From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to our students!

After nearly nine weeks (which includes the two weeks of the Term One holidays), the Years 11 and 12 (and some Year 10) students returned on Tuesday 26th May. It was great to see our senior students back. And next Tuesday we look forward to the Years 7 – 10 students returning.

The school community has done a tremendous job to ensure our students’ learning continuity during the period of remote learning and working. I commend students and staff members for their adaptability, flexibility and hard work to manage during these very challenging and difficult times. Thank you to parents and carers for your ongoing support of the College and all you have done to support your daughter/son’s learning at home.

Our “Return to School – Parent & Student Information” guide has been emailed to all families. It provides what you need to know and what you need to do in regards to the transition back to learning on site and ensuring safety at school. Please contact the Year Level Coordinator or Homeroom Teacher if you have any questions or need clarification about any element of the arrangements.

As indicated in the guide, there will be many changes to our day to day operations to ensure everyone’s safety at school. The most critical factors in ensuring our safety are physical distancing and effective hygiene practices. I ask you to please reinforce this with your daughter/son. And, if she/he is unwell, I also ask that you please keep them home and seek medical advice if they are showing flu-like symptoms before they return.

There have been no known cases of COVID-19 infection to date in our school community. If a student or staff member returns a positive test for COVID-19 we will need to follow our “COVID-19 incident response plan.” Depending on the circumstances, this may result in a lockdown and then closing the school for two to three days. Depending on the time of the day when the lockdown occurs, students could be sent home early. Deputy Principal, Michael Timms provides more details about this in his article in this newsletter.

The College’s ICT infrastructure and online platforms performed exceptionally well to support remote teaching and learning. This is a credit to our dedicated and hardworking ICT Team.

One of many noteworthy features of the College’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak was the redeployment of four Education Support staff members to provide a meals program that involved them sourcing ingredients, cooking and distributing meals to families in need. Some statistics:

• School community families - 1076 main meals, 701 sweets/slices

• Christ Church meals program – 15 large tubs of soup, 300 scones, 60 main meals.

• Total cost of food prepared was $3296.17 and was funded by donations

Well done to all involved in providing this tremendous support to our community.

Student mental health

On the weekend a Yr 9 St Joseph’s College student died tragically. As a community, our hearts go out to the family and friends of Abraham. I have sent flowers and a message of condolence and support to the St Joseph’s community on behalf of Saint Ignatius.

The Geelong Advertiser reported on Monday that this was the fourth male teen tragedy in the past three months in the Geelong region. The article provided advice from Vikki Ryall (‘headspace,’ youth mental health service ) encouraging parents to seek information about mental health with their children.

“It’s important parents, in communities that have had such difficult things going on, are having conversations with their young people — as openly as they feel comfortable — about what’s going on, how they are feeling and what they are hearing about the tragic situations,” Ms Ryall said.

“It’s OK to step in a bit more for a conversation.”

She said changes in sleeping or eating patterns or withdrawal from sport or other activities could be signs a child is dealing with mental health concerns.

At Saint Ignatius, we have a proactive, dedicated and very supportive Student Wellbeing Team. With the heightened concerns about youth mental health as a result of the recent tragedies, that is compounded by the current uncertain and challenging times, our team has been particularly alert, proactive and supportive. You will find an article, “Go easy on yourself …” prepared by the Team as part of this fortnight’s newsletter you may find very helpful.

Our Team has a very good working relationship with Headspace. Headspace has been very proactive too. Four examples are as follows:

• Firstly, a recent meeting of many Geelong secondary school principals convened by Headspace to discuss youth mental health in the region;

• Secondly, Headspace has organised advertisements for Facebook and Instagram social media platforms. These promote the Geelong Headspace Centre, the headspace website https://headspace.org.au/ and also eheadspace, which provides their phone and online counselling service for young people aged 12-25 years old. It also highlights 000 and emergency services. The ads also promote Bellarine Community Health. The ads target social media users from 12 years old and up (so parents could see them too;)

• Thirdly, the provision of several fact sheets:

o Grief – fact sheet for young people (does not mention suicide specifically);

o If your friend is not ok – fact sheet for young people; and

o Information for parents and carers – for parents/carers with tips on what to notice, and how to seek help; and

• And finally, a letter to Geelong secondary school principals received this week from the CEO of Headspace, Jason Trethowan, highlighting key messages for Geelong parents. The purpose of this letter was to assist with significant concerns and anxiety of Geelong parents and communicate that national and local agencies are working in partnership with schools and the broader stakeholders to action urgent strategies in response to the suicide deaths that have occurred. I share this letter with you for your information.

If you have any concerns about your daughter/son, please do not hesitate to seek professional support and to contact our Student Wellbeing office at school.

Loyola Administration Centre construction update

While the school was under the period of remote learning and working, Lyons Constructions has been busy continuing the building of our latest project, the Loyola Administration Centre. They are currently working on laying the slab that will provide the basis for this $12+M building. Located in a central position, this Centre will be an impressive three level building. It will be a significant landmark on our site and will replace the refurbished relocatable classrooms we currently use for the College’s reception, administration offices, Student Wellbeing offices and Staffroom. I share some photos of the building site in the the gallery.

Best wishes,

Michael Exton Principal