Prayer for the children of Afghanistan

I express my thanks to our Faith & Mission Captain Kent Mijares and Director of Faith & Mission Mr Tim Swan for leading us through a remotely conducted prayer service last Friday for those impacted by the recent events in Afghanistan. The chaotic scenes from Kabul airport as the Taliban takeover gathered momentum last week left many in our community fearful for the lives of women, children and the persecution of the minority Christian and Hazara communities. I join with the many Christian Leaders in Australia who have called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to accept more refugees from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and offer permanent protection to the Afghan asylum seekers already in Australia.

Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Heavenly Father, extend your loving care to the children of Afghanistan. May they, like all children around the world, and especially all girls around the world, flourish in a society that gives them love and support. Allow them to seek an Afghanistan of peace and respectful harmony and not of violence, repression and fear.

Venerable Nano Nagle: Pray for us.

St John Baptist de La Salle: Pray for us.

Live Jesus in our hearts: Forever!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

COVID Update

Vaccination Rollout

As we advised by letter earlier this week, St John’s Regional College under the umbrella of the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) is committed to supporting the Victorian Government to meet its aim for all final-year students to be vaccinated by the time they sit their end-of-year exams.

We also support the Victorian Government’s goal to provide at least one dose for children aged 12 and older by the end of the school year, subject to the available supply of vaccines and advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).

As we navigate the return of some Year 12 students onsite next week and then all Year 12 students for the GAT on September 9th, we strongly encourage our senior students to make an appointment to receive a vaccine, either with their general practitioner (GP) or in one of the state vaccination hubs. With the aim to have as many people vaccinated as soon as possible, this strategy will allow us to return to face-to-face teaching as soon as possible and to keep the members of our community safe.

Other announcements from the Victoria Government and VTAC include:

The General Achievement Test (GAT) has been set for Thursday September 9th from 10am to 1.15pm.
School- based essential assessments and examination preparation, where they cannot be conducted remotely, can be conducted onsite from Monday 30th of August.
VCE performance and oral examinations are to begin on Monday October 4 and written examinations are to run until Wednesday 17 November 2021
Consideration of Educational Disadvantage (CED) - Every student will be considered through the CED. Teachers will make a professional judgement based on all available information about their students' performance during the year and the degree to which performance has been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The VCE and VCAL results release date is 16 December 2021.

Science Week

Over the last week our Science Team lead by STEM Leader Tim Lee conducted several remote challenges as part of the promotion of Science Week. These interesting activities have provided some entertainment for our students over the past week, and I thank Mr Lee for his work in this area. The 2021 theme: Food Different by Design included some unusual challenges outlined below:

Challenge 1 : Cut open hard-boiled egg that has been beaten/scrambled inside of its shell.
Challenge 2 : Show how you have created our SCHOOL’S NAME SJRC or ST JOHN’S through a RICE WORD FLIP
Challenge 3 : Show how a standard soft drink 375mL Aluminium can balance on its edge with the right amount of liquid in it.

Our Tutoring Program is moving online

As advised during the week, our tutoring program will be moving online to provide extra support to all students during remote learning.

The tutoring program will run each Monday and Tuesday from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Students requiring some extra assistance in preparation for their exams or completing homework tasks are encouraged to book assistance via the school website. All tutors have a current working with children check and have completed our volunteer’s induction on child safety.

Now at University, our former students Jennifer Yang (English, Literature, Legal Studies) , Harold Johnson (Maths and Science) and Harshitha Mohan Kumar (Maths & Science) are available to work with students from all year levels from 4:00pm to 5:30 pm.

There is no cost for the online tutoring program which will be conducted via Microsoft teams, and we ask that students book no more than two session per week.

Masterplan Update

After a delay in Term 2, construction has recommenced on the Junior STEM project with the foundations due to be poured early next week. We anticipate that construction will be completed by March of 2022.

Staffing

Mr David Graham has advised that after eight years he is resigning from St John's at the end of the 2021 school year after accepting a position at McKinnon Secondary College. Mr Graham has been a highly effective Learning Coach over the last four years and been a wonderful teacher of Economics and Business Management. He has also contributed to many facets of school life through his regular involvement as Director of School Productions and his participation in the Cambodia Immersion program. We wish him well in his new role.

Family Well-being During Isolation

I promote the following links that families may find informative from a well-being perspective. The first webinar will run next week and will provide a panel discussion from health and well-being experts along with community members. It will provide insights and tips on how families can work together to manage through lockdowns, including the role that parents can play, maintaining hope, tips to improve motivation for young people and more.

Click on the following link to register for this event: https://unimelb.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_--RMj7IMTvyhZYIFCk0UiQ

The second link is a YouTube presentation that was held recently on: 'Pre-teens and screens-encouraging healthy relationships with technology'.

https://comms.alumni.unimelb.edu.au/link/id/zzzz6122cff182686828Pzzzz576b853115a6d981/page.html

Student Leadership

I congratulate Adhieu Malwal who demonstrated great leadership by bringing a little bit of humour into the lives of Phoenix students each day over the last week in remote learning. She wrote the following extract as she introduced her initiative to the members of her House. “In hard times like this it’s great we stay connected and keep in contact with our neighbours. In my experience laughter has always been the best medicine so a way I could help Phoenix house during this difficult time is through funny videos - every night a video or meme will be sent here for you to present to your home room the following morning, the goal is to not only put a smile on someone’s face but hopefully even make their whole day. “ Her first video on the funny things cats do certainly put a smile on my face. Well done Adhieu.

Congratulations

I congratulate ex-student of St John’s Danni Di Toro , who along with Ryley Batt carried the Australian Flag at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics. Danni is a six-time Paralympian having competed at the Paralympic games since 1996 as a wheelchair tennis player where she won a silver and bronze medal before changing to the sport of para-table tennis.

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