Religious Education

Education in faith is firmly grounded in an understanding of our ability to live the Gospel in a contemporary setting – it has a focus on deep learning, robust dialogue, discernment and truth-seeking. Across the start of this term students have engaged with the following studies:

Year 7: Sacred Story

Year 8: Being Catholic in a Contemporary World

Year 9: Prophets of Our Time

Year 10: VCE Religion and Society Unit 1: Religion through the Ages

Year 11: VCE Religion and Society Unit 2: Religion and Ethics

Year 12: VCE Religion and Society Unit 3: Expressing Meaning

Year 12: Religion and Life: Care for Creation

As a community of belief we work towards enabling critical, connected students anchored in their faith and committed to making a true contribution to the lives with which they intersect.

Laudato Si’ Week

This coming week marks the sixth anniversary of "Laudato Si', on Care of Our Common Home," Pope Francis' landmark encyclical on the environment - the theme this year is for we know that things can change.

Laudato Si’ (Praise be to you) takes its name from the Canticle of the Sun, attributed to St Francis of Assisi. You may not be aware that there's a special relationship between Dominicans and St Francis - many artists have depicted Dominic and Francis meeting.

At Siena we continue to commit ourselves to Care for Creation by implementing and maintaining sustainable student-led initiatives - view the Pope’s invitation to celebrate Laudato Si' Week 2021.

NAPLAN

NAPLAN testing has resumed this year, with our Year 7 and 9 students participating over a three day period this past week.

As NAPLAN testing was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID, we offered alternative diagnostic testing at the start of 2021 to Years 7 to 10 students to ensure a continued and consistent availability of data. The data generated by Bob Allwell Assessment and NAPLAN, in conjunction with the College assessment and examination processes, contributes to decisions made about class suitability for students, highlighting both areas for focus and improvement and areas for extension and challenge.

We strongly encourage students to participate in all the testing and assessment available to them at Siena College. This data helps us provide a more tailored and individually focused learning methodology.

Examinations in Term 2

As we move towards the examination period for Years 9 to 11, we are holding specialised classes that focus on learning and revision strategies and exam and test writing skills, to help students optimise the assessment outcome. It is so important that our students approach study in a consistent and continuous way, to help prevent anxiety and a sense of being overwhelmed. We ask for your support to encourage your daughters to complete homework tasks on time and prepare well in advance for formal testing.

Examination Timetables will be made available on Monday, 17 May.

Year 9 and 10 students have not had the opportunity to write formal exams due to COVID-19 restrictions. To help prepare our students, we will also be holding a special presentation during Wellness periods on Tuesday, 18 May, clarifying planning and study tactics.

Revision materials will be available on Siena Central from Wednesday, 26 May.

Raising girls in today’s modern world can be a difficult path for parents and carers to navigate. These days, girls are transitioning to puberty much earlier than previous generations and the physical, psychological and emotional changes they experience are challenging. As a result, by mid-adolescence, girls are twice as likely as boys to develop mood disorders.

Some parents and carers may feel uncertain about how best to support their daughter through the ups and downs of adolescence whilst keeping the lines of communication open. With the rise of social media and technology, girls are often faced with online images that make it difficult to see themselves as acceptable. Ensuring a daughter’s opinions are heard and her views listened to, will go a long way towards making her feel loved and supported as she tries to establish her own identity.

In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers will attain a clearer picture of what girls are wanting from their adult carers and how best to support them through adolescence. I hope that the information offered in this month’s edition offers some valuable support.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact your daughter’s Head of House, our College Counsellors counsellors@siena.vic.edu.au or myself via arosati@siena.vic.edu.au

Siena’s Night of Jazz

A huge congratulations to all students and staff for a wonderful night of Jazz at ‘Siena’s Night of Jazz’ , held at the Whitehorse Town Hall on 22 April. Our Jazz ensembles, including Stage Band, Sisters of Swing, Groove Train, Canti Dolci all performed with confidence as did our soloists, duets and Junior Jammers. It was fabulous to hear students improvising on so many instruments. We send our special thanks to Sonja Horbelt, our special guest artist and Siena Music Staff for supporting our musicians.

All State Jazz Championship

On the first weekend in May, Stage Band, Sisters of Swing and Canti Dolci all participated in the All State Jazz Championship and we are delighted to announce Stage Band won B Division! Stage Band’s saxophone was also awarded ‘Best Saxophone Section’ in B Division with soloists Grace Kim (Alto Saxophone), Angelene Kalafatis (Trombone), Ashling O’Farrell (Trombone) and Jessica Comito (Drum Kit- C Division) all selected for their Division All-Star Band.

Congratulations to all students and ensemble directors on this outstanding result!

De La Salle Workshop and Concert

Recently Siena’s senior concert band, Wind Orchestra and De La Salle Senior Concert band have been working together in preparation for the first Combined School’s Senior Concert Band Concert. The concert will be held at Siena on 17 May where both bands will perform a set of pieces as well as two charts together. It has been a fantastic opportunity for the two bands to work with different Ensemble Directors and learn new repertoire. We hope this will be the start of a new musical connection.

Autumn Concert

The Annual Autumn Concert will be held on 26 May at 7.00pm, featuring all ensembles including the debut performances of Junior Band, Junior String Ensemble and Junior Choir. This is a free event but parents are asked to reserve tickets through TryBooking.

Lunchtime Soiree

The Term 2 Lunchtime Soiree will be held next week and all music students are invited to perform. Students preparing for AMEB examinations and upcoming assessments are especially encouraged to take part. The sign-up sheet is located near the Music Office.

