From the Principal

Happy New Year and a very warm welcome to the 2024 school year and extend a particularly warm welcome to our new families joining our College. I hope everyone has enjoyed some well-deserved rest and relaxation, returning to the College feeling refreshed and looking forward to what will no doubt be a very exciting year ahead.

Lord God, we ask for your guidance as we start our new year.

We pray that you will strengthen us so that we will be able to embrace the opportunities of College life.

We pray for patience as we relate to people different to us.

We pray for humility as we laugh at ourselves and with others.

We pray for perseverance as we strive to see goals fulfilled.

We pray for hearts warm with encouragement and empathy.

May our community continue to be one where the hand of love is always reaching out to those in need.

And may your Spirit guide us to that better place.

We ask this in your name.

With the intercession of our founders:

Mary Ward – Pray for Us

St Ignatius of Loyola – Pray for Us

John XXIII – Pray for Us

A warm welcome back to the following returning staff

• Primary: Genna Haines and Amanda Kounis. 
• Secondary: Jo Daniele, Ciaran Gallagher, Clare Galati, Tom Hooker, Stuart Massey, Alison O’Connor, Adrian Sims and Danny Platts.

We also warmly welcome the following new staff, some of whom are permanent members of staff, others are temporary replacing staff on leave.

Congratulations and best wishes to staff who have commenced or recommenced in leadership roles from Term 1 2024

• Morgan Ball (Assistant Deputy Principal - Year 7)
• Greg Moran (Head of Science)
• Simon Carrello (House Coordinator - Koolyangarra)
• Tom Hooker (House Coordinator - Campion)
• Jessica Pillera (Head of Sport)
• Darren Kowal (Assistant Head of Sport) 
• Ylenia Casadio (House Coordinator – Ward)

Tours

I extend my thanks and congratulations to all staff and students involved in our successful tours during the holidays.  Specifically, thanks are extended to Sara Kononen, Jess Pillera, Campbell Tirant and Conor O’Hara for their involvement in the Gold Coast Volleyball Tour; to Andrew Osnain and Simon Carrello for the USA Basketball Tour; to Helen Aghdasi, Janine O’Grady and Eri Kozukue for the Japanese Tour; and to Melissa Polizzi, Shane Glass and Greg Moran for the Italian Tour. 

The generosity of our staff involvement in these programs cannot be underestimated and for this generosity our community is particularly grateful.

I also express my deep appreciation to the College staff for our smooth transition into the new school year. As always, our school year commenced with days of important information, spiritual enrichment and professional learning. All staff commenced the year with Mass in the Chapel on 29 January, followed by an update and presentations including WACE analysis, strategic planning, and a variety of staff meetings and collaborative planning sessions. 

Our students were expertly transitioned into the new school year throughout the week, and I extend my thanks to all who contributed.

Highlights of 2023 Year 12 Results

Congratulations to the Class of 2023 for their outstanding WACE results, supported by their expert teachers and families.

As a College, we recognise that each student’s individual story of triumph, challenge and determination cannot be merely defined by a set of Year 12 marks or a single ATAR. Purely focusing on achievement in this way is limiting. The students in the Class of 2023 are to be commended for their support of each other, their commitment, warmth, strength, flexibility, and for fully embracing the opportunities that Year 12 presented.

We look forward to celebrating the achievements of our Class of 2023 during our upcoming High Achievers’ Assembly on 8 February. For your interest, please find the following overview.

Our Dux of the Class of 2023, Murali Nguyen, achieved an ATAR of 99.95.

99+ ATAR

An outstanding result!

The following is a summary of some additional information:

General Exhibition (Top 50 highest WACE results)

Subject Exhibition (Highest examination mark)

• Murali Nguyen in Religion and Life

5 students were awarded Subject Certificates of Excellence (Top 0.5% of candidates in each ATAR course examination)

• Saskia Thomas in Accounting and Finance 
• Murali Nguyen in Chemistry
• Nathan Flack in Modern History
• Ava Bostelman in Religion and Life
• Murali Nguyen in Religion and Life

35 students were awarded Certificates of Distinction

44 students were awarded Certificates of Merit

Based on the percentage of students at each school who had Year 12 ATAR course combined scores in the top 15% of all students in that course, the following courses were recognised:

Number of VET Certificates: 38 

The Arts

Two students have been selected to have artwork displayed in the prestigious West Australian Pulse 2024 Art Exhibition:  Coco Boshard and Ruth Mengler.

Julian Hawson received an offer from The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

Julian Hawson, Caelan Morris, Conor McCormick, Summer Rule and Mia Serra received offers from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). 

Where to from here?

We will continue to undertake more careful analysis in the next couple of months of all the data we can acquire.  We will compare how different subjects performed; which subjects counted towards each individual ATAR and which did not; which options and electives students chose within courses, and how our students performed in each of these.  We will use all this information to identify areas for ongoing improvement.

Our ideal is always for each student to be engaged, supported and suitably challenged, promoting their love of learning and intellectual, personal and spiritual growth.  The outcome of this exceptional education is to form leaders who will engage critically and passionately with the challenges and opportunities of contemporary society.

Finally, I recognise 30 January is the Feast Day of one of our founders, Mary Ward, and will have more to say about Mary Ward next week.

Daniel Mahon

Principal