Principal's Report

Dear families,

How about those Matildas? Even though they are no longer in contention for the World Cup Final on this weekend, what fine role models they have been to the whole of Australia. On Wednesday, we went full ‘green and gold’ to show our support for these brave young women. It is not completely coincidental that St Brigid’s College colours are also green and gold, and our school if named after another brave young woman who, as the myths and legends tell us, stood up to a more powerful tribal chief and various patriarchal forces in the Church. We challenge our students to speak up for what is right, even if your voice is shaking.

This courage to be heard is now enshrined in the new Child Safe Standards (CSS), in particular CSS3 – Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously. This calls for schools, staff and volunteers to become attune to signs of harm and facilitate child friendly ways for young people to express their views, participate in decision making and raise their concerns. Over the next week, we will gather some feedback from our students to ensure that they know who they can safely discuss their concerns with if they arise. It would be beneficial for you to ask your son or daughter now, do they know who they can approach at school to raise concerns and to be heard?

On Tuesday 15 August, the College celebrated a whole school liturgy led by Fr Matt Restall to recognize the Feast of the Assumption (a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). This was followed by the Commendation Awards where we recognized those students who received a badge for reaching a milestone.

We are currently well under way with the 2024 Subject Selection process and will shortly begin the second round of counselling students to fine tune their choices once we know which subjects can run. We continue to look to innovative opportunities to provide a breadth of choice for our students. It was great to see our VCE teachers once again join with the teachers on Holy Trinity Lutheran College on Thursday afternoon to share ideas, resources and to plan together. 

As a community we were thrilled to hear of the birth of Billie Jane Werner, daughter to Luke (teacher) and Cass Werner. All are doing well.

Keep safe

Gerard Raven