Welcome back to the 2022 school year. Whether you were able to get away for a holiday at all, or had a staycation, I hope all our families had a safe, happy and holy Christmas period, and that your daughters return to school rested and refreshed. I want to add a special welcome to our new Year 7 families and also the many families whose daughters have joined us in other years throughout the College.

Despite wishing it were not so, the pandemic continues, and we have received further advice about the conduct of school life for at least the first half of Term One. We will now continue our COVID-19 updates to parents as required, as restrictions, customs and practices change. Watch for our regular bulletins, regular, clear communication has been one of the keys to our successful management of the pandemic at school level thus far. It is certainly our wish to return to as much normality as possible in 2022 and we hope to be offering excursions, camps and other experiences as we move carefully back to “living with Covid”. We will be continuing the “Vaccines plus” policy which, in addition to encouraging all students to be vaccinated as encouraged by NSW Health, also includes wearing of surgical masks and cohorting of students on site.

I am very excited to welcome our new staff, and they are introduced in Mrs Keogh’s message below. We have been able to recruit highly qualified and experienced staff for some key leadership positions. Although there is a genuine teacher shortage in NSW, we were able to engage outstanding additional teaching staff as our College enrolment numbers grow to over 1200 students.

The Mount St Benedict Centre conversion to administration and classroom spaces will begin this term and we are excited about the use of the building and adjoining land which will be available to us by the end of 2022.

I look forward to seeing as many parents as possible (in a socially distanced way of course!) at functions this year, when restrictions allow. Like you, I have missed the in-person connection with our community last year (and the year before!) and I hope to see more of you in person throughout the year.

Michael Hanratty
College Principal

I write to officially welcome all families to the 2022 academic year. The 2022 academic year commences for students in Years 7,11 and 12 on Friday 28 January. The whole school will be in attendance from Monday 31 January. Traditionally, we have had photos taken in the first week of school. This year, our College photos will be taken in Term Two. We continue to work hard and adapt plans to ensure your daughters are provided with the best care we can provide in an ever-changing COVID-19 environment. We will continue to communicate with you regularly as advice changes and the situation evolves.

In response to community feedback, I remind parents of a change in operation that has previously been alerted to parents is that BenniesTime will look a little different in 2022.  Bennies Time in 2022 will take place on Thursday Week B, in Period One. The structure of Bennies Time in 2022 has been changed to meet the needs of the College Community. Years 7-9 students will be required to be onsite for ALL Bennies Time sessions. Attendance for Years 10-12 students will be flexible. Bennies Time will be used for activities across a cohort such as House Assemblies, Year meetings, Standardised Tests (e.g. NAPLAN), Senior assessments tasks, guest speakers and more. The Bennies Time schedule is available on BenniesNet. If an event is scheduled for the year group, it is compulsory for all students to attend. Parents of students in Years 10 to 12 are encouraged to make medical and other appointments for their daughters during non-scheduled Bennies Time sessions to avoid disrupting timetabled lessons.

Staffing Update

Schools are dynamic places, and our staffing has been very stable over many years. At the end of 2021 we had a number of staff retire or accept promotion in other schools.

We have three new Heads of Department, a new Assistant Head of Department and four new or acting Heads of House.

• Head of PDHPE – Mr Samuel Napper
• Head of English – Mrs Rachel Palgan
• Head of Science – Mrs Lisa Dean
• Assistant Head of Religious Education - Alicia Doueihi
• Head of House – Stanbrook - Corinne Maclou
• Head of House – Terracina - Julie Burke
• Acting Head of House – Monserrat - Colin O’Donnell
• Acting Head of House – Arcadia - Rebecca Stooke

With a priority on student wellbeing the College has given additional resourcing to the Wellbeing Team in 2022 and appointed 8 new Assistant Heads of House. 

