Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox College - eNewsletter

A warm and heartfelt WELCOME to all our Families, Staff and Students and as we commence this hopefully steady 2022 Academic year.  Praying this year runs slightly more smoothly for all and that through each person's efforts with everyone able to achieve success with their endeavours. 

Apart from welcoming all our returning students, families and staff, in particular I welcome all our new incoming Kindergarten students and their families, along with all new students (Yrs 1 - 11) and the families commencing  in their respective year groups throughout the College.

It also gives me great pleasure to welcome the following new member of Staff, and returning members of Staff from their Maternity Leave and hope their time in the St Mark's Coptic Orthodox family is rewarding and fruitful for both themselves and also the students they will be caring and instructing:

Miss Jessica Meleka - Primary

Mrs Renee Sidhom - Primary

Mrs Engy Hanna - Primary

Miss Rachel Bestawros - in the Learning Support Unit for Primary.

HSC 2021

My CONGRATULATIONS to the Yr 12 Class of 2021 and each of their teachers on the brilliant achievements following the 2021 HSC Results released in mid-January. (Summary Ads included).  Every student of the 58 in the cohort worked hard to achieve their respective best and like all other Yr 12 students everywhere, had to manage and excel in a predominately on-line learning environment. 

A very special mention and CONGRATULATIONS to Philo Daoud who achieved 1ST IN STATE in Mathematics Extension 1 - A brilliant achievement for Philo and we congratulate him and his family on this, the 3rd time SMCOC has achieved 1st in State in NSW since it commenced in 1996.

Congratulations to those achieving Band 6's and to each of our students who worked hard towards their personal best efforts during such a difficult period of teaching and learning. Each earned these results and we are duly proud of their respective achievements.

Nonetheless, Mathematics, English and Science certainly deserve special mention as collectively, their results were consistently above state averages for their courses.  Overall SMCOC received a State standing of 83th in the State across 880 secondary schools: made up of 24th in Mathematics Advanced & Extensions; 69th in English Advanced.  This is indeed an phenomenal effort and result!  (Only English & Maths show state standings hence why Science is not indicated with a standing). Under the challenging circumstances experienced in 2021, the result was nonetheless a BRILLIANT achievement from all.  Bravo and Well done!

STAFF CAR PARK & TRAFFIC FLOW

I would again like to re-iterate and ask parents to PLEASE NOT use the STAFF CAR PARK to drop off or wait to collect children AT ANY TIME, including going to the Uniform Shop or for Office business/enquiries.

The Car Park is to be used solely by STAFF at the College.  It is already crowded, VERY difficult to manoeuvre and far more difficult to see anyone whilst trying to park so we must all be extra careful.  Staff members leave and return throughout the day attending their meetings and school related tasks and so we cannot continue to waste valuable time trying to find who owns the vehicle left blocking entry/exit accesses and where are they to be found in the school.

Unauthorised vehicles seen parked in the Staff Car Park/Driveway will be towed at the owners cost.  The College has no liability for anyone's vehicle within the Car Park and is not liable for any damage caused.  Please ensure others (who may not read this newsletter) collecting or dropping off your children are made aware of these requirements.

Traffic Drop Off and Collection 

Please understand that like every school in the City, ours also suffers with the issues of problematic parking and collections issues.  In all cases, parents and guardians must understand that the school endeavours to do its best in having students collected and exiting students safely and in a timely and orderly manner. 

However, no school or school personnel has any authority outside of the school fence.  The traffic laws are for all road users to ensure the traffic requirements are observed, safely and within the law.   Parents are continuing to stop incorrectly and illegally holding up other traffic who are trying to get on with their business and get through.  Additionally, our neighbours MUST BE respected and not have to deal with parents parking across their driveways or parents sitting on their fences or people leaving their snack rubbish outside their yards; or even being verbally abused when approached by neighbours wishing to enter/exit their driveways. 

We ask and plead with each of you to be courteous, patient and to maintain the road rules at all times as we cannot override these Road Laws and subsequent fines that may be administered by the Police or Traffic Wardens.  Council Rangers and Police have asked that parents wishing to walk their children to and from the school then park in parking areas free of signage and time restraints, and then walk children in and back.

Drivers are NOT to remain stationery in their vehicles outside the school blocking through traffic.  If you wish to arrive early, then please go and park your cars and walk to the gate and remain standing there whilst observing the Covid distance requirement to collect your child or children and then walk back to your car.   

Students aged 12+ travelling to and from school

A reminder that currently and until further official notice is received, that it is compulsory for ALL students travelling to and from school using public buses or trains, or privately owned bus services wear a mask at all times whilst travelling.

Rapid Antigen Tests & Activities

Last Friday, all present at school should have received their 4-pack RAT tests which are recommended to be used twice per this week and next week.  Email notifications were sent to all parents and staff regarding this and students absent on Friday are welcome to come to the office to collect their designated 4-pack.

