Principal's Post
National Child Protection Week
The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Ltd (CECV) is committed to ensuring the ongoing safety of children and young people and to supporting Catholic school principals, staff and parents in providing a safe and nurturing school environment. This year’s National Child Protection Week will take place from Sunday 4 September to Saturday 10 September 2022. National Child Protection Week raises awareness about the community’s collective responsibility for the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people. This year, the focus is ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’. For Catholic schools, this provides an opportunity to emphasise their strong commitment to the safety and wellbeing of young people in their care, and the important role they play in creating safe and nurturing environments at school, online, at home, and in the community.
Father's Day Mass & Breakfast
Our traditional Father’s Day Mass and Breakfast was held on Friday 2 September. The tradition of inviting dads, grandfathers, uncles, or special persons in the student's lives, to the Father’s Day Mass and Breakfast provides an annual opportunity to acknowledge and thank them and pray for those who are no longer with us. Young men learn so much from what their fathers tell them, but so much more from what their fathers do and what they stand for. Attitudes to one’s faith, respect for women, loyalty to family, dedication to a career, and responsible behaviours associated with a healthy lifestyle are all being constantly monitored by our sons and daughters. Fathers’ Day is an opportunity to reflect and be grateful to the men in our lives who generously teach us so much.
Music Gala Evening
On Monday 5 September the Music Gala will be held in the Provence Centre. The talents and hard work of our musicians will be on display and include contemporary and traditional items. It will be an opportunity to acknowledge the award winners in Music and the Year 12s who have dedicated six years of service to the College’s Music Program which has included, for many, the Performing Arts Festivals, Music Curriculum, AMEB Exams, tours to Mt Gambier for the Jazz Festival, The Victorian Music Festival competitions, the College Musical, School Fetes and various performances in and beyond the College. The evening helps us to appreciate the enormity of the program and the extensive number of talented students and teachers at the College.
R U OK Day?
Thursday 8 September is the national day of action when we remind Australians that every day is the day to ask, ‘are you OK?’ and start a meaningful conversation whenever they spot the signs that someone they care about might be struggling with life. R U OK? has released resources, tips and ideas to help you drive genuine change in your workplace, school and community. A number of activities are planned at Mazenod, including an evening with David Schwartz on Thursday 8 September and Change for Change Day activities on Friday 9 September.
De Mazenod Family Education Network hosts GoGreen Student Voice Sustainability Summit
On Tuesday 30 August, students from our four Colleges’ Sustainability Teams gathered to host our inaugural GoGreen Student Voice Sustainability Summit. Several associated primary and secondary colleges also joined the event to hear Kirsty Bishop-Fox from Sustainability Pathways, Gwen Michener from Catholic Earthcare and Bill Verhagen from Precious Plastic, encourage our students to learn from each other, share information about their projects, and inspire each other as leaders, that they can make a difference to their communities locally and globally. It was an introduction to a platform designed for students to be self-directed and navigate through galleries and showcase halls; listen to each other present on panels and debates and have some fun collecting points and answering questions as they observed presentations from Not-for-Profit Organizations and Corporates, who are addressing the need for us to be more sustainable.
The Sustainability Summit was another opportunity for our Colleges to reflect on our common purpose and understand the Charism that is De Mazenod. Thank you to the staff and students who participated in our first Sustainability Summit and provided materials that could be showcased and presented.
All the best,
Dr Paul Shannon
Principal