WELCOME

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Dear Alumni,

We find ourselves in very different circumstances to what we might have envisioned at the beginning of the year!

From a school perspective, we have had to completely rethink how we do school in light of the current pandemic. Staff and students have primarily been working and learning from home, with a small number of students still attending onsite.

Our move to a one to one device program for all students from Years 2 to 12 a number of years ago saw us well placed to move to a remote learning environment. It has been amazing to see how quickly staff and students have adapted to this new mode of learning, although it has not been without its challenges! Everything apart from ‘classroom instruction’ has had to be either cancelled or postponed. However, online Chapel services are being conducted.

Whilst the online environment has enabled students to continue to experience positive learning outcomes, it falls short of what is able to be achieved with face to face teaching. Schools in Victoria are now beginning to reopen, with staff ad students genuinely delighted to be reconnecting with each other.

Each year, we focus on one of our seven College values. Our theme for 2020 is ‘Community'. This was chosen well before there was any knowledge of COVID-19 but, in a way, the enforced social isolation of our present circumstances has served to reinforce the importance of ‘Community’.

‘Community’ encompasses what it means to do life together. It gives understanding to our relationships with God and His Creation, one another, our neighbourhood, and our society. We were created to interact with others, to connect with others, and to be in relationship with one another. ‘Community’ was God’s idea from the beginning. People are created to live in ‘community’. Isolation leaves one vulnerable. A very clear example of the importance of ‘community’ was seen in the response to the recent bushfire crisis. ‘Community’ is paramount to individual well-being and safety, especially in times of adversity. During the bushfires, we saw communities rally together to protect each other from harm.

To assist us in building the Alumni community of WCC, we are in the process of developing an Alumni engagement platform with Graduway called ‘Waverley Connect’. This platform provides Alumni with the ability  to connect with each other and the School in a variety of ways. There will be various groups and search mechanisms set up to connect Alumni, based on different categories including location, graduation year, career field, university, church, etc. There is also a Mentor/Mentee function in which people who are willing to help each other out in particular areas are able to connect, usually based on one of the aforementioned categories. There is also a newsfeed where you can receive regular updates about what is going on in the College, as well as groups where you can post about different events and updates going on within your graduation year. There are a number of other functions within the platform that we believe will be of benefit to our Alumni. It is free to sign up to and you can do so via single sign on, Facebook, Google or LinkedIn. We are hoping to launch Waverley Connect in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to connecting with you at some point in the future.

Every blessing,

Mr Peter Sheahan (Principal)

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FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (WANTIRNA SOUTH)

I am pretty excited to add my little bit to this Alumni Newsletter, the first for 2020. As you may know, it is 20 years since our first VCE students graduated and we look forward to sharing this significant milestone with them later in the year.

2020 has most certainly begun with its fair share of interruptions, none more so than the coronavirus, Covid-19. As with all schools, this has forced us into off-site Remote Learning and whilst this is certainly a completely different experience compared to any of your education at WCC, it has brought some creativity, innovation and pockets of joy, along with the obvious hardships and difficulties. Whilst most things have been off-site, we have also been busy undertaking some renovations and changes to our WS campus at the same time.

Most recently, we have completed a full lining and re-paint of the inside of the gymnasium, upgraded the seating in the Courtyard and re-purposed one of our classrooms as a dedicated VCAL space, complete with mini-kitchenette and barista facilities. If you haven’t been to the College in a while, it is definitely worth a look!

When the dust settles on Covid, why not pop in and have a look, or if it is your year to reminisce (1, 5, 10 and 20 years), then make sure you sign up for the reunions that are planned. Importantly, share the news that WCC Alumni is alive and growing. We are eager to support you in your post-school days and would love for you to connect with us and explore the opportunities for how you may also share your experience, wisdom and gifts with the College and its current students. God bless you all, whenever you graduated, and trust that you remain in Him, the author and finisher of our Faith.

Mr Rod Ramsay (Head of Campus, WS)

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FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (NARRE WARREN SOUTH)

The first half of 2020 has been a somewhat unusual year for us in the College so far, mainly, of course, because of the coronavirus. As I write this article, we are approaching the end of our 4th week of providing education to all students via a combination of onsite/offsite learning.

This has created significant challenges for both teachers in the way that they are delivering their lessons, and for students in the way they are learning new things online from home.

Despite the challenges of our new routines, we have had positive feedback from parents and students regarding the delivery of our program and I have been greatly encouraged by the incredible work that has been done across the College, not just by the teachers, but all support and administration staff at our NWS Campus.

It's unfortunate that we are currently unable to run many of the regular events at the College such as Parent Teacher Interviews, Information Evenings and most sporting events. Even the Mother’s Day stall did not go ahead this year. For the first time in the history of the College, we were forced to cancel our Annual April Open Day. We are hoping that we can still run our Saturday School Tours later in September.

There have been some building projects this year that may be of interest to past students.

Construction of our new Maintenance Shed has commenced at the front of the College, near the embankment close to the College Drive car park entry. This will be no ordinary ‘tin shed’ and is an architecturally master-planned building designed to meet all building regulations and Council requirements, and to keep in sync with the look of all other current buildings on the site. We anticipate completion late in Term 3.

Another area of interest for past students would be the outside multi purpose sports courts. Over the Term 1 holidays, the courts were resurfaced with a beautiful blue synthetic polymer surface and can now be used for basketball, netball and tennis. There will be a photo in the recent development section of this newsletter so our past students can see the transformation that has occurred.

I trust that our past students are all well and experiencing success in their studies or whatever other avenues life has taken them.  We will continue to uphold our past students in prayer, and appreciate if you remember to keep us in your prayers also.

May God bless you all as you continue on life’s journey.

Mr Mark Crnkovic (Head of Campus, NWS)

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