Principal

Welcome Back!

Welcome to the start of the 2022 school year at St Patrick’s College Strathfield. I hope you enjoyed a wonderful summer break and you have returned re-energised and ready to start the new academic year. A very warm welcome to all members of our school community, particularly to our Year 5 students and their families and to a number of new students who have commenced in Years 6 to 11. The new school year promises to be successful and positive. It was a joy for me to see so many happy and smiling faces as I addressed the first day back assembly (online) on Monday.

Our academic theme for the year is to Make Every Lesson/Day Count! Our disrupted year in 2021 has taught us that we should not take our time together at the College in class, in sport or any other activity for that matter for granted. Our staff have embarked on the first year of a three-year Professional Learning Plan and ‘Making every lesson count’ will be at the heart of our plans. Teachers will be purposeful in implementing six principles that guarantee great teaching and learning.

Robert Plant once attributed the success of Led Zeppelin to their ‘tight but loose’ approach.  Tight, because they were all fantastic musicians, with a shared idea about the sound they wanted to create. Loose, because they were allowed to express themselves creatively as individuals.

We take the same approach with our teachers – the message is clear.  Embed the six principles into your teaching but do it in a way that suits your teaching style.  Giving teachers this creativity and freedom will assist to improve student outcomes in 2022.

New Staff

I warmly welcome the new members of our Leadership Team: Mr Adrian Byrne (Deputy Principal), Mrs Janine Timillero (Acting Director of Learning and Innovation), Mr Anthony Calavassy (Acting Director of Co-curricular), Mr Glenn Stephenson (Director of Junior School) and Mrs Karyn Corcoran (Director of HR, Risk and Governance).  

It is also with much pleasure that we welcome the following new staff who join us this year in various capacities, either in parental leave and temporary roles or as permanent staff. Regardless, I know that you will make them all warmly welcome:

 We welcome Mr Alex Fox into the Wellbeing Team as the Year 11 Coordinator. Mr Fox is an experienced member of our staff who is shifting his leadership focus this year and we wish him well. Mr Bruno Milheiro (Year 9) and Mr James Biviano (Year 7) will continue in the Wellbeing Team in an acting capacity. We also welcome back Mr van der Meer, Mrs Perri, Mrs El-Edelbi, Ms Mansour, Ms Dib, Ms Young, Ms Grant, Ms D’Onofrio, and Mrs Azar who return to teaching at the College after a period of leave.

HSC Results 2021

As you would by now be aware, our HSC results for 2021 were solid and reflected the hard work of teachers and students. In a cohort of 172 students, there were 53 Distinguished Achievers who recorded 132 Distinguished Achievements (B6 or E4), four All-Rounders (Jordan Foti, Christopher Gatto, Dion Michalopoulos and Patrick Tandiono) and one Top Achiever (17th in the State) in Mathematics Advanced (Steven Dann - Year 11). 

As far as we know, there are 29 boys who have received an ATAR above 90. The Dux of the College is Patrick Tandiono (99.15) and Proxime Accessit is Lawrence Young (99.10). These results are something to really celebrate. Congratulations to our students and to all staff for the excellence in learning and teaching. After a COVID-19 impacted year, our Year 12 students have done us proud, so I look forward to acknowledging their efforts at the upcoming High Achievers' Ceremony at the Quaycentre. We should not lose sight of the fact that we are an inclusive, comprehensive school with very moderately priced fees in comparison to other boys’ schools that we are inevitably compared to. Schools’ rankings vary from year to year to reflect the different cohorts in each school. At St Patrick’s, we have been in the Top 150 schools each year for over 20 years, which is not a claim many schools can boast. We look forward to celebrating our High Achievers following our Opening College Mass on Friday 4 February at the Quaycentre at Homebush. Parents/carers will be invited to the event and information will be provided on the venue’s COVID-19 Safety Plan and entry requirements for visitors. 

TASS: Parent Lounge and Student Café 

The Parent Lounge will allow parents/carers to access most aspects of the student’s life at the College including, but not limited to, Academic Reporting, Absences, School Calendar events, daily notices, Parent Teacher Interviews, and personal details such as contact numbers and email addresses.   

The Student Café will allow Students to stay informed and organised on a day-to-day basis with access to daily notices, eDiary, School Calendar, Attendance records and academic reports. 

As the College develops the Lounge and Café there will be additional content and additional areas and functionality that will be added over time. 

The Parent Lounge can be accessed from this link:  https://spc.nsw.tass.cloud/parentlounge/login.cfm  

and the Student Café from this link: 

https://spc.nsw.tass.cloud/studentcafe/login.cfm 

The Parent Lounge and Student Café can also be accessed from the College website via Quick Links on the home page. 

Parent’s and carer’s Usernames and Passwords will be emailed out shortly. The Parent Lounge login page will look like this:

Your Username will be a numeric code generated by the TASS system and your password should be changed on first login. This information was sent to you earlier this week.

It is recommended that a password of at least eight characters be used and should include capital letters and numbers, as well as something you can remember but is not easily guessed.

