Principal's Report

Founders Day

Last Tuesday we gathered as a community to celebrate our 60th Year in honour of our founders St John Baptiste De La Salle and the Venerable Nano Nagle. We also acknowledged all those who contributed to the establishment and growth of St Johns College since its inception in 1958.

It was an honour to have so many of our Lasallian Brothers and Presentation Sisters return to St John’s to take part in our very special liturgy celebrated by Fr Desmond Maloney, Fr Brendan Lane and Deacon George.

The celebrations continued throughout the day with carnival rides, a generous lunch provided by our Parents and Friends Association, dunking machines and dancing in the courtyard.

The Talent Quest hosted by Ms Rachel Towns and Mr Mark Alexander highlighted the amazing talents of our students with the final being held on Thursday evening. This year our school performers were joined by several primary school acts from St Paul the Apostle, Resurrection Keysborough and St Francis De Sales.

I congratulate all of our performers  and our wonderful staff lead by Arts and Engagement Leader Ms Tania Robinson, who made this a wonderful night of  celebration for our community.

Mothers Day

I hope all our mothers enjoyed their family celebration last Sunday. Our prayer this week celebrates the great gift and challenge of motherhood that underpins our daily family life.

All-loving God, we give you thanks and praise for mothers young and old.

We pray for young mothers, who give life and count toes and tend to our every need; May they be blessed with patience and tenderness to care for their families and themselves with great joy.

We pray for our own mothers who have nurtured and cared for us; May they continue to guide us in strong and gentle ways. We remember mothers who are separated from their children because of war, poverty, or conflict;

May they feel the loving embrace of our God who wipes every tear away. We pray for women who are not mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion.

We remember mothers. grandmothers, and great-grandmothers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their love.

Amen.

Family Week with CatholicCare

This week we acknowledge the important role families play in our communities as part of the celebration of Family week. Family Week this year is being celebrated across the Arch Diocese by CatholicCare and the Catholic Education Office under the theme of “Building connections; Growing Together”. Catholiccare in its social justice work concentrates on supporting people who are marginalised and works  to build  a stronger and more resilient society  by breaking down the barriers to social inclusion.

The family unit plays an important part in building stronger communities and our Pope Francis recognised this in his pastoral letter Amoris Laetitia, ‘The Joy of Love: On Love in the Family’. Pope Francis identifies the family as central to the health of our world, our communities and the source of great joy for us all. He also recognises the challenges that all families have to stay together in a world that has so many pressures, distractions and so little time to devote to building the foundations of a strong family unit. Our Pope recommended family prayer as an important opportunity for families to build connections and grow stronger together.

As we celebrate Family week this week  I encourage you reflect on the opportunities , events and activities things that bring our families closer together and make us a more resilient society.

VSAC - Victorian Schools Association Competition

Congratulations to Tofy Jorissen (LE5) who represented St John's as part of the SIS Swimming Team in the Victorian Schools Association Competition held at MSAC – Albert Park.

Tofy joined 64 other students from the 16 SIS schools and was a member of the 15-16 Year Boys Backstroke Relay that finished 3rd in their event. Overall the SIS team finished 7th in a very strong competition and are to be congratulated for reaching the very high standards required of this level of competition.

Tim Hogan, Principal