Principal's Post

Dear Parents,

On Wednesday afternoon the College experienced an outage to our online services that was an external break down impacting our provider. Unfortunately, the unplanned reparation work coincided with interruption to our classes that were being conducted remotely and was the cause of a delay in a message being received that communicated the return to face-to-face classes for Thursday. While the media messages were clear that classes resumed on Thursday we were disappointed that our email messages and in some cases SMS messages were not delivered promptly. Overall students seemed to cope very well with the return to Remote Learning.

The COVID restrictions continue to impact our community-based activities and the most notable disappointment this week was the need to postpone our Year 7 camps. We are investigating alternative dates and hopefully be able to reschedule this very important event. 

Last week modifications were made to our Assemblies and Award Presentations. Our next whole school event is the Inaugural Mass which is traditionally celebrated at St Patrick’s Cathedral on the last Friday evening of February. Due to restrictions, we have decided to celebrate the start of the new academic year at the College during school time and have the Mass streamed to families and those in our extended community. The proceedings will include the induction of our new College Rector Fr Harry Dyer OMI, the announcement of our new College Board and the induction of our College Leaders for 2021. Further details will be provided in due course.

The tutoring programme that the State Government has funded to assist students whose academic progress was impacted by last year’s remote learning has been organised, and we are ready to commence tutorials for the initial 250 students who have been invited. The students were selected based on diagnostic testing results that indicate they did not progress as well as what we would expect. This has surprised several families when they received the invitation because they were quite happy with their son’s report and their progress last year. Several families are prepared to let their son’s respective subject teachers tackle any deficiencies. The tutoring, which is done during class time in small groups is an offer and an optional opportunity. We are only in the initial stages of the programme and expect to make more offers to families in due course.

Finally, please keep in mind the invitation for a Parents and Friends gathering at the College on March 10. This evening is not a recruitment drive but a social gathering to inform parents and friends of the College of our vision to utilise the wonderful connections and support that are inherent in our expanding and dynamic community. The location and structure of the evening will be dependent on restrictions at the time, but for the moment, please mark 7 pm, Thursday, March 10 in your calendar.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Tony Coghlan

Principal