Your first job always has special significance. I always endeavour to contact students who leave Damascus to take up apprenticeships or employment because of the significance of their first job and as a celebration of them moving into the pathway of their choice. It is important as a community that the product of each young person’s educational pathway beyond Damascus is celebrated, and an apprenticeship or employment is equivalent to a tertiary placement if that is what the young person wants.

My first teaching job was at MacKillop College in Swan Hill. In the 30 years since I started teaching, MacKillop College has become St Mary MacKillop College. For me, it was a privileged and supportive role I found myself in as an educator in a rural community. What I learned of the support I received in that time; I have tried to emulate in my leadership of this community. There was a pervading spirit of energy, mutual care, and value of hard work. Mary MacKillop was a woman who carried out her ministry here in Victoria and SA and supported Australians in need. She provided the support to Australians that Catherine McAuley did in Ireland and that our local Sisters of Mercy continue today. This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. As we approach that celebration, we remember those who have gone before us and who established the foundations for the faith-based education systems that exist in this country. For us, that is the Sisters of Mercy; for the Swan Hill community, it was Mary MacKillop’s order, the Josephite Sisters. We extend a prayer of gratitude for the religious and laypeople who built up our education, health and social justice systems to advance human care and dignity.

The performing arts have always had a strong presence within education systems, and from tonight and tomorrow, our community brings forth the wonderful work of our drama students in the production of “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. I have had a sneak preview of the performance, and it is a wonderfully energetic show reflecting a great team effort. The current restrictions have meant that we have had to limit audiences to current staff and students, but we are taking the opportunity to record the performance for families. I thank staff members Nicole Burness, Maria Russell, and Andrew Seeary for the months of work that have gone into the production, and I congratulate the cast and crew on an outstanding effort under trying circumstances. Best wishes for the coming days.

Families of students undertaking a VCE Unit 3/4 subject will receive correspondence today pertaining to the General Achievement Test (GAT), which will be conducted next Thursday, 12^th August. This is the third scheduling of the GAT for 2021, and we are very hopeful it will eventuate next week. . Information that has been sent to families can be found here.

Last week, 100 Damascus families randomly received an invitation to participate in the school improvement process, seeking feedback on a range of dimensions of school life. This survey feedback is valuable to our continued enhancement of education, wellbeing and faith provision as a College. If you received the survey, we would love you to fill it out by this Friday, 6th August.

BAS interschool sports will recommence from next Monday 9^th August and students have been provided details of their respective programs.

Thank you to all those families who engaged with our TA interviews and subject selection processes last week. Students entered their selections for 2022 in our extended TA lesson yesterday. We will begin the extensive task of building the 2022 timetable to try and accommodate the maximum number of student opportunities. I thank our Learning Area Leader Team, Careers Team, Alysoun Smally, Sarah Mcknight, Ashwin Pillai and Melissa McLachlan for their great work in this space. If your young person was absent yesterday, the opportunity exists for them to enter choices in TA time through to the end of the week.

From 7.00pm tonight, there is a meeting of families of students undertaking rowing in the 2021/22 season. This meeting is taking place virtually and can be accessed here.

This week we farewell our Property and Maintenance Leader, Rob Jans. Rob has been with Damascus College since March 2012 and has been a key contributor to the development of our beautiful site and quality facilities. I extend the appreciation of our community to Rob as he takes up an exciting new opportunity and thank his family, Dom, Nicki, Cam and Amali, for their support of Rob to enable him to undertake this important role so thoroughly. Our facilities and grounds have improved immeasurably under Rob’s leadership, and we wish him well for the future.

Staff member, Michael Bennett and his wife Emma welcomed the newest member of their family, baby Harriet over the weekend. We send our congratulations and blessings to the Bennett family.

We keep in our prayers all those who grieve or struggle from illness and loneliness.

Until next week….

MATT