Mothers Day

I wish all of the mothers in our community a happy Mother's Day on Sunday. We can never thank you enough for the love and care that you have provided and appreciate that you never stop being a mother. We hope you are thoroughly spoiled on Sunday and enjoy the family gatherings with much food and love.

Loving God, we thank you for mothers – for all they mean or have meant, for the love they have shown and the care they have given. We thank you for the qualities of mothers – their patience, their kindness, concern and understanding. We thank you for the part they play in our lives, and we thank you for this day of saying ‘thank you’ this opportunity to say what we so often mean to say but so rarely do. For mothers and motherhood, for children and families we bring you this day our grateful praise.

Amen.

We join our Pope this week in his prayer to our Lady for our brothers and sister in India. We prayer to Our Lady, for the Health of the Sick, and to implore her protection during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Presentation Sisters - Anniversary of the Venerable Nano Nagle

On the 26th of April, I attended a commemoration in the Dandenong Cemetery conducted by the Presentation Sisters in honour of their founder the Venerable Nano Nagle. This ceremony was centred around the graveside of four of the Presentation Sisters who were buried in Dandenong after serving many of the local communities. It was wonderful to be present and to hear of the contributions these four women made to the various communities they worked in and of the esteem and affection that there fellow sisters remembered them with. The celebration concluded with lunch at the Dandenong Workers Club where the Sisters enjoyed catching up for the first time after the long periods of COVID isolation.

Gala Soccer Day

On Monday, the 3rd of May the inaugural Paul Wade Cup was held at St John’s Regional College. Over two hundred primary school students from St Mary's, St Paul Apostle North , St Francis De Sales, Holy Family, St Anthony’s , St Gerard’s and St Kevin’s participated in this first time event after it was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. On our new sporting facilities twenty-two mixed teams fought it out over three rounds for the right to playoff in the grand final. In a wonderful match demonstrating great skills and sportsmanship St Anthony’s narrowly defeated St Paul Apostle North to take out the inaugural Paul Wade Cup.

Paul Wade an ex-student of St Johns and the former captain of the Australian Socceroos was present on the day to award the cup named in his honour to the winning team. It was a wonderful day, and we look forward to all of the schools and students returning to contest the 2022 Paul Wade Cup.

Founders Day and Talent Quest

Next week our community will stop to celebrate the lives of our founders St John Baptiste De La Salle and the Venerable Nano Nagle. The day will begin with a whole school mass celebrated by Fr Brendan Lane followed by a range of fun activities arranged by each house and then a hearty lunch served by our Parents and Friends Association.

In the afternoon the whole school will attend the launch of our Term 2 Mad Day fundraising initiatives and then the annual talent contest which everybody is eagerly awaiting. The final of the talent quest will repeated on Thursday night and all parents are invited through the following try booking link.

Staffing

I welcome back from long service leave Ms Judy Bishop, Ms Sonia McNally and Ms Sue Mulholland. I am sure they enjoyed their time away from the college and it is good to see them all return.

Athletics Carnival

Last Tuesday the St. John's community ventured to Casey fields to participate in our annual athletics carnival. Fortunately, the weather held for the day and we saw many fine performances in both the field and track events. The shield for House Spirit in 2021 went to Phoenix House and the SJRC 2021 Athletics Championship was won by Columba House. I congratulate all the students on their participation and their support for their houses during the day and congratulate and thank Mr Mark Alexander, the Health and PE staff and all the staff for their assistance on the day for what was a wonderful athletics carnival.

Tutoring Available - Monday to Thursday

Our school tutoring programme has been extended by one day and now runs in the library for students from Monday to Thursday from 3.30 to 5 pm. Our tutors provide this service free of charge and are available to assist students from Year 7 to Year 12 in range of subject areas including Maths, English and Science.

ANZAC Day Ceremony

On the Friday before ANZAC day our community stopped to remember Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. Many men and women have paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country and the spirit of Anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity and the value we place on service to our community. I thank Mr Swan, the staff and all the students for the way they honoured our service personnel with respect, dignity and remembrance.

Contemporary Learning Centre - Lunchtime Activities

I thank the staff who have been running several different lunchtime activities in the CLC over the last term to provide an opportunity for our students to connect with one another. The range of activities including:

MINUTE TO WIN IT – hosted Mr Graham

TRIVIA – hosted by Ms Wills & Mr O’Connell

CRAFT Activities for Mother’s Day – Ms Gengaroli

MUSICAL Performances – Mr Perryman & Mr Holewa

allowed students to make new friends and learn new skills in a warm and welcoming environment. I thank all the staff who have given up their time to plan and run these activities and for Ms Pinto for establishing this initiative.

Lantern CAFÉ

The Lantern Café conducted by our senior VCAL students had a trial opening on Thursday of last week providing a range of coffees and sweets for the staff as they began the process of developing the skills required of small cafe owners. The students began renovating the old uniform shop over the last six months as part of their VCAL learning programme and now move to the next phase of running it as a small business through which they will learn and develop a number of skills in numeracy, literacy, personal development and work related skills. I congratulate all the students and Mr Justin Summons, Applied Learning Leader, on this fabulous curriculum project which will be available to parents and staff on a weekly basis.

Talent Quest 2021