Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey

All Siena parents and guardians will have received instructions in relation to completing these surveys online. This data is invaluable in that it helps us to provide understanding of:

• Styles of religious belief
• Ways Catholic schools give shape to their identity theologically
• How Catholic schools perceive themselves pedagogically

Surveys need to be completed by Thursday, 14 April.

If you have any questions regarding ECSI, please email me: jlevett@siena.vic.edu.au.

Living Lent Well Through the Lens of Hope

Across these first weeks of Lent, Siena students have been committed to Living Lent Well by:

• Raising awareness of the communities supported by this year’s Caritas Project Compassion Campaign, For All Future Generations
• Contributing donations to support the work of the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project
• Holding raffles to raise funds for Project Dignity, a women’s health initiative supporting the Kopanang Community in Tsakane, South Africa

We also continue to pray for the people of Ukraine. In this week's Eureka Street magazine, Andrew Hamilton SJ says: "Hope is really an expression of love and of the trust that love is ultimately stronger than hatred or apathy."

Read the rest of this timely and thought provoking article here.

The Annunciation on 25 March

"Christ comes among us in every generation in ways that we could never have anticipated."

Timothy Radcliffe OP

Today provides us with an opportunity to be grateful for the willingness of Mary to take on the role of making Emmanuel (God with us) possible.

This beautiful fresco by Dominican Fra Angelico is located in the Convent of San Marco, Florence which has been visited by Siena staff and students during cultural trips to Italy.

Learning Conversations

Bookings for Learning Conversations opened this week. They will be held online on Thursday, 31 March at 4.00pm to 7.30pm and Friday, 1 April at 8.45am to 3.45pm. Friday will be a non-teaching day. Students are requested to attend the Learning Conversations and use this day to complete subject tasks.

At the scheduled appointment time, teachers will call the student on their device, via Microsoft Teams. At this time, you will be able to participate in the conversation, sitting beside your daughter. For those parents unfamiliar with the Microsoft Teams platform, click here for a tip sheet.

Learning Conversation slots are ten minutes apart, however, the conversation time is seven minutes to allow transition between interviews. To ensure that we run on time, we kindly request that you strictly adhere to your time allocation in consideration of other parents and teaching staff.

If you are able to attend during the day, we request that you please book a Friday conversation time thereby making the after-hour times on Thursday available to those who cannot participate during the day.

Please make bookings as soon as possible as some subjects fill up quickly. If a teacher is fully booked, please click on the mail icon next to their name on the booking sheet, and they will provide feedback on your daughter’s learning via email by the end of term. Please only utilise this option if there is no availability.

To accommodate separated families, where one parent resides in a different location to the student but wishes to participate, we kindly request that the parent that will be with the student makes the Learning Conversation bookings and then sends the booking schedule and an email address for the parent that will not be with the student to bbiggins@siena.vic.edu.au.

Interim Reports will be available on Siena Central from Tuesday, 22 March and can be accessed via your daughter’s profile under the Academics Reports tab. Please access the report prior to the scheduled Learning Conversation, to discuss any areas of concern.

Learning Conversations are not recorded by the College. Please be aware that making an unauthorised video or audio recording of an interview is contrary to the Siena College Privacy Policy.

Horizons Week

Horizons Week provides the opportunity for cohort specific connection building, collaboration and experiential learning. Parents / Guardians will shortly receive an EdSmart Parent Permission Slip for year level activities during Horizons Week. Please see a brief outline of the program below.

Semester 1 Examinations and Assessment Dates

The 2022 VCAA General Achievement Test (GAT) will be held on Wednesday, 7 September, please note the change of date. The GAT is compulsory for all students studying a VCE Unit 3 and 4 subject. This year, all Victorian senior secondary students will have their literacy and numeracy skills measured against new standards in a reformed GAT. The GAT will be split into two sections:

• Section A will assess literacy and numeracy skills
• Section B will assess skills in Mathematics, Science, Technology and Arts and Humanities, with an increased focus on Critical and Creative Thinking Skills.

Students will participate in a practice GAT in Term 2 to prepare them for the changes.

Year 9, 10 and 11 students will undertake Semester Examinations in June. The Year 9 to 11 Semester 1 examinations will commence on Friday, 10 June and conclude on Friday, 17 June.

