From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am not sure how it came to be Week 5 of Term so quickly, but here we are! On the drive into work along the ICB, I can see the theme rides of the EKKA poking out along the skyline. That must mean the promise of a public holiday next week is now in sight. I trust that all of our Mt A families will enjoy some special time together on that day.

A fabulous couple of weeks have been had here at MtA since my last entry. Once again, we are so proud of our Year 11 candidates who are now in the final stages of their election to leadership process. I also commend our current Year 12 Captains for the outstanding college spirit, leadership, and awareness they brought to this years’ Wellness Week and Colour Day (this year being Blue for Beyond Blue) and on Monday we celebrated 100 days to go with our 12’s. I thought to myself this morning, as we engaged in Staff Professional Learning in the area of AI, the one thing Generative AI and machine learning will never take away from schools are our human relationships with each other and the longed for and anticipated rites of passage that come with growing up together in a community. For me, this speaks to the educational wellbeing that we talk so much of here at Mt A, the whole student being shaped through learning and growing. The robots cannot take this away from us!

My thanks also go to our College Counsellors Kimberley Green and Tanya O’Connell who shared a wonderful presentation on “Navigating Peer Concerns” to a small cohort of parents and carers on Wednesday evening. It was a fabulous presentation, the 4th parent session in this series that we have hosted this year. We look forward to working with our Parent Panel in curating further presentations for 2024 that you think may be of interest and value to you. We are certainly keen to ensure that these opportunities are accessible to all. 

Again, we encourage our parents and carers to access some of the fabulous parent resources available on our School TV landing page. This can be found by accessing the educational wellbeing tile on My MtA. There are some fabulous resources on friendship and belonging.

Friendship & Belonging | Mount Alvernia College (schooltv.me)

As we are now at the term’s mid-point, it is a juncture that is often marred by what teachers refer to as mid-term malaise. For students, this can manifest in procrastination, apathy, complacency and a lack of focus and direction in their study or routine. Similarly, it can be reflected in a slip in uniform standards and attention to maintaining College expectations more broadly. With assessments and examinations just around the corner, the staff and I are committed to ensuring that the students remain engaged and focused within an environment of high support and high challenge. In partnership with our parent community, we know we have your support in ensuring your daughter’s attendance at school remains high and that together, we encourage them to uphold their commitment and maintain their pace and application.  

Should you have concerns regarding any aspect of your child’s learning, please contact the relevant subject teacher as the first point of contact. Abusive, accusatory, or inflammatory correspondences to teachers are not acceptable, nor are social media exchanges that publicly defame the work of our staff. As always, we work together in a spirit of partnership and with a solutions-focused approach to all that we do. And again, I thank the vast majority of our parent/carers who are exceptional partners and who approach concerns or queries in a respectful and appropriate way. It takes a village!.....and a collaborative one at that.

I was recently interviewed by PeopleBench, dedicated to helping schools build better education workforces. The article was recently picked up by The Courier Mail where I addressed our recent experiences on the matter and shared my thoughts on ways to address these workforce challenges. At Mt A we are extremely proud of the phenomenal work of our staff and thank them for their dedication to the education industry. 

I encourage you to read more on the matter here - 

Qld teaching jobs: Calls for retirees, grey nomads to rejoin workforce | The Courier Mail

Today marks the Feast Day of St Clare of Assisi, an exceptional woman of great courage and care. An exceptional role model to our girls and for all of us who live and work within our Franciscan community. 

Saint Clare,

With your strong faith and unwavering hope,

gather our wounded Church,

our suffering world, and all people

into your loving heart and lift us up to Jesus

with your absolute confidence in his merciful love.

Saint Clare, help us to be like you:

peaceful, kind, gentle,

strong, patient, and persevering 

in the face of all difficulties.

Trusting in your powerful intercession,

we confidently praise and thank God, 

our Father,for all of the blessings we have received.

Glory, praise, wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, power,

and might to our God forever and ever. 

Amen.

Peace and all good,

Samantha