Welcome back to all students and families. We particularly welcome those who are joining the College community for the first time. We have a total of 239 new Year 7 students along with 20 new students across other year levels. This means that nearly one in five students are new to Penola and I would ask all within our community to go out of their way to ensure that our new students are welcomed and supported in their transitional period. A particularly warm welcome to our new families and I hope that your time within the Penola community is both enriching and rewarding.

Staff and students have returned ready for another busy and hopefully successful year. I am really looking forward to this year at Penola Catholic College commencing with our key foci on establishing routines and our subject specific literacy focus. Our theme for the year is “Let us show this love in our acts, bearing with one another, forgiving, and forgetting” (St Mary MacKillop, 1890). This theme is particularly relevant to us as we seek to help each student achieve their individual potential and improve our VCE and VCAL results. After a particularly disrupted 2020 and 2021 we are focusing upon mitigating the learning loss by prioritising the essential skills and knowledge in every subject and explicitly teaching these skills and knowledge.

As such, it is important that all students begin the year well in every context. It is important that the College uniform is worn well at all times; it means getting down to the core business of working hard in class and working with every teacher to produce the best set of results possible; it involves challenging oneself to participate in the vast array of co-curricular activities available; it means embracing the social justice programmes at the College and contributing to these. The evidence clearly supports the theory that the students who get the most out of schools such as Penola Catholic College are those who enthusiastically embrace the educational, cultural, sporting and social justice offerings available.

College Board Information Session
An invitation is extended to parents to come along to an information session being held on the evening of Tuesday 22 February for parents who are interested in the work of the College Board. The information session will provide an opportunity for parents who may be willing to offer their services as Board members in this year or subsequent years, to gain an understanding of the governance of the College. We will have 1 vacancy for a parent for the College Board in 2022.

The information session will commence at 7.00pm in the ERC (Library) at the Broadmeadows campus.

Prayers
In recent times we have been aware of members of our community who have suffered loss, including:

• Paul Clements (Former staff member and Deputy of Faith and Mission)
• Terry Flannery (Father-in-law of Mark O’Dowd)
• Roberto Ruzgal Junior (Brother of Nora Macawili)
• Tommaso Ruberto (Grandfather of Letesha Ruberto)
• Marg Millsom (Former staff member who worked in the ERC at Glenroy)
• Helen Tatum (Mother-in-law of Julie Tatum)
• Peter Lucarelli (Father-in-law of Rosa Lucarelli).

Births
Joanne Pace’s daughter Sofia and her husband Steven welcomed Joshua James Victor Basile born January 6.

Congratulations to Katherine and Chris McBrearty on the birth of their son Eoin McBrearty on December 30, weighing in at 2.75kg. Henrietta has been delighted to welcome her new brother.

Late Resignations
Mr Luke Lentini resigned on December 22 and has taken on the Head of Student Wellbeing position at CRC Caroline Springs. Liza Webb and Katherine Jones have kindly agreed to take on the role as Head of Health & PE to replace Luke for the first semester.

Ms Daniela Bombardieri-Szabo was appointed as Head of Teaching and Learning at Thomas Carr College on Friday 21 January 2022. I have advertised her role and hope to appoint a replacement within the next fortnight.

I have provided a list of staff new to the College for 2022 including those who are returning to the College after a period of leave.

New Staff

Staff Name	Title	Campus
Irena Pavlovska	French Language Assistant	Both
Katrina Chislett	Japanese Teacher	B/M
Fulvia Galigani	HOL - Languages	B/M
Denise Koshy	NCCD Coordinator	B/M
Kylie Duggan	RE & English	B/M
Jacinta Muscat	Yr 10 English	B/M
Martina Battista	Italian Language Assistant	B/M
Bree-Anna Bott	Yr 9 English	B/M
Michiko Shibata	Japanese Language Assistant	G
Zoe Yang	Yr 9 & 10 Maths	B/M
Jessica Wu	Yr 9 & 10 Maths Science	B/M
Elizabeth Turville	Yr 7 & 8 Maths	G
Ciaran Ross	Numeracy Tutor	Both
Tom Dullard	LSO	B/M
Irene Christofi	LSO	B/M
Xanthe Sefton	LSO	G
Michelle Golfis	LSO	G
Paul Barbetti	Coordinator of Students Yr7-8	G
Nirmala Lazar	Maths & Science	G
Maria Joseph	English & Humanities	G
TBC	ICT Helpdesk	B/M
TBC	Elearning Leader	B/M

Returning Staff

Name	Methods/Role	Campus
Jenny Carroll	EAL Support	Broadmeadows
Fran Pascalis	Visual Arts	Broadmeadows
Sam Thompson	Administration	Broadmeadows

Staff with New Roles

Name	Methods/Role	Campus
Erin Bonavia	Deputy Principal Head of Broadmeadows Campus	Broadmeadows
Liviana Daniele	Coordinator of Students Yrs 11&12	Broadmeadows
Paul Barbetti	Coordinator of Students Yrs 7&8	Glenroy
Letesha Ruberto	Year 7 Coordinator	Glenroy
Dyson Bell-Warren	Year 8 Coordinator	Glenroy
Katherine Jones	Year 9 Coordinator	Broadmeadows
Emily Hastie	Year 10 Coordinator	Broadmeadows
Rosa Lucarelli	Year 11 Coordinator	Broadmeadows
Fulvia Galigani	Head of Languages	Broadmeadows
Denise Koshy	NCCD Coordinator	Broadmeadows
Liza Webb	Head of Health & PE (Yrs 11&12)	Broadmeadows
Brendan Smith	Instructional Coach	Glenroy
Giusi Graziano	Literacy Coach	Broadmeadows
Fiona Trapani	Literacy Coach	Glenroy
Dyson Bell-Warren	Head of Health & PE - Glenroy	Glenroy
Elaine Georges	Head of Mathematics - Glenroy	Glenroy
Stuart Harrison	Head of Humanities – Year 8	Glenroy
Sandra Warren	Head of Humanities – Year 7	Glenroy
Brendan O’Carroll	Health and PE teacher	Broadmeadows
Luke Vraca	Health and PE teacher	Broadmeadows

Communication
A key element in helping your child to succeed at the College is communication between you and your child’s teachers. While the student diary is the primary means of communication between teachers and families, we also encourage other means of communication. The email addresses of all staff at the College is the first initial of the christian name followed by their surname. For example, Mrs Erin Bonavia. Erin’s email address is ebonavia@penola.vic.edu.au .

We hope that this will further facilitate our ability to work closely with you in catering for the wellbeing and educational needs of your child. Your child’s Homeroom teacher should be the first port of call for any enquiries with the school. Please feel free to make contact with me if you have concerns that are unable to be resolved by your child’s Homeroom teacher, subject teacher, Year Level Coordinators or Head of Campus.

I hope that all students will settle into a productive routine as quickly as possible; I hope they will participate in activities new to them this year; and I look forward to witnessing a genuine spirit of cooperation and partnership between all students and their teachers this year.

Results - University Preferences and First Round Offers
In 2021, 87% of students who applied for a course received an offer and 90% of these received one of their top 3 choices. The average ATAR was 59.26 slightly down from 59.33 last year.

• Total offers - 103
• Offers of 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd