2026 Lumina Edition 04

Catholic Education Week

This week we have been celebrating Catholic Education Week in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The theme of Catholic Education Week this year is “Christ beside me: Walking in the footsteps of Saint Patrick.” Catholic Education Week celebrates our identity as a catholic school and provides an opportunity for our schools to gather and share in our common purpose to “deliver enriching and high-quality learning experiences, guided by the teaching of Jesus Christ”. The culmination of Catholic Education Week is the Mass of St Patrick in our cathedral.

Parent Teacher Interviews

A reminder that we have Parent Teacher Interviews coming up on Thursday, 26^th March and, as such, this is a student free day as there will be no classes. I trust that you will find the day profitable as you have an opportunity to discuss with teachers the progress your young person has made during Term 1. Please factor parking into your planning as may find that spaces are limited near Logue Hall in Westbury Street.

Visit of Mr Toshi Kitano

On Monday, we welcomed the Principal of our sister school from Osaka, Japan. The exchange program between our schools will continue with us hosting students from Osaka in late July. Over the coming weeks, we will be looking for St Mary’s families willing to host our visiting students during their two week stay in Melbourne. Mr George Baxas and Ms Anouk Thadeus will be coordinating the visit for St Mary’s so please look out for correspondence and thank you, in advance, for supporting this exchange. We intend to reciprocate with a visit to Japan in the foreseeable future. However, EREA has directed that international travel is not permitted for our students given the current geopolitical instability, especially in the Middle East. When the advice changes, we will be seeking an expression of interest.

Visit of Mrs Fiona Mulhall

We welcomed our new Deputy Principal, Mrs Mulhall, this week and provided an opportunity for her to meet members of the staff and some of the students. Mrs Mulhall will commence at the beginning of Term 2.

School Advisory Council Meeting

Our School Advisory Council will meet on Monday night for our regular meeting. This week the Chair, Mr John Sinisgalli, received a letter of resignation from Mr Michael Lee. Mr Lee said that while he remains heavily invested in the success of St Mary’s College, his inability to get to our meetings from Canberra makes his position untenable. We will thank Mr Lee for his contribution to the SAC.

Easter Liturgy

We will be gathering as a school community on Holy Thursday, April 2^nd, for an Easter Liturgy. We will also draw our Easter Egg Raffle and would appreciate donations towards this fundraiser for Project Compassion.

This is also the last day of Term 1. School resumes for students on Tuesday, April 21.

Term 2 Uniform Check

As we move into winter uniform when we return in Term 2 can I please request your support in ensuring that your young person has the appropriate items of uniform and that they are in good condition. Our winter uniform looks very smart when it is worn as designed.

Darren Atkinson
Principal

Dear St Mary’s College families,

Since the Labour Day public holiday, we have had many successful whole school events at St Mary’s. Whilst it was widely reported in the media that NAPLAN was not without hiccups and challenges this year, the students and staff at St Mary’s worked quickly and collaboratively towards a positive solution. A shift in the timetable and communications with parents and students meant that the issues presented by the statewide server outage was overcome within a couple of days. Thanks to the students for not being as frustrated as we were and getting on with the job.

We recently held our academic awards assembly, involving lots of current students and recent graduates being acknowledged for their classroom and examination achievements. This involves acknowledging positive approaches to learning as much as results, which is always an important aspect of recognizing achievement. Where students are doing their best, we aim to celebrate them.

On Monday evening I attended my last Parents & Friends meeting. For those that have not attended P&F meetings, they are a great way of being connected with other parents and involved with the school. There is typically a presentation of recent and upcoming events from the school leadership and an opportunity to ask questions. The committee also plan fundraising events throughout the year, and at times attend school functions and provide support. I would like to thank the members of the P&F, past and present. I have always felt very supported, encouraged and enriched by the conversations at these meetings. I mentioned on Monday, as a small school that often punches above its weight, we certainly are with the membership of our P&F. I strongly recommend to any parent or friend in this community to attend when you can and contribute as the many current attendees do so well.

