Principal

Parent/Student Partnerships

One of our stated objectives in A Beacon for Boys’ Education is to “Continue to partner with parents in the education, development and formation of their sons”. As such, we have tried hard to renew our on-site opportunities. In the last few weeks, we have held our Parent/Teacher/Student interviews, held a Junior School Academic Award Assembly (with parents/carers) and last Friday, hosted a Junior School Grandparents' Day. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and I would love to share it with you.

Junior School Semester 1 - Academic Awards Assembly

Feedback from parents/carers: 

• Thank you for the invitation. (x26)
• I just wanted to thank you for making this change to allow parents to be there for the presentation of these awards. These are special moments for us where we can recognise and be proud of our sons’ achievements. It makes such a difference to be able to be present when they receive their awards.
• Thank you for extending this invitation to parents. We look forward to attending and having this opportunity to see our son receive an academic award.
• Thanks for the invitation, we are most excited and are looking forward to attending the assembly. 
• Thank you for the invitation. We are delighted to hear that our son will be receiving an award and would love to attend the academic awards assembly. 
• Thank you very much for the invitation. I’m looking forward to it. 
• Thank you for the invite to the awards assembly. It is a great opportunity indeed and we would love to attend. This is a great opportunity and we very much appreciate it. 
• Thank you for the invitation and for recognising our son. We very much look forward to attending. 
• Thank you very much for making it a possibility to see our son achieve this award. It is so nice to be able to share in this special occasion.
• We wanted to say thank you very much for inviting us to share in this academic assembly. To see our son receive an award is a very exciting opportunity and we are grateful for this chance.

Semester 1 Parent/Teacher Interviews

Here is some of the feedback:

• Teachers as always were awesome and understood my son.
• Very well run, teachers ran to time and it was nice to meet the teachers in person. It helps us to be more involved in our son's education. It is also good for the teachers to meet us.
• It was great to meet the teachers in person and come to the school.
• It ran incredible smoothly, and all of my son's teachers were very well prepared and provided valuable feedback.
• Teachers were all well prepared. Gave great feedback concerning my son and knew the exact areas in which he needed improvement. Very welcoming and made me feel at ease.
• Thanks to the Year 12 teachers for providing excellent feedback for my son.
• I think the process was smooth and easy. Can’t please everyone!
• Although meeting over Teams is much more convenient, the benefit of meeting face-to-face will always be worth the effort of coming back in after work. We were very happy with the feedback, about my son’s progress and ways to improve going forward. All of his teachers were well prepared, obviously knew him and their subject well, and were able to answer any questions we had.
• First of all, thank you for organising the interviews. In our experience of attending interviews in the past at SPC and other schools, this has been the best interview so far in terms of organisation, detail and content prepared and shared by the teachers. I would like to see a little bit more and specific to how the child can improve in short and long term based on the past performance and weakness. Rest all is excellent.
• I really appreciated the time every single teacher I met had spent preparing. Without exception they focussed on motivating each of my boys on how they could improve their approach to their study and their results.

Where do we need to improve?

• Timing
• Venues
• Follow-up
• Bell to keep meetings moving.

The issue of online vs face-to-face was determined with 75% of respondents preferring a face-to-face option. 

We will endeavour to incorporate as many suggestions as we can into our feedback events in Semester 2 and in 2023.

Junior School: Acting Religious Education Coordinator

I am delighted to announce that Mr Stephen Cooper will be the Acting REC in the Junior School while Ms Jacinta Young moves to a flexible work arrangement. We wish Stephen well in his tenure and know that he will make a valuable contribution to the Junior School Leadership Team and the College in general.

Community News

Please join me in congratulating Mr Simon Donohoe (English Faculty) and his wife on the arrival of their son, Luca Samson Donohoe born during the holidays. We thank the Lord for his safe arrival and know this child will bring his family many blessings. 

I am also pleased to inform our community that our Debating in 2022 has been a most successful season, ably led by our Debating Captain, Oliver Meleca. Last Friday night, we had three teams in the semi-finals that we hosted: Year 9 and both Year 10 teams. An amazing feat!

What is even more remarkable is that two of these teams have made it through to the grand final! They just happen to be the 10 A and 10 B team! The grand final will be held at OLMC Parramatta this Friday night from 7:00 PM. We wish these boys well and congratulate their coaches, Old Boys Joey Mannah and Chris Farag (’19). 

In Memoriam

We keep in our prayers the following students:

Matthew Ayoub (Year 12) on the loss of his beloved grandmother, Julia Ayoub last week. 

Zavier Bazouni (Year 7) on the loss of his beloved grandmother, Alia Nehme. 

We also pray for the family of Old Boy Christian Jackson (’91) who passed away last week. 

It is with sadness I share the news of the passing of former long-serving Junior School teacher, Mr George Chmielewski. George was an Old Boy (’63) who returned to the College as Junior School teacher in 1971 and left in 2013. He taught at the College for 42 years. 

We pray for the repose of their souls and all the souls of the faithfully departed.

Requiescat in Pace.

Dr Vittoria Lavorato

Principal

SPC boys can do anything! 

**except divide by zero