From the Principal

Dear Blackfriars Community

Catholic Education Week

This week we celebrated Catholic Education Week. The focus provided an opportunity to pause and reflect on Catholic Education and in particular, our individual and family connection with Blackfriars, a Catholic school founded on the Dominican tradition.

I believe that I am privileged to belong to a Catholic school community where all members of the community are welcomed and accepted as themselves, reflecting in each face, the unconditional love of God. Respect for the dignity of each person made in the “image and likeness of God” is a fundamental belief of our Catholic faith. Hence, the pastoral care of each person in our community is at the heart of all that we do at Blackfriars. Just last week, while interviewing a new family for enrolment I was reminded of our reputation for pastoral care and the quality of our education. The family were seeking enrolment at Blackfriars for their son because of the personal recommendation from people in their neighbourhood. In conversations, there was a thread of commonality in each neighbour’s own positive experience of their son(s) time at Blackfriars. In essence, each describing our school as a caring and supportive community that provided excellent academic and co-curricular programs that together helped to develop boys into young adults who were academically invested, socially aware and spiritually and emotionally enriched.

As a Catholic school it is our mandate and passion to nurture young people in the growth of their faith and place emphasis on the importance of prayer, reflection, service and participation in the sacramental life of the Church. On Wednesday, we celebrated the Eucharist as a whole school community in the Neill Gymnasium. I thank Fr Kevin Saunders OP, Prior of St Lawrence Dominican community for leading our service and Mr Matthew Crisanti for organising the liturgy and all logistics for this important school celebration. I also wish to commend our students, many who are from other faiths, for their outstanding behaviour, respect for important Catholic traditions and reverent participation in the Eucharist. It is on occasions such as this that the unique fabric of Blackfriars is most evident; you look out across a gymnasium of many faces, from differing backgrounds, and know that the voice and breath of God is present among each of us.

Ministerial Visitors

On Thursday 30 May, Blackfriars welcomed the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Peter Malinauskas MP and Opposition Education Spokesperson, Dr Susan Close MP. Mr Malinauskas and Dr Close were greeted by Mr David O’Loughlin (Chair of the Blackfriars Board), Mr Gerard Leahy (Business Manager), Declan Fitch-Woolford (Head Prefect), Christian Jones (Deputy Head Prefect) and myself.

We conducted a tour of our school facilities and observed several primary and secondary classes in action, providing an ideal opportunity for our visitors to speak with our students about their learning and general experience at Blackfriars. As always, I was impressed with the active engagement of our students in learning and their capacity to explain the purpose of the lesson focus to Mr Malinauskas and Dr Close. The class drop-ins were unannounced, but as always we were not disappointed with the enthusiasm and activity that we encountered; another testimony to the excellent work of our teachers who drive to inspire and teach our students.

After the tour the visitors enjoyed our hospitality and we engaged in conversation across many topics including:

the Mission and Vision of Blackfriars
the religious background of our students and the reasons for parental choice in education in general and for Blackfriars in particular
recurrent and capital funding arrangements at state and federal level
master plan and progress on plans for our STEM and senior centre.

The conversation was very worthwhile and provided us with an invaluable opportunity to develop a positive relationship with the State Opposition and will hopefully help to shape the education policy for the Labor Party for the next election. Mr Malinauskas also extended an invitation for our students to join him on his regular tours of Parliament House for school students. Our Year 8 students will take up this invaluable opportunity during their Civics and Citizenship curriculum unit in Term 3.

NAPLAN

Over the past three weeks our Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students have been completing the national benchmark tests in literacy and numeracy. The tests were undertaken on-line however, there were many students in Year 7 and 9 who experienced network interruptions during the writing tests conducted on 12 May. These network and internet problems were beyond our control and were experienced in many schools across South Australia and in other states.

As a consequence of the internet service disruption, many Blackfriars students in Year 7 and 9 accepted the challenge and opportunity to re-sit the writing component of NAPLAN test in paper format; this took place on Tuesday 28 May.

My thanks to all of our teachers for their diligence in supporting our students during the period of NAPLAN testing, especially Mr Frank Ali (Head of Primary), Mr Carl Todman (Middle Years Curriculum Co-ordinator), Mrs Johanna West (Assistant Head of Primary-Curriculum) and Mr Martin Torres (ICT Manager) who ensured the integrity of the technical, ICT and organisational elements of NAPLAN.

I also extend my appreciation to our parent community for their patience, understanding and support throughout the period of NAPLAN testing. Furthermore, and not least of all, our students also deserve great recognition for their patience and commitment in what was for many students, a frustrating experience during the on-line writing test.

Influenza-Important Health Notice. (Repeat Notice)

This year has seen an early start to the influenza season described by Health SA officials as “unprecedented” with over 10,000 confirmed cases of influenza (The Advertiser, 8 May 2019). Some families and students of Blackfriars have been seriously impacted by the early seasonal outbreak of influenza.

A question often asked by parents of the school is, “When should my son return to school after recovery from the notifiable diseases, Influenza A or B?” The most comprehensive response to this question and health advice for parents regarding influenza is found on the SA Health Website (https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au ).

People infected with influenza are considered infectious from one day before onset of symptoms up to seven days from onset of symptoms. Viral shedding is greatest in the first three to five days of illness. Young children may shed virus for longer, up to seven to ten days. Viral shedding may continue for longer in severely immune-compromised persons.

I request that parents ensure that boys who have Influenza A or B (not the common cold) remain home until all symptoms have fully cleared and the infectious period is complete. Keeping your son at home will protect him from the potential complications