Principal's Post

Dear Parents,

This morning students from Years 8 to 12 celebrated academic excellence during two different assemblies. The format is designed to acknowledge the achievements from Semester 2 2021. It is a time of celebration for the recipients but also a moment of inspiration for all students currently attending the College. There are many ways to measure success and accomplishment. The fact that every Year 12 Student from 2021 has been offered a place at university, a TAFE College, traineeship, is employed or has an apprenticeship is testimony to a well-rounded education at Mazenod.

The 56 students from the 2021 cohort who achieved an ATAR score of 90 or better will be acknowledged at our traditional 90+ Assembly at a date to be determined. A change to this date is necessary due to COVID restrictions. The 90+ Assembly has featured on the College calendar since the late 1990s and was an initiative of Fr John Sherman when he was Rector. Since then, this assembly has been an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate excellence and hard work.

Over the past couple of years, Dr Lea Waters has worked with our staff about Positive Psychology and Positive Education. Lea is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the field of Strength-based Parenting and Teaching. She is highly credentialed, and I encourage every parent to visit her webpage to appreciate her research, insights and examples of her work. www.leawaters.com. Lea is the author of the Strength Switch which we would highly recommend. Her work has created strength-based strategies to help organisations, educators, and parents to build resilience in employees and their children.

Your son will be investigating his Character Strengths and we will be utilising her strategies in our PSL (Personal, Social Learning) Programmes and Well-being activities at the various year levels so understanding her work is a benefit for parents of students at all year levels. Staff are investigating ways they can understand their Character Strengths and continue to build their capacity in the area of Mental Fitness so they can improve their modelling of resilience and positivity as they connect and teach your sons.

During the Information Evenings, I introduced Ms Michelle Symss, who is the College Development Manager. Her role is to manage our communication and support our community connections, our Parents Associations, MOCA (Mazenod Old Collegians Association) and all our Community Associations. Our lives are becoming more hectic, and most people appreciate the importance of being connected to others in our College Community. 

All schools are aware of their need to promote and celebrate their accomplishments and build a reputation. Mazenod College is very proud of our reputation that has developed because of the outstanding and dedicated work of the Oblate Fathers, the staff and committed families to the College’s ethos and values. The character of our students will always be the critical measure of our reputation.

COVID-19

Earlier yesterday, the Victorian Government announced that existing COVIDSafe measures in schools would continue until the end of Term 1. Rapid Antigen Surveillance Testing will continue until the end of Term 1. The testing settings will remain the same, with all school students and staff recommended to test at home twice a week (Wednesday night and Sunday night). RATs have proved an important COVIDSafe tool to help reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and ensure our school is as safe as possible. Their use will remain voluntary for staff and students but is strongly encouraged. We will provide more detail on these announcements when it is available. 

All the best,

Dr Paul Shannon

Principal