The Siena ‘S’ date is the final date for unit assessment for each year level.

• Year 7 and Year 8 ‘S’ date: Friday, 10 June
• Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 ‘S’ date: Friday, 3 June
• Year 12 Unit 3 ‘S’ date: Friday, 17 June

Term 1 Holidays

The Term 1 holidays are a great opportunity for our students to relax and be reinvigorated. We expect that the Year 10 to 12 students will dedicate some of the holiday period to complete set work, prepare for Term 2 topics and start revising for their Semester Examinations. Year 7 to 9 students will not have any set home learning over the holidays, but we do encourage them to continue with their wider reading.

I wish our students, parents, and guardians a well deserved break and a joyful Easter.

The daily news has been filled with images and reports of extreme hardship and distress for many in Australia and around the world, particularly in the Ukraine. Being exposed to the impact of natural disasters and war indirectly through the media, stirs up various feelings of sadness, depression, anxiety and frustration. Whilst many communities and families around Australia have been affected by the recent floods in NSW and Queensland, with many still coming to terms with what has happened, others are rallying together to provide much needed moral and financial support.

How well young people cope or manage any trauma, will depend on specific risk factors in existence before, during and after the event. It is vital to talk and listen to them, so as to help them process their feelings in response to what they are seeing and hearing.

Parents need to remain vigilant in monitoring their children during this time and check in with them regularly. They may be distressed by images they have seen, either physically or through social media and news reports. Young people may exhibit or experience a wide range of emotions, and it is therefore important to reassure them that what they are feeling is considered normal.

This Special Report offers a number of strategies to help support families at this time. If this raises any concerns for you, a loved one or the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help. Here is the link to your Special Report.

Around the world, people are saddened and devastated by the events unfolding in Ukraine. Both adults and young people alike are feeling the stresses of war from afar as they experience fear, frustration and helplessness. The twenty-four hour news cycle has shown us upsetting images which is causing our young people to raise many questions about what is happening.

Parents need to be guided by their child’s curiosity. There is strong evidence to suggest that having a supportive discussion about a stressful event in a developmentally appropriate way, can actually reduce distress. It is best to 'name it to tame it'. This will also combat any misinformation that they may have been exposed to, via social media, pictures or video clips.

Children need to know that they are being taken seriously and it is recommended that you do not avoid the difficult questions. Ensure you address their questions honestly and sensitively. With less life experience than adults, young people may need help navigating news about the Ukraine crisis. Use this is as an opportunity to model and encourage compassionate views towards fellow humans, regardless of geographical distance or circumstances.

This extra Special Report offers guidance on how best to discuss the conflict in Ukraine. We hope that you are able to take some time to reflect on the information offered.

Here is the link to your Special Report about discussing the Ukraine war with your child.

It is also beneficial to remind young people about all the good in the world, even though images and stories about this can be difficult to find. Looking closer to home may help, as well as listing all the things which we are grateful for in our lives.

Kindness is a multifaceted concept. It involves being courteous and respectful of others, considering others’ wellbeing and proactively taking action to help other people. Kindness has many proven wellbeing benefits, both for ourselves on an individual level, and for the communities that we are a part of.

On Friday, 18 March, Siena College commemorated Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative: National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence. The 2022 theme is Kindness Culture: promoting inclusion, respect and community belonging for all students.

This coincided with the launch of Siena College’s Year 7 Kind Mind Club, a program aimed at strengthening connections for our new Siena community members. The group gathered in the Learning Centre at lunchtime to discuss the highlights and challenges presented during their first weeks at Siena College.

We took time to highlight the importance of being kind to ourselves and others, particularly in times of heightened stress, like starting secondary school. A way of doing this is to adopt mindfulness strategies. The Year 7s made mindful glitter jars to use at home while practising the mindful breathing techniques taught during the program.

We also talked about mindfulness being a psychological skill that you can learn, which can be perfected over time with practice. The students challenged themselves to spend five minutes a day over the weekend to intentionally practice mindful breathing.

The Year 7 Kind Mind Club is open to all Year 7 students and will run until the end of Semester 1. If you would like more information, please contact Minna Jewell.

Students in Year 10 STEAM have been involved in designing, analysing, testing, making and racing a small scale Formula 1 car as a team. The cars will race on a twenty metre track powered by CO2 canisters and are capable of reaching speeds of up to eighty kilometres per hour.

