Article Merici’s HealthyTitle HabitsMerici College in Braddon welcomed TV personality CostaGeorgiadis, host of the SBS gardening show ‘Costa’s GardenOdyssey’ and Mr Andrew Barr MLA, Minister for <strong>Education</strong>and Training on Friday 6 May <strong>2011</strong> at 8.00am at the College’sGarden opening.This year Merici College is moving forward with itssustainability plan with Year 9 and 10 students working inthe College’s garden. Students are learning to grow organicfruit and vegetables with an aim to provide the Canteenand the Hospitality classes with as much home grownfruit, vegetables and herbs as possible to be used in thepreparation of the Canteen’s daily homemade meals.ACT Health is supporting Merici through the HealthPromotion Grants Program to help set up the garden,working with Black Mountain School and other partners.This project also assists students to identify barriers andincentives to eating healthy foods. Research findings will bedisseminated to other interested groups.• Father David Callaghan• Ngunnawal Elder Mrs Jannette Phillips• Mr Zed Seselja MLA• Mr Steve Doszpot MLA, Shadow Minister for <strong>Education</strong>and Training• Mr Jeremy Hanson CSC MLA, Shadow Minister forHealth• Ms Caroline Le Couteur MLA and Mr Shane Rattenburyrepresenting the ACT Greens• Ms Merryn Hare, Director of Health Promotion Branch,ACT Health• Ms Rosemary Urquhart, Health Promotion Branch, ACTHealth• Mr Mark Hogan, Deputy Director <strong>Catholic</strong> <strong>Education</strong><strong>Office</strong>• Mrs Helen Casey, Head of School Services,<strong>Catholic</strong><strong>Education</strong> <strong>Office</strong>• Dr Phil Pettit, Assessment, VET and Staffing, <strong>Catholic</strong><strong>Education</strong> <strong>Office</strong>In 2009 Merici College decided to take over the running ofthe school Canteen in order to provide a healthy alternativefor students and staff and incorporate it into Merici’s visionof a more sustainable school. The key objectives of Merici’sHealthy Canteen Project are to:• provide cheap healthy food• enable vocational students to get industry experiencewhilst studying• encourage girls to sit and eat in a social environment• reduce the amount of processed and packaged foodsand drinks consumed by students• enable the College to take positive steps towardssustainable practices to reduce, reuse and recycle.The Healthy Canteen Project has been a catalyst forother sustainability initiatives within the school. Theseinclude the establishment of a vegetable garden and thedevelopment of a Sustainability Elective for Year 9 and 10students who will work in the garden and will learn to groworganic fruit and vegetables. The College is also workingon ways to improve waste management in the school.All these activities are integrated and are either driven bystudent groups or part of the school curriculum to ensuretheir sustainability.Guests at the gala opening included:• Mrs Moira Najdecki, Director of the <strong>Catholic</strong> <strong>Education</strong><strong>Office</strong>• Mr Andrew Barr MLA, Minister for <strong>Education</strong> andTrainingCatherine ReyPrincipal, Merici College1 THE BULLETIN EDITION 1, <strong>2011</strong>
Three Colleges Article and a21st Century Learning Experience TitleKeen students, but too few for a class?No problem!Keen students, but no teacher?No problem!Can’t fit the course into the timetable?No problem!Teacher available, but too far way?No problem!The spirit is willing but the coffers are empty?No problem!Problems such as these have been overcome by theinitiatives of three <strong>Catholic</strong> Colleges in the ACT, in triallingan innovative, cost-effective and collaborative approach toteaching and learning.As a result of a successful cluster group application for anAsia <strong>Education</strong> Foundation Becoming Asia Literate Grantsto Schools Program in 2010, students from three ACTsystemic colleges, the lead school, Merici College, St Clare’sCollege and St Mary Mackillop College have been given theopportunity to undertake study of the ACT BSSS TertiaryAccredited Beginning Chinese course.At this stage, there are insufficient students for the courseto be viable at each individual college. However, a groupof eleven students across the colleges has benefited fromthe development of a high quality teaching and learningprogram, whose flexibility overcomes the limitations of,and extends beyond the boundaries of the schools. Theimplementation of the program was made easier by the factthat a highly qualified and enthusiastic teacher, of Chinese,Miss Bronwyn Griffin is already employed at St MaryMacKillop College. Strong support of the program by thecolleges and close collaboration enabled financial supportfor the employment of the teacher in this new capacity forthe duration of the program.All the participating schools already had strong languageprograms and were keen to introduce an additional Asianlanguage. This program was regarded as a catalyst toinitiate interest in Mandarin, with the hope that in futureyears increasing numbers of students would enrol inMandarin courses both at the junior and senior level.In this exciting new venture, students learn through the useof both ICT and face-to-face teaching. The grant allowedMerici College to purchase the site licence for Elluminate, asoftware program which enables online teaching of all thestudents together twice a week, before and after school.With the use of cameras, microphones and InteractiveWhite Boards set up in a designated area in each school,the students and the teacher are able to see and hear eachother in a virtual classroom. Each student has a laptop ontowhich software to enable Chinese script has been loaded.Textbooks and relevant websites are also used.St Clare’s has enabled students at the two other collegesto access their Studywiz as a common platform so thatlessons videoed by the teacher, exercises and resources arecentrally available to all the students and they are able tointeract with each other and with the teacher at any time.The teacher attends each school on a rotating basis oncea week to present lessons and already the students havehad a day together at St Clare’s College to complete someassessment items, to get to know each other better as aclass and to enjoy some cultural experiences, including aChinese lunch. Similar excursion days are being planned forlater in the year, including visits to the Australian NationalUniversity and the Chinese Embassy.The Language Coordinators, Principals, IT Support Staff, theChinese teacher and the Program Coordinator meet on aregular basis to review the progress of the course, addressany concerns and ensure that Board of Senior SecondaryStudies requirements are being met.The eleven students enrolled in the course have beenmost receptive to the new approach and have adaptedto the online learning environment with ease. They areenthusiastic and engaged in their study and unfazed bythe occasional glitches which occasionally occur whenusing technology. The students and the staff involved inthis project are confident that this sort of flexible learningapproach will open the doorways to many more studentsin Australia in the near future. We are grateful to the Asia<strong>Education</strong> Foundation for giving us this opportunity to betrailblazers in this area.Heli DavisProgram Coordinator,Merici CollegeTHE BULLETIN EDITION 1, 3, <strong>2011</strong>12
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