Principal's Report 

This year Catholic Education is celebrating 200 years in Australia, marking the bicentenary of the first Catholic school established in Parramatta in October 1820. The following information from the Official website for the bicentennial celebrations outlines the enormous contribution that Catholic Education has made to Australian society over the last 200 years.

First Catholic school

The first Catholic school in Australia was founded in October 1820 by Irish Catholic priest Fr John Therry and run by convict and lay person George Marley. The school, which Catholic historians believe was in Hunter Street, Parramatta, taught 31 students. By 1833, there were 10 Catholic schools in the colony. 

Celebrating the legacy

Over 200 years, Catholic schools have grown to become the largest provider of schooling in Australia (outside government) with one in five school age students attending a Catholic school.

This represents some 768,000 students in 1,751 schools across the country and employing 98,000 teachers and staff.

Nearly 40 per cent of Catholic schools are located outside of metropolitan cities in regional, rural and remote communities.

We look forward to the official launch of the celebrations which will be held in the week commencing 22 – 26 February 2021 and will involve local state, territory and diocesan events. 

A National Mass will also be celebrated in every state, territory and diocese on the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on 24 May 2021. 

Opening College Assembly

Our opening College Assembly was held on the 9th of February and it was wonderful to be able to bring our students and staff together to celebrate the high achievers from the 2020 school year.  Due to COVID restrictions we were unable to have guests present but we were able to film the speech by the College Dux, Danny Phan, and share with our students the lessons he had learned at St John’s.  Other highlights of the assembly included the investiture of our Student Leaders and Student Representative Council Members and the welcome into our community of the Year 7 students.  Each of the Year 7 students was given a bible by our Student Leaders to symbolise the role that Christs teaching will play in their journey through our school.

SIS Returns

After a 12-month hiatus due to the COVID restrictions, SIS sport returned to St Johns last week.  It was wonderful to see our new sporting facilities being used for senior sport and even better to see our senior soccer teams have first up victories.  The Senior Boys beat Padua College 4 – 3 and our Senior Girls defeated John Paul College 8 – 0.  I congratulate our players and their coaches on their efforts and look forward to an exciting SIS season.

Year 7 Camp

Our Year 7 Students managed to beat the Stage 4 lockdown, enjoying a wonderful three days at Adanac Camp near Yarra Junction before returning to St John’s last Friday afternoon.  The weather was beautiful, and our students participated in several activities including visiting the local swimming pool, indoor hockey and tackling the fast-running water slide.  The camp is a wonderful transition for our new students into St John’s, allowing them to make new friends and meet their teachers over the three days in this tranquil bush setting.  I acknowledge the wonderful work of Ms Sue Keel and the staff who made these three days a memory that our students will never forget.

Sustained Reading (SSR) 

The Literacy team at St. John’s Regional College, led by Ms Rachel Towns is introducing a new program of Silent Sustained Reading during Thursday Homeroom periods.  Students will be expected to bring a book (that can be fiction, including graphic novels or non-fiction) for them to read silently during this period.  It is intended to help students gain a love for reading, with both students and staff involved in reading during this time.  To assist this weekly routine, no technological devices will be used at this time, instead the focus will be on reading together.  Students will be required to bring a book to homeroom for this activity and can borrow a book from the library at the following opening times: 

Before School: 8:30 - 8:50am 

During School: At recess and lunch 

After school: 3:20 - 5:00pm (closes at 4:20pm on Fridays) 

PNG CONTAINER PROJECT

The first of our containers headed off to PNG on Monday of this week.  Filled with a range of items from school furniture to unfirms and books, the Container Project has the potential to make a wonderful contribution to support Lasallian staff and students in our needy schools in PNG with even the container being converted to teacher housing once emptied.  

The container project was developed as part of the Tercentenary celebrations in 2019 which saw the four schools in Melbourne that share a Lasallian heritage, St Bede’s, De La Salle Malvern, St John’s Regional College Dandenong and St James East Bentleigh coming together in pursuit of shared Lasallian ideals and mission.  With the assistance of the Lasallian Mission Council and Br Denis Lofts, the shipping container which has been based at St Johns has now been filled by the four Melbourne schools with educational supplies and equipment is now headed to Papua New Guinea.  The next container to eb filled will arrive at St John’s in the coming months.