Welcome to the final school term of 2020,

It has been a unique year, demanding extraordinary things of students, staff and families. As this newsletter goes to print today, it is the first time we have had a significant cohort of students come onsite since early August. Today, all those students studying a VCE Unit 3/4 sequence sat for the General Achievement Test (the GAT). It was wonderful to have a significant number of students’ onsite again and to witness their joy at seeing one another, even in the context of arriving for an exam!

Accompanying today’s newsletter is a guide for the return to onsite learning. It hopefully provides support for families regarding questions that you may have as we plan to return next week. The guide can be found by clicking on the download link below:-

Principal Communication

We will continue remote learning for this week. Year 7, 11, 12 and those Year 10’s with VCE classes will return to onsite learning next Monday.

Then Year 8, Year 9 and the remaining Year 10’s will continue remote learning on Monday and commence onsite next Tuesday 13^thOctober.

This Friday 9^th of October the College will run a condensed timetable as we did in Term 3 to support staff and families to prepare to return onsite from Monday 12^th. This is particularly important for our staff who need to be able to ferry equipment from their homes back to school and prepare their learning spaces onsite.

It is important to recognise that for families, the return to onsite learning will elicit an enormous range of responses from our young people. The Catholic Education Commission has provided the attached resource to support families, which we have adjusted to our environment to assist families in supporting students for their return. It can be found on the download link below:-

7 Tips to support families return to onsite learning

Last week I sent an email to community members about adjusted calendar items. We are having to continue to adjust our calendar in light of restrictions, and we are in the process of confirming decisions regarding; Year 9 camp; a substantially reduced Year 10 CPDA experience; Early Start; Orientation day for 2021 Year 7’s and the staff Professional Practice day later this term. As families are aware, the landscape keeps changing, and we are having to make adjustments accordingly. I reiterate the following date changes for families to confirm in your diaries. These date changes have been in response to government changes.

• Friday 23^rd October – AFL Grand Final Public Holiday
• Monday 2^nd November – TA Interview Day (Non-Teaching Day)
• Tuesday 3^rd November – Melbourne Cup Public Holiday (replacing Ballarat Show Day)

With our Year 12 students on site today, it really is evident how short their time on campus will be this term. Their final day will Friday 30^thOctober, and it will be marked with a virtual assembly containing the key elements of other final day assemblies. The planning committee have contributed some great ideas, and we are excited about what this celebration will look like. There will be specific information sent to Year 12 families over the coming week regarding end of year arrangements.

In the last few days, we have had the experience of the typically variable Ballarat Spring weather. Students are permitted to wear their summer or winter uniform for the first two weeks of this term onsite, so if you feel that the weather is decisively cold, encourage them that it is OK to wear their winter uniform.

On the uniform front, please do not allow students to come to school in the wrong uniform. It is time-consuming to follow up and creates the potential for conflict, all of which distract from learning and teaching. We go to significant lengths to be explicit about uniform and need families support. Typical issues that create conflict is the wearing of black socks and summer dresses that are too short. Could I ask for families support, please.

I am aware of a number of families whose lives have been further disrupted due to illness, grief and loss over recent weeks and our hearts and prayers go out to you in these challenging times.

As we commence the final term of 2020 under such uncommon circumstances, I have reflected on some writings about Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, by Sister Madeleine Duckett. In one of the reflections written by Madeleine about Catherine, she speaks of Catherine McAuley as a woman who would be quite at home in our times and uncertainty. Catherine was many things to many people, and her efforts to bring relief to the ill and poor constantly presented her with challenges. As students approach this coming term of learning following a disrupted year, it is valuable to remind them that we have a glimpse in Catherine’s words of some of the anxieties she experienced and her ability to quieten her fears with an ever-growing trust in divine providence. Catherine wrote; “We have one solid comfort amidst this little tripping about, our hearts can always be in the same place centred in God. For whom alone we go forward or stay back. Oh, may God look on us with love and pity and then we shall be able to do anything God wishes us to do, no matter how difficult to accomplish or painful to our feelings.”

We pray for our young people and ourselves that we can quieten our anxieties with a trust in divine providence and a constant sense of hope and gratitude this term.

God bless, it will be great to have everyone back!!

MATT