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School Reception: Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm
Phone: (03) 8099 6000
Email:info@sfcc.vic.edu.au
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As we approach the midpoint of the season of Lent, perhaps it is a good time to review how our preparation for the Easter celebration is tracking. Have you looked to lighten the busyness of your day to focus on what Jesus’ Resurrection offers to you? Have you ‘given up’ some of your worldly habits to focus on the message in the Gospels? Or like Fr Timothy Draper (below) have you experienced ‘lukewarm days’?
From night to night,
In cold and fright,
Stood I near charcoal fire,
And, warming there,
Did curse and swear,
And show myself a liar.
“Are you not he
From Galilee,
The friend of Him all meek?”
The cock did crow.
“I do not know
The Man of Whom you speak.”
But then He turned,
And in me burned
A flame, lit from His gaze,
At which I wept
For oaths unkept
And all my lukewarm days.
When He was tried
Him I denied
And failed to pass the test,
Though promised I
With Him to die,
Should fail Him all the rest.
Filled with regrets
And empty nets,
I turned to former hire.
But when dawn came,
He spoke my name,
While burned the charcoal fire.
Now at the shore,
He asks once more
If I will be His friend
And, on the sands,
With pierced hands,
Gives me His sheep to tend.
Fr Timothy J. Draper
Last week I attended The Age Schools Summit at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Many of the sessions were highly informative, such as the anticipated sign-off of Version 9 of the National Curriculum with its decluttering and increased emphasis on Indigenous history.
However, much talk centred on teacher burnout and lack of recognition for the complexity of teaching and learning. For me, nothing can be less accurate.
In almost 30 years of teaching, no two days have been the same. We are blessed to engage with vibrant young people every day and to develop relationships that make a difference in the life of those with whom we come into contact.
The collaboration, laughter and camaraderie with fellow staff allow us to vent on a bad day, provide support and develop lifelong friendships.
Teachers are well renumerated, have extensive holidays and have the flexibility to work within school hours. The pandemic, in particular, saw an increase in parental appreciation for the hard work and dedication that staff demonstrate in their work.
There can be days when teachers are frustrated or a lesson doesn’t go as well as planned. However, most of the time, teachers experience a sense of fulfilment and pride in working with parents to see a young person develop into a fully flourishing adult.
I think the media needs to spend more time and effort talking about the positives of a vocation such as teaching rather than spreading the doom and gloom of burnout and dissatisfaction.
Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) recently released its COVID-19 Vaccinations - Parents and Carers on School Sites Guidelines.
The purpose of the guidelines is to continue to protect the students and staff as we learn to navigate ongoing exposure COVID-19.
These guidelines will apply to all events held at the College, such as assemblies, mass or Parents and Friends meetings. You can read them below.
MACS COVID-19 Vaccinations - Parents and Carers on School Sites Guidelines.
Despite the constant noise of construction, which is now part of our school day, it is exciting to see Stage 1A and 1B building works commence at our Melton West campus.
Stage 1A involves the development of a STEAM ideation area, a café where students will learn barista skills and expansion of classrooms in our Year 9 Gadal building.
Stage 1B involves the conversion of the old library to a new staff social and collaboration area. At present, our staff do not all fit into the lunchroom at one time so a larger modern area is well overdue.
The new space is also designed to facilitate collaborative professional learning for staff during our regular Tuesday afternoon staff meetings.
Principal
| Dates to remember | |
| Wednesday 30 March | Parents and Friends meeting |
| Tuesday 5 April | Parent Student Teacher Interviews 4pm-7pm |
| Thursday 7 April | Parent Student Teacher Interviews 4pm-8pm |
| Friday 8 April | Student study at home day. Term 1 concludes |
| Tuesday 26 April | Term 2 begins |
Bookings for Parents Student Teacher Interviews (PSTIs) can be made through the parent portal PAM from tomorrow, Wednesday 30 March.
The interviews will be held online via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday 5 April and Thursday 7 April from 4pm.
Instructions on how to login to PAM and make your interview bookings are available here: How to Book Your Parent Student Teacher Interview
You will also find information about how to access a link to the interview booking. Simply login to PAM and click on the Parent Teacher Interviews tab (see below).
There is significant evidence that building the connection between school and home is crucial to improving educational achievement and student wellbeing outcomes.
This week I would like to introduce you to The Resilience Project's Parent & Carer Hub.
Throughout 2022, we will work closely with The Resilience Project to support the wellbeing of our school community.
The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs and evidence-based, practical strategies to build resilience.
Our partnership program consists of online presentations and weekly lessons for students, professional development for staff, and the Parent & Carer Hub (which includes video presentations) for our parents and guardians.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing content from the Parent & Carer Hub with you. The videos are 5-10 minutes long and will walk through the key pillars of resilience: gratitude, empathy and mindfulness.
