29 August 2019

From the Principal

Article by Mr Michael Exton

From the Principal

Staff members at our College are in the privileged position of supporting parents with the education of their daughters and sons. We need to ensure community members are safe. Also, we work to positively and constructively influence societal culture through the education we offer to our students. Our Catholic ethos and teachings and the State Government’s Child Safety Reforms provide a solid basis from which we work to ensure we have a culture of respectful and appropriate relationships where community members, and in particular, our students are safe from abusive behaviour.

I affirm the efforts our staff members have made to implement the Child Safe Standards. They have all signed the College’s Child Safety Code of Conduct and have been reminded of the College’s commitment to ensuring a safe environment for all. I also affirm our staff members’ work to educate our young people about respectful and appropriate relations. Through their day to day guidance of and intervention in, when needed, student interactions and ensuring compliance with our Acceptable Behaviour and Student Wellbeing Policies, our staff members support our young people. Proactively, our Student Wellbeing Team run many and varied sessions where students are taught about appropriate and respectful relationships. I am encouraged by this team’s enthusiasm to seek better ways of doing this continually. And as a prayerful and reflective Catholic community, we need to pray for those in the wider community who have suffered abuse. We also need to reflect on past practices and whether our current practices are leading us in the way of promoting wellbeing for all students.

We have a Child Safety Committee which is convened by Deputy Principal Mr Michael Timms. Mr Timms is our designated Child Safety Officer. He is the contact person for any matters related to concerns about student safety.

We need to continuously review our practices to ensure we have a culture that promotes appropriate and respectful relationships. In schools, we can help shape the future by our influence on our students. We are forming our students' consciences and sense of compassion in the hope they will be compelled to use their competence to be men and women for others. We want them to value the dignity of every human person, and this is reflected in appropriate and respectful relationships and interactions with others.

College Production – tickets now available and selling fast!

It is hard to believe that the College’s Production – “School of Rock” will be performed in just over two weeks’ time. After many months of planning, preparation and rehearsals the cast of well over 100 students together with the student, staff and parent support crew are ready to entertain us and reap the many benefits of being involved in such an undertaking. The students will develop valuable knowledge, skills, talents and confidence in many different areas.

The performances will be held at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre’s (GPAC) Playhouse Theatre at the following times:

  • Thursday 12th September –evening show (7.00pm)
  • Friday 13th September - evening show (7.00pm)
  • Saturday 14th September – matinee show (12.00pm)
  • Saturday 14th September – late afternoon show (5.00pm)

Evening show tickets are available from GPAC:

During box office opening hours

Phone: (03) 5225 1200

In Person: 50 Little Malop St, Geelong or

Or online: https://www.gpac.org.au/event/1229/school-of-rock

I encourage all members of the school community to support this event by coming along to one of the performances.

Subject selection

During term three attention is given to considering subject choices for the following year. The process has already started with Year 11 students being asked to indicate their preferences and now we are asking students in Years 8, 9 & 10 to consider subjects for 2020. (Year 7 students do not choose their Year 8 subjects.)

If you need help with questions about subject selections please feel free to contact your daughter / son’s Homeroom Teacher or one of the following staff members: Mr Michael Brown (VCE Coordinator), Ms Kirsty Allan (VCAL Coordinator), Mr. Bruce Connor (Work and Further Education Coordinator), Ms Elise Meehan (Acting DP, Teaching and Learning) or your student’s Year Level Coordinator.

School Community Surveys

Over the last nine years the college has used the Catholic Education Melbourne’s (CEM) “School Improvement Framework” so we meet government and our sector expectations about accountability for the outcomes of schooling and to assist us to improve student-learning outcomes. This year, our school is participating in the new Catholic Education Melbourne School Improvement Surveys (CEMSIS.)

CEMSIS will inform the College’s school improvement process which requires the College Executive to monitor the school’s progress each year towards attaining the goals set out in the School Improvement Plan. To do this we need to gather data from a range of sources. Three surveys (parent, student and staff) will again be conducted during September this year.

The surveys will be organised as follows:

  • All staff members have been asked to complete an on-line “Staff Opinion Survey”;
  • The parent contact will receive an email message with a link to the online “Parent Opinion Survey’; and
  • All students will complete a “Student Opinion Survey” at school.

“Orima Research” is conducting the surveys on behalf of Saint Ignatius College Geelong and CEM.

The survey is available online, can be accessed from Monday 2 September and needs to be completed by Friday 20 September. This survey may only be completed once.

For families where there may be more than one child attending our school, we ask that families focus on the eldest child attending the school. The school has invited all families to respond via this survey and participation is completely voluntary. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers – all responses are completely anonymous and at no point are any of the responses from students, families or staff identifiable by the school.

I ask all parents to please take the time to complete the survey. We need as many parents as possible to respond so we have the best possible sample of opinion. You can provide valuable feedback that will help us to plan for improvements. Please note that your answers will go anonymously into a database and your responses will remain confidential. Thank you in anticipation of your support with this matter.

Drysdale Bypass update - Andersons Road closure

Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) will permanently close Andersons Road at the Princess Street intersection from Monday September 9, 2019.

This is to enable MRPV to continue construction on the bypass and build the new Princess Street roundabout.

All traffic looking to access Andersons Road will now take the Reserve Road and Gilles Road route. See the article in this newsletter for more details.

Visit by new local Federal MP.

Recently, the new Federal Member of Parliament for the local seat of Corangamite, Ms Libby Coker visited the College. Ms Coker met with a group of our Student Leaders and me. This visit was a valuable opportunity for the students to learn about Ms Coker’s career and the story of her pathway to being elected as our local representative. It was also an opportunity for Ms Coker to learn about our College. Some of the things I pointed out were as follows: Saint Ignatius College is the largest secondary school in the Corangamite Electorate, the many tremendous programs our students are involved in, the need for more sports and arts facilities in the local area and that we have applied for a Federal Government Capital Grant to help fund our building program. I am sure that Ms Coker was very impressed by the Student Leaders; she has a teaching background and would be familiar with secondary school students. I am grateful for Ms Coker’s interest in our College. A photo of our College Student leaders with Ms Libby Coker can be seen in the photo gallery of this article.

Best wishes,

Michael Exton Principal

Privacy and information collection - Saint Ignatius College Geelong is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1998. In relation to health records, the School is also bound by the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic.). A copies of the College’s Privacy Policy and ‘Collection Notice’ that take into account these laws, technology and changes to the School’s operations and practices is available on our website. You can find the link at the bottom of the College’s web page.

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