• Assistant Head of House – Subiaco - Elle Clark
• Assistant Head of House – Maredsous - Emma Lupis
• Assistant Head of House – Monte Cassino - Melina Moyes
• Assistant Head of House – Monserrat - Angela O’Sullivan
• Assistant Head of House – Stanbrook - Danielle O’Neil
• Assistant Head of House – Arcadia - Rebecca Summerhays
• Assistant Head of House – Terracina - Therese Brookton
• Assistant Head of House – New Norcia and Student Leadership Coordinator - Cassie Merhab

I am delighted to advise that we have been very fortunate to recruit an outstanding ensemble of new staff for 2022. Please see below the names of the new staff for 2022. I know our Bennies community will welcome these professionals.

During 2022, our College community will focus on the Benedictine value of Hospitality, which is one of the three core values which guide our community in our Catholic, Benedictine tradition. The other two values are Pax (Peace) and Stewardship. The focus on Hospitality will enable us to reflect seriously on the way we welcome one another, celebrate the diversity of gifts in our community and foster openness and inclusion for all. We look forward to creating a welcome space for all the members of our community, especially our new students and staff as they bring new gifts to enrich our community.

Our liturgical commencement of the College year was scheduled to be celebrated on 3 February, however, in order to keep everyone safe during the current wave of COVID infections we have decided to defer this celebration to later in the term. When it is finally safe for us to gather, we look forward to praying together for God’s blessing on our work in the year ahead. This liturgy will include a welcome and blessing for all our new students and staff who will each be presented with a medal of St Benedict, collected for us during Benedictine pilgrimages of past years.

At the beginning of March, we will mark solemnity of Ash Wednesday to begin the Season of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, our students will share in a liturgical commemoration, however, we are not able to offer Eucharist on this day and accordingly, we encourage families to take the opportunity of sharing Eucharist in their local parish communities.

During the Season of Lent, we will be running a number of activities to support the Project Compassion Appeal of Caritas Australia, and we look forward to the generosity of our students and their families in supporting disadvantaged communities around the world through this Appeal.

Each edition of the College newsletter will contain information about upcoming events and initiatives which we trust will provide both challenging and enriching experiences for all members of our community.

Dr Paul Lentern
Dean of Mission

Welcome to a New Year and a fresh start.

A New Year always holds the promise of possibilities.

The Teaching and Learning Team at the College for 2022 all share a common aim, to continue to build academic partnership between parents, students and staff. We will release updates of key opportunities to engage as parents and caregivers, with your daughter’s academic journey. Please keep an eye on the communication channels.

Sandy Matthews (Deputy Dean of Learning Science – Curriculum) and I are so pleased to be gifted with a Teaching and Learning team who are experts in their field; strong leaders who are highly passionate about students reaching (and exceeding!) their academic goals.  

The Heads of Department are listed below, we welcome three new Heads to our team. Please note if you have any academic concerns about your daughter's class, the first person to contact is the classroom teacher. The best way to contact them is directly via email.

On behalf of the College Wellbeing Team, I warmly welcome all students and families to the 2022 school year. I do hope you have had a refreshing break and are ready for the challenging and enriching year ahead.

We welcome a number of new staff to the Wellbeing Team this year. Mrs Julie Burke joins the College as the Head of Terracina House. Mrs Corinne Maclou will be the Head of Stanbrook, Mr Colin O’Donnell is stepping into the Acting Head of Montserrat House and Mrs Rebecca Stooke will be the Acting Head of Arcadia House.

Miss Cassandra Merhab has been appointed to the role of Student Leadership Coordinator.

In addition, we are delighted to welcome Assistant Heads of House to the team this year. They will provide additional support to the Heads of House and the students and families in each House.

• Assistant Head of House – Subiaco - Elle Clark
• Assistant Head of House – Maredsous - Emma Lupis
• Assistant Head of House – Monte Cassino - Melina Moyes
• Assistant Head of House – Monserrat - Angela O’Sullivan
• Assistant Head of House – Stanbrook - Danielle O’Neil
• Assistant Head of House – Arcadia - Rebecca Summerhays
• Assistant Head of House – Terracina - Therese Brookton
• Assistant Head of House – New Norcia - Cassandra Merhab

Our Counselling Team has also been expanded in 2022.

Ms Cassandra Beak continues in her full time role and Mrs Amelia McCann will continue to work on Thursdays and Fridays. We warmly welcome Ms Camila Regozo to Bennies and she will be working from Monday to Thursday.

If you have any concerns about your daughter’s wellbeing or adjustment to the new school year, please don’t hesitate to contact her Head of House below, either by telephoning 9980 0444 or by email. If you would like to discuss the possibility of your daughter seeing one of our College Counsellors, please speak with her Head of House about a referral.

Welcome to 2022! We are looking forward to seeing all our students again and I would like to offer a particularly warm welcome to our new students and families to the MSB community. 

There are some perceptions that cocurricular activities are just ‘things to do’ or ‘time fillers’, but at Bennies we are committed to supporting our students in finding connections between their learning both during and out of school hours.

Last year we launched a framework for the Cocurricular Program, intentionally designed to be highly integrated in all aspects of our learning at the College. Our Cocurricular Program is essential in providing a holistic learning experience for our students, making their experience of College life richer. This is our point of difference.

With the release of the NSW Government's Return to School Plan, we now have further details we are able to share with our community. Some of this information may have changed slightly from what was communicated last week. The College's Return to School Plan has also been updated.

It is anticipated that the peak of COVID-19 cases in Sydney will begin to subside over the coming weeks. We will continue to conduct ongoing risk assessments and will review arrangements in Term One according to the COVID-19 case numbers in the community at the time.

Rapid Antigen Home Testing (RAHT)  

The NSW Government is providing Rapid Antigen Home Testing (RAHT) kits for home surveillance testing of staff and students to occur twice a week for the first four weeks of school. This approach will aid the early detection of any positive cases of COVID-19 in the College. The College has now received its first supply of the kits. 

We are working on the arrangements for the distribution to students and staff to occur from Friday 28 January. It will not be practicable for us to get the kits to families prior to the first day of term, as we have only just taken delivery. If families have access to RAHT kits at home, we strongly encourage you to test your daughter before she returns to school.

Students and staff will be supplied with four RAHT kits on their first day of school to cover the first two weeks of school. A further four RAHT kits will be supplied for the following fortnight once the next delivery arrives.

All staff and students (with supervision from parents and caregivers) are to undertake surveillance testing at home using their supplied RAHT kits twice a week (Sunday and Tuesday evenings for students). Should a test come back positive, please follow the steps below. The College does not require notification of negative test results.  

Parents/carers of children participating in RAHT testing will be required to administer the RAHT test at home. Provided within the RAHT kits are instructions on how to use the tests, check the results and how to dispose of the tests safely. Parents, carers and staff can also download the user guides of the relevant test that they received through the Therapeutic Goods Administration website. The user guides will also contain a contact number for the suppliers for additional support.

What if my daughter is unwell or unable to attend school?

• If your daughter cannot attend school for any reason, including feeling unwell or displaying any cold and flu symptoms (including sore throat, cough, headache, runny nose, lethargy or shortness of breath), please send an SMS to the College's Absentee Line on 0407 461 087 to report a student absence.
• If a student has cold or flu symptoms, they must stay home and either get a PCR or RAHT (Rapid Antigen Home Test). A student may return to school if the test is negative and they are symptom free. Students must remain home while waiting on the results of a PCR test. Parents are not required to notify the College of a negative test.
• If your daughter has COVID, please send an SMS to the College's Absentee Line on 0407 461 087 to report a student absence and the date of likely return to school, and then send an email to covid@msb.nsw.edu.au to advise your daughter's name, year group and date of first positive PCR or RAHT test. A positive RAHT should be registered on the Service NSW app or service.nsw.gov.au website. Students must isolate for 7 days after the date of the positive test. If there are no symptoms after 7 days, then remain in isolation until 24 hours after symptoms have resolved, then the student can return to school.
  Note: NSW Health has advised that once a person who has tested positive has finished their isolation, they do not need to self-isolate or undertake testing (RAHT or PCR) for 28 days unless symptoms reappear. Following these 28 days, individuals should resume RAHT surveillance testing.
• If your daughter is classified as a household contact, she must isolate at home for 7 days (unless the person has previously tested positive to COVID and ended their isolation for this in the past 28 days). A student may return to school after a negative RAHT and if symptom free. Please send an SMS to the College's Absentee Line on 0407 461 087 to report a student absence and the date of likely return to school. Please note: this advice has changed in recent days.
• Schools are no longer required to undertake contact tracing or send cohorts home when there is a case within the school. In the event that there is a positive case of COVID-19 in our community, we will communicate to parents of an affected cohort and ask that they monitor their child for cold or flu symptoms.  

