Junior School

Welcome back to all students and families for Term 3, and a special welcome to Johnathon and his family who have joined us as members of 6 Red and Crichton House. We all hope you will find the College a welcoming place and a life-giving community. We also welcome Mrs Angelis who joins us as a Teacher Aide in the Junior School for the first part of Term 3.

Staffing Changes

Hopefully, you will all recall that Mr van der Meer, 6 Red teacher, was awarded the College’s inaugural research fellowship. Despite setbacks and delays courtesy of COVID-19, Mr van der Meer has been able to follow through with his planned leave and has now departed the College to pursue his research. For the remainder of the year, 6 Red will be taught by Mr Flannery and Mr  Locke. Most of you will know Mr Flannery was a Junior School teacher at the College for over twenty years and Mr Locke is the Junior School Coordinator of Co-curricular and has been teaching 5 Green for several years. They have worked together as job share partners previously and I have every confidence that the boys of 6 Red will be well-served by this team of excellent teachers. For the remainder of 2020, 5 Green will be taught full-time by Mr McCarthy, who joined the Junior School teaching team this year and has been with 5 Green three days per week throughout Semester 1. Likewise, I am sure the boys of 5 Green will be well-served by Mr McCarthy taking the reins full-time.

Athletics Carnival

This Thursday we will (God willing) hold the Junior School athletics carnival on Breen Oval. It will surely be a strange occasion with no parents there to cheer us on, and the boys spread out through the stands, but we are sure that the chance to participate and support their House will kindle the fire of competition and College spirit in the boys. We love to celebrate excellence in achievement as well as the virtues of participation and striving for one’s personal best. We know this looks different for every boy and hope you will reinforce this with your sons. 

Grandparents’ Day

As we have previously notified you all, we are sad that this Friday we are not able to welcome Grandparents for the planned Mass, morning tea and class visits as is our custom. Since notifying you of this last term I have heard from senior boys how much this occasion meant to them as Year 5 boys, and I am regretful that this year’s group of Year 5 boys will not have those memories. Nevertheless, we live in strange times, and must care for our elders as best we can even if that means not seeing them face-to-face for now. In lieu of our regular celebrations, we will be sharing a Grandparents’ Day video for your sons to share with their venerable elders – hopefully with some home-made treats and lots of hugs and stories – with lots of love for all grandparents, but ESPECIALLY for the Old Boys.

Let us ask Sts Anne and Joachim, grandparents of Jesus, to pray for us now and always.

God bless,

Ben Munday

Director of Junior School