Siena Primary is delighted with their two hard working choirs, conducted by talented Gabby Khoury, and beautifully accompanied by Isobel Summit.
Both choirs are not auditioned, and all eager students are welcome to participate.
Our Semitones Choir is for our Year 2 and 3 students. They rehearse during afternoon tea once a week and have the opportunity to perform at Assembly and various concerts during the year.
On 2 August, this group of 55 students participated in the Sunshine Coast Junior Eisteddfod at Matthew Flinders, where they earned first place out of 8 schools in their section. They sang their hearts out and were overjoyed with their achievement! Congratulation to the Semitones and Mrs Khoury and Mrs Summit.

The Senior Primary Choir is for students from Years 4 to 6, and they rehearse for an hour every week. This choir has sung at Assembly, at our Catholic Education Week Liturgy and at Grandparents Day. They are invited to sing at the school Parish Mass once every term and on 18 August they will participate at the Queensland Catholic Music Festival in Brisbane. We wish them luck and we know they will make us proud regardless of their final placing.
The Senior Choir will also participate in a combined choral workshop with Siena College, and perform in our annual music performance, Viva Siena, later this term. There is great joy in singing together, and our Siena choirs certainly share joy with each other and with our Siena community.

Stella Maris Primary School 

This week we celebrated the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.  The children and teachers of our Year 4C and 4D classes were delighted to be able to share the celebrations with parishioners and parents at the 9.00am parish mass on Tuesday 8 August in the school chapel.  Some of the children even distributed specially made Feast Day prayer cards, produced by the Mary MacKillop Today foundation.  The cards challenged readers to “Be Fierce for Fair” just as Mary MacKillop was.

At Stella Maris, we like to think that our school patron, Nano Nagle, would have been great friends Mary MacKillop and that they would have been great supports for each other, as their work was so closely aligned, even though they lived well over 100 years apart and in different countries.  The world is certainly a better place for their amazing contributions.  St Mary of the Cross, pray for us.

Siena Catholic College  

Two major events have book-ended our week. On Monday, our Year 8s departed for their three-day Emu Gully experience. Like our Year 11s, who participated in a similar experience last term, they were up bright and early for their long bus ride to Helidon. Once at the camp, they were challenged to participate in a variety of ANZAC-themed activities, each of which took them out of their comfort zones and into the cold and sticky mud. Each activity was designed to promote reflection on the themes of mateship, teamwork, courage, and accountability.

Friday saw us taking a day out of the classroom for our annual Siena Day celebration – a day to reflect on and to celebrate who we are as a community. We began the day with a liturgy before heading down to the oval for a variety of group games and challenges. Then it was on to side-show alley, which included a bucking bronco, games of skill and lots of delicious food options. House points were on offer for those participating in the recreation of Siena’s famous Palio race, while memorable Red Faces skits rounded-out our day.