Heads of Junior School 

The end of 2021 is nigh! At this time, we would like to express how incredibly proud we are of our Junior School community. For a small school our achievements are great. What we are most proud of, is how our community looks out for one another. This was highlighted this year on several occasions but most especially when Mr Rasmussen received his diagnosis of brain cancer and when Ms Stary lost her husband after his brave and short battle with cancer this year. On these occasions, being a faith-based school, in the Edmund Rice Tradition where our tagline, ‘We are a Connected, Engaged and Caring Community’ came to the fore.

We would like to thank you, our wonderful parent community for your continued support of us, in our roles of leadership, our staff but most importantly your boys, who you entrust into our care each day. From being a member of the Parents and Friends, a coach, or manager of a sport team (and we have many), attending an excursion, information evenings, learning plan meetings, parent teacher evenings, camps or sending messages of support and understanding, for listening, for being patient, for dropping in to see us to have a conversation, it all adds up. So thank you!

We are sad to see those families leave whose time at the Junior School has come to an end. We will hopefully see you in the years to come as the boys continue on to the secondary campus. 

We would like to thank the tireless, dedicated efforts of our staff. Many hours of work go on behind the scenes to help make a school run smoothly. We have a wonderful team  at the Junior Campus, from Mrs Graves in Maintenance to Mrs Leon and Mrs Moate in the Office, Kelsey and Lucinda in our Student Pastoral Care, to our Teaching staff and Learning Support Officers.

Finally, we would like to wish all our families from Kinder through to Grade 6 a safe and relaxing holiday break. Enjoy celebrating the coming of Christ the King with your families. We look forward to the return of our boys to school in 2022 in Prep, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on Thursday February 3, and our new Kindergarten students on Monday February 7. 

Farewell Mrs Chambers

As many of you are aware, Mrs Chambers is returning to secondary teaching after 16 years at the Junior School. In Term 3, Mrs Chambers was appointed as the Learning Area Coordinator for Religious Education, Years 7 to 12 at St Mary’s College. Mrs Chambers presence at the Junior School will be sorely missed but we will rest easy knowing that her new office will be looking directly at the Junior School futsal court, so she can keep an eye on us. Thank you to Mrs Chambers not only for her many years of teaching but also her friendship and leadership to the staff and boys of SVC.  

Bethlehem House Christmas Gifts

Today we welcomed Jeff and friends of Bethlehem House for our annual Christmas gift giving. The significance of our support of the men of Bethlehem House means a lot to our boys. This is the 13th year we have asked for donations to provide gifts for the many homeless men of Hobart. Jeff, who is the case worker, told the boys how much their gifts mean, as many of these men do not have any family at all. We were overwhelmed with the donations this year. 

A big thank you to for supporting this cause once again. We continue with the message that we are ‘boys supporting men’ and it is very important to us to assist people in our local community and raise awareness of the good works of the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Ad Astra Gifted Online Programme

During Term 4, boys in the Ad Astra Gifted Online programme were invited to enter into a narrative writing challenge, where prizes were awarded to the most outstanding stories. The competition allowed boys to not only challenge themselves, it was also an opportunity to showcase creativity to Ad Astrians in schools around Tasmania.

Boys had to look out in the post for a writer’s mystery prompt pack containing more information and a surprise or two to get boys writing. Ryan Lamprey and Micah Couacaud entered the competition and have been busy all term writing their stories. Judging was extremely challenging because of the quality of the stories sent in. 

Micah was awarded 2nd place with his story ‘Sarah and the Key to Boga’. His story was full of interesting details and vivid descriptions that took Mrs Caglayan, the Gifted Online Teacher, on a journey to another world. Micah cleverly included the thinks Mrs Caglayan sent him in his story. Congratulations and well done Micah!

End of Year Assembly

Yesterday the Junior Campus gathered in the Joyce Performance Centre at the Austins Ferry Campus for our annual End of Year Assembly. This was a wonderful afternoon celebrating the achievements of our students throughout the year. We were able to enjoy two songs from our talented Junior School Choir, listen to our Kinder students sing Away in a Manger, and celebrate the success of the boys who were awarded End of Year Certificates either in their class or specialist subjects. We were also able to reminisce on the journey the Grade 6s have been on for the last four years. There was the much-anticipated announcement of House Point Winners for the Year. 

I am pleased to say that the Winning house for 2021 was Dwyer House. Congratulations to House Captain and Vice-Captain, Will Butler and Samuel Robinson, on their leadership of Dwyer House throughout the year. The winner for Semester 2 was Joyce House, who will also be celebrating with a pizza party today. 

Farewell Mr Messer

The whole College gathered at Austins Ferry yesterday to farewell Mr Messer. In a very moving Liturgy of the word and ceremony we reflected on the 19 years Mr Messer has been a part of the SVC community as a teacher, Deputy Principal and Principal. Fr Suresh described Mr Messer as the match that lights the trees in the forest, meaning he has encouraged and inspired many thousands of boys over his years here to be their best, have the courage to try things and embrace the many opportunities they are given.

 Mr Messer has been a supportive, caring and servant leader throughout his years at SVC and we would like to thank him for being present at the Junior School. Mr Messer knew all the boys’ names in the school and their families. He showed interest and enthusiasm for everything we do here at the Junior School. We wish him every success as he continues his leadership and investment in the education of our young people at St Mary’s College in 2022. 

Last Day 

Tomorrow we will be finishing the year off with another busy day. We have 37 boys competing in the Primary Schools Triathlon, while the remainder will be at The Botanical Gardens watching a play, Treasure Island, put on by Big Monkey Theatre. 

As is tradition at the Junior Campus, at the end of the day (2.45pm) the boys in Grades 3, 4 and 5 will form a Guard of Honour for the Grade 6 boys to farewell them. The Grade 6 students will then congregate on the futsal court and chant the St Virgil’s College War Cry.