Principal's Report 

COVID Update

Following advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, the Victorian Government has advised that the lockdown has been extended for a further 7 days.  The easing of COVID restrictions will be reviewed by the State Government on Thursday August 19th.  All Victorian Catholic schools and Government schools will continue with remote and flexible learning arrangements for students in Year 7 -12 until that date.  We are hopeful that with a favourable review, students will be able to return to school on Friday 20th of August.

Feast of the Assumption 

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of the Assumption, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church which commemorates the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken (assumed) into heaven, body and soul, following the end of her life on Earth. 

As we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, we pause to reflect on Mary’s life and her ability to say yes to God because of her great faith that through God all the challenges that she faced will pass and all will be well in her life.  It is great example for us when faced with anxiety and uncertainty in the events and times that surround us – to place our faith in God that all will be well.

Despite the limitations of our isolation, I thank Fr Brendan Lane for working with us to share his homily in our video presentation on the feast of the Assumption along with our Ministry Captain Kent Mijares and the performance of the beautiful hymn Gentle Woman by Chrishni Fernando.  I thank our Director of Faith and Mission Mr Tim Swan for creating this video resource which celebrates this important day of prayer and devotion within our community and will be shown to all students on Tuesday of next week.

GAT Rescheduled

The Year 12 students were due to sit the General Assessment Task on Thursday 12th of August but due to the continuation of lockdown will now be rescheduled to a later date yet to be confirmed by the Victorian Curriculum Authority.

Calendar Changes

As advised earlier this week the Premier's announcement of the extension of the lockdown has led to the earlier rescheduling of the students' free day from August 20 to August 13.  The rescheduling decision has been made for two important reasons.  Firstly, the extended lockdown is having an impact on the health and well-being of both staff and students as indicated by our school surveys administered last week and this has highlighted the need for a short break from remote learning.  Secondly, our calendared student free day of Friday 20 August is likely to be just after we return to face-to-face schooling.  Having just returned to school we do not wish to interrupt our learning program with a school closure day that we can control. 

Note: The rescheduling of our Professional Learning Day will see Friday 13 August as a School Closure Day and Friday 20 August as a normal school day.

Book in a Day 2021

Despite the lockdown restrictions, the SIS Book in a Day competition went ahead on Tuesday with students participating remotely in a writing challenge to complete a short story and illustrations by the end of the day.  The participating schools will share their completed short stories over the coming month with a second day planned for an author to critique their work and judge the winning school.  Many thanks to Mr Nathan Yap for guiding the students this year. I congratulate the following students on their creative short story and illustrations titled “The Rich Witches Revenge“:

Aliyah Cuevas CO4

Royce D'Mello DE3

Michaellah Ganiquem-Puspus MO1

Nathaniel Monforte AQ2

Tien Nguyen AQ7

Aliah Rigo LE5

Lynn Cho Man Yan CO1

Emma Jorissen LE2

Staffing

After 38 years staff member Ms Judy Bishop has announced her retirement from St John’s Regional College.  Ms Bishop has held several key leadership roles in Pastoral Care and will be remembered as a wonderful Leader of Delphinus House, an excellent teacher, a supportive colleague and mentor to many students and staff who have spent time at St John’s.  We wish her well in her retirement.

I also farewell Ms Sue Hastings our Learning Diversity Co - Leader who has accepted a position with Anglicare as an Educational Specialist in the TeachAR program, working with young people in Out of Home Care (residential care) to engage with learning.  I thank Sue for her contribution to St Johns and wish her well in her new role.

The Addams Family Rescheduled

As advised last week due to the current COVID restrictions announced by the Premier we are unable to stage this year’s school production of The Addams Family on the scheduled dates of August 12,13 and 14. 

Our Arts and Engagement Leader Mrs Tania Robinson has been looking at several options to reschedule the Production later this term and we will confirm as soon as we have the details of the theatre bookings and what the easing of Covid restrictions will mean for audience capacity.

We know how hard our cast and crew have worked including the actors from St Mary’s Primary School, St Kevin’s Primary School and St Paul Apostle North, and we are determined to give them an opportunity to perform in front of an audience which they thoroughly deserve.

Alumni

I congratulate ex-student Sam Mesiano who has been appointed to the Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics - School of Medicine - Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.  Sam has a PHD from Monash University and his field of research concentrates on reproductive medicine.  He attended St John’s in the 1970’s before embarking on his academic career.

The link to the presentation of his new role is contained below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcDDopctP2s