Principal's Report
Easter Liturgy
On Tuesday of this week, our school stopped to bring into focus the central message of our Catholic faith through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I want to thank Fr Brendan for helping us understand a little more the important rituals of our faith. Lent and the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ ask us to reflect on how we can be more and live more like Jesus. To live with more compassion, with more forgiveness and with more love for one another. Each year we enter into and experience these sacred rituals and they help us to reflect upon and deepen our faith and understanding of Christ in our life. I thank Fr Brendan, Mr Swan, Mr Holewa, the student leaders, readers and singers who created the environment at our Easter Liturgy to experience these rituals in a very personal way.
Lord God ,
You sent your Son into the world,
And before his hour had come,
He washed his disciples’ feet.
You had given all things into his hands.
He had come from you , and was going to you,
And what did he do?
He knelt down on the floor,
And washed his friends’ feet.
He was their teacher and their Lord,
Yet he washed their feet.
Lord God, help us learn from his example;
Help us to do as he has done for us.
The world will know we are his disciples
If we love one another.
Strengthen our hands and our wills for love
And for service.
Keep before our eyes the image of your Son,
Who, being God, became a Servant for our sake.
All gory be to him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and forever.
Amen
COVID - UpDate
The Victorian Government relaxed its COVIDSafe settings on Friday 26 March 2021.
Changes to the COVIDSafe settings include allowing more visitors in the home, changes to mask wearing in some settings and updates to density limits in some settings. There are limited changes for schools. Visitors continue to be welcome at our school, however face masks must be carried by individuals 12 years and over at all times and worn when physical distancing of 1.5 metres cannot be maintained.
Individuals aged 12 years and over must continue to wear a face mask when on public transport, school buses and when in taxis or ride share vehicles – unless they have a lawful exemption. Thank you for your understanding and support throughout this term as we continue to implement COVIDSafe practices at our school.
I look forward to welcoming our students and families back to more school events in Term 2.
Respectful Relationships at the Heart of Our Community
Respectful relationships are not only at the core of Catholic values and teachings, but are a necessary element of a proper functioning society. Developing young men and women who respect each other’s fundamental rights is central to our aims as a school community.
Issues of consent, sexual assault and gender inequality are critically important. Our school, in partnership with parents, has an important role to play in addressing this significant social issue.
We stand against gendered violence. The testimonies provided by current and former school students across the country reinforce the need to support students to build and manage safe and respectful relationships.
Catholic schools utilise a range of programs to help form appropriate interpersonal behaviours and respectful attitudes among the student cohort, as enshrined in gospel values.
We teach respectful relationships education as part of the Victorian Curriculum, which focuses on building students’ social and emotional skills by supporting them to recognise and regulate emotions, develop empathy for others, and build and manage safe and respectful relationships (including understanding consent). Our school provides sexuality education as part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
Our school takes sexual assault allegations very seriously. We respond to any disclosures in an appropriate and supportive manner. Any allegations are acted upon quickly by following our procedures for responding to allegations of abuse and assault. We report allegations of sexual assault to Victoria Police and Child Protection in accordance with cross-sector education protocols documented within PROTECT: Four Critical Actions for Schools: Responding to Incidents, Disclosures and Suspicions of Child Abuse and PROTECT: Identifying and Responding to Student Sexual Offending.
We will provide support to any students who are victim-survivors of sexual assault. Students can receive support from our Wellbeing Team lead by counsellor Mr Milan Colic mcolic@sjrc.vic.edu.au
If you have any questions or concerns, or wish to discuss something that has happened, please contact
- Mr Tim Hogan Principal ph. 8793 2000
- Mr Greg Van Es Deputy Principal ph. 87932000
- Dr Janine Biggin Deputy Principal ph. 87932000
As a parent or carer, if you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault and needs support, please contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit https://1800respect.org.au.
You can also access help through:
- Parentline on 13 22 89
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
Students can access help through: Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 headspace.
All of us, from parents as first educators, to school teachers and leaders, to system and sector leaders, must work together to do all we can to address this issue and prevent future harm to any young person.
Critically, we must empower the young people in our care to participate in what must become an ongoing conversation on the efficacy of existing school respectful relationships programs, and the priority they are given in schools and among school communities.
As a Catholic school, we take these matters extremely seriously and will work with students, parents and our local community to support education programs in this critical area of student safety.
SIS Soccer
At the end of a very exciting SIS Soccer Season, I congratulate our Senior Girls on taking out the SIS Senior Girls Pennant and the Boys being placed as runners up in the SIS Senior Boys division after going down to St Francis Xavier 2-1 in an excellent match last Thursday. I acknowledge the work of Coaches Ms Marina Kintzel and Mr Mario Laing who have performed admirably with their respective teams, setting a high standard for our junior SIS teams to follow.
Catholic School Youth Ministry Australia – Retreat
Last week our year 10 and 11 students took the opportunity to participate in an overnight retreat lead by staff members Mr Holewa, Mr Farrelly, Ms De Francesco , Mr Joachim , Mr Swan , Mr Rhynehart , Miss Nguyen and Dr Biggin . The program consisted of a variety of presentations and small group discussions exploring faith in action and the rite of reconciliation in the context of the season of Lent. It is hoped that the CYSMA course will provide for lots of opportunities for our students to speak about their personal faith, put it into action within our community and hopefully inspire others to do the same.
Papua New Guinea - Container Project
This week we received a note of appreciation from Br Antony Swamy Principal of De La Salle Secondary College – Bomana on behalf of our Brother and Sister schools in PNG that our Shipping Container had finally arrived. Laden with furniture, equipment and materials, the container will now be shared between the three Lasallian Schools : La Salle Technical College Hohola , Jubilee Catholic Secondary School and De La Salle Secondary College – Bomana .
St Paul Apostle Athletics Carnival
The second of our Primary School Athletics Carnivals took place last Tuesday with St Paul Apostle North Primary School visiting St John’s for their annual carnival. In beautiful conditions the students and their families enjoyed our new facilities, competing in all the track and field events. St Mary’s will be also holding their athletic carnivals at St John’s in term 3 and it is wonderful to see our families from the local Parish Primary schools utilizing the facilities of St John’s, a Regional Catholic Secondary College which is owned by the local Parishes.
CLC Open for Business these School Holidays.
Our Contemporary Learning Centre will remain open from 9am until 3.30pm on each day of the school holidays except for the Easter public holidays. This service is open to all students wishing to complete homework or assignments for term 2.
Happy Holidays
I wish all members of our community a safe and Holy Easter Holiday with family and friends over the break. I look forward to seeing our students on their safe return on Monday the 19th of April.