I welcome back each and every one of you and hope you have found some time for yourself, family and what gives you energy and refreshes your soul. It was exciting to have the entire College community return to Mount Clear on Monday. I must admit my drive in the morning was filled with worry and nervousness. As you may be aware, l was at my last school for over eight years, and l knew what to expect; I could anticipate concerns, and l could often pre-empt what my day may look like. In that eight years, l had built strong connections with staff, students and parents, so to say goodbye was challenging and difficult.

As Catholics, we are constantly reminded to have faith and to trust in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will lead us to new places, challenge our thinking, and we will be nourished by our God. Upon arriving at Damascus, Monday morning, l knew that the Holy Spirit was with me – guiding and supporting me in this new chapter of my professional journey. The Damascus community - staff and students modelled and welcomed the Mercy Charism of hospitality and welcome. I have spent the last two days wandering the College, meeting students and staff. I have been struck by the humility and honesty of our young people and that palpable sense of community. Students have been quick to say hello, put out their hand to be shaken and even taken me to places of the College l needed to go to. It is in this community of welcome and hospitality that our young people will be able to learn, grow and foster relationships. I am looking forward to harnessing these relationships and getting to know as many people – students, staff and families as possible.

This week’s Gospel was the parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable resonates strongly with me, as l find myself asking how have l been neighbour, how have l challenged myself to grow and how l have treated each person with respect and dignity. The challenge for each of us as we come out of the pandemic is to remain open to others, to listen with an open heart and to be a neighbour. At times, we are made to feel that to be the good Samaritan is to be counter-cultural – not to judge and to celebrate the gift of the other.

It has been a busy first semester, with many people having the courage to lead. I want to thank the following staff for their willingness to accept the challenge to lead and to lead with courage and conviction. Chris Grant as Interim Principal, Ash Pillai as Interim Deputy Principal, Alysoun Smalley Interim AP Learning & Teaching, Daniel Jans and Hannah Keating in their respective roles of Interim AP Student Wellbeing. I also thank Karen Goonan and Karen Hocking for stepping into Interim House Leader roles for Daniel and Hannah. A warm welcome back to Andy Robertson and we look forward to his leadership of Student Wellbeing with the support and strength of the House Leaders, Assistants, and the tremendous Teacher Advisors. The past six months have been a challenging time for our community with the passing of Jeff Simpson, and l acknowledge his work to our community. This semester provides our community with an opportunity to regroup and to continue our focus on providing the best learning experiences and outcomes for each of our students.

I spent the first week of the holidays here at the College trying to acquaint myself with the strategic and hard work of so many staff. Thanks to the many people whom l met during this time who made me feel welcome and extended the Damascus spirit of hospitality. I was particularly welcomed by some of our VCE Physics and Chemistry students who were preparing for their upcoming Unit 4 Examinations. I, too, thoroughly enjoyed seeing the preparations for Clue and the passion that exudes with the creation of a school production.

Over the next couple of months, l plan to meet with as many staff, students and families as possible as we plan for 2023, fill leadership roles and organise subject choices. At this stage, l am working with my Executive Assistant, Tina Munro, who will organise meetings with parents. If you would like to participate in an open conversation, please contact Tina at principal@damascus.vic.edu.au - and we will organise a couple of parent forums in groups of ten with me for about thirty minutes to have an open discussion about life at Damascus; your hopes, your dreams – what’s working well and even better ifs. Please come to these meetings with an open mind and heart. Together we will ensure Damascus is its best.

I am a firm believer in high expectations of self, others and our students. I encourage you to maintain these high expectations of your child as this creates a culture of achievement and success. Our College theme for 2022, ‘Abide in my love, and you shall bear much fruit’ from John15:5, speaks to me of this unconditional regard. Christ’s love for us is unconditional. I challenge myself each day to think about how have l been a neighbour and seen the face of Christ in the other.

I welcome a chat and a visit, so please, do drop in. I am a visible leader, so l am hoping l meet you at the many community events.

Again, I would like to thank all members of the Leadership Team for steering the College in the past six months, and l am both excited and humbled to lead Damascus as we continue to grow.

The rules around COVID are regularly changing and being updated. Just a reminder that recent changes by the Health Authorities suggest that people who had had COVID can now test positive again after four weeks. If you are displaying symptoms of COVID even though you may have had it already, you do need to RAT Test after week 4.

I ask that families please continue to communicate with your young people about the importance of social distancing, personal hygiene and sanitising. The priorities for the Damascus community throughout the pandemic continue to be;

• Maintaining the safety of the entire Damascus community
• Ensuring we remain connected and support one another
• Ensuring continuity of quality learning and teaching
• Being willing to adapt, change and try new things, recognising that we will make mistakes at times.

