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Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Saint Ignatius College Geelong
Article by Mr Michael Exton
Dear Parents, Students, Staff Members and Friends of the College,
This continues to be a very challenging time for schools and the wider community. It is vital we all work together and help minimise the risk of COVID-19 spreading further.
We are now into our second week of the Stage 3 restrictions. Our teachers and support staff continue to work hard to minimise any impact on student learning and to care for the wellbeing of their students during this second period of remote learning and working. We have learned many things from our earlier experience of remote learning and are better placed to support our students’ learning continuity this time. However, a challenge for us all is to continue to monitor the wellbeing of our students. Please know that you can seek help or advice from our Student Wellbeing Team (E: wellbeing@ignatius.vic.edu.au) if you have any concerns. A member of the team is on duty at our College each school day.
To coordinate and manage the College’s response to the Stage 3 restrictions, we have again set-up a network of teams coordinated by the Critical Incident Management (CIM) team which I convene twice per week. The purpose of each team is to assess, anticipate, act and refine action for its designated area – ICT, Curriculum, Student Wellbeing, Staff/Operations & Administration or OHS. Our overall aim is to ensure learning can continue remotely and the focus of each team is to troubleshoot, problem solve and support our teachers and students with their work. Feedback about how we are progressing with remote & flexible learning is discussed by the appropriate team. So feedback from parents, students and staff members to the appropriate team is vital.
I encourage parents and students to continue to send their feedback to the appropriate person as indicated in the document “Remote and Flexible Learning: Information for Students & Parents” that was emailed to all parents and students by Deputy Principal, Mr Michael Timms last week.
Another College response to the current situation that was a great success during the previous period of remote learning was our ‘Meals Program.’ Deputy Principal, Mr Paul Lewis has written to our school community (email letter) to inform everyone that we are preparing meals here at school and providing them to St Ignatius families who are in need of such support in these difficult times. To further promote this initiative, I provide the following excerpt from Mr Lewis’ letter.
Depending on how many meals we can make and how many families need our support, we will also investigate if we can offer similar support to other local charities.
If you would like to donate food items that can be used as part of this community support program, that would be wonderful. If you are driving for an essential reason and it happens to bring you past school, you will find a container just inside the Front Office where you can leave your donated food items.
It may be that you wish to support the program but won’t be out and about driving past our school in the near future so you may like to make a financial donation. As we are an essential service, we are permitted to purchase quantities of most food items from the supermarket so we will use the financial donations to purchase food for this meals program.
Financial donations to the program can either be paid directly into the College account, details as follows:
BSB 063-512
A/C 10124719
Quote Ref “Meals Program”
or via credit card at Reception.
We certainly realise that these are very difficult and challenging times for many people and for some their employment situation may have recently changed, and as such we completely understand that making a financial donation to this program may not be possible for some families.
Obviously, the year has unfolded very differently for us all and in particular, for our Year 12 students in their final year of secondary school. Adjustments have been made to the VCE and VCAL programs and many of the usual significant events that help make this final year special have not or may not be able to happen. Further support to students has been announced by the State Minister for Education, The Hon. James Merlino. Yesterday, parents received an email message from me about the introduction of a new ‘Consideration of Educational Disadvantage’ process to calculate VCE scores, taking into account disruptions to learning this year. This measure will ensure that Victorian students are not disadvantaged in comparison to interstate students in the calculation of their individual ATAR. This email letter includes important information for parents and students in Years 11 or 12.
During term three, students in Years 8 – 11 are asked to indicate their preferences for elective subjects for the following year. Whilst considering options at this time, it is important to discuss with your daughter/son her/his strengths, interests and post-school options and review this every so often. The Semester One Statement of Results would be a helpful springboard into this type of discussion. Our Work and Further Education Coordinator, Mr Bruce Connor, is also available (E: connorb@ignatius.vic.edu.au) to help in this area.
Important information to support the subject selection is available via Canvas. Please ask your daughter or son to show you where you can access the video and booklet relevant to her/his year level. The video is provided as a substitute for the usual parent information evening.
I am pleased to report very strong interest in the College continued again this year with many more applications than places available for next year.
The very positive reputation of the College is a commendable result of the commitment of our students, staff and parents to our College community and its continual improvement. This has helped at a time when we have not been able to run our usual on-site Open Day and Tours.
As in the past three years, I have enrolled 250 students for Year 7 next year.
The third edition of Catholic Education Today for 2020 is now available on the Catholic Education Melbourne website www.cem.edu.au under News and Events / Catholic Education Today.
The Term 3 edition focuses on ‘stepping up’ with articles that explore school transitions and how to support your child through changes at all levels of school from beginning in Foundation to leaving secondary.
I thank parents for your ongoing support of the College.
