5 November 2015 - Amazon Web Services

Ignatius Park College
Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
From the Principal
Indigenous Dancers - Awards Night
Dear Parents and Carers
Following on from my Awards Night address I would like to share with you an article from The Sunday Mail Reporter, Angela
Mollard. The article JUST HOLD ON (Everyone at some time hits rock-bottom but all things change .... joy will replace the
darkest hour), reinforces some points I tried to get across last Wednesday night.
Twenty years ago this week, I was covering Wimbledon and having stepped out of a press conference with Andre
Agassi, was told there wouldn’t be much call that afternoon for tennis news. Hugh Grant had been caught on
Sunset Boulevard performan a ‘lewd’ act with a hooker. And so my fellow hacks and I repaired to the pub. For
the next three days, Agassi and his then girlfriend Brooke Shields were knocked off the front page as surely as a
Pete Sampras serve. That’s because Grant had done the dirty on his long-time girlfriend and the nation’s rosescented darling, Elizabeth Hurley.
In the Dog and Fox, conversation focused on Grant and how his indiscretion might affect his career. Opinion was
divided - some thought it would enhance his brand of stuttering, floppy-fringed foppishness; most thought he was
dead in the water, a shame since he’d been brilliant in Four Weddings and a Funeral the previous year. As for
Hurley, it was all very awkward. She was the face of Estee Lauder, a company that likes its ambassadors to be as
pure and petal-strewn as its advertising images. Would they pull the plug?
Meanwhile Agassi, who we all adored, choked in the semi-final against Boris Becker, who fought back from
a set down. Brooke was watching, all glossy hair and Ray Bans. Perfect couple, we agreed. Wonder if he
will propose. In the ensuing years, I’ve barely thought of that entertaining week in the summer of 1995. But
something else happened that year. My friend Mark committed suicide.
CONTACT
ANNOUNCEMENT
368 Ross River Road, Cranbrook QLD
info@ipc.qld.edu.au www.ipc.qld.edu.au
Tel: 4796 0222 Fax: 4796 0200
Please remember to check the exam
timetable
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Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
From the Principal ... continued
He was in his mid-20s, an exceptional journalist who
told stories with clarity and empathy. He’d been
writing for one of the best magazines in the southern
hemisphere, but had gone back to university because
he wanted to learn more. His results were apparently
brilliant, but other things weren’t going well. A
relationship had broken down; he constantly worried
he wasn’t good enough. He took his own life.
Then there’s Agassi. He did propose to Brooke and
they married, but it didn’t last. She would face her
own demons - child stardom, postnatal depression - but
20 years later, there’s two daughters and a husband
she cherishes.
Meanwhile, Agassi later chronicled their demise, his
drug-taking, the full horror of Grand Slam tennis in
arguably the best autobiography ever written. Yet from
the haze of crystal meth and cortisone injections, he
emerged, and thanks to the crazy alchemy of love, luck
Anyone who’s been close to someone who’s died in
and self-examination, he married Steffi Graf, a woman
such circumstances wishes they could’ve intervened. If who understood where he’d come from, but also who
only I’d known. If only I could’ve made him see it won’t he could be. Together they raise two children and run
always be as bad as it is now.
charities that help at-risk kids.
If Mark was alive today, I’d take him back to that
week of Wimbledon. Because like a modern parable,
all those characters hit rock-bottom. Publicly and
privately, they were exposed, humiliated, shamed and
judged.
Yet what’s happened to them since is a potent lesson
that life goes on. That failures and transgressions and
isolated acts of bastardry are not the full measure of
anyone. That the intense naval-gazing advocated by a
legion of self-help authors and pop therapists is not as
effective as forgiving yourself and getting on with it.
Take Grant. His actions were embarrassing and
hurtful. Yet he still works, albeit with a little less fringe
flicking. He remains best friends with Hurley and is
godfather to her son Damian, having supported her
through the ignominy of having to prove American
billionaire Steve Bing was her son’s father. She’s
subsequently had a failed marriage and a muchscrutinised relationship with Shane Warne.
