This week’s readings refer to the notion of Wisdom and the idea that it should be the basis of what we do. I am reminded of my studies for my Masters of Religious Education at ACU when we contemplated the first few lines of the Gospel of St John. These lines read:

“In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

In the original Greek, the ‘word’ was written as ‘Sophos’ which roughly translates as ‘wisdom’. St John ties the idea back to the beginning of time that God has always been synonymous with wisdom and that Wisdom and God have existed from the beginning of time. For Christians, the idea is that wisdom is a basis of life and our existence does not mean that we have complete access to it. The wisdom that is referred to in the Gospels this week is around recognising that riches and wealth are not the basis for happiness. We are encouraged to get closer to God because God is wisdom. The implication is simply that if we are able to reflect on our decisions and make them with God in mind, we are a long way to reaching wise decisions. At a College level, particularly in our current environment, we are constantly weighing decisions in terms of our relationship with God through our contact with others. We may not always reach the perfect result, but whilst we use this as a part of our process, we can be guaranteed that our decisions will be closer to wise than not.

Following much publicity over the past 24 hours, it has become apparent that students in Years 7 – 11 will now be returning to face-to-face lessons from October 25. Under this new road map for return, we have contacted the bus companies and they have informed us that they will commence their normal school services from October 18. Whilst the new timelines have been stated in the media, we have unfortunately not been given any further details regarding other directives and were not aware of the changes until they were announced. In our original planning however, we had already begun much of the safety processes. At this point, I can assure parents that all air conditioners have been serviced and all windows checked for operability to ensure sufficient air flow in rooms. Hand sanitisers have been replenished and students will be required to wear masks and to remain in their own cohorts wherever possible. In Mr Cloran’s section of this newsletter, he outlines further safety processes and requirements that I ask you to note. As we move closer to the return dates and are given further formal directives, we will communicate these to you.

A number of parents would be aware that we have been working with the Catholic Education Office staff to obtain a Block Grant for the construction a new building and the refurbishment of a number of others. I am pleased to announce that these plans are in the final stages of application for council approval and we have had successes in obtaining this grant. Over the next few weeks, I hope to present more detail around the extent of the building and refurbishment that we anticipate will commence at the start of 2022. 

At the end of last term, Mr Greg King left Mount Carmel to take up an appointment with the Association of Independent Schools. Following his resignation, we undertook our recruitment processes and I am pleased to announce that Mrs Denise Tyra has been appointed as the new PDHPE Coordinator. I also welcome Miss Sophie Heath who will be taking Mr King’s classes for the remainder of the year. 

As stated in the last newsletter last term, due to the impacts of COVID, there have been a number of events that have been cancelled or postponed until the new year. Our finance office has been working to apply credits to fees for these. On your next fee instalment, there will be a number of credits applied for these events and also for the sport and bus contributions that have not been accessed. These amounts will vary between year groups and students depending on what you had been charged for and what has been cancelled. Please feel free to contact the office should you have any questions. 

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