A Word from the Principal

In my walk through this week, I noticed that the Year 8 students were exploring the theme of Resilience in their Health classes - a theme I would like to continue to explore with our community. 

Education institutions are asked to produce students who are global citizens; who are digitally responsible and show ethical understanding.  The new version of the Australian Curriculum went live this month and our staff are currently familiarizing themselves with the changes to the curriculum.  This is of course the formal curriculum and provides a sequence to the learning that our students engage with. What we know is that there is an informal curriculum that permeates schooling.  There are many positives to this informal curriculum and one of the many things we try to achieve, working in conjunction with the families and the formal curriculum, is to build resilience.  

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg in his chapter titled “How to Build Happy and Resilient Children”  in Raising Resilient Kids lays bear the major supports of resilient children as being:

1. Charismatic adults - all children need to have access to charismatic adults who they connect with and who provide them with strength. This will come in the form of love and acceptance but will also come through as advocacy - they care enough to advocate for the child in times of need. 
2. Positive Self-Talk - self-talk can take the form of negative messages or positive messages. Research has shown that even if we don’t speak these messages out loud, they build our self-image.  As adults, we need to use positive self-talk with children to help them grow the messages that will help them bounce back. “I haven’t learnt that YET”; “Maybe NEXT time I will get it right”. Messages that provide an opportunity to learn and to grow and acknowledge that it is okay to be in the “struggle” zone.
3. Social-emotional competencies - these are the life skills of interactions; the understanding of our own feelings and those of others; managing friendships and solving problems. This is building a tool kit of social behaviours that make us aware of how others interact with us, how to build positive relationships and how to resolve conflict.
4. Islands of Competence - this is all about building self-esteem and confidence. It is about providing our children with the opportunities to find what they love and to succeed in it - be that sport or music or art. This helps build persistence and will show that with practice we can succeed.
5. Spirituality - a sense of connectedness or relating to something/someone who transcends the material world. This supports the development of a moral compass and helps to support a search for meaning.

These traits are found in people all around us. Sometimes we need to explicitly model the social and emotional competencies to help build resilience. We need to be the “lighthouse” adult that sets the boundaries and limits, because this does show that we care and that we are willing to make the hard call to help our children.  Take a minute and ask yourself - does my child have the above supports? What could I strengthen with them? How can I help them to develop the protective behaviours which will support a “bounce back” from life’s knocks?

Thought of the Week

Success is not final,

Failure is not fatal, 

It is the Courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

Staffing News

Congratulations to Jasmin and Kieran who welcomed Noah James into their family on Monday the 16 May.  We expect that they are enjoying the many opportunities to cuddle and to “sleep”.

Congratulations to Aimee Woodward in being awarded a position on the Leadership Team of Sacred Heart College, commencing at the start of Term 3.   Aimee will continue in her Lourdes 3 Clan Teacher and subject teaching duties at Mount Carmel College during Term 2.  This acknowledges the wonderful leadership of Aimee and will provide her with a further opportunity to positively impact another community.  We are sad to see Aimee move on and will spend the remainder of this term trying to find a suitable replacement for her Head of Department and Transitions Roles. I would like to thank Sacred Heart College for the significant handover period, ensuring a smooth transition for our students.

In June, Heath Whiley will complete his final 4-week practical teaching requirements for UTAS. During this time his classes will be covered by Anna Cazaly (English and History) and myself (Legal Studies and Theology & Spirituality).  

Community News

College Board

At the recent Board AGM, Charmaine Stanton retired from her position as a Board Member.  Charmaine led the rollout of the Computer Laptop program for the College and worked alongside the staff at the College to ensure that this was done in a planned and strategic way. I thank Charmaine, on behalf of the College for her tireless work and contributions to our College Board.  

Charmaine’s retirement from the Board creates a vacancy and the Board welcomes applications for the position on the Board and is hoping to secure the assistance of a parent who has building expertise to support the next phase of the College’s Strategic Master plan.

Expressions of Interest can be submitted by completing the attached form by Friday 17 June 2022.

Keeping Safe in CyberSpace

Susan is Australia’s leading expert in the area of cyber safety and has worked in Victoria Police for 27 years in a position involving cyber safety and young people. Thanks to the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia, Susan will be in Hobart on Thursday the 9 June at 7pm addressing the issue of Keeping Safe in Cyberspace. 

The evening will be held at St Mary's College in the Nagle Centre and tickets can be booked online via: agsa.org.au/event/keeping-safe/

RSVP by Wednesday 1 June.