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

Congratulations to Year 11 student Charlotte Grimes whose photography work is currently on show at the Unicorn Lane Gallery in Ballarat.

Charlotte said she was inspired by the raw portraiture of Steve McCurry, and the imaginative artworks by surrealist painters such as Salvador Dali. This developed into her keen interest for surrealistic portraiture.

“I have been exploring how we all have a unique approach to navigating the human condition, yet we are forever connected to each other by the emotional landscape that we share,” she said.

“My series of images entitled ‘The Ineffable’ are of household chores in nature and have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. With three in particular, I wanted to highlight that our worlds have been turned inside out, where our existence is now defined by our homes and the natural landscapes around us.”

Charlotte is studying accelerated photography at Damascus College and the photos chosen were part of her photography tasks from the last 18 months.

“It means a lot to me to be able to have this opportunity, and has made me more confident about my artwork," she said.

"The process of curating photos for my exhibition, and seeing them on display in the gallery, confirmed to me that I have been developing my own style over the last year and a half. I have found this experience really valuable in confirming my artistic direction for surrealistic portraiture.”

Well done Charlotte.

On Monday 14 September, Damascus College Year 12 VCAL students organised an Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money and awareness for sufferers of Motor Neuron Disease (MND). MND is the name given to a group of progressive, terminal diseases in which nerve cells (neurones) that control the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow, fail to work normally and eventually die. There is no known cure and no effective treatment for MND.

With the support of our community, our VCAL students were able to raise $2,300 in two weeks for FightMND - an organisation headed by former AFL player and MND sufferer and advocate, Neale Daniher.

After hearing about the event at Damascus, Neale inspired our students with a personal video message, directly nominating his former schoolmate and Damascus staff member Martin Ryan for the challenge.

A big thank you to everyone who contributed and congratulations to the Year 12 VCAL students for hosting such a wonderful day.

Welcome to Week 5 of the Socktober Challenge - This weeks theme is Balance

Click here to join.

Hey, Socktober Stars! We're coming towards the end of the Socktober Challenge, but the fun is only just beginning! This week we're jumping back to Asia and the bustling metropolis of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand and a major.

Sister Louise Horgan and the Good Shepherd Sisters work in the slum areas of Bangkok to provide young mothers with opportunities to maximise their skills and gain employment to support their families. But while the women attend class and work during the day, what are their youngest children to do? Kids don’t start school in Thailand until the age of six, and unlike Australia, it is impossible for many families to find preschools or daycare for their children who cannot yet go to school.

Sister Louise’s program includes a kindergarten to support this very need. It takes care of over one hundred children of women enrolled at the centre. The sisters don't just keep an eye on the kids, they feed them, educate them, and help them to understand their own value and dignity as human beings - something we might take for granted. It is also open to other children around the neighbourhood who are at risk.

Since 2015 Damascus College made the decision to incorporate Microsoft Surface devices across our campus, to help teachers deliver better learning in the classroom, provide a wider range of learning environments and to ensure our students have the digital literacy and technological skills they need to thrive in the future workforce. Our approach has been so successful, that Damascus College has recently been recognised as a top tier Microsoft Surface Lighthouse School.

This is the highest level of recognition possible from Microsoft for Australian schools, and means we are now part of an exclusive cohort of schools delivering outstanding learning using Surface devices. We have been leading the way in digital learning for some time now and are thrilled to be listed as a Surface Lighthouse School.

This recognition also comes with new levels of collaboration, support and resources from Microsoft, which will be of great benefit to our students, staff and the wider school community.

You can read more about the Surface Lighthouse School program and what it means for Damascus College here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/education/surface-lighthouse-schools

Damascus College Bushfire preparedness newletter

As remote learning is nearing an end, we thought our community would be interested to see the progress for our newest building project, now known as the Damascus Events Centre (aka the DEC).

Designed for college and community use, this new two storey state of the art building will fill the need for a purpose built event and exam space on campus. It has been designed to be sympathetic to our bush environment and is in keeping with the current architecture on the Damascus campus.

You never know where your learning can take you!!

Year 11 student, Amber Kennett was able to plan a business idea during her VCE subject Business Management in Semester One. Her business plan for ‘Hamper Hug’ was to create and deliver beautiful, luxurious pamper, care and gift hampers and by so doing give the recipients a hug from a distance!

She has just received notification from Business Educators Australasia who promote the Plan Your Own Enterprise competition that she is a finalist in the Victorian Division One Competition.

We wish Amber well as she attends the award ceremony and presents her business idea to the audience on Wednesday 23 September. The winning individual entry will proceed to the National finals in October.

Fantastic effort Amber!

As Damascus students are due to be to on-site learning from Monday 12th October – Friday 16th October, we are pleased to advise that the uniform shops have the below opening arrangements, for your convenience:

Dobsons On campus – will open from Monday 5th October as per normal hours, 8.30-11.30 and 1-4pm Monday to Friday.

Crockers in Armstrong Street North – will open from tomorrow Tuesday 8 Sep (9am-5pm Monday to Friday and 9am-12pm on Saturday).

On Wednesday, as part of their language class, a group of Year 11 students had the unique opportunity to chat via Microsoft Teams to six Indonesian teachers from Jakarta.

Many of these students took part in the Indonesian immersion last year, so it was a wonderful opportunity to reunite with these Indonesian teachers they met whilst in Jakarta, as well as have the chance to continue conversation practice in Indonesian.

The class was divided into four small groups to allow each student the opportunity to have the chance to try out their language – a first for Damascus College.

Mr. Brendan Bawden organised the class with the owner of the Indonesian school Ibu Niknik Kuntarto, who was just recognised in Indonesia as one of the top 40 most influential women in Indonesia. Not bad with a population of 270 million.

What a wonderfully innovative opportunity!