Dear Families,

It's funny how some weeks feel long while others seem to fly by.  As long and as stressful as last week was, it's seems we have quickly galloped through the past seven days.  

On a local level we have seen COVID-19 numbers on the increase.  I have reached out to our feeder secondary school, Lavalla Catholic College, to offer our support as they dealt with the situation of having cases in their student population.  As a school in the DOSCEL system we benefit from shared resources that we have been able to utilise during Remote Learning, Onsite Learning and in the Lavalla's example, a confirmed case.  As always our highest priority is child safety and the systems we have in place have this as their guiding principle.

The building works that we have just finished actually clearly demonstrate our commitment to child-safety and have proven a blessing with this round of school closures.  The new admin centre allows us to monitor the site much more effectively.  The design allows as to offer a safe, efficient and professional environment for our students, staff and community.  Our doors and gates are now fitted with 'swipe' technology, our communication system allows for immediate response across all buildings, our site evacuation plans have been professional designed and our newly installed security cameras have seen our site have zero trespassing or vandalism issues which all supports our efforts to be operationally safe.  We have been blessed to have been able to implement all these new technologies into our school.

On the staffing front this week we bid farewell to Miss Joanna Watson.  Joey joined us last year as a Learning Support Officer fresh from Year 12 at Lavalla.  She was the winner of the 2018 Champagnat Medal (Lavalla's Brownlow!) of her graduating class and her presence at our school has been wonderful while she prepared to begin her tertiary studies.  Joey has been offered another position in a different workplace which will suit her study commitments next year, so she has made the sensible decision to begin her new job immediately.  If your children have been in her classes the past two years, I'm sure they will be so disappointed to hear of her leaving.  We wish Joey all the best for her future adventures.

During the week I have been working my way around the school virtually by joining in with the daily classroom Google Meets, as well as our twice weekly afternoon Whole School Google Meets.  It has been great to see our attendance levels increasing all the time as these events not only assist to deliver the learning, they also contribute to everyone's positive sense of wellbeing and connection.

So, thanks to everyone for their efforts at school, at home and in the many varied and important workplaces across our community.

Have a great weekend and rest up!

Take care - Dave