We have continued to work to educate the student population on the 5S’s and we need family support with this messaging at home.

Metropolitan schools are having thermometers rolled out this week to temperature check students. This is not expected of schools outside the metropolitan and Mitchell Shire areas. Damascus College is not temperature checking at this stage.

I would like to acknowledge our College Captains, Megan O’Beirne and Lewis Clarke on their work as part of the Little Feet Big Footprints initiative that has been supporting Year 6 students in smaller schools, around heading to secondary school. The very positive feedback received highlighted that our Captains allayed many fears and inspired students to always give their best. Well done Megan and Lewis.

Next week we commence the 2023 Subject Selection process. The College will be holding a Pathways and Careers Information evening on Tuesday 19^th July from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Parents will receive an email later this week with detailed information about the format of the evening and also the subject selection process. The College will also be holding a Pathways and Careers expo for all students from Monday 19^th-Friday 22^nd July at lunchtime.

I remind families that this year’s Performing Arts Production of Clue will be held on Wednesday 20^th – Saturday 23^rd July. Tickets are still available at

https://www.trybooking.com/BZHFR

We keep in our thoughts and prayers Catherine Newman (staff) and her family on the passing of her beloved Dad this week. May he rest in peace.

With every Blessing

Steven

This year’s annual performing arts production is Clue on stage, which is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery, on 20-23 July in the Valda Ward Auditorium.

Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. It is the classic Who did it, WHERE, and with WHAT!

Tickets are available at: https://www.trybooking.com/BZHFR

And now, we wish to introduce our community to these six mysterious guests…the sixth of these being Professor Plum, played by Year 12 student Gabriel Blake.

“I got involved in this year’s production because it will be my last! As I am in Year 12, I won’t be able to perform at Damascus anymore so I wanted to go out with a bang. I am so glad that I can be involved within the production.

There have been some hilarious memories form rehearsal so far, just manipulating the ‘bodies’ have been an ordeal within itself as well as hearing the amazing accents people have been performing with.

My character of Professor Plum is certainly very fun to play, a very confident character – although wrongly so, because of the way he treats others. Some difficulties I found with the play is finding the right balance of feigned positive expressions when facing others, but being genuinely intrigued or thoughtful when the character is contemplating the murders which have just occurred.

I value being able to express myself via acting, I also enjoy seeing how others perform to make a coherent and vastly interesting play such as this, it is amazing to see how a play comes together whilst performing it, and it is extremely satisfying.

Overall I feel very excited to be a part of the Damascus Performing Arts community, and as it is my last, I am sure to make it count! But overall enjoy the time I spent in rehearsals.”

Gabriel Blake, Year 12 student

Year 12 student Samara McLeod has successfully completed the Australian Catholic University (ACU) Step Up course.

Samara commenced the course in the 2021 September school holidays and it continued through the 2022 January school holidays. The Step Up course is an intensive course of learning, but at the conclusion, Samara had completed two university units. The units are taught and graded to university standards. Samara has now successfully completed units in Sports and Exercise Science as well as Nutrition and Exercise Science while still a high school student.

Samara learned and applied for this course through an information evening held by ACU back in the 2021 June/August period. In her application, she needed to state why she wanted to enrol in this course, why she would be the right candidate and what her future goals were.

The lectures are delivered face to face on campus, which for Samara were held in Fitzroy, though due to COVID many lectures took place on zoom but Samara said they “were still delivered flawlessly with immense amounts of support”.

Samara thought that she wanted to do a bachelor of nursing/paramedicine double degree to hopefully one day become a paramedic, but she was still tossing up the idea that she may want to pursue a career in exercise science, looking specifically at exercise physiology so she thought it would be a good idea to get a wider knowledge and an insight into what the course would be like, which ended up being exactly what she needed.

ACU provided students with a support team of student ambassadors that helped her navigate this new Uni experience, they also provided support when submitting work by showing how to reference and check work for any possible errors, as well as how to correctly turn in assignments to the lecturer.

Sports and Exercise Science was one of three courses students could choose from. The courses that Samara has completed count as units towards her degree, and can also transfer over to different courses with the same content, meaning that students will not have to complete a unit that was already provided in the Step Up program.

Congratulations Samara, your hard work in completing these University units is an impressive achievement and we hope you are very proud of yourself.

#DamascusCollege #DamascusPride #ImReadyToTakeOnAnything

Damascus VET Allied Health students have been exploring the various ways we communicate, and the positive and negative impacts our chosen communication methods can have, whether intended or not.

