Newsletter

Welcome to Spring! It seems so appropriate that in this season of renewal we will, next week, celebrate our 135th Mercy Day. This is a very special occasion and students and staff have been busy preparing for this wonderful day and I know how much everyone is looking forward to a great celebration day. I hope our students enjoy all what is planned for this special celebration and support their peers and teachers by participating on the day.

Father’s Day Breakfast

Today, we celebrated the annual Father's Day breakfast. Thank you to the many fathers and significant others who attended this occasion with their daughters. This year we were very fortunate to have Nick Pearce, Co-Founder and CEO of HoMie join us to deliver the keynote address. It was a truly enlightening breakfast and certainly made us better aware of the initiatives established and driven by HoMie to support young people experiencing homelessness and what we can do to promote respect and dignity. This was a very well received morning and I am sure that all who attended both enjoyed it and found it both very informing and inspirational.

Wishing all fathers and father figures in our community a very happy Father's Day!

College Timetable

I wish to inform you that due to staff members going on Long Service Leave, the College timetable will need to be altered for some classes in Term 4.

Wellbeing Week

Next week we celebrate Wellbeing Week, with events and activities focussed upon taking care of your own wellbeing. The week raises awareness levels for both students and staff of the importance of lifestyle choices. I congratulate our College Psychologist for all her work and planning for this annual initiative and all staff for their support of the activities organized for the week.

To our students

September is a defining and memorable month – not only does it mark the commencement of Spring and not only does it witness the end of Term 3, but it is also the month of the Final Series in AFL Football!

Interestingly AFL footballers are, perhaps, in many ways barometers of learning; they all endure a pre-season of 'torture', many months of working without externally acknowledged reward, yet in full knowledge of the possible glories or ignominies to come - a better simile for VCE is hard to come by! Our students, your daughters, work also for many years with perhaps little external reward or recognition - but this is their pre-season, the time they are acquiring their 'muscles' for learning, their skills and stamina for academic success. They are, in many ways, positioning themselves for achieving their true potential at Year 12.

And then Year 12 arrives - without a doubt, this moment in their school academic life is truly the most intense, the most pressured and the moment potentially that is most dis-enchanting. It has been a tough term - lots of SACs, lots of required revision, lots of pressure - but it's an essential baptism of fire. It is truly this 'quarter', this term and coming holidays, which will define their eventual success.

As we watch the endeavor, the skill, the commitment and the pride of athletes in the AFL across the nation, we should both appreciate and take inspiration from those that have contributed so wholly to the performance we see. As students, please view the coming weeks, as your "premiership” the toughest time of the year, where champions – St Aloysius girls - really step up.

National Child Protection Week

Next week is also National Child Protection Week, which is marked this year from 4 to 10 September. This year’s theme is ‘Every child, in every community, needs a fair go’. The theme was chosen to emphasise the importance of children growing up safe and supported.