I have spent time this week with Mrs. Fiona Mulhall, who will take up the role of Deputy Principal at St Mary’s from the beginning of Term 2. I have known Fiona for some time and am very pleased to be able to work with her, discussing the school, its promising future, the staff, and in particular, our wonderful students. As with any new job, there will be an element of ‘hitting the ground running’, which Fiona is motivated and keen to do. I find myself regularly returning to the same line in my discussions with her – “The students in this school are really down to earth – they are here for a purpose – and they want to achieve. What they want to achieve is incredibly diverse, which gives us as teachers great purpose and gives their families great joy”. I think that summarises the feeling and sentiment I experience at St Mary’s College every day.

Shaun Lancashire
Deputy Principal

This week our College Captains and Vice Captains attended the Student Leadership Conference hosted by the Youth Leadership Academy Australia.

The students had the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, learning important strategies and techniques supporting how they develop goals, work with others and problem solve in their role.

The students also heard from inspirational speakers, including Lexy McDonald CEO and creator of Her Help. A unique app made to support women’s mental health and wellbeing.

We are looking forward to the group applying what they have learned to forthcoming projects and initiatives at the College.

Thank you

Hugo Boddington, Stella Ligudzinski, Maya Taifernopoulos and Jack Prentice-Evans

Jen Howard
Director of Students

We are excited to introduce our 2026 Year 7 Class Captains, who have recently been selected following a thoughtful application and selection process. These students have already demonstrated a strong commitment to their school community and a willingness to take on leadership responsibilities within their Pastoral Care groups.

Each Class Captain plays an important role in representing the voice of their peers. As part of their position, they will join the Student Voice Committee, where they will collaborate with students across different year levels to share ideas and contribute to school-wide initiatives.

We are pleased to announce Mitchell Gumley and Edith Yin as Class Captains for 7 Carroll, Sophie Koutroulis and Imogen Walmsley as Class Captains for 7 Ryan, and Tegar Aprianto and Sipiliano Maiwiriwiri as Class Captains for 7 Treacy.

Our Class Captains will also advocate for their year level, bringing forward suggestions, feedback, and ideas to enhance the Year 7 experience. Whether it’s around events, wellbeing, or day-to-day school life, their voice will play an important role.

We congratulate our newly appointed leaders and look forward to seeing the positive impact they will make throughout the year.

Lucy Dickson
Year 7 Pastoral Leader

All children deserve the best possible education; education that provides opportunities for children of all abilities to reach their potential.

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) is a fair and consistent way for Australian schools to collect information that reflects the support or adjustments being provided for students whose learning is impacted by disability.

These adjustments will be different for each student, but might include things like specialised technology, specialist equipment, building modifications or a differentiated approach to curriculum delivery.

Source: NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au/)

The work of the Learning Diversity Team at St Mary’s College aims to ensure all students have equitable access to learning by assisting teachers to cater for the individual needs and challenges of each child. The support offered may take place within the classroom or in small group and one-to-one sessions, supervision that enables individual adjustments to be provided discreetly, and is determined in collaboration with teachers, parents, students and on the recommendation of medical practitioners.

We are pleased to welcome two new Learning Support Officers (LSOs) to our team: Mr Joseph Bird and Ms Yufei Liao. We hope they enjoy their tenure with us and are appreciative of the care and support they are providing our students.

Please remember you are invited to contact me at any time if you have concerns about your children’s learning, regardless of whether they are already supported by Learning Diversity or not. If you have recently had confirmed a new diagnosis, or updated any assessments, it would be beneficial for you to share them with me so I can ensure support we have in place is the most appropriate, being based on current advice. All documentation of this type is kept strictly confidential and used only to provide insight into the strengths and challenges of the individual student.

Chris Sodaitis
Learning Diversity Leader

Constructing and Representing Space and Form Through Mark-Making in Landscapes

For this semester’s unit of work, Year 8 students are investigating how to construct the illusion of space and form on a two-dimensional surface using landscape as their subject matter.

We are currently exploring the structure of the picture plane and how images are composed, focusing on creating forms within the foreground, middle ground, and background using pictorial devices such as overlapping, linear and atmospheric perspective. Students are also learning how to represent spaces of varying depth and distance through three types of pictorial space: flat space, shallow space, and deep space.

The collages in this unit are inspired by the semi-abstract style of Nicolas de Staël, whose paintings feature simplified shapes that remain recognizable while moving toward abstraction. This approach works particularly well with cut and torn papers or card, allowing for gestural edges while encouraging careful observation of shapes.

