Issue 11 SJC News 2020

In recent months there has been a great deal of communication with families, almost all of it COVID-19 related. In this newsletter I would like to focus on other matters.

One of the specific goals in our strategic plan is to ‘foster intercultural knowledge and skills in students, staff and the wider community’. A key means of promoting this goal is our extensive immersion program along with Young Leaders to China and India programs, which are halted at present due to our inability to travel. We were delighted therefore to be informed this week that we have received a grant from the Jewish Christian Muslim Association to assist us develop initiatives to further our exposure to, and understanding of Jewish and Muslim communities. I look forward to bringing you more on the initiatives that this generates in months to come.

Last week we were delighted to welcome Senator Sarah Henderson to the College to meet with a group of Student Leaders. The students presented their thoughts on mental health and discussed a range of initiatives currently in place along with where government support might best be directed. They also raised environmental issues and made clear their concerns for the wellbeing of asylum seekers in offshore detention. It was a great opportunity to have their collective voices heard in Canberra.

The Geelong Catholic Secondary Schools work together closely on a range of matters. Last week we were pleased to confirm an opportunity for families to join an online webcast of the film ‘Angst’. From the producer of ‘Screenagers’ and ‘LIKE’, this short documentary style film focuses on anxiety and teenage mental health. The screening date will be announced shortly and the College Wellness team encourage you to consider joining the webcast. In the next newsletter there will also be further information about an online opportunity to help our students be e-safe.

In 1865 the following opinion was printed in the Boston Post; ‘Well informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so the thing would be of no practical value.’ Despite this prediction the telephone became perhaps the most prominent aid to communication of the following 150 years.

In 2020 we are hearing ‘well informed’ people tell us that student learning will be irreparably damaged by remote learning. Like most I wish students were still at school because of the importance of the teacher student relationships but I firmly believe there is enormous upside and opportunity in remote learning. If we get it right, our boys will develop skills they would not have developed in the physical classroom and will be better equipped for, and able to participate in creating their own futures beyond secondary school.

Stay well

God Bless.