Dear Parents and Carers

Change is an ongoing concept that we all need to manage, at some stage or another.  The evolving seasons of nature brings change, and at this time of  the year the beauty of the autumn glory, a time to reflect and see all that is beautiful with the changing foliage of the trees, the  crushing of the leaves under our feet, more walks on the beach and less swims in the sea. It is important to remember that change can take time to understand and manage and can provide opportunities too. 

For education and those who work in schools, there is a never ending demand for change. Recently, as you are aware, we have had a change of governance and we are now governed by the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS). Whilst we are still working through the transition process, some change which will be evident will be the updating of  policies and procedures, as MACS  ensures a uniform approach to governance across all 290 of the schools in the Melbourne Archdiocese of Melbourne. This is essential for all MACS schools as a condition of our registration with the VRQA. Of course different aspects of these policies will continue to reflect our school and our context. There will also still be our other policies in place that sit outside of the minimum requirements.  As we make these changes we will share with you via the newsletter and add relevant policies to our school website. Here is the Pastoral Care Policy and Enrolment Policy.

Say no to bullying: Say yes to respectful relationships: On Friday we celebrated Say no to Bullying, Say yes to respectful relationships. We aspire in all that we do to have  our students be  respectful and compassionate people who care about others, especially those in need. We support our students to have the important skills and capacity to live in our world and care for our world along with each other. We encourage our students to make it a better place by who they are and what they do, acknowledging God, who loves them. We thank Year 2 BV for a wonderful assembly and the Respectful Relationships team led by Paul Anderson and Marnie Hallam on a wonderful Circle Time for the whole school.

Principal Conference: 

Toward the end of Week 7 I attended the Geelong Primary Principal Network. Working together over two days we developed a shared understanding of the MACS Interim Strategic Plan so as to inform the development of our own Geelong Primary Principal Network Strategic Plan 2021 – 2023. The purpose of our Network Strategic Plan is to inform, shape and direct our work and enable us to implement strategic directions that will effect change and ensure continuous improvement. It provides an overarching understanding of the needs of the Network and other key stakeholders into the future and will be used to guide our network meetings and follow up activity.

Our Network creates a vibrant opportunity for us to grow in faith, learn together, invest in developing contemporary strategies to sustain and extend our learning communities and share best practice to drive improved learning outcomes for students and staff across our Network.

 As a Network of principals, we are committed to:

•       Being present
•       Nurturing and sustaining quality relationships
•       Professional learning and development.

Our three Strategic Themes are:

1.Leading in Faith: Nurturing our faith and spiritual formation is integral to carrying out our mission as leaders to positively impact the re-evangelisation of our Geelong Catholic School communities

2. Leading the development of self and others: Collaboratively focusing on growth, support and advocacy to enhance the wellbeing of principals

3.Leading improvement, innovation and change: Building our capacity to lead quality evidence-based, sustainable change by learning with and from each other leads to strengthening our own capacity to lead continuous improvement and innovation in Geelong Catholic Schools.

I look forward to sharing our Network progress with you and its impact on our work with your children.

COVID Update: 

It is great to see life moving forward with a little more normality. We continue to abide by the government restrictions and procedures and have registered the following Tier 3 events using the COVIDSafe checklist: Cross Country, Prep Morning Tours and Prep 2022 Information Session. The registration of these events are published on our website. We thank you in advance for spectating from a distance if you plan to attend the Cross Country on Thursday and being vigilant with the social distancing. There will be no need to sign in for this event. Moving forward we will continue to register any events including the upcoming school athletics day on Wednesday 26 May.  More details to come closer to the day.

Mother's/ Carers Day celebration: After careful consideration, we have decided to have a Mother's  night rather than breakfast this year to endeavour to include more mums. This will be Thursday 6 May from 4.30-6 pm. More details to come.

Final Day of Term 2.30 pm finish: A reminder that our final day of term one is on Holy Thursday, Thursday 1 April. The finish time is 2.30 pm.  Prior to the end of the day, we will be announcing the winners of the Easter raffle. Many thanks to Alison Van Uijtert and the PFA's organisation. Thank you also to you all, for your support towards the Easter raffle prizes and purchasing of tickets. The children are certainly very excited.

As we draw to the end of what has been a very successful term for our students where authentic, engaging and dynamic learning has occurred, I would like to express sincere gratitude to all in our learning community. Students, parents, carers and all staff. ‘Alone we can achieve so little, together we can achieve so much.’ (Helen Keller)

I would like to wish you all many blessings for the remainder of the term and trust you will share in the upcoming,  joyful celebration of Easter.

Kerryn