In these works, students used simple overlapping shapes, starting at the top of the image. Each new piece of paper overlaps the one before it. This process helps students to physically understand how layering and placement can create the illusion of depth and space within an artwork.

Matilda Masson’s landscape shows movement through the placement of papers and gentle overlapping, creating a gradual sense of distance within a shallow space. Ally Andini’s landscape uses strong overlapping mountain shapes, giving a compressed and built-up feel that emphasises shallow space. Samantha Samson explores atmospheric perspective, using cool blues in the distance and warmer blues in the foreground to suggest depth while maintaining a shallow space. Summer Ronarongsanee’s blue and green landscape uses textural variation and paint staining on coloured paper to create subtle spatial shifts and distance within a shallow space.

The second task required students to create small paintings using a window frame to separate interior and exterior spaces, to create shallow space.

Jamie Ash Chamberlain created shallow space by showing a view from inside an aeroplane looking out a window at a passing jet. The window frame connects the interior and exterior spaces, making the scene feel flat. Strong geometric shapes and the use of negative space helped to reduce depth and emphasise the shallow space.

Mila Baker’s New York paintings show buildings through a hotel window at night, with the suggestion of indoor lights, creating a busy, compressed cityscape that emphasizes shallow space.

Zara Dubois blacks out her buildings under the moonlit sky, creating strong silhouettes that flatten the image and reduce depth.

Robert Byford creates a calm interior scene, showing the silhouette of a cat looking out a window, with soft, blurred forms suggesting distance while still maintaining shallow space.


Mathilda Masson	Samantha Samson	Summer Ronarongsanee

Zara Du Bois	Ally Andini	Robert Byford

Jamie Ash Chamberlain	Mila Baker

Susan Lopez
Teacher

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX TO FIND YOUR CAREER!

In this era of change and upheaval in the world of work, it is surprising to learn that, half of all 15 year olds still aspire to the same 10 careers that were available to their great-grandparents! OECD studies tell us that the most popular career aspirations for Gen Z and Gen Alpha are Doctor, Engineer, Nurse, Lawyer, Business Manager, Police Officer, Architect, Tradesperson, Teacher, Vet.

These account for 1% of all jobs! Whilst it is fine to aspire to these, and society needs them all, students are limiting their options by not thinking outside these traditional roles.

Much of the careers research in recent years has been focussing on groupings of jobs that suit various personality types. One of these is the CADI Career Clusters (Cluster Approach to the Development of Identity). Developed by Study Work Grow, the developer of our excellent St Mary's College Careers Hub, these clusters are a way to encourage a student to see that their career interests and aspirations are not a fixed “box” to fit into, but a moving collection of interconnected possibilities, continuously developing and changing alongside their developing identity.

The clusters are:

Linkers, Informers, Coordinators, Innovators, Makers and Guardians, each containing a wide variety of careers that, when seen in combination with two or three clusters, open up an amazing array of possibilities for each young person.

By looking at careers this way, students can be proactive, exploring multiple career paths that interconnect with each other and with the student’s skills, values, preferred work environment and tasks.

Students will notice displays in the library this year that attempt to show students some of the types of work available across combinations of cluster. Our first display is The Wanderers, showing a variety of highly transportable, even global careers. These, along with the opportunity to revisit and revise their aspirations in their Morrisby Profile (completed by Year 10s next week and already completed by our Year 11 & 12 students), will encourage students think outside the box!

Mandy Ellwood
Careers Counsellor

Senior Tennis Division 2 Grand Final

St Mary’s (5 sets, 48 games) were narrowly defeated by St Joseph’s (7 sets, 52 games) in a hard-fought Grand Final. So close—an opportunity just slipped away.

Our start wasn’t ideal, losing 3 out of 4 doubles matches. A special mention to Jack Miocic and Nate Taylor for their dominant 6–0 win.

We responded well in the singles, winning 4 out of 8 sets. Congratulations to:

Seb Maddams (7–5)
Tom Taylor (6–1)
Jack Miocic (6–3)
Lucas Bigmore-D’Amico (6–0)

I would like to congratulate the entire team on a fantastic effort to reach the Grand Final. I was particularly impressed with the way everyone competed with true sportsmanship.

A special commendation to Seb Maddams and Tom Taylor on their nomination for the ACC Tennis Team of the Year, recognising their outstanding performances in both singles and doubles.