Masks

The College encourages students to follow NSW Health advice in preferring surgical masks and to refrain from using cloth or vented masks while there are high rates of transmission of the virus in the community.

Students must bring their own face mask each day (and they should also carry a few spare masks in their bag).

Vaccination

• Whilst it is not mandated for your child to be vaccinated, we support the existing health advice that approves vaccination for students aged 5 years and above.
• If our students in Years 8-12 have commenced their vaccination journey, we request that parents and caregivers provide an update via the Operoo Portal. Search for this email address in your inbox:
  Operoo Administrator <admin-au@caremonkey.com>
• Year 7 families will receive an email shortly to update the College on their daughter’s vaccination journey.

Transport Arrangements for Friday 28 January (Years 7, 11 and 12)

• We have been notified that government school bus services will not be running this Friday 28 January (affects all schools starting this week), and so please note that Hillsbus school services will commence Monday 31 January 2022. Any student who plans to use a dedicated Hillsbus school service will need to make alternate arrangements for Friday 28 January. Travel plans can be made on https://transportnsw.info/ where you will also find timetables for all public services. 
• Bennies Private Buses, including the Bennies Cherrybrook Metro Shuttle, will resume from Friday 28 January. All students travelling to school via Private Bus or Public Transport will be required to wear a mask at all times. 
• Your daughter might like to catch the free Bennies Shuttle Service that runs continuous loops to Cherrybrook Metro in the afternoon - and be collected from there. This bus leaves from Gate D, and staff can direct students where to go to access this service.

Bennies Café and Online Ordering

The Bennies Café will be operating from Term One for online pre-ordered lunch only. All items must be ordered through Flexischools (families must set up a Flexischools account). Lunches will be distributed to each individual year group’s designated area. Note: The Bennies Cafe will not be open on Friday 28 January and will reopen on Monday 31 January for online lunch orders.

*College Assemblies For Parents  

In 2022 the College will be livestreaming College Assemblies for the MSB parent community at 9:40-10:45am on the specified dates in the schedule above. The live stream link is here.

An email was sent to all Year 7 parents and caregivers on Tuesday 25 January regarding the arrangements for the first days of high school.

• Parents will drop off their Year 7 daughters at either the College's Beecroft Road (Gate A) or Hull Road (Gate E) entrance between 8.00am and 8:15am on Friday 28 January. See map. Staff will meet students at the gate and escort them into the College. There is no parking available onsite, and it will not be possible for parents to come onsite.
• At the end of the school day at 3:15pm, please have a plan in place for your daughter to travel home safely. In particular, if you are meeting at a school gate, please agree this in advance - either the Beecroft Road or Hull Road gates.
• Parking: There is no parking available on College grounds [7.30am - 4.00pm]. Parking suggestions include the top of Beecroft Road adjacent to Observatory Park, or Loftus Road and Wilson Road on the opposite side of Pennant Hills Road, where the College can be accessed via the overhead pedestrian bridge. A College map is available for your convenience, as well as parking options (shown in pink).
• We have been notified that government school bus services will not be running this Friday, 28 January (affects all schools starting this week), and so please note that Hillsbus school services will commence Monday 31 January 2022. Any student who plans to use a dedicated Hillsbus school service will need to make alternate arrangements for Friday 28 January. Travel plans can be made on https://transportnsw.info/ where you will also find timetables for all public services. 
• Bennies Private Buses will resume from Friday 28 January. All students travelling to school via Private Bus or Public transport will be required to wear a mask at all times. 
• Your daughter might like to catch the free Bennies Shuttle Service to Cherrybrook Metro in the afternoon - and be collected from there. This bus leaves from Gate D and staff can direct students where to go to access this service.

