Principal's Report

Dear families,

The short first term is now well underway and with the return of the Year 7s this afternoon from their camp, we should be able to begin to develop good routines to maximise learning. I was fortunate enough to spend quality time with our amazing Year 12 students last week in Halls Gap at their retreat. We spent some reflection time in considering “Who am I really?” and ‘What are my hopes and fears?”. These are two challenging questions even for us with extra years accumulated. If you can be true to yourself and live your values, your fears can be met head on. In today’s Lenten reflection we are encouraged to ‘take risks and reach beyond our comfort zone’.  As educators, and I referring to parents and teachers here, our responsibility is to encourage our students to live in the mess for a while and don’t seek the easy path.

In the first newsletter I was proud to report that our school has a full complement of teaching staff to cover all subjects. What I missed saying was that this pleasing situation is only due to the generous nature of some of our staff who have stepped up and taken on additional responsibilities for the time being, with particular mention to Mrs Lorraine Leonforte, Ms. Victoria McCann and Mr Adam Clusker who have filled a gap that occurred until we can readvertise for a Maths / Science and Music teacher. You may see this ad in the coming weeks. 

Next week we have our combined swimming sports with Grade 4-6 from SMJ on Tuesday and then our Opening School Mass at midday on Wednesday. All members of our community are warmly welcome to attend one or both events. Along the same lines, it was great to see many VCE parents engaged in the Elevate evening this week where a guest speaker provided insights into how parents can support their child’s learning. 

The two vending machines have been delivered to provide snacks for the students and while there were some initial teething problems, I am assured both machines will be fully operational and stocked from the start of next week. I continue to explore other ways we can assist students with special occasion food events, such as our successful Pancake Tuesday this week.

Stay safe,

Gerard Raven