Principal's Report 

COVID19 – Positive Test

AS advised last Thursday July 30 , the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has confirmed that a student who attends the onsite supervision program at St John’s Regional College has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). 

Following advice from the DHHS and Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM), St John’s Regional College will be physically closed from Friday 31 July for one week. Remote learning and teaching for Year 7-12 will commence on Monday August 3rd. 

This closure will allow time for the school and the DHHS to work through a contact and containment strategy. Contact tracing in schools can take a couple of days and we will give up an update when it has been completed. 

Stage 4 Restrictions 

As advised by the Premier Mr Daniel Andrews Stage 4 restrictions have been put in place until September 13. To assist teacher preparation for the next six weeks of remote learning and teaching, Tuesday August 4th has been declared a Student Free Day by the Victorian Government. Onsite supervision of students will be available at St John’s Regional College from the 10th of August for the following students.  Students whose parents are permitted workers and vulnerable children who cannot learn from home. A letter from the employer confirming status as a permitted worker will be required from students in this category before they can attend onsite supervision at St John’s. Students attending onsite will be accessing their normal learning program delivered remotely. St John’s charter buses will not be running during the duration of the Stage 4 restrictions.

Careers Expo & Subject Selection

Our Careers Expo took place last Wednesday Night, beginning our Subject Selection process for the 2021 school year.  I thank Careers Coordinator Ms Leana Bailey, our Learning leaders and expert Teachers who provided valuable resources and information for our students and their families. The Expo Portal will be accessible by students and parent over the next few weeks to assist students as they work through the important questions of what is my pathway and what subjects do I need to get there.  To assist this process, careers focused Virtual Assemblies will be held for each year level  and Learning Mentors will work with their students in each homeroom to ensure they are accessing the appropriate information.

College Awards Assembly 

Next week, we will be conducting a Virtual Assembly to celebrate the achievements of our students from Semester 1. It has been a difficult year as we all know so it becomes even more important to recognise the excellence that has been achieved by our students in these circumstances. Our assemblies are very much student-lead and give the opportunity for them to demonstrate their talents and be acknowledged for a whole range of achievements including academic, sport, leadership and cultural. Running the assembly remotely presents some challenges but I attach the following agenda for our assembly and thank all staff and students who are contributing to its production particularly Mr Swan and Mr Holewa. We will be providing a recording of the assembly on our Facebook page for any parents who wish to view the proceedings at a later stage.

Solar Energy Curriculum Project

In an exciting first for the College our Solar Panels are now producing electricity for consumption and our school is well on the way to becoming sustainable in terms of meeting our own energy needs. Producing solar energy at our school provides an exciting hands-on opportunity for our students to study the emerging alternative energy sources. Year 12 student Hriday Nayyar has a keen interest in this area of study and in this newsletter you will find an article on an energy project at St John’s Regional College that he is conducting with STEM Leader Mr Tim Lee and a small group of like-minded students.     

Hriday Nayyar - Year 12 AQ2    

Project Energy Save 2020 is a project initiated to help the school community understand how our new solar energy impacts the electricity we consume and also how we consume it. The key aim of this project is to research the trends in consumption for a 6 months period and to forecast the consumption trends for the rest of the year. It also will help the members of the school community understand the ways electricity can be preserved and about cost-savings analysis of our solar energy.

The project is divided into three stages: electricity consumption rate, where the electricity is highly consumed and what are the reasons behind it. 

The project consists of two teams for conducting interviews and making surveys for the students and staff asking their opinions about power consumption and also compiling everything together in form of a presentation which will be submitted and presented at a board meeting. Any student is welcome to join this team project.

We would like to reduce the energy we consume as fast as possible so that our community is efficient, cost effective and responsible to the environment.  

Parent & Student Surveys

As we move back into remote learning, we will continue to provide an opportunity for feedback through our weekly surveys to Parents and Students. We found during the last period of lockdown in term 2 we were able to make adjustments to our remote learning program based on the feedback provided by both parents and students.

New Charter Bus – Keysborough, Noble Park & Endeavour Hills: 2021 School Year

We are calling for expressions of interest from those families wishing to have their children transported to St John’s Regional College via private bus from the areas of Keysborough, Noble Park and Endeavour Hills in the 2021 school year. The direction of these new routes for 2021 will come from the submitted application of interest. If you are interested in applying for transport to St John’s Regional College from these areas please contact Ms Sally Siro via the following email:  ssiro@sjrc.vic.edu.au