This Sunday’s Gospel reading from John 10:1-10 describes Jesus’ attempt to explain his role as the Good Shepherd to a group of Pharisees. Throughout this short reading, Jesus refers to himself as being both a “Shepherd”, who is concerned and caring for his followers, and also as a Gateway to the Lord and eternal salvation. It is important for us to remember, as we commence our new term of learning and spiritual growth, that as members of a Catholic community, we are all gifted with the responsibility of being shepherds and gates for all members of our community, particularly those who may be struggling with a range of challenges in their lives. We hope that the upcoming term will be one that allows us to further develop our skills, knowledge and understanding in both a learning and spiritual context and that we continue to support all members, particularly those in most need.

In his absence, we continue to wish Mr Lo Cascio all the best for his time in the Holy Land and La Valla. He has been in communication from time to time with staff and has greatly appreciated the opportunity to immerse himself in his own spiritual development by his visits to the lands where Jesus and Blessed Marcellin Champagnat answered their call to continue God’s work.

At the time of our last Newsletter, Mr Lo Cascio placed a reminder for the return of applications for Year 7 2024. At this stage we have had well over 300 applications and our Leadership team, KLA Coordinators, Year Coordinators and Diverse Learning team has conducted around 240 Interviews, with the majority of these being over the past 2 days. The interviews could only occur in the smooth manner that they did courtesy of the magnificent work by our Front Office staff who booked interviews and organised the schedule. Thanks to all staff involved for making the interviews such a success. We will finalise this stage of the enrolment process over the next week or so, with notification of offers due to be mailed out on June 23.

I would like to announce that Mr Greg King will commence the role as Full-time PDHPE Coordinator from Monday June 5. Greg previously held the position before taking up employment at the Association of Independent Schools for the past 18 months. We look forward to his return in 5 weeks’ time. In the interim, Ms Susan Turnbull will assume the Acting 2 point Coordinator role until Greg commences. Also, congratulations to Mr Brendan Berkeley, who is the successful applicant for the Year 9 Coordinator position whilst Ms Tara Hibberd is on Maternity Leave. Brendan will commence this role at the start of Week 3.

The new Science and TAS Block is steadily taking shape with significant progress still being made on the foundations and footings (see image below).

This Thursday will see a significant concrete pour to the existing work and we should see an acceleration of construction above the ground over the coming weeks. During the break, renovation work was completed in J-Block, an upgrade of our existing Fire Hydrant system was completed and folding walls in the Year 7 Rooms in D-Block were installed. Thanks to our IT and Maintenance staff who liaised with contractors during the completion of these works.

Finally, an invitation is extended to our Year 7 Parents and Carers to attend our 2024 Literacy evening next Wednesday, May 3. Our English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach, Ms Clare Murphy, will be presenting some valuable information regarding the importance of literacy skills and what we can do as a partnership to support students and families to improve literacy outcomes. This evening will commence at 6.30pm and be held in the College Library.

Thanks to all students, families and staff for their role in what has been a positive start to the term. We look forward to continuing this enthusiasm and application to our learning over the coming weeks.

Ite In Veritate

Mr Simon Huntly