From the Executive

The 2022 school certainly began with drama. Our Maintenance and Gardening crews worked tirelessly throughout the school holidays conducting the usual routine maintenance to ensure that the school was a showpiece for the students at the commencement of the term. The overhaul of the Johnson oval was nearly complete, routine painting had been done and rooms had been set up in preparation for the student's first day.

We had received the appropriate COVID protocols through the Schools’ Operations Guide and had adjusted some calendar events accordingly. The College had received enough air purifiers for each homeroom and were awaiting the arrival of RATs.  As a community, we were confident that we had the start of 2022 sorted.

And then at 2.30pm, on the day before the Year 7s, 11s and 12s were to return, power was cut to Oblate Hall, the LOTE area and the temporary Canteen. This was done during demolition works which had been taking place in the Canteen and Cafeteria areas. The fault was no ones. A cable that was documented as being 600mm under a slab was, in reality, only 50mm. It was through the dedicated work of Andrew and the Lloyd group, and of our own Merry De La Zilwa that all food in the Canteen was preserved and power could be restored.

I think we were still patting ourselves on the back with how narrowly we had averted a disaster (no food for the students on the first day!), when, last Friday, the heavens opened and 40mms of rain hit Mulgrave in 30 minutes. Our gutters couldn’t cope with the deluge and six classrooms ended up with significant water damage. 

Our senior students were magnificent, and following the instructions of Mrs Bourne and Mr Mann, they moved furniture and placed rubbish bins underwater leaks. The maintenance crew, led by Marc Johnson were drenched, manning pumps, and directing cars from the underground car park (swimming pool!). Stuart Rhind in IT protected our servers with a tarp and moved over a quarter of a million dollars worth of laptops to high ground. 

Thanks to the work of Sue Matthews (Business Manager), Noel Jenkinson (Deputy Principal of Curriculum and Staffing), Merry De La Zilwa (Audio Visual), the IT crew lead by Ashley Voigt, Chris Windley (Daily Organiser) and of course Marc and the Maintenance Crew, all students had a room to go to on Monday and clean up was well underway.  It is amazing what has been achieved in such a short period of time and just days since the catastrophic weather event, Mazenod is up and running and hasn’t missed a beat. 

The beauty of Mazenod isn’t just the fantastic facilities and beautiful grounds, it is the sense of community and the ability of all to pull together when things don’t go to plan. Hopefully, from this point on, the school year will be uneventful, all students will get the opportunity to learn onsite and enjoy the camaraderie of their friends, and the unpredictable Melbourne weather is kinder to those residing in Mulgrave! 

Student Pick Up around Mazenod College

Could parents please not travel down Kernot Ave to pick up students.  We are extremely conscious of student safety and the less traffic that we have around the entrances of the school the easier it is to monitor student movement. Parents can pick up their sons on Monash Drive, in the car park of the Mulgrave Community Centre (entrance on Wellington Rd) or in Brandon Park Drive near the footbridge. Please remember that the safety of our students is the responsibility of all.

Mr Tony Rolfe

Deputy Principal - Operations & Compliance