21 November 2019

From the Principal

Article by Mr Michael Exton

From the Principal

Mosaic Evening – this evening!

Mosaic is an excellent annual community celebration for our College. All members of our school community are encouraged to attend this fantastic event this evening at Costa Hall, Deakin Waterfront Campus. The Student Art & Technology display commences at 6.00 pm in the Costa Hall foyer followed by the celebration evening that begins at 7.00 pm in the main auditorium.

I look forward to joining with students, families and friends of the College to celebrate the school year. As was the case in previous years no tickets are required to attend, all you will need to do is turn up at Costa Hall, and you will be ushered to a seat. There is no cost to attend, and you are most welcome to invite Grandparents, other family members, and family friends.

Thank you to our hard-working staff for organising and running this evening – most staff members play some part in supporting this community celebration. In particular, I thank Mrs Claire Hewitt for coordinating Mosaic.

Unit 3 Orientation Program

Thank you to Mr Michael Brown (VCE Coordinator), Ms Kirsty Allan (VCAL Coordinator), the Learning Area Leaders and the Senior School team of teachers for providing a valuable Orientation Program, “Kickstart,” this week and next week to prepare the Year 11 students for next year. These students must use the holiday period to prepare for the undertaking of their 2020 subjects. Teachers will have given guidelines and provided preparatory work.

The students have a responsibility to take advantage of this and not turn up next year, finding themselves behind the rest of the class. Can I please encourage parents to support this expectation? I expect that our senior students give their academic program the priority it deserves and other undertakings will need to fit in around their studies. I want all students, as I am sure parents do, to have the best chance of achieving to the best of their ability and this will be enhanced if the prevailing atmosphere is one where students are encouraging each other to do their best with their studies.

Blessing and Opening Ceremony

Last Friday afternoon, the whole school gathered for the first time in the new Multi-purpose Centre for the Blessing and Opening Ceremony. This was a very significant and wonderful College community celebration. The key message throughout the ceremony was one of gratitude for such a splendid facility that will significantly enhance our students’ educational outcomes.

Bishop Mark Edwards, Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne led the blessing liturgy assisted by Frs James Puppady (President) and Gerry Healy SJ (Jesuit Provincial delegate.)

Then, with Fr James, our local State member of Parliament, Ms Lisa Neville (Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for Water) officially opened this new building. We are grateful to Ms Neville, who has been very supportive of this project and consequently, we received a $2M grant from the State Government towards the $8.9M cost of this project.

We were delighted many guests could join us for this extraordinary event. Guests included representatives from Architects, Builders and Catholic Education Melbourne, many Principals from Geelong region schools, many retired staff members, College Board and former Board members and the Queenscliff Mayor. I am also grateful to the many parents who were able to be present as well.

Some details about this magnificent project are:

Cost: $8.9M (includes a $2M State Government Grant)

Architects: Clarke Hopkins Clarke

Builders: Commercial Industry Construction Group (CICG)

Facilities incorporated into project:

  • Two court stadium
  • 2 PE classrooms
  • One fitness room
  • Change and toilet facilities
  • Staff offices
  • Large foyer space
  • Retractable seating for 650 people
  • Stage

I hope that over the coming year, parents will have a chance to view this new centre. The Beginning of the Year Assembly (Academic Assembly) early in term one or Open Day (late term one) next year would be two opportunities.

The Blessing and Opening of the new Year 9 Centre will happen at a future date, still to be determined. We received an Australian Government Grant of $2.1M towards this project and await confirmation of when the Minister of Education or his delegate is available to open this very impressive ten classroom state of the art facility. Classes commenced in the second week of this term in this building. I hope we will be able to incorporate this ceremony in the College’s Beginning of the Year Assembly. I will inform our school community about this through this newsletter.

Finally, on this topic, I express my gratitude on behalf of the College community to all involved in making this building project such a success. In particular, I would like to thank the following people.

The completion of this program marks a milestone in a journey the Board has been on for many years. This involved the process we went through to obtain the land and the evolving masterplan. In particular, thank you to Board Chair, Mr Tony Frizza, for his unwavering support.

Thank you to the City of Greater Geelong for allowing us to expand onto this site to enhance the educational provision for Geelong.

Our Architects from Clarke, Hopkins, Clarke Simon Le Nepveu, Jennifer Rodezno and Jarrod Chamberlain. The Builders - Commercial Industry Construction Group (CICG).

And thank you to so many different members of our staff who have been involved in this massive project including Business Manager, Mr David Fitzgerald; Director of Infrastructure, Mr Bernie Lowes; our ICT Team, and in particular, Mr Paul James; and the Property and Maintenance Team, and in particular, Mr David Peters.

Thank you,

Michael Exton Principal

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Events