Please ensure your three sessions are at different times, not in the same slot. If you wish to be waitlisted for a particular session please email Liz Merrett via lmerrett@siena.vic.edu.au

At Siena College, we are committed to continuing to provide Respectful Relationships education across all year levels. As a core component to the Victorian Curriculum, one of our College priorities this year is to establish our whole school approach to Respectful Relationships education.

By using a social emotional learning framework across eight different domains, the Respectful Relationships curriculum develops personal and social capabilities including self-awareness and management, social awareness and management, resilience, coping strategies and help seeking behaviours.

The Respectful Relationships education includes the following key topics:

1. Emotional literacy
2. Personal strengths
3. Positive coping
4. Problem solving
5. Stress management
6. Help seeking
7. Gender and identity
8. Positive gender relationships

Respectful Relationships education focuses on building and promoting gender equity in relationships and the challenging of gender stereotypes. Respectful Relationships education is also about tackling family violence. Embedding respectful relationships education in school settings provides a platform for students to explore attitudes about gender roles, expectations and stereotypes as key drivers of family violence and through education, positive change can occur.

A key component of our approach to Respectful Relationships at Siena College will be to engage and promote student voice. I am pleased to announce that we have created a student Respectful Relationships team that will have the opportunity to work alongside members of the College staff team as well. This collaborative approach will strengthen and support our current work and planning for the future.

I am thrilled to announce that we have been nominated as one of eight finalists for Best Remote Learning Program in the 2021 Australian Education Awards. These awards bring together hundreds of applications, recognising leading performance and excellence in educational achievement. The overall winner will be announced at the awards ceremony in Sydney on Friday, 27 August 2021. All finalists have been invited to complete an official submission, which will be forwarded to an independent judging panel. The submission will ask for details on how each nominee fulfils the criteria in their award category. The excellence awardee with the highest score in each category once the judging process has been completed will be named the winner.

May I extend my congratulations to all staff, who worked with such diligence and unwavering commitment in ensuring that Siena Connect provided optimal learning continuity for our students. This nomination is a team effort and reflects our ongoing pursuit of excellence, even over the two lengthy lockdown periods of 2020.

Elizabeth Hanney
Principal

La Salute e il Benessere: Health and Wellbeing

In Unit 1 Italian, we’re studying the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet and about making healthy choices and cooking fresh, local ingredients. We used the Heritage Centre kitchen to prepare some easy recipes and enjoyed sampling them!

Per la tiramisu abbiamo usato la ricotta invece del mascarpone e la panna per fare la ricetta più sana. Abbiamo anche usato pomodori e basilico fresco per la bruschetta.

For the tiramasu we used ricotta instead of marscapone and cream to make the recipe healthier. We also used fresh tomato and basil for the bruschetta.

Leri, abbiamo cucinato la bruschetta. Abbiamo scelto questa ricetta perche' e' sana e frescha. Abbiamo usato pomodori freschi e basilico invece di usare pomodori confezionati.

Yesterday, we cooked bruschetta. we chose this recipe because it is healthy and fresh. We used fresh tomatoes and basil instead of using packaged tomatoes

Leri, abbiamo cucinato le pizzelle. Abbiamo scelto questa ricetta perché è una ricetta tradizionale italiana. Anche, Alana ha portato la stampante della sua nonna di farle. Nella ricetta originale, c'era troppo zuccherro, percio, abbiamo usato meno per farle più sane.

Yesterday, we cooked pizelle, we chose this recipe because it's a traditional Italian recipe. Also, Alana bought the pizzelle maker from her nonna to make them. In the original recipe, there was too much sugar, therefore we used less for improved health benefits!

Noi studiamo la salute e il benessere, specificamente la dieta mediterranea. La dieta mediterranea si concentra sui carboidrati, fresca frutta, la verdura di stagione e latticini.

We are studying health and wellbeing, specially the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet focuses on carbohydrates, fresh fruit, seasonal vegetables and dairy products.

The latest edition of Siena Career News is packed with valuable information:

• Dates to diarise in Term 2
• Parents as Career Partners Workshop
• Career as an Epidemiologist- how do I become one?
• iCanStudy Study Skills Workshops
• Victoria University: The Block Model which is getting amazing results!
• Victorian Careers Show 2021- this weekend
• REMINDER: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) for Medicine – closing date
• Careers in Biomedical Science STEMinar
• JMC Academy: Audio Production Mentoring Sessions
• LCI Melbourne: Specialised Private Design College
• Medical Imaging Courses in Victoria in 2021
• Richmond Institute of Sports Leadership Information Sessions
  New Bachelor of Songwriting and Music Production at SAE/Qantm College
• Some great new courses at RMIT in Cyber security and Digital technologies
• Career as an Occupational and Environmental Physician
• Architecture, Construction and Surveying Courses in Victoria in 2021
• Snapshot of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2021

Click here to read the information in Arabic, or here in Vietnamese.

Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund Applications

Applications for the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) are now open. If you hold a valid Health Care Card (HCC), Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) or are a temporary foster parent and are a first-time applicant you may be eligible for a $1,000 fee discount.

If you believe you are eligible, please fill out and return the CSEF Application Form before 25 June, 2021.

If you applied for the CSEF in 2020 at Siena College, you do not need to complete an application form in 2021 unless there has been a change in your family circumstances.

For further information regarding the CSEF, please visit the Victorian Government website or refer to this information flyer.