WELCOME 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

There is a great shaking that is taking place across the nations at this time. Some communities have been shaken by earthquakes. 

Others are experiencing flood, bushfires, and storms.  Still others are being shaken by war and the murderous activities of radical extremists. And all nations have and continue to be shaken by the pandemic.

Whist this shaking is difficult to bear, it can help us to have a greater understanding of spiritual truths.

Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 7:24-27, said:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

Jesus is speaking of our lives being shaken by the storms of life, revealing the foundation that we have built our lives on. Have we built our lives on Jesus, his truth, his values, his commandments, his words? Or have we built our lives on something else? The world’s values ( self-importance, pleasure, beauty, money, fame) or our own or someone else’s ideas? 

Let us use this time to reflect on these eternal issues, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the true state of our lives and the foundation that we have built our lives on.

Mr Peter Sheahan (Principal)

FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (WANTIRNA SOUTH)

Last year, I shared how difficult the year had been due to the impact that the coronavirus has had on many of our activities and events. Sadly, this year has not been much better, as you well know. Again, a large number of events have had to be cancelled, including many of our proposed Alumni reunions. Like many alumni groups, we will, hopefully, look forward to combined events in the following year.

Our community has been incredibly resilient and flexible through multiple lockdowns and varying restrictions. I am sure that for many of you, life has been shaken in some way over the last 18 months and we have been praying for God’s comfort, strength and hope to be evident in your lives. 

What we have been able to achieve, is the commencement of our new three-storey facility, dubbed, The North Wing. The project began towards the end of 2020 with some preliminary services work, but we really knew it was a reality with the demolition of the old Primary Wing. The vast majority of you will have likely spent time in this building. It was constructed in 1989 during what was, at that time, according to our Principal, “the wettest winter in 40 years. It was one of the original buildings constructed (along with the current Secondary Wing and toilet block) when the School relocated from Vermont. Many staff, parents and students voluntarily assisted with parts of its construction and many thousands of students have been educated in its classrooms. It has served us well. However, it must now make way to enable the continued progress of the College”.

Progress commenced on the new building shortly after the demolition. It has often appeared to be slow, but this is because so much of the work is foundational. Services had to be replaced, lift wells dug, tanks installed and over 100 piles cored and concreted to support the three storeys.  

Finally, it was time for the slabs to be poured. All three! This involved some pretty large equipment and lots and lots of concrete trucks. Pre-cast panels were also installed against our existing buildings and the building was beginning to take shape above the ground. As we headed into our most recent Covid Lockdown, backstripping and propping at each level was being completed in readiness for the external walls and subsequent fit-out. There is still much to do, but we are hopeful that the project can be completed early next year, ready for occupation by the start of Term 2.

As reported last newsletter, this building will incorporate, at ground level, a new Reception and Admissions area and a new Food Studies / Café precinct, a second level containing eight new Primary Classrooms and associated breakout spaces, and a third level consisting of Administration and Staff services, including offices. Once completed, we believe that it will have a significant impact not only on the look and feel of the campus, but it will provide fantastic opportunities for learning and community interaction, including the hosting of some of our alumni events. We will definitely invite you to the opening. See you there! 

Mr Rod Ramsay (Head of Campus, WS)

FROM THE HEAD OF CAMPUS (NARRE WARREN SOUTH)

College life continues to be full of change and challenges, as we navigate our way through the constant updates in restrictions to school operations due to the pandemic. After a relatively normal start in Terms 1 and 2, we spent only 1/4 of Term 3 with students on campus, and 3/4 of this term with students and staff off-site in remote learning. We are praying that staff and students will be back on site by the end of this term.

We are growing and adapting to some new ways of doing education and meeting student needs and finding that many events are still able to go ahead in an online format. For example, our House Public Speaking event this year was pre-recorded by the students at home and then run online for all students to watch during Chapel. The judges had to decide the winning House and best speaker from the comfort of their own homes and their decision was prerecorded and played at the end of the online event. Unfortunately, there is still no way to present a winner’s trophy online, so the winners (Finney) will have to wait until we are all back on site. 

Our students and teachers are hard at work getting ready for our 2021 Secondary Production of “Singin’ in the Rain”, which we initially postponed to the end of this term. It now seems unlikely to run with a live audience and instead, will be an onstage performance that will be recorded and released to our school community online in mid-September. 

We were thrilled to be able to proceed with our Secondary House Athletics Day, in early August, held at Casey Fields. There were several College records broken - I wonder if any of those records belonged to our Alumni students?  Jeremy Kariuki (Year 10) ran the 100m event in 11.22 seconds, and Zion-Great Olaniyan (Year 8) the 100m in 11.66 seconds. We were very impressed with both Skylar Munyard, (Year 12) who now holds the girls 800m record in every age group from Year 7 to Year 12; and Ruan Swanevelder, (Year 12) who successfully broke the boy’s discus record, and now holds all the records in the Boys Year 9 to Year12 age groups. What outstanding achievements!

We had planned to run Book Week this term but as things turned out, we were off-site and many of the planned activities reverted to an online space. We were pleased to hear from several authors over this week, but some events were not able to take place such as the special dress-up theme day that had been planned. The Book Week theme this year was ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’ and staff members from the English and Humanities teams had planned to dress as characters from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ including the Cheshire Cat, Alice herself, and even a deck of cards but regrettably, we did not get to see them all dressed up this year because of the lockdown.

I would imagine that many of our Alumni students reading this report are faced with the same stay at home requirements and studying or working from home. I extend my best wishes and God’s richest blessings and ask our Heavenly Father to sustain and grant you all His abundant grace and everlasting peace during this time.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”2 Thess 3:16.

Mr Mark Crnkovic (Head of Campus, NWS)