Grant, meanwhile, sired three children, who he adores,
with two women within 15 months. All eyebrow-raising
stuff, but here they are, having racked up 28 years of
friendship.
In his autobiography Open, Agassi writes that every
tennis match is a life in miniature.
“Points become games become sets become
tournaments, and it’s all so tightly connected that any
point can become the turning point. It reminds me
of the way seconds become minutes become hours,
and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It’s our
choice.”
My friend mark succumbed in his darkest hour. Many
do. Despairingly, some are still children, unaware that
if they just keep going there will be life beyond the
uniform, the teen discomfort, the bullying.
I wish in those moments they could see a tomorrow,
that the difficulties eventually give way to joy - if only
you hold on.
Yours sincerely
Michael Conn
PRINCIPAL
There’s been career triumphs (him: Love Actually,
About A Boy; her: a flourishing business and cameo
roles in Austin Powers). What an achievement. What a
glorious reward for pushing through the hard stuff.
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Ignatius Park College
Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
Deputy Principal - Identity
Dear Parents and Carers
From “Inviting God In” by J Rupp
God Is Near to Those Who Suffer
So many things can break our hearts: people who set out
to hurt or destroy us, natural disasters or other events that
disrupt and change our lives forever, the deaths of dear ones,
plane and car accidents, crimes that destroy our loved ones,
illnesses that fill us with unending pain or leave us crippled,
friends and relatives who life choices or values greatly
disappoint us.
2016 Calendar
Ignatius Park College’s 2016 calendar will be available for
purchase from the College from Week 7 onwards. The calendar
has all the important dates in the College year and allows
families to be aware of upcoming events well into the future.
They can be purchased from the front office for $10.
This year we also included an opportunity for sponsors to
advertise in the calendar for an introductory price of $50. If
you are interested in being a part of the calendar, please call or
email Chris Rigano (cr@ipc.qld.edu.au) by the close of business
on Friday, 6 November.
Ignatius Park College
School Calendar 2016
It is not surprising that God is close to all those who are
brokenhearted because God is, above all else, a God of
compassion. This quality, more than any other, is the one
that Jesus expressed in his life, in which he shows us the face
of God.
God is ready and willing to stand with those who suffer,
vigilant with those who feel empty, discouraged or desolate.
Even though we may feel abandoned by God in our brokenhearted times, God is very, very near to us, longing for our
happiness and peace of mind.
Sheltering God, you draw near to me in
my tough times.
You reach out to me when I am most
desolate and alone.
You offer inner strength to endure
brokenheartedness.
Let me always trust in how near you are to me.
God’s blessing
Jon Hansen
Chris Rigano
Uniform Shop
A big thank you to the 25 volunteers who have already
registered their interest. I am still in need of about another 20
people, if everyone is to do only one shift.
Monday, 18 January
Tuesday, 19 January
Wednesday, 20 January
Thursday, 21 January
Friday, 22 January
Saturday, 23 January
Monday, 25 January
9 am – 1 pm
9 am – 12 noon
9 am – 12 noon
9 am – 12 pm &
2 pm – 6 pm
9 am - 12 noon
9 am – 2 pm
8 am – 12 noon
Sue Brock (4796 0222)
E: sue.brock@ipc.qld.edu.au
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Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
Curriculum News
Dean of Senior School
Dear Parents and Carers
Year 12
Tomorrow marks our Year 12s last full day at the College. It is a
compulsory school day and their final day of Rite of Passage.
The next and final dance practice for this cohort will be on Sunday
15 November from 5pm to 6pm. This dance practice will be for
the boys and their mums/significant females only and we look
forward to seeing you there to learn the Mother/Son dance.
Date:
Time:
Place:
Friday, 27 November
11am to approximately 12:30pm
Edmund Rice Hall
Please note there will be light refreshments served and your
son will leave with you after the ceremony.
VET and Industry Placement
We would like to congratulate the VET students on a
successful year and being well represented at the Awards
Evening last week.
