Principal’s Report 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the start of Term Two. I hope your term break was relaxing and you were able to spend time with those important to you.

Term two commenced with a staff Professional Development Day which allowed our staff to look at the recommendations from our recent Ethos & Identity Review and consider our Formation goals for the year. Staff were introduced to a new online Professional Development platform and Mr Tim O’Farrell, Catholic Education Ballarat, spent time discussing our impending School Improvement Framework requirements.  

Whilst there are generally fewer disruptions this term, the College calendar still has a number of excursions/events/activities for our students to engage in across the next month and a half. I hope that students are now well settled into school routines and their semester one subjects. The next six weeks are a valuable opportunity for students and teachers to work together to maximise learning outcomes for students.

Over the holidays I attended the MSC Provincial Chapter dinner in Sydney. It was a great opportunity to catch up with MSC’s I have previously been introduced to and network with others I had not previously encountered. We congratulate Fr Stephen Hackett msc on being elected the next Provincial for the MSC Australian Province. His term begins on 1st July 2023. Fr Stephen was a student at Monivae (74-76) and on staff (89-96). We look forward to welcoming him to Monivae.

Cadet Camp – There were many opportunities for our year 8’s to experience numerous activities throughout the week. It was a little wet and cold at times however, they seemed to manage these conditions well. Fr Paddy conducted mass on the Wednesday night which is a great tradition, and the weather/wind was kind to us. The camp was well supported by all our teaching staff, and I am grateful to them for their support.

Two new staff members commenced this term. Mrs Viona Towers, Indonesian Teacher and Ms Lyka Zarate, Humanities Teacher. Ms Zarate will focus some of her time on supporting the Literacy and Numeracy of our indigenous students. Mrs Catherine Huisman has returned from a terms Long Service Leave.

PAC - Contracts are close to being finalised for the PAC/Music/Drama re-development and we expect works to commence within weeks. Although disruptive, we are extremely excited and anticipate the build to be completed for the start of 2024.

I have been busy conducting 2024 Year 7 Scholarship interviews and have been privileged to encounter so many amazing young people. The College is expecting positions for 2024 to be filled early this year and I encourage you to visit our website (monivae.com) to begin the enrolment process and to register your child for Spend the Day at Monivae, 16th May.

I would like to take the opportunity to wish all the mothers and special people in our lives a very Happy Mothers Day for Sunday. 

Kind regards,

Jonathan Rowe

Principal