The Feast of St Mary of the Cross, McKillop occurs this Sunday. Mount Carmel has a special connection to St Mary and the sisters of St Joseph as the first Assistant Principal of the College was a Josephite nun (Sister Maria Casey) and one of our houses is named after St Mary. St Mary was a strong advocate for education in Australia and specifically for education for the disadvantaged. There is an often-recited quote from St Mary; “never see a need without doing something about it”. This reiterates the notion that each of us has an obligation to assist where we can but also to ensure that our eyes are open to where need occurs. There is another quote that I have used on many occasions which is appropriate in our current setting; “do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God”. For our students and parents who are locked into remote learning and the many stresses that come with that, I encourage you to keep this quote in your minds. We are in a very unique situation and whilst we are expected to do our best, we must be comfortable that this is all we can do.

At the moment, there has been much said in the media around the return of students from remote learning. Our Year 12 students had been scheduled to return on August 16 and to commence their Trial HSC examinations on August 18. There has been much discussion both inside and outside the College regarding the return of students and how this might be managed in the current health climate. As we have done since the start of the pandemic, we continue to follow the health advice and directives of NSW Health, Catholic Schools NSW and Catholic Education, Diocese of Wollongong. The decision to continue with the trials was to provide students with valuable experience that cannot be gained in any other format as well as the opportunity for feedback on their performance under exam conditions in preparation for the HSC itself. The running of trials was also to reduce the interaction of students whilst they are on campus following a return to school. As the Premier has announced this morning, we have now been informed that students at Mount Carmel will now not be permitted on site. This will result in a significant change in the format of the trial examinations for this year. Our above reasoning for running these trials in their advertised format is now impractical. HSC students are being contacted directly to advise of the new arrangements. Of course, all our plans are continually reviewed with new advice and directives. We are also currently discussing the implications of the current advice on our Year 11 students in the leadup to the end of their preliminary courses. As we are able to make final decisions regarding these, we will also communicate that to students and parents.

Next Tuesday is the Term 3 P&F meeting. Parents may recall that a decision was made at the last meeting to move P&F meetings in the current environment to week 5 of each term. This will occur next week. For parents who would like to attend this meeting, please follow the link below:

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://dowcatholic.zoom.us/j/66443017266?pwd=Uit1V0k1dHErVVk4M21PcDYzQUhOUT09 

Password: 568106

As always, a very big thank you to the staff, students and parents for your flexibility and ongoing support during remote learning.