Principal's Report

Staff and Board Dinner

On the evening of Thursday 29th August the Annual Board and Staff Dinner was held to recognise the contribution of our long-serving staff at the College and some significant farewells from our community.

After over 30 and 20 years respectively at the College, we farewelled Ms Heather Fennel and Ms Sheila Mallia. There is a sadness that we will no longer see these great teachers each day but our overwhelming feelings are those of joy and gratitude that they have been part of the story of  St John’s Dandenong and always will be.

I also congratulate the following staff members who will be presented with their  20 and 10-year service awards Ms Lisa Finamore (20 years)  , Mr Aaron Bailey(10 years), Ms Leana Bailey(10years), Ms Melissah Jeffree(10years), and Ms Sylvia Maira(10 years).  I thank them all for their generous service to this College.

Sr. Margaret Bellesini Award

At the Board and Staff Dinner the Sr. Margaret Bellesini Award was presented to long serving staff member Mr David Fong. This staff award was named after Presentation Nun, Sr Margaret Bellssini an early pioneer of the College who lead the middle school of St John’s for a number of years with great commitment to her faith and her students. The award recognises a staff member who exemplifies the Core Values of the De La Salle Brothers and Presentation Sisters and I congratulate Mr Fong on his witness to those values over many years.

The School Of Rock

The St John’s Regional College Musical for 2019

"The School  Of Rock” was an outstanding success

Over 600 people saw the musical over the three nights at  The Alexandra Theatre, Monash University. It is important to acknowledge excellence when it has been achieved and I congratulate all the cast and crew who have worked so hard over the last four months to present this brilliant production.  In particular our Director, Mr Graham; Producer, Mrs Robinson and Musical Director, Mr Perryman; for the high professional standards they have encouraged out of each one of our student performers. A show like this involves many people behind the scenes so I thank the following staff and students for their valued input:

Choreographers:  Ms Millership and Ms Bortolus               

Stage Manager: Zachary Zerna

Set Construction and Painters: Ms Ashby, Ms Miller, Ms Trusler, Ms Kapustka, Zeke Ashby, Ms Smith, Ms Delfos, Ohad Orr and the Year 11 VCAL students

Costumes Manager: Ms Aldis                                        

Costumes Assistant: Mr Joachim

Backstage Crew: Guy Agresta, Jylisa Balaba Cano, Aaron Boak, Keisha Chellapen, Megan Choppy, Jayme Gardener, Laura Gardener, Najah Kerbaj, Georgia Maxwell, Alek Mawith

Make-up: Dr Biggin, Ashlee Ettia, Neve Biggin               

Props: Ms Kintzel

Promotions and Marketing: Aaron Bailey, Sarah Ramantanis

Video/Photography: Mr Boswell, Samantha Mallari.

Presentation Ball

The St John’s Regional College Presentation Ball took place on August 16th at the Grand on Princess in Mulgrave.

22  young men and women were presented to Fr Martin Jeremias after completing their traditional set of Ballroom Dances. It was a wonderful community celebration and I thank Mr Greg Van Es, Mrs Julia Taylor, Mrs Susan Hannan, Mrs Nadine Lee, Mrs Anna Jorissen, Mrs Cleona De Kauwe, Mrs Fran Iape, Mrs Vlasta Boscolo,  Mrs Amanda Gear and Mrs Tatjana Krneta  for their hard work and support of this event for the benefit of our young people.

SIS Division B Athletics Carnival

On Monday our SIS Athletics Team competed in the Division B Athletics Carnival for the Southern Independent Schools Association. A team of close to 100 students travelled to the Lakeside Athletics Stadium in Albert Park to compete against six other secondary schools in this annual Athletics Carnival. Our students have been training for this carnival under the guidance of Ms Sonia McMahon, Ms Judy Bishop and Sports Co-ordinator, Mr Mark Alexander.  It was pleasing to see the hard work paying off with a Second Place overall after coming in third last year. Our senior students also took home the Senior Section Pennant with some excellent performances in the relays and sprints. I thank all of our students for the way they represented St John’s on the day and the following staff for their support and coaching of our team:  Mr Alexander, Ms Judy Bishop, Miss Grech, Ms Carolina Laing, Ms Sonia McNally, Ms Ashleigh Holly, Ms Catherine Bortolus, Ms Julie Miller, Mr Paul Wintle, Mr Paul Boswell and Ms Sandra Griffith.

The results were

1st        Balcombe     1056

2nd       St John's       1003.5

3rd        Casey             958

4th        St Peter's         945

5th        Nazareth        686.5

6th        Berwick          522

7th         St James'           455

Phoenix Lip-synch Competition

Congratulation to Phoenix Homeroom 7 for taking out the Phoenix lip-synch competition with a Mash-up of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. There were many eye-catching performances including the Phoenix learning mentors with their rendition of Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off" which came in as a close second. Creativity, teamwork, House Spirit and risk-taking were all on display in this fun activity central to our Term 3 Pastoral Program. I congratulate Phoenix House leader Ms Kintzel and her team for the way they are building student engagement and connection to their house and their school.

Staffing

We keep in our prayers staff members who are facing ongoing health challenges at present. Ms Natalie Bonnefin has resigned from our Contemporary Learning Centre due to ill health and we thank her for her service at the College over many years. Ms Lisa Jacob had a fall during the last school holidays that required surgery and an extended period of rehabilitation. Ms Jacob will return to the College for the start of the 2020 school year.

I congratulate Ms Leana Bailey and partner Amee on the arrival of baby Layla Jean a sister to Oliver. All are doing well.