Once logged in, the Lounge will have a menu list down the left side of the page as well as drop down lists across the top blue banner. As the College develops more content for the Parent Lounge, additional areas will be enabled.

Do not ask your son to set this up for you nor should you share the password to this account with him. If you do, your son has the capacity to divert SMSs, messages, notices, and letters. In other school settings this happened for a while and parents/carers were unaware of late arrivals and absences.

The menu side bar corresponds to the default content displayed in the main section (home page) and the drop-down lists display more specific details.

Once you receive your username and password, have a look around and if you have any issues with the Parent Lounge, please contact the College’s IT department by email to either login@spc.nsw.edu.au or itsupport@spc.nsw.edu.au and we will assist you.

Capital Works

During the vacation break, the Gymnasium refurbishment commenced.  We can now accommodate another cohort and the PDHPE staff will have new office facilities. I am most appreciative of Mr Chacon’s and Mr Hughes’s efforts to have all this completed for the start of Term 1.

The Scientia Building has made great progress. There is updated information on our website that you can access here. I can recommend the time lapse video that documents the demolition and earth moving parts of the build; we are really pleased with the efforts Hansen Yuncken have made to preserve our beloved Breen Oval.

Strategic Directions

We begin the year with our new Strategic Plan, A Beacon for Boys’ Education, to guide us. The students’ spiritual theme for the year, chosen by the Student Leadership Team, is:

Given the College’s focus on the touchstone ‘Gospel Spirituality’ for 2022, the students felt as though this quote is one that sums up the very meaning of this touchstone and makes it clear to all members of the College. This quote is one that they felt will unite the students, right through from the blue caps to the black ties and empower them to try and live out Gospel Spirituality within their everyday lives. The quote touches on the ideas of brotherly love, setting an example to those around you, being active in both speech and action, and turning to our faith when interacting with others. The first part of the quote, ‘Let no one despise your youth’, empowers students from all years to be men of action. It serves to remind them to never underestimate their abilities and gifts, no matter what year they are in. The 2022 Student Leadership Team feels as though this quote really speaks to all aspects of College life and will be the corner piece of life at the College for the next 12 months. We hope that you can take this into consideration as we strive to live out the touchstones of Gospel Spirituality, Inclusive Community, Justice and Solidarity, and Liberating Education. I look forward to seeing how the students and staff can unpack the College’s theme for 2022.

Kiss and Ride Reminder

To ensure the safety of members of our community and in consideration of our neighbours, all parents/carers are asked to comply with the following request when dropping off and picking up students before and after school. Between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM, the only place where students can be picked up and/or dropped off is along the Fraser Street ‘Kiss & Ride’ area. 

Council and Police regularly monitor this area.

Kiss & Ride zones provide:

• Drivers the opportunity to stop their vehicle within close proximity to the College
• Students the opportunity to enter the school premises without having to cross roads or driveways.

For the safety of all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians please: 

• Approach the ‘Kiss & Ride’ zone from Shortland Avenue, the ‘Kiss & Ride’ zone is on 

Fraser Street only. Do not park in the No Parking area and do not stop in the No Stopping area.

• Do not ‘double park’ or stand your vehicle in this zone from 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM – 4:00PM.
• Enter or disembark from the vehicle as close as possible to the top of the zone.
• Ensure that the driver does not alight from the vehicle while in the zone.
• Ensure that passengers enter and disembark from the vehicle via the KERB side door, preferably the rear door. Items should not be collected from the boot.
• In the afternoon, if your son is not there you are required to move off, do a lap of the 

block and join the end of the queue.

• No student is to be dropped off on Merley Road or Hydabrae Avenue during the above times.

Please note: Parents/carers driving to the College are asked not to park in Hydebrae Street (the street that runs perpendicular to Francis Street).

When travelling to the College from Barker Road, Albert Road or Heyde Avenue, there is a lot of traffic in this area due to the primary school and the university. It might be easier to travel up Homebush Road and then into Broughton Road, into McKenzie Street and then onto Shortland Avenue to join the Kiss and Ride on Fraser Street.

In Memoriam

We keep in our prayers Cristian Barbagallo (Year 5) and Old Boy Daniele Barbagallo (’21) on the recent passing of their grandfather. 

We also keep in our prayers Adriano Di Bella (Year 9) and Old Boys Adamo Di Bella (’19) and Matthew Margiotta (’09) on the loss of their grandfather, Salvatore Di Bella. 

We pray for Old Boy Martin O’Donnell (’53) a beloved member of our St Patrick’s College community, who recently passed away. Commencing at the College in 1948, Martin excelled in Maths, winning class prizes for Geometry (1950) and Maths II (1952) where he was named Dux of his class. In the same year he came equal first in Maths I, achieving an impressive 100% score. A nominated Prefect in 1953 in his final year of school, Martin remained active in the College community, attending his 60 Year Reunion in 2013, where he delivered an address at the Reunion lunch paying tribute to Br McGlade. We keep Martin and his family in our prayers.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace. 

Amen.

Dr Vittoria Lavorato

Principal

SPC boys can do anything! 

**except divide by zero