Mount St Benedict College
Our Mission
Mount St Benedict College is a Catholic community where God is sought and found in the rich tapestry of daily life. This faith experience complements family life and parish involvement. The religious dimension of life underpins all aspects of the College community. The values articulated in our Mission statement at Mount St Benedict College – Pax, Hospitality and Stewardship come to us from the tradition of the Good Samaritan Sisters of the Order of St Benedict.
Pastoral Care
There is a formal Pastoral Care Program at Mount St Benedict College which seeks to live out Benedictine values through both College-based and external programs. Homeroom groups are organised into eight Houses. There is a House Coordinator for each house, who oversees pastoral care for the girls in their house. Each homeroom has a mix of girls from Years 7 - 12. Girls remain with their homeroom group and House Coordinator during their entire time at the College. This enables the girls to develop strong relationships with girls of different ages and with their House Coordinator.
Mount St Benedict College recognises each student's uniqueness and supports their individual needs, regardless of whether they are academically gifted or require learning support. Mount St Benedict College has specialist learning support teachers, a careers advisor and two counsellors to help students. A merit system promotes positive self-esteem and operates at bronze, silver and gold levels.
Our Curriculum
The curriculum at Mount St Benedict College caters for a diverse range of student needs, allowing more able students to engage in a fulfilling and rewarding course of study, while also offering support to students with special learning needs. Teaching staff have undertaken professional learning in the Harvard Teaching for Understanding Learning Framework and are using this framework to prepare students to be women of competence, confidence and compassion equipped with the necessary skills to ensure life-long learning, independent learning, critical thinking, a keen sense of justice and compassion for others.
How to better engage students in the middle years of schooling, Years 7 to 9, is one of the current focuses at Mount St Benedict College. The MYBennies Innovation Project is the result of research and professional learning in this area. Central to this project is our belief that girls learn best when they have strong connections, when they feel valued, respected and known, and when their learning is relevant and interesting. The Year 7 integrated learning program is called MYBennies. A team of teachers work with Year 7 students to help build connections between the work they do in other subjects as well as acquire the 21st-century skills of creativity and problem solving, communication, critical thinking, information and media literacy, global citizenship, collaboration and teamwork, and independence in their learning.
Learning Enrichment
Enrichment opportunities at Mount St Benedict College include:
• Maths Workshop – weekly workshop after school for help with classwork and/or assignments
• Language trips – students have visited France, Germany and Japan on language enrichment trips
• International and Interstate learning tours including European History Tour, CAPA New York Tour, NASA Space Camp Tour, Qld Geography Tour, Footsteps of Benedict
• MSB Excellence Program
• Future Problem Solving Program
• Premier’s Reading Challenge
• Science Enrichment
• Gifted & Talented Conference
• Da Vinci Decathlon
Co-curricular
Students at Mount St Benedict College have a wealth of opportunities while they are at the school. Girls can participate in:
• Debating
• Drama
• Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme
• Public Speaking
• STEM and Coding Clubs
• Musical ensembles
• Choir
• Student Representative Council
• Student Alliance
• Theatresports
• Social Justice activities (including community outreach programs)
• Co-curricular sport – basketball, netball, soccer, softball, tennis, touch
• Representative sport - represent the College at Broken Bay Diocesan level. Successful students can be further selected for NSW Combined Catholic Colleges, NSW All Schools, and Australian National level
• Overseas sports tours
Facilities
Multi-purpose hall, performing arts theatre, art and music suites, chapel, science labs, flexible learning spaces, state-of-the-art IT facilities, one-to-one laptop program, courts for netball and basketball, multi-purpose sports oval, fitness centre, Information Resource Centre, state-of-the-art Technology and Applied Studies Centre, dance studio, drama studio.