Arrangements for the first two days of school 

*The Year 7 Spirit Afternoon is likely to go ahead on Friday 11 February from 3:30pm – 5:30pm. This is a memorable afternoon where the College Captains and House Captains facilitate games and activities for the Year 7 students. It is a wonderful opportunity to get to know others in the House and promote House spirit. We will provide the students with afternoon tea, and they will be picked up either from Beecroft Road (Gate A) or Hull road (Gate E) at 5:30pm. Further details will be sent closer to the time.

Visual Art Student Resource Kits - REMINDER

A mandatory requirement for the Visual Art course is the purchase of a Student Resource Kit from the College’s preferred supplier. The Student Resource Kit is exclusive to Mount St Benedict College and contains a selection of essential quality materials that are needed for the practical component of the course. The price of the Student Resource Kit for Year 7 is $73.50 inclusive of GST.

The order period has now closed. Late orders can be made here:

Orders received prior to 11.00am on Monday 31 January will be collated and delivered direct to the College.

Orders received after Monday 31 January will incur a delivery fee and will be despatched to student’s/parent’s home/work address. (Std or Express Post options will apply).

If you have not already placed an order for your daughter, please proceed to the website of Eckersley’s Art & Craft (the College’s preferred provider) via this link:

https://www.eckersleys.com.au/mount-st-benedict-college-kits

Please ensure that you complete all of the requested fields. When selecting the kit, please select Year 7 Kit.
At checkout, when completing the name details, please use your daughter’s first name and surname. As the parent, please enter your mobile number in case we need to contact you about the order.

Mrs Kristy Scott
Head of Creative and Performing Arts

A couple “Need to Know” items for the next two weeks.

The ELEVATE study program will happen again for Year 11 and 12 on Friday 28 January. This is an annual event and is the culmination of the study skills program which now runs throughout the College. ELEVATE deliver high quality tailored programs for the specific needs of senior students. The feedback and engagement from past year groups has been very positive. These sessions will be held across a number of classrooms, with a trained presenter. A College staff member will also be in the room for these sessions. All visitors to the College have been vaccinated and will have a RAHT test on arrival. If you have any concerns, please contact cbailey@msb.nsw.edu.au 

In 2020 and 2021, we communicated exclusively with our Year 12 parents about specific measures for Year 12 students which were always tailored to their needs. Year 12 do have different needs to the rest of the school. This will continue to be our practice for 2022. The academic success of our Senior Students continues to be a top priority for the College.

As you may have noticed, timetables and rooming have been issued to the students. Constructing a timetable for such a vibrant school is always a dynamic task, however, this year we had late notification for the mandate to cohort year groups, so the rooming has been rescheduled. There may be some fine adjustments which need to be made. We are fitting extra filtration and air monitoring systems into classrooms where needed. Managing access to the library and the scheduling of study periods, is still in progress. We were able to manage this quite well at the end of 2021, and so we are positive we will be able to reach a solution which continues to support the needs of our Senior Students, while balancing the mandate for cohorting.

Students will continue to be well supported by our IT infrastructure and the continued roll out of our Learning Management System – BenniesNet. It has not previously been our custom and practice to deliver dual or hybrid learning (both remote and onsite simultaneously), as we know for a student’s mental wellbeing, being physically in community is vitally important. We also know that the impact of this mode of delivery on teacher wellbeing and performance is significant. Further details about support for Senior Students as we grapple with anticipated student and staff absence will be released shortly. Many Year 12 teachers have been in contact with students throughout the holiday break, which is testament to their steadfast professionalism and care. Students are always able to approach their teachers for support after absence, or as needed.

We appreciate your patience as we navigate another unusual start to the year.

Corinna Bailey
Dean of Learning Science and Innovation