Principal's News 

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Fr Martin Dixon

On  Wednesday August 5th, Martin completes his time as Parish Priest of our Brighton parish.  Martin called in to school again today, as he always does again to not just check in but to be present, which once again demonstrates his total commitment to the lives of others and impact which he has had on many for five decades.   Fifty years  of  priestly ministry in the Cahtolic Archdiocese is an amazing effort as a faith leader across many diverse communities and parishes.   The unfortunate thing is that with Covid, Martin just backs away into retirement without, I believe  the appropriate commendation and thanks for not what he has done but more importantly who he is. 

How do you frame and summarise a life that has been one of deep reflection of Scripture, Church history, study and tradition?   It required Martin to have an open mind and an adherence to allowing the God’s spirit to operate and move in and through his  life.

In Martin's priestly time the local church has changed.  The local church was the centre of Catholic life, worship and social interaction.  The teachings of the Church were known to young and old and with children attending the local Catholic school.  In recent times there have been many shifts in the social and cultural world which are now part of contemporary society.  Australia has become more secular.  

Martin has been  a progressive faith leader and with an insightful scholarly response to understand the ever changing context for the past fifty years. His courageous leadership to break away from the orthodoxy and conservatism that can restrict the Church and faith communities,  is similar to Pope Francis leadership today of the Catholic church.

Martin through his leadership has led schools and parishes that are engaged communities, by means of dialogue, exploring the contextual relevance and meaningful interpretation and the transformative message of the gospel message for today, with a strong commitment to social justice.

Farewell Martin. We will have a time for you to return and share hopefully with the school community later in the year.  

Prayer Reflection 

Maria Forde an Irish - Australian singer and spiritual presenter has produced the following video clip which can provide us with the inspiration to hold together.  It is our prayer for the week.

‘We Will Rise' is a song of hope. Despite the death, desolation, and tragedy experienced by so many people around the world as a result of the Coronavirus we have witnessed countless acts of kindness, care, generosity, appreciation and tireless workers on the front line.. We cannot turn back the clock but perhaps we can transform our future .’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwySfplh0hQ

News

As we enter the end of three weeks of term, one week for teacher planning and preparation and two weeks of remote learning, it is a little disheartening to read the number of Covid cases in the media.  Abiding by the restrictions and keeping safe continues to be critically important in the coming months. On Monday this week, I sent the following correspondence by Caremonkey,  which I have included again as only 114 members read the information from our 201 members. 

Maintaining hope is a challenge however as a community we have a co responsibility to be prophets of hope 

Monday's letter to parents

As we continue the journey through these challenging times can I firstly thank you for your support and persistence in ensuring that we all manage the challenges that confront us in this COVID era.  None of us are happy with the situation that we find ourselves in and we are uncertain of the unpredictability that we see change quickly in daily news reports.

As a school we need to be agile and adapt to what we encounter from both internal and external forces. This will require a positive mindset and an attitude of adapting to continual change and complexity.  As I mentioned in communication to you earlier this term, there have been adjustments to the teaching and learning time that will help with engagement for the children.  The feedback we have received at the recent Parent Teacher interviews was that the timetable change was an effective alteration to support the mental wellbeing of children, parents and teachers.  The current context  requires us to recreate and reinvent ways of working and we will continue to be adaptive in our thinking and processes.  It is challenging to accommodate the many nuances that we all experience.  Keeping a realistic balance between what is possible and achievable does require agility.  Nothing is static at the moment.

There will be further adjustments along the way.  I am conscious that the children do need to connect to their class teacher and their peers to ensure that the relational engagement continues in this online time.  The teaching staff will continue to have more frequent check-ins as a unit team as we have a bias towards action that is responsive and reflective.

Can I refer you to the parent portal as the main source of communication for you.  This is where you will find clear communication from each of the Professional Learning communities, announcements etc.  Our online presence at this time is important to ensure that there is a consistent, repeating rhythm to Remote Learning 2.0

In this second phase we will see a range of emotions for our children, for you as parents at home and for teachers constantly reviewing the additional layers of providing educational support.  The children may not be as enthused as they were in Remote Learning 1.0 or they may now feel that they have this sorted. There will be celebratory times, frustration and fun.  In the coming period let’s be open to the required changes and need for adaptive thinking.  This opportunity is providing us with the chance to not snap back to old ways but to be open to new ways of learning.   Let’s embrace it. 

Please refer to CareMonkey, emails and the parent portal for all information.  Maintaining communication at this time is so important for us all to remain connected. 

School Safety  - an adjustment made this week and correspondence sent to Bayside Council

‘With the recent surge in Covid-19 cases, St James will be shutting the school entry gates to eliminate the high number of pedestrians entry points.  As Principal and as part of our critical incident planning, I have an obligation to implement safe school plans that must ensure that all in our school community are safe.

The ease of entry to the school from anyone in the community is fraught with danger as we face the greatest health challenges of this century with the pandemic.

As a school we need to be agile and adapt to what we encounter at this time. This will require an attitude of adapting to continual change and the complexity that confronts us. My obligations and accountability as Principal requires that I continue to assess the health and safety risks with the continual pedestrian movement of school and community members.

The closure of the gates with school locks will allow for the safety of children, parents, teachers and the wider community.  This action will only be in place for this Covid period, we will reassess the opening of the gates once health authorities provide updated advice’. 

Parent Support Meetings

In the past two week Ms Karlee Agnew, Kate, Sharon and the class teachers have been conducting Parent Support Group (PSGs) meetings for some children.  Can I thank parents for attending these meetings online and to the teachers and Karlee for their excellent preparation and documentation of data evidence. 

Regards,

Brendan Flanagan

Principal