You’ll hear stories and be introduced to activities to show how these strategies can support your child’s learning and development and support you as parents and guardians.
This program is an important part of our school’s effort to look after the mental health of our community.
You can view the first presentation in the series here:
Part 1: Introduction - Meet Hugh and learn about The Resilience Project. Click here
Hugh shares a personal experience about his sister’s battle with mental illness in this presentation.
Please note: This video contains a story about an eating disorder that some viewers may find distressing. Please consider this before watching. For mental health resources and support information, click here to visit The Resilience Project's support page.
We will be in touch fortnightly to share the remainder of the program, including research and wellbeing activities to integrate into day-to-day life.
It was a pleasure to attend an afternoon at the Year 7 camp. The students were engaged in adventurous activities that took them out of their comfort zone. They overcame their fears, created new friendships and developed a rapport with their new teachers.
Congratulations to the team who worked tirelessly to ensure the camp went ahead – our Year 7 coordinators, Brad Ryan and Emma van Wees and our Camps and Incursions Coordinator Jason Rowley.
During this term, we have used different strategies to keep our grounds free from rubbish.
Each year level has a specific area to maintain and the emphasis on care and respect for our environment will continue in Term 2.
We encourage you to talk to your child about their habits with rubbish and how they can help keep our grounds clean.
We thank parents and guardians for their support with school uniforms. We have seen a significant improvement in how students wear them.
In Term 2, students are expected to wear the winter uniform.
Please follow the link for a complete list of the winter uniform items and use the upcoming holidays to check if your child’s fits correctly or if any alterations or new items are required.
For details for our uniform supplier, Academy Uniforms, and a pricelist, click here
Additionally, nose rings and jewellery will be a focus for Term 2. We have clear expectations regarding wearing these items, and they need to be followed.
It is exciting to witness the building works that are well underway at our second campus in Cobblebank. The campus is located on the corner of Bridge Rd and Adelong Blvd and will open for the start of the 2023 school year.
Stage 1 works include a two-level, general-purpose building with classrooms and breakout zones with varied seating for collaborative learning. Administration offices, staff room, and teacher work areas will also be accommodated.
Our specialist facilities will be housed in a second two-level building with project-based learning spaces, music and drama rooms on the ground floor and science and art facilities on the first floor.
Since January, our builders have completed preparation work for both slabs and the slab for the specialist facilities building has been poured. The slab for the general-purpose building will be poured in the next week. Preparation works for the outdoor basketball courts, parking and bus lanes are also underway.
Places for Year 7 2023 and 2024 at the new Cobblebank campus are available. To apply click here.
Click here to see a digital presentation of the design of our new campus.
The next meeting of the Parents and Friends Association will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 30 March, and will also be our Annual General Meeting.
The meeting will be held on-site in the conference room, but you can also join us online via Teams. New members are always welcome.
Please contact me via email arowley@crcemelton.com.au for the Teams link. You will automatically be sent the new link if you joined the last meeting.
Last week, our Year 7 students attended camp at Weekaway in Benloch. Students spent their time solidifying new friendships and challenging themselves with exciting activities including the possum glider, flying fox, canoeing, laser tag and yabbying. We thank all staff who gave up time from their families to attend and supervise the students.
Here's what some of our students had to say about their time on camp.
"Camp was a fun experience. We did lots of activities. The flying fox was heaps of fun but I was scared to do it at first. We did yabbying at night time and caught lots. We also saw a really big yabby (it was lobster sized) but we couldn’t catch it. I found canoeing to be a challenge and struggled with it, but I did the activity in the end and got through it." Grace, 7J
"It was fun attending camp because I tried new things and got out of my comfort zone. The possum glider, which a huge swing, was really fun and it felt like an aeroplane when you were pulled into the sky. The flying fox made us feel like we were in Mission Impossible and laser tag was by far the best activity." Oscar, 7C
"Camp was especially fun because we got to do a whole lot of different things we had never tried before. I know people in my class got out of their comfort zones but did really well. I can’t pick a favourite activity because almost all of them were super fun." Kayla, 7O
Year 9 Rite Journey students tested their communication skills last Friday during a team activity.
Students had to create two identical ice cream stick houses while they sat on opposites sides of the room without speaking to each other.
Two team members were builders and had to face opposite walls. While one builder made a stick house, the other had to make the same house without seeing it or communicating with builder one. The third team member moved between the two builders to describe what builder one was doing.
And as you will see from the results, our teams did very well.
Year 9 Visual Communication Design students have been exploring packaging design.
Students created their own toy out of air drying clay and then designed the graphics for the packaging that housed the toy.
On Monday 21 March, Year 11 students took part in our annual Aspire Day.