Judy Vandrine
Year 11 Pastoral Care Leader

Last week the VM Year 12 Students attended the Old Melbourne Gaol as part of their Crime and Justice unit in Literacy. They were able to learn about the justice system and see the changes throughout Melbourne’s history. Students have demonstrated an understanding of the impact of crime on our society. While looking at youth risk taking behaviour and the ways in which criminal figures are often glorified, we have seen the devastating impact of poor decision making on all of us. Students have looked critically at individuals who have lacked a moral compass and seen how some people have gone down the wrong path. The visit to the Old Melbourne Gaol as well as the magistrates court and watch house enables students to see the harsh realities that face inmates and those accused, helping us to break down the admired image of being rebellious and antiauthoritarian.

Grant Godbold
VM Coordinator & Year 10 Pastoral Leader

Promote Your Business in Our Community

Our St Mary’s College Business Directory is a wonderful way to support families within our community while also promoting your own business.

Listings are just $100 for 12 months (1 January – 31 December) and provide great visibility to current families, alumni and friends of the College who are keen to support local and trusted providers.

Alternatively you can donate $250 in goods or service to a school event for a free listing.

If you own a business — or know someone who does — we’d love to include them.

You can find full details here:
https://www.stmaryscollege.vic.edu.au/community/business-directory

David Formosa
Director of Development

Uniform Shop Holiday Trading Hours

As we quickly approach Term 2, parents can take advantage of the holiday trading hours to purchase winter uniform.

David Formosa
Director of Development

St Mary’s College will be running an Easter Raffle in the last week of Term 1, with all money raised donated to Project Compassion.

To help us put together the Easter hampers, we would really appreciate any donations of Easter eggs, blocks of chocolate or small Easter treats. Students can drop off donations at Reception over the coming weeks.

Raffle tickets will be available for students to purchase in the lead-up to the draw, priced at $1 per ticket or 6 tickets for $5.

Thank you for your support in helping us run this fundraiser and support Project Compassion.

Amy Culpitt
EA to the Principal

Expressions of Interest – Melbourne City Soccer Academy

We are pleased to invite Expressions of Interest for students wishing to participate in the Melbourne City Soccer Academy.

This exciting program will run over a 10-week period and will be delivered before school at Alma Park from 7:15am – 8:15am. The Academy provides students with the opportunity to develop their skills in a high-quality training environment, guided by experienced coaches aligned with Melbourne City FC.

The cost of the program is $300 for the full 10-week academy.

Students who are interested in being part of this opportunity are encouraged to register their interest by contacting dformosa@stmaryscollege.vic.edu.au.

Further details will be provided once expressions of interest have been received.

David Formosa
Director of Development

Melbourne United Academy

St Mary’s College is pleased to offer students the opportunity to participate in the Melbourne United Academy during Term 2.

This program will take place each Thursday morning from 7:00am to 8:00am at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) and will provide students with the chance to develop their basketball skills in a high-quality training environment delivered by professional coaches from Melbourne United.

To assist families with logistics, a shuttle bus will transport students from MSAC to the College following the session, ensuring they arrive in time for the start of the school day.

At this stage, we are seeking expressions of interest from families who may wish for their child to participate in this opportunity. Your response will help us determine numbers and finalise arrangements for the program.

If your child may be interested, please complete the Expression of Interest form via the link below:

Expression of Interest Form

Submitting the form does not commit you to the program; it simply allows us to gauge interest within our community.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the College.

David Formosa
Director of Development

Meet Our Tutors

I’m Campbell and I’m one of the tutors for the after school tutoring sessions on Thursdays. In my Year 12 year, I did English, General Maths, Maths Methods, PE, and Economics. I did well particularly in my Maths classes as well as Economics, and will predominantly be teaching these subjects in our sessions.

I was able to be accepted into Monash University this year and am studying a double degree in Laws (Honours) and Commerce. Outside of academics I play cricket and tennis and have interests in social justice.

A typical Thursday afternoon of tutoring involves students being able to study for upcoming assessments and SACs and complete homework tasks with extra guidance and help from myself and the other tutors.

Those who are able to come to our sessions will be provided with a quiet and productive space to do work and study, with help always offered, and individual work encouraged.