In healthcare, positive communication is a key foundation to patient care. VET students discovered that while it might seem simple enough, feeding another person, it takes patience and good communication skills.

Whilst there were some laughs had throughout the process, students quickly realised that an approach of 'open up' and 'here it is' didn't quite achieve the intended goal.

Students showed excellent persistence and resilience as they tried to feed a client, who was not able to assist, a fruit snack.

Featuring in the Ballarat Courier are some of our students who have been selected in the Greater Western Victoria Rebels VLine Cup squad!

Well done to Freya Palmer (Yr10), Keisha Darroch (Yr9), Bailey Bellin (Yr9) and Jovie Skewes-Clinton (Yr9) who have been selected into the girls squad and well done to Elliot Bushell (Yr 9) for being selected into the boys squad.

A great achievement for these students and good luck for the VLine Cup, which takes place in Shepparton on 19-20 September!

#DamascusCollege #DamascusPride #BeMyBest #ImReadyToTakeOnAnything

This year’s annual performing arts production is Clue on stage, which is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery, on 20-23 July in the Valda Ward Auditorium.

Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six mysterious guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they’ll never forget. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. It is the classic Who did it, WHERE, and with WHAT!

Tickets are available at: https://www.trybooking.com/BZHFR

And now, we wish to introduce the main antagonist of the show…Wadsworth, played by Year 8 student Dana Reynolds. Damascus is excited to announce that this is the first time a Year 8 student has been cast in a lead role, well done Dana!

“I got involved in Damascus’ production of ‘Clue’ because I thought it was such an exciting, intriguing topic! Cluedo is one of my all-time favourite board games, and I was super keen to get involved in adapting it to the stage.

I have been studying drama and music through BCMA’s musical theatre program since 2015. I have previously performed the musical roles of Donkey (Shrek), TeFiti/TeKa (Moana), Marty (Madagascar) and Wendy (Peter Pan), and ensemble in We Will Rock You (Ballarat Lyric Theatre), Seussical (BLOC Jnr) and The Lion King Jr (Take The Mic). While rehearsing Wadsworth, I am also rehearsing the role of Campbell in BCMA’s Bring It On.

I have many fond memories of the rehearsal period for this amazing show. One of my favourites was when we were doing a scene where my castmate Megan and I had to stare intently at each other, and we just couldn’t stop laughing! Thankfully, we pulled ourselves together and got back on track… eventually!

I have had many challenges while playing Wadsworth, but one of the most predominant was trying to be nasty! Wadsworth is quite a sketchy, mysterious character and I kept on playing him too nice! It’s difficult, because when I think of a ‘butler’ I think of ‘polite gentleman’. As you can tell, Wadsworth is not your ordinary butler!

This is my first role in a play, and I have grown so much over the course of these rehearsals. Being cast alongside such talented performers has really encouraged me to lift my game to the next level. As well as learning from the cast, I have gained so many new techniques and skills from the amazing Mr Seeary and Ms Burness, who have assisted me so much on this journey.

Some people shy away from performing because they don’t know enough about the incredible processes you get to enjoy when you’re a part of this community. However, Damascus widens the opportunities in production by allowing all ages and experiences to audition, or be a part of the backstage crew, or just come and be an audience! Theatre is, and always has been a very inclusive and supportive environment to be involved in.

Oh my goodness! I didn’t even realise I was the first Year 8 to get a lead role! Wow. That means the world to me, and I feel extremely proud and privileged. I feel that me being cast as a lead role will also hopefully encourage other junior students to engage in future productions and drama as an elective.

I have always been passionate about performing arts and pursuing it as a career in the future. My dream is to perform on Broadway, West End or Melbourne in a professional production. Major bucket list plotline!”

Dana Reynolds, Year 8 student

See following information on how to join the Scouts:-

Rowing for the 2022-2023 season at Damascus College has begun! Are you in Year 9, 10 or 11 and interested in rowing for Damascus?

If Yes (and why wouldn't you) then contact Paul Blanchfield, Hamish Walsh or Georgia O'Leary for more information via their Damascus staff email.

For any students in Year 8 looking to row, recruitment will begin in week 2. Please see Paul Blanchfield, Hamish Walsh or Georgia O'Leary for more information. Year 8 training will begin in week 4.

Rowing at Damascus College is all about celebrating personal achievements on our journey to success as a team! Recently, Cooper Reid completed a PB while holding a plank for just over 8 minutes! Well done Cooper! What an incredible effort.

Please see following information around The Hub in Wendouree:-