ryan Bettes who raced in the City of Melbourne Titles on the weekend in Port Melbourne, one of the biggest Go Karting single races in Australia. Ryan competed against 24 of the best go-karters from all over Australia in his class KA3 Junior and finished in 2nd place.

David Arthurson

Year 10 Coordinator

Characteristics of the homeless population

A few interesting characteristics of the total homeless population in Australia:

• Males made up 58% of the homeless and females 42%. Males outnumbered females in every category, but particularly rough sleepers (66%) and boarding house residents (73%) - This sex difference was mainly among the older population.
• Young people under 18, homelessness was about 50%-50% male-female
• The highest rate of homelessness was in the 19-24yrs age group

Homeless numbers in our Local Area (statistics from 2016 Census)

• Melton – 68 people
• Melton West – 46 people
• Melton South – 57 people
• Bacchus Marsh – 56 people
• Bacchus Marsh outer region – 8 people
• Rockbank – 13 people

This is a total of 248 homeless people on any given night in our local area. These are people that, as a result of circumstances (not choice), have nowhere to call home.

If you want to make a difference to the lives of others and you can’t come to the CRC Annual Winter Sleepout, make a donation at the front office or online at:

http://VinniesSchoolSleepout.gofundraise.com.au/page/CatholicRegionalCollegeMelton.

Enquiries can be sent to –mrowe-watts@sfcc.vic.edu.au.

Marg Rowe-Watts

Social Justice Coordinator

A guided faith journey towards becoming a Catholic.

WHO IS R.C.I.A. for?

• Adults who are not Baptised
• Adults who are already Baptised in another Christian Church
• Non-practicing Catholics who wish to renew their faith

If you are interested, the Parish of Melton will be holding an information evening at St Catherines of Siena Church on Tuesday 11th September at 7:30pm. If you would like to attend, please contact the Parish office on 9743 6515 or email melton@cam.org.au.

Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults