Dear parents, friends, staff and students.

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is perhaps one of the simplest yet most powerful messages that Jesus gives to each of us. It is in this Gospel (John 13: 31-35) where Jesus gives us the ‘new commandment’; “Love one another just as I have loved you”.

As a people of faith in Jesus Christ, we know and accept that the love that God holds for each of us is unlimited and complete. His love can conquer all and is the most precious gift that we can receive. We know that Jesus ‘laid down His life for His friends’ and this is a reflection of the magnitude of His love for us. The message that we are given; to love one another as He loved us, can be used to direct our decisions and actions. Whilst recognising that we are only human, we can try to emulate God’s complete love for others even though we may never fully achieve this. Our love can be reflected not only in what we do and how we do it but possibly more importantly in why we do it. Sometimes we need to make difficult decisions that may negatively impact others, but we should ask ourselves ‘has this decision been based in love and in an attempt to improve the life of another’? In my first year of teaching, an elderly Marist Brother (Brother Fingal) gave me a piece of advice that has stayed with me for over thirty years. He told me that even when a teacher has to discipline students, they should do it with a love for them in their heart. This is a simple way of moving toward the idea of loving others as He loved us.

On Wednesday our English teachers hosted the first of two Year 7 Literacy evenings. These evenings are an opportunity for Year 7 parents to come up to the College and hear what teachers are doing to support and improve student learning in the area of literacy. Enhanced understanding in this area will improve learning across all subjects. We were blessed to have over 60 parents at this cold and wet evening, and many walked away with a far better knowledge of what their children were doing but more importantly, how they might support that learning. The second of these evenings will be held this coming Wednesday. I thank the English staff for volunteering their evenings and for sharing their knowledge and wisdom. I also thank the parents who came up, as you are an essential component for the success of your children.

This week our Year 7 and 9 students completed their NAPLAN tests. We traditionally do not put a great deal of emphasis leading up to these in an attempt to ensure that the snapshot of their achievement is a fairly accurate reflection of what they can do at a particular time. The data does give us evidence of what students are able to do and helps to inform our teaching along with other student data. The tests themselves went very smoothly and I thank Mrs Kripal and Mr Grana and the staff who administered these tests for their calm and transparent approach.

On Tuesday May 24, Week 5, we will be holding our next Parents and Friends’ meeting at the College. This will be our normal mid-term meeting, and once again I invite all parents to join us. Mr Simon Huntly (Pastoral and Wellbeing Coordinator) will be the guest speaker at this meeting and will be explaining some of the Pastoral Care supports available at the College. We will also be outlining some of the options we are exploring for enhancing learning from 2023 including lesson lengths and how our senior school is arranged. We are still looking for a president and treasurer for 2022. The P&F is an extremely valuable consultative and supportive body essential to the effective running of a school. I encourage all parents to attend on this evening and look forward to you joining us.

Earlier this week parents/guardians were sent a link to our TTFM survey. Thank you to those parents who have already provided feedback for this. We will send a text message out at the start of next week with the link for those who may not have had the chance to do this. This is an important part of our self-evaluation loop and will assist us in developing our School Improvement Plans for the next four years.

Ite in Veritate

Mr Steve Lo Cascio