Co-Principals' Report

Hope and Resilience

There is a well known motivational quote that says, “You can’t control the winds but you can adjust the sails”. Recently we presented an image of this quote at the Senior School Information Night. One of the compelling reasons for showing the image was our experience this year and how the quote resonates with two words that have defined our purpose this year - hope and resilience. In many ways this quote speaks of resilience, the willingness to adapt to changing circumstances, confront obstacles, be determined, be resourceful and to ultimately find a way forward, despite how difficult the circumstances might be. In reality the quote also speaks of hope, the mindset that despite what might look like a ‘hopeless’ situation, there is still a glimmer of hope that the situation can improve and become better. In our students lives how can they adjust the sails to improve? What changes can they make to ensure learning is successful? When things become difficult, or something can’t be understood how can this be turned around? If I fail the first time, how can I make sure I don’t on the second attempt?

Athletics Carnival

It was fantastic to spend a day outside as a community at our annual Athletics Carnival. Congratulations to the students who attended and participated to the best of their ability and to the many staff who worked so hard to ensure its success. Congratulations to Chisholm House for defending their title - they will be hard to beat from here in the Championship House points! While still room for improvement, we were very pleased to see an increase in attendance rates on the day. In reality we would argue that participation in these types of events is even more important than it has been in the past. We have a generation of young people who lead very sedentary lives and the research is clear, exercise contributes to healthy bodies, but also increasingly to improved mental health. The Resilience Project were also strong in this message, that even just 30 seconds of exercise can improve our mindsets and give ‘positive energy’. In addition while our young people live in a very connected world, especially through social media, paradoxically they also feel more isolated. While they are connecting through social media, they are doing so in the refuge of their own homes. Consequently being a participant in community events, socialising, relating with people face to face and developing a sense of community spirit is even more crucial. We reiterate this message regularly at school, but really require your help, in partnership with us, to continue to also reinforce this message at home.

Sporting Success!

While talking of the sporting field, we continue to experience success in inter-school competitions. We celebrate the recent success of many of our teams and wish them all the best in the next stages. The talented Year 8 Boys Football Team nearly made it through to the State Grand Final, losing only narrowly in the Semi Final in Melbourne on Tuesday, against a far bigger metropolitan school. Lizzy Kierl will represent our school in Clay Target Shooting at state level and our Year 8 & 10 Netball teams and Senior Girls Basketball have also progressed through to state level. Congratulations to all involved and we know you will continue to do us proud.

Commitment to Social Justice

As we rejoice in the enormous contribution of our East Timorese Immersion group, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to Catholic social teaching, as modelled to us by Jesus. Recently our VCAL team have returned from Brewarrina, after a week of community service and engagement with the underprivileged in that region. Also in that week we had a brave group of students and two staff members participate in the annual Winter Sleep Out. This involved sleeping rough for one night to show solidarity for those who are homeless. This Monday we also hosted a number of schools from across the Diocese in a Just Leadership Day. All of these events are underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching, in particular, (i) the need to preserve and keep sacred the dignity of the human person and (ii) a basic moral test to look after our most vulnerable members and put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. Many thanks for the selfless contributions made by both our staff and students to these events.

NAPLAN Update

You may have been following some of the recent media commentary regarding this years’ NAPLAN tests. In essence some schools completed the test in the traditional manner (paper and pen), while others opted to perform it for the first time as an online test using a computer. We completed the online version this year and it was extremely successful. However, the recent controversy has centred around whether the two different types of tests are comparable. In other words can you compare two different styles of tests and is this data reliable and valid? At this stage we are unsure of where this may head, or when results will be released but we will keep you updated.

Lateness to Class and School

We would all agree that punctuality is an important life skill. The vast majority of our students show excellent habits in this regard. For those who do not, we will be making a concerted effort over the next few weeks to reinforce the message, through a range of consequences, that being late is not acceptable. Once again your support with this message can help us immensely.

This Sunday’s Gospel

We all regularly make decisions in our lives, some are small, others are extremely large and significant. Deciding what we will have for breakfast is a small decision in comparison to whether we buy a house, what career we would like to pursue or who we might marry. In this week’s Gospel the apostle Peter, has a big decision to make. After the feeding of the five thousand there is a crisis for the would-be followers of Jesus and many choose to leave him. Peter is faced with a dilemma but ultimately chooses to stay and profess his faith in Jesus as “the Holy One of God”. In our lives, when faced with a significant decision do we follow the crowd or do we stay loyal to our own beliefs?

Grant Kemp and Kirrilee Westblade

Acting Co-Principals