From the Principal

Dear Members of the St Andrews College Community,

It’s hard to believe that we are almost halfway through Term 4. So many learning opportunities have been presented to students, and it is wonderful to see the enthusiasm in which they are taking on these opportunities. I have been visiting all of the local Catholic Primary Schools (Year 5’s) over the past week and letting them know that our enrolments have opened for Year 7 2022. The level of excitement on the Year 5 students faces when I talk about all the wonderful learning opportunities we have to offer at St Andrews College is priceless.

‘It’s All About Learning’

Gospel Reflection:

Matthew 23:1-12

In Matthew 23:1-12, Jesus criticized the scribes and Pharisees primarily for their self-interest and social climbing. Now, he shifted his ire to a series of woes concerning their rulings on the Law. In the first four of the series, he chided them for their rigidity over mercy:

Legal judgments that drove widows further into poverty, only to be covered over by lengthy prayers.

Lifestyle entanglements that drew both themselves and their followers away from faith in the Kingdom.

Proselytizing even in the Diaspora, encouraging a zealous spirit in the convert that shut out any sense of compassion.

Minuet rulings on solemn oaths to YHWH that were more concerned with how one promised God then the gravity of a relationship with God.

Notice Jesus did not condemn the scribes and Pharisees for making rulings, but for the overarching importance of those legal findings. Court opinions and precedences neither comprised nor defined faith; they were only a means to an end, a deepening relationship with God. If they got in the way of trust, they and their authors were useless.

Faith is a matter of balance between orthodoxy (faith defined in dogmas) and orthopraxy (faith in action). Both point us toward God, but should not loom so large in life as to take us away from our Lord. Faith lost in the details is no faith at all.

Have you ever found yourself lost in the details of faith, only to lose sight of compassion for others?

Congratulations Issabella-We are very proud of you:

I wanted to share an amazing achievement from Issabella Narayan. 

She swam at the Regatta centre in a 5km open water swimming event in hopes to achieve a National time.

She amazingly achieved a time of 1 hr and 14 minutes which qualified her for the National Titles and she will now be competing in the 2021 Australian Open Water Championships on the 30th January 2021 against the best in the country!! She has a lot of training to do over the next few months and we could not be more proud! Go for it Issabella. We are looking forward to hearing how you go at the Nationals.

Congratulations Mohika:

Mohika Jhamat from Year 11 participated in the Constitutional Convention. The keynote address was given by Professor Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law & Director, Constitutional Reform Unit, University of Sydney Law School. She's a very interesting speaker and Mohika found the process 'quite interesting'.

Mohika would like to attend the National Constitutional Convention to be held in Canberra in March/April next year or maybe live streamed from NSW Parliament House in Sydney, depending on the situation with COVID-19. Participants will be selected on their response to a relevant question and invited to attend. The conference is funded. The question is: How has the Australian Constitution remained relevant during 2020? 

Mohika will write a response due by the 16th November. Only 30 participants are selected from NSW. We are all looking forward to seeing you succeed Mohika.

Character Strengths Day:

Congratulations to all on the success of ‘Character Strengths’ Day, a fundraising initiative as well as an awareness raising day. It is important to understand our strengths as a part of self-understanding as well as the strengths of others to enable us to work better with those around us. 

Sydney Science Park Research Project:

We are very proud of our very talented and hard working students who presented to Mr Stenning (CEDP Science Officer) as well as a representative from the CSIRO  on their proposals for the Sydney Science Park. The quality and depth of the research they undertook was of a very high standard with the CSIRO taking on board the student recommendations. The students involved were:

Year 9: Topic: Urban Heat

Dominique Grepo

Kayla Marafioti

Ameline Sen

Year 10: Topic: Energy Needs

Raminder Saund

Nicole Suarez

Pankti Patel

Mark Cruz

Ishaan Pathak

Jeffrey Wong

Yuvraj Thind

The students' expressed their journey as follows:

• The project overall was fun and challenging.
• Initially it took a little time to understand what the project was about.
• Students found that working in small groups with like minded people and a common goal returned the most success.
• Students began to realise that self directed learning has great benefits. 
• The Inquiry Based Learning project provided us with an opportunity to develop our scientific skills through investigation, evaluation and problem solving.

Well done to all the students involved, and thank you to Ms Rosinski and Ms May who were the chief facilitators of the program.

Virtual Science-That sounds interesting:

Thank you to Mr Silva for providing the ‘Virtual Science’ experience to his classes. The Oculus Virtual Reality headset provides many different science experiences. In this case the students enjoyed riding the rollercoaster demonstrating physics principles, as well as spending some time under the ocean in Malaysia learning about challenges the local people face due to overfishing..

Enrolment for Year 7 2022 NOW OPEN

If you have a friend or family member looking to enrol for Year 7 2022 (students currently in Year 5) please contact the Office ASAP for an enrolment pack to avoid disappointment. We have a substantial waiting list already for Year 7 2021.

Blacktown Youth Ambassador 2021:

Congratulations to Wasim Rahman on the inspiring and articulate speech that he delivered as part of the Blacktown Youth Ambassador 2021 selection process. It is an arduous process of application, interview, and speech in order to be selected for the Youth Ambassador position. Wasim had the greatest presence of all the speakers, and challenged the audience to see the potential for this wonderful Region. Congratulations Wasim. You represented yourself, your family, and the College with distinction.