Guest speaker Education Consultant Jo Presita inspired our students to think about their future ambitions and goal setting in one of the sessions on the day.
Students then gathered in homerooms to write their own goals for the final years of their secondary school journey.
Our Year 11 VCE Food Studies students have been investigating spices, sugar and chocolate and how global trade has made them among the world's biggest industries.
Students developed a recipe for a scroll with a range of familiar spices, some using nutmeg and cinnamon and familiarised themselves with indigenous spices such as lemon myrtle.
Our Year 12 Biology students recently visited the Ecolinc Science and Technology Innovations Centre in Maddingley where they tested different food samples to determine if they had been genetically modified.
They used Polymerase Chain Reaction to amplify the DNA sample extracted from the food, and then a gel electrophoresis to determine the sizes of DNA fragments.
It was a fascinating session for our senior students.
Congratulations to Year 12 student Liam Machado who recently competed in the National Acrobatic Gymnastics Trials where he and his partner placed first in the Level 7 Mixed Pairs.
Liam’s hard work and dedication over many years has paid off, with the pair off to Queensland in May to represent Victoria at the Australian Gymnastics Championships. We wish Liam and his partner all the best for the upcoming nationals!
This week our Year 10 Premier League teams played their final games of the season.
We congratulate the Boys Basketball B team and Boys and Girls Volleyball teams for making the semifinals, to be held on Thursday (31 March).
We have had many wins and losses throughout the past seven weeks, but most importantly, all students showed excellent sportsmanship towards their opponents every week.
Thank you to all staff coaches who took time out of their day to coach our teams - we appreciate all your help and support over the last couple of weeks.
The results from Round 7 were:
Boys A Basketball: Emmanuel College def CRC 64 -97
Boys B Basketball: CRC def Emmanuel College 35-31
Girls Basketball: Emmanuel College def CRC 15-40
Netball: Emmanuel College def CRC 12-30
Boys Soccer: Emmanuel College def CRC 2-4
Girls Soccer: Emmanuel College def CRC 0-4
Girls Volleyball: CRC def Emmanuel College 3-0
Boys Volleyball: Emmanuel College def CRC 1-3
Students have one more day to donate to Project Compassion via their homeroom collection box. We encourage families to give generously to this annual appeal that brings us together to help vulnerable communities find a path out of poverty.
As of yesterday, 12 Bernard leads the homeroom fundraising challenge with $162 – find out next week if they have a slab of soft drink heading their way!
This week through Project Compassion we learn about Rosalie, who lives with her husband and seven children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Forced to join the army when she was just 15-years-old, Rosalie experienced significant trauma and hardship during her years in the military. After she was demobilised from the army, Rosalie, like other ex-combatants, was left to fend for herself in the community.
With your generous support and through Caritas Australia's partners, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Caritas Bukavu, Rosalie was able to connect with other members of her community and participate in business skills training to help her to reintegrate into society.
She joined a savings group that helped her with a loan to start her own small business selling second-hand shoes and natural remedies.
“I can eat, dress, maintain my health and help others. My children study and manage to eat twice a day. I have learnt to work hand-in-hand with other members of the community. Really, there is more joy in sharing with others,” Rosalie said.
Watch a short film about Rosalie’s story here.
Parents and guardians are encouraged to participate in the Enhancing Catholic School Identity Survey, which will assist us in better understanding how our Catholic identity is expressed in work and practice here at Catholic Regional College Melton.
The purpose of the research is to gain meaningful insights into our Catholic identity today and how such identity might be shaped for tomorrow.
Everyone’s input is important.
It’s best to finish the survey in one attempt, without having to come back later.
Your responses are anonymous and your personal data is treated confidentially in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.
Only you will be able to view your individual results and this can be done once you’ve completed the questionnaires.
Instructions and passcodes to complete the survey are available below.
Click here to begin the survey: https://www.ecsi.site/au/user/
If you have any questions, please contact me at arowley@sfcc.vic.edu.au.
If you have thought about foster care, please get in touch and ask the questions you have always wanted to. Key Assets Victoria is a Melbourne foster care agency that urgently needs new foster families.
Phone Key Assets 1800 932 237 or 1800 WE CARE or email info@keyassets.com.au. You will also find more information on their website canifoster.com.au or keyassets.org.au
The Huddle school holiday program flyer
The City of Melton will host a Community Road Safety Forum, on Thursday 31 March at the Melton Library targeting new or younger drivers aged 16 to 21 and their parent and guardians.
The forum will include guest speakers from Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and the Road Trauma Support Services who will talk about the rules of the road, and share some life experiences about being involved in, or responding to traffic accidents.
Every young driver who attends will go in the draw to win free driving lessons and other prizes. Click below for more information or to register visit meltonlearning.com.au/events/roadsafetyforum/
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