If students are found to be positive, they are to remain isolated for 7 days and work for the classes will be available via their Google Class log in.  Regardless of the 7 day isolation period, students need to have a negative reading prior to returning to school.  Parents are to advise ServiceNSW and the school if students or members of their immediate family are found with a positive reading.

Masks are encouraged to be worn by secondary students, and indeed primary students if they wish (recommended, but not law).  Staff and attending adults must wear masks whilst on the school's premises.  

Some activities will be resuming however these are all dependent on any current notifications forwarded to the school by the Authorities.

Early bird Liturgies will resume on a term time weekly basis from Thursday 10 Feb between 6 - 8 am.  All attending must be masked and scan the QR code on entering.

On 17 February, the Coptic Church celebrates what is often called “Jonah’s Feast,” after concluding a 3-day fast known as “Jonah’s” fast (14-16 Jan), which is an observance exclusive to the Oriental Orthodox. How did it originate and what is its purpose? 

1) “Jonah’s Fast” may be a misnomer. It was actually originally called the Fast of Nineveh. According to an ancient Arabic manuscript preserved in the Vatican Library,  a few hundred years after the fast was instituted, a man named Gregory Bar-Hebraeus called it “The fast of Nineveh” and never once referred to it as Jonah’s Fast.

2) It is debated whether the Ninevites fasted 3 days, or 40.  We presume the number of days based on the amount of time Jonah says God is giving them to turn from their ways. According to the Hebrew text, Jonah 3:4 says 40. But according to the Septuagint, the biblical translation of the Old Testament known to and used by the apostles and early Christians, the number is 3. Three days makes more sense because no food or water for an entire city for all living beings in it including animals seems much more doable than 40 days.

3) This is a “relatively” new fast in the Coptic Church, only about 1,000 years old, adopted from the Syriac Church by the same Coptic Pope associated with the miracle of the Mokattam Mountain.  The fast was  originally promulgated by the Maphrian of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the year 536 AD, in response to a plague that was occurring at that time. The Coptic Patriarch, Abraham, who was Syrian, and who was the same pope associated with the miraculous moving of the Mokattam mountain, instituted the fast in the 10th century.

4) We don’t know what creature swallowed Jonah. The Greek word referring to this event in the Septuagint and by Christ in Matthew 12:40 refers to a “large sea creature.”  

5) In Arabic “Jonah’s Feast” is also referred to as Jonah’s Passover. Christ said that just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and came out alive, so too would Christ Himself be in the tomb for three days and then rise from the dead. This symbolic connection between Jonah and Jesus was brought forward by Christ Himself: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). Death did not hold Christ, and likewise Jonah was not held by the figurative death in the great fish. Maybe it is called Jonah’s Passover because, for Jonah, death passed over him rather than succumbing to it.

SPIRITUAL WORD FROM ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

The purpose for me of this fast is to get ready for the Great Fast that is just around the corner. I’ll close with this homily by St. John Chrysostom, showing God’s mercy in declaring the consequence of sin, in order for us to avoid the consequence, not so that He may exact it up on us:

"The threat of hell show the care of God for us no less than the promises of heaven. For the threat cooperates with the promise, and drives men into the kingdom by means of terror. Let us not think it a matter of cruelty, but of pity and mercy; of God’s concern and love for us. If in the days of Jonah the destruction of Nineveh had not been threatened, that destruction would have not been averted. Nineveh would not have stood but for the threat, “Nineveh shall be overthrown” [Jonah 3:4]. And if hell had not been threatened, we should all have fallen into hell. If the fire had not been denounced, no one would have escaped the fire. God declares that He will do that which He desires not to do, that He may do that which He desires to do. He wills not the death of a sinner, and therefore He threatens the sinner with death, that He may not have to inflict death. And not only has He spoken the word, but He has exhibited the thing itself, that we may escape it." [Homily 15 on First Timothy]

Source:  https://johnbelovedhabib.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/things-you-probably-never-knew-about-the-fast-of-nineveh-jonah-and-the-feast/

Starting from 2022; all Years 7-12 Parents and students are encouraged to access their SEQTA module and benefit from it as stated below:

SEQTA Teach, includes curriculum planning, mapping, assessment and reporting, pastoral care and analytics and is used by the staff.

SEQTA Learn, is the student online portal. This portal is accessible on any device over the internet and at school. Thereby giving students access to everything they need to learn more effectively, and tools that allow them to stretch themselves, be more interactive with what they are learning and achieve better outcomes.

SEQTA Engage, is the online portal for parents/guardians so you can access up-to-date information quickly and easily about the school and your child/ren learning.

Don't hesitate to contact me on itmanager@stmarks.nsw.edu.au if you have any queries or issues.