From the Principal
Benvenuto - Welcome
Another week in distance learning mode, brings another week of challenges, but also opportunities to find joy in our day. The children continue to amaze us with their resilience and positivity. I have just been watching some great videos from the Year 8 fun day where students demonstrated their incredible talents. I then viewed the Facebook tribute to the incredible Learning Support staff in recognition of Teacher Assistant Appreciation Week – such a beautiful collection of student reflections on their appreciation.
Shepparton has experienced a tumultuous couple of weeks, but how it has brought out the best in this regional community. The response to the calls for support was incredible as people found themselves in isolation with no way of accessing what they needed in the immediate time they needed it. From a St Anne’s College perspective, we have been lucky in that we have had no COVID positive cases in our school community. For the Catholic schools in Shepparton who have had positive cases, we continue to offer support wherever we can. Our staff have shared learning tasks to assist the teachers in moving to remote learning and many of our staff have delivered goods and ‘checked in’ on these colleagues and their families. We were fortunate and very grateful to be able to share a message of support from internationally renowned singing and songwriting priest, Fr Rob Galea, with our families, staff and other Catholic schools in our local area. Fr Rob spent his early days as a priest in Shepparton and still holds the community close to his heart. Here is the link to his video message:
Again, our staff jumped to action when we went into this episode of distance learning; we had staff delivering books and devices to families who had been forced into isolation. At one stage we had almost 40% of our staff in isolation or under stop and stay orders. As the remote learning period and restrictions have been extended at least until the end of Term 3, we will continue to do our best to support our families and continue to provide quality learning for our children.
Amongst all of this we have found time to celebrate as a community with the traditional Book Week parade moved to an online format where our ICT Administrator Jamie Hatch and Library Technician Julie Villani created some amazing images of staff and students in their costumes with matching backgrounds to their characters. Please head to the Book Week page of this edition of il giornale for more fabulous photos. We were inundated! We will be celebrating Father’s Day in a different way too – stay tuned for that one!
Our Stage 2B build has begun! On Thursday, Moretto Builders were on site installing the temporary fencing and beginning the preparation for the groundworks to start next week. The build will be happening at the west and east sides of the existing building. This building is scheduled for a 14-month program and will be completed for the 2023 school year. To watch the video about what Stage 2B will comprise, please follow this link:
We have put a number of communications out in regards to looking after the wellbeing of your family. Sometimes learning at home gets hard, it gets stressful and we can’t always find a way to engage in the learning. It is in these moments when we ask our parents and care givers to stop and take a break. Go outside for fresh air, spend some time doing something you enjoy together – the learning will still be there when you get back.
It is so important that families are communicating with the college about how they are coping, and if things are getting too difficult, there needs to be a plan to focus on some other things that will bring energy and joy. You may hear in the news a lot about the mental health decline of our young people. We are definitely dealing with some young people who are struggling in this space and indeed some parents too. We continue to share contacts for services so please connect if you need to. A wise woman recently shared some very important thoughts on this. She said it is so important in these times that we do not lose sight of our giftedness as parents. As parents we know our children, we have lived a life of our own and have many experiences to draw on, so talking to our children and sharing our own experiences of hardship or difficulty and how we dealt with that allows our children to see you can get through difficult times.
Please continue to connect with friends and family and with the better weather arriving, find joy in the simple things like going for a walk in the park; something I am sure that the families coming out of isolation will certainly do.
- Susan Carroll, Principal
Happy birthday ...
AUGUST
Jaxan McDonald; Fateh Pannu; Matilda Jolly; Jai Smith; Jazz Mackin; Christine Smith; Seamus Burke; Payton Rowland; Hussain Al Mosawy; Ashton McInnes; Amber McNally; Sarah Maloney; Paul Howard
SEPTEMBER
Emily Francis; Alexandra Phillips; Heli Chauhan
We hope you enjoyed the celebrations!
Shoutouts
Thanks to the following businesses for supporting St Anne's College:
Adornato's for landscaping supplies and Intercontinental Spares for the 40ft shipping container.
