From the Senior Years
As with any school year, there are evolutions and changes through the continual refinement and improvement of programs and the communication with students, parents and carers and teachers.
On Tuesday 25 February, the College welcomed Year 10 – 12 parents and carers to attend a combined Parent Information Evening session that focused on the span of learning and wellbeing programs across these three years. This decision to combine aligns with the observed needs of parents (and students) to understand the learning and wellbeing progressions and transitions between these more ‘senior’ years of high school. This naturally leans towards an overall understanding of the VCE and VCE VM pathways that the College offers – seeing the overall learning journey can be helpful. Hopefully, this understanding of the demands of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) give broader context for the policies, process and supports in place
The attendance from parents was high in the STEM Centre. This was in no small part thanks to parent Nadia Cinalli, whose generously spoke to her experience and reflections as the parent of a Class of 2024 alumna Yasmine Wong. Nadia gave great insight into the realities of being a parent in the VCE years and how she navigated the transitions, the stresses and, ultimately, supported her daughter Yasmine to find her pathway to further study – Bachelor of Education at Australian Catholic University. There was pathos for parents in the similar position as Year 12 parents.
On Friday 28 February the formal celebration of the beginning of the year took place at the St Aloysius College Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral. This reverent occasion included the blessing and commissioning of Year 12 student leaders, as well as the blessing of Year 12 badges which will be individually presented to each Year 12 student at their Year Level Assembly by Mercy Sister Carmel McCormick and Principal Mary Farah to honour the Mercy Charism and personal touch for each Year 12 student.
As part of the College membership to the Association of Co-educational Schools, St Aloysius College was fortunate to be invited to a Student Leadership Conference at St Leonard’s College on Thursday 20 February. As a student-organised event run by St Leonard’s College prefects and with the support of their College Principal, four Year 12 Prefects and College co-captains attended: Olivia M, Sedora T, Tadala N and Ella C.
Below are reflections from Tadala N and Ella C on the impact of the conference and their aims for the year as student leaders in the community.
On Thursday the 20th of February, we had the immense privilege of going to St Leonard's College for a student leadership conference. We are thankful for the insightful experience as we recognised how it helped us develop our leadership skills, so that we can approach being school leaders from a new perspective and reflect on what we can contribute to make meaningful change within the St Aloysius community. We connected with numerous student leaders from schools all around Victoria making connections and learning from each other's unique viewpoints. We also had 3 amazing guest speakers: Alex Dekker, who started successful charity Alex makes meals, Jeremy Loeliger, who is a successful lawyer who rebuilt the NBL and Alison Budgen, who is a clinical psychologist that expanded into a field of development. These inspiring speakers challenged us to consider 3 key themes; daring to inspire, innovate and daring to be vulnerable. We also did workshops run by Dr Ananth Gopal where we were pushed outside our comfort zones and had to collaborate with school leaders we did not previously know to apply the guest speakers' topics into different aspects of our lives. We are extremely grateful to have been invited to this event and had a wonderful time.
Tom Crowle
Senior Years Leader