We would like to give special mention to the Year 11 VET
We would like to wish the boys the best of luck with their final
Student of the Year, Layton McColl and the Year 12 VET
exams. We encourage them to finish well and with no regrets.
Student of the Year, Joshua Stabler. These boys showed
exemplary effort in their class work (practical and theory); as
Finally, as this is a very busy period, we would like to remind you of well as having outstanding feedback from their employers.
the last few compulsory events:
We are currently placing the Industry Placement students
with employers for 2016. As we compete with other schools
for these placements, we need to move on this early to
ensure our boys get their first choices, which is usually the
case. We have been notified that quite a few of our boys have
sourced apprenticeships, but we still have many that are still
searching. So, if you know of anyone in industry that would
like to give a graduating student a go, please contact us. Our
goal is for our boys leave the College with apprenticeships or
secure job prospects. Nothing makes us happier in the VET
Office!
* Reid and Rice - 8 am - 9 am; Nolan and Carew - 9 am - 10 am;
Baillie and Treacy - 10 am - 11 am
Marg Hodgson
**4:45 pm - 5 pm
Rice; 5:30 - 5:45 pm Carew;
5:00 pm - 5:15 pm Reid; 5:45 pm - 6 pm Baillie;
5:15 pm - 5:30 pm Nolan; 6 pm - 6:15 pm Treacy
It is also a requirement that the boys return all their textbooks,
library books and money owing before their graduation. Report
cards and Yearbooks will not be issued until all outstanding items
are finalised. If boys have lost a book, we encourage them to pay
for it. If the book then reappears (no matter how long after), the
money is then refunded.
Year 10
We would like to invite all Year 10 Parents/Guardians to the Year
10 Transition Day Ceremony. This is a special event to signify the
completion of your son’s compulsory schooling.
2015 VET Students of the Year: Layton McColl (11N) and Joshua
Stabler (12N)
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Ignatius Park College
Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
Curriculum News
Dean of Middle School
Year 6 into 7
Towards the end of the school term, our 2016 Year 7 students
will attend the College for an Orientation Day. This will be a day
spent familiarising themselves with the school and meeting their
peers and teachers.
Date:
Time:
Place:
Monday, 23 November
8:20am for 8:30am start to 3:03pm
Edmund Rice Hall
We would also like to invite the Parent/Guardians of these
students to an information night that evening in the College
Hall.
In the near future a letter with further information will be
forwarded to these families with regard to both events.
Year 8
We would like to remind the Year 8 cohort that tomorrow night
(Friday) is the Year 8 Pastoral Evening. Students are strongly
encouraged to attend.
Time:
7pm to 9pm
Place:
St Margaret Mary’s College,
Multipurpose Facility, Crowle St.
Dress/Theme: Casual clothing, theme is “Cowboy”
Provided:
Supper will be supplied by SMMC
Note:
Parents are required to organise
transport
Careers Corner
CAREER of the WEEK: Medical Career
Most universities require more than just
academic results to be accepted into many
Medical related courses.
Written applications and interviews are
certainly required by JCU for Medicine, Medical Science and
Dentistry.
For those students who aspire to this kind of career, it is
important to start thinking now about how to show the
universities that you have what it takes. I advise students to
obtain a First Aid Certificate and undertake some relevant
work experience in areas such as Pharmacy or Aged Care
sectors to demonstrate commitment and to provide topics of
discussion in the interview.
A plan B is also important. One can articulate into
Medicine after doing all or part of another degree in areas
such as Health Science or advanced science.
The Hospital and Aged Care sectors are set to expand. They
offer opportunities for those with non-university qualifications.
A certificate 3 in Health or Aged Care can be VERY useful in
gaining employment.
Year 10-12 students can talk to me about this pathway (before
the end of this year when I transition to Brisbane).
Mark Mewburn mme@ipc.qld.edu.au
Craig Brown
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Newsletter
No 35 - 5 November 2015
Community News & Events
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