This project is based on the international F1 in Schools competition, conducted annually by Re-Engineering Australia, in which over 17,000 schools in fifty-one countries compete. In Australia, over 22,000 students compete each year, with countless more completing programs inspired by the competition.

Mimicking the world of a Formula One team, teams of students follow a pathway of engineering and manufacturing disciplines: design, analyse, test, make and race. They utilise real world technology such as 3D printing, 3D CAD engineering design and virtual wind tunnel simulation software to test and manufacture their designs. The student design engineers are also required to design logos, uniforms and a team image while maintaining the College style guidelines. This project also develops skills in problem solving, project management, communication, presentation, teamwork, innovation, self reflection, collaboration, and design: skills in demand by industries worldwide.

As part of the project, each team is matched with a mentor from a university who is involved in the Formula SAE competition. Formula SAE is an international competition for university students to design, manufacture and race an electric autonomous racing car. Participation is highly regarded in many industry sectors. This year, mentors from Swinburne University, Monash University and Melbourne University are working with Siena students. Students will meet regularly online with their mentors and will present their final project to a panel of all mentors.

On Friday, 18 March, the class travelled to Melbourne University to meet with their Formula SAE team. They toured their workshop and manufacturing facility, as well as their office space. They also explored the Telstra Creative Space, a state of the art makerspace. Students then worked with individual members of the Melbourne team to share their designs and get advice for the next iteration of their cars.

The annual House Swim and Dive Carnival was held on a stunning Melbourne day on Friday, 11 March.

It was fantastic to see students embrace the House spirit by dressing up in their respective House colours. There were some particularly impressive costumes!

Students were awarded House points for both participating and placing in events such as Ironwomen, fifty metre individual races and relays, diving, and of course the fun novelty events.

The following awards were given out on that day:

Overall winning house: Cassia (816 points)
Second: Dianella (723 points)
Third: Waratah (562 points)
Fourth: Kurrajong (512 points)

Age Group Winning Houses

• Junior: Cassia
• Intermediate: Dianella
• Senior: Cassia

Individual Year Level Champions

• Year 7: Emma H
• Year 8: Alessiah M
• Year 9: Asta R
• Year 10: Teah W and Amelie M
• Year 11: Anais J
• Year 12: Edie M

Diving Champions

• Junior: Millie M
• Intermediate: Zoe T
• Senior: Edie M

Alison Lazenby Memorial Trophy (Best overall diver)

• Edie M

Michelle Timms Award (Fastest fifty metre freestyle race)

• First place: Anais J
• Second place: Sienna R
• Third place: Lucy P

Junior Ironwoman

• First place: Beatrice Z
• Second place: Gemma P
• Third place: Maddie M

Senior Ironwoman

• First place: Tess L
• Second place: Emily M
• Third place: Natalie M

A big thank you to all our staff who helped to supervise on the day, it was a great day and a lot of fun was had by all.

The 2022 School Umpiring Course is a rejuvenated, shortened program of four lessons and consists of engaging, active and fun activities based on the skills required for students to transition from the schools program to their local community umpiring club. Run by a school umpire course facilitator from your school’s local community umpiring club, the program includes activities for field, boundary and goal umpiring and provides students opportunities to learn, be active and transition into umpiring community footy and earning money through their local umpiring club.

Students will learn the basic skills and benefits of umpiring, along with achieving a school umpiring course certification. Students may also be able to umpire the AusKick game at half time of an AFL/AFLW match.

To book in for the 2022 School Umpiring Course, please use this booking link.

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to email sport@ssoaustralia.com.

Click below to read the information sheet in various languages:

• English
• Chinese
• Vietnamese
• Arabic

In this week's edition of Siena Career News, you can find out more about the following:

Australian Catholic University

• A new Employability program embedded in the Bachelor of Business and IT courses
• A new Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice course at the Thomas More Law School

Deakin University

• School Holiday tours
• Changes to entry requirements for the Art and Design courses

• Visit the new Monash Explorer webpage
• You can now choose to specialise in Music Production with the JMC Academy
• 2023 ADF GAP Year program: applications are now open
• Apprenticeships and Traineeships information
• Veterinary Science career pathways
• Exploring Flinders University in South Australia

For further details, please read the Siena Career News.