Michael Exton Principal
Feature
Events
Our News // 13 August 2020
Article by Mr Michael Exton
Dear Parents, Students, Staff Members and Friends of the College,
This continues to be a very challenging time for schools and the wider community. It is vital we all work together and help minimise the risk of COVID-19 spreading further.
We are now into our second week of the Stage 3 restrictions. Our teachers and support staff continue to work hard to minimise any impact on student learning and to care for the wellbeing of their students during this second period of remote learning and working. We have learned many things from our earlier experience of remote learning and are better placed to support our students’ learning continuity this time. However, a challenge for us all is to continue to monitor the wellbeing of our students. Please know that you can seek help or advice from our Student Wellbeing Team (E: wellbeing@ignatius.vic.edu.au) if you have any concerns. A member of the team is on duty at our College each school day.
To coordinate and manage the College’s response to the Stage 3 restrictions, we have again set-up a network of teams coordinated by the Critical Incident Management (CIM) team which I convene twice per week. The purpose of each team is to assess, anticipate, act and refine action for its designated area – ICT, Curriculum, Student Wellbeing, Staff/Operations & Administration or OHS. Our overall aim is to ensure learning can continue remotely and the focus of each team is to troubleshoot, problem solve and support our teachers and students with their work. Feedback about how we are progressing with remote & flexible learning is discussed by the appropriate team. So feedback from parents, students and staff members to the appropriate team is vital.
I encourage parents and students to continue to send their feedback to the appropriate person as indicated in the document “Remote and Flexible Learning: Information for Students & Parents” that was emailed to all parents and students by Deputy Principal, Mr Michael Timms last week.
Another College response to the current situation that was a great success during the previous period of remote learning was our ‘Meals Program.’ Deputy Principal, Mr Paul Lewis has written to our school community (email letter) to inform everyone that we are preparing meals here at school and providing them to St Ignatius families who are in need of such support in these difficult times. To further promote this initiative, I provide the following excerpt from Mr Lewis’ letter.
Depending on how many meals we can make and how many families need our support, we will also investigate if we can offer similar support to other local charities.
If you would like to donate food items that can be used as part of this community support program, that would be wonderful. If you are driving for an essential reason and it happens to bring you past school, you will find a container just inside the Front Office where you can leave your donated food items.
It may be that you wish to support the program but won’t be out and about driving past our school in the near future so you may like to make a financial donation. As we are an essential service, we are permitted to purchase quantities of most food items from the supermarket so we will use the financial donations to purchase food for this meals program.
Financial donations to the program can either be paid directly into the College account, details as follows:
BSB 063-512
A/C 10124719
Quote Ref “Meals Program”
or via credit card at Reception.
We certainly realise that these are very difficult and challenging times for many people and for some their employment situation may have recently changed, and as such we completely understand that making a financial donation to this program may not be possible for some families.
Obviously, the year has unfolded very differently for us all and in particular, for our Year 12 students in their final year of secondary school. Adjustments have been made to the VCE and VCAL programs and many of the usual significant events that help make this final year special have not or may not be able to happen. Further support to students has been announced by the State Minister for Education, The Hon. James Merlino. Yesterday, parents received an email message from me about the introduction of a new ‘Consideration of Educational Disadvantage’ process to calculate VCE scores, taking into account disruptions to learning this year. This measure will ensure that Victorian students are not disadvantaged in comparison to interstate students in the calculation of their individual ATAR. This email letter includes important information for parents and students in Years 11 or 12.
During term three, students in Years 8 – 11 are asked to indicate their preferences for elective subjects for the following year. Whilst considering options at this time, it is important to discuss with your daughter/son her/his strengths, interests and post-school options and review this every so often. The Semester One Statement of Results would be a helpful springboard into this type of discussion. Our Work and Further Education Coordinator, Mr Bruce Connor, is also available (E: connorb@ignatius.vic.edu.au) to help in this area.
Important information to support the subject selection is available via Canvas. Please ask your daughter or son to show you where you can access the video and booklet relevant to her/his year level. The video is provided as a substitute for the usual parent information evening.
I am pleased to report very strong interest in the College continued again this year with many more applications than places available for next year.
The very positive reputation of the College is a commendable result of the commitment of our students, staff and parents to our College community and its continual improvement. This has helped at a time when we have not been able to run our usual on-site Open Day and Tours.
As in the past three years, I have enrolled 250 students for Year 7 next year.
The third edition of Catholic Education Today for 2020 is now available on the Catholic Education Melbourne website www.cem.edu.au under News and Events / Catholic Education Today.
The Term 3 edition focuses on ‘stepping up’ with articles that explore school transitions and how to support your child through changes at all levels of school from beginning in Foundation to leaving secondary.
I thank parents for your ongoing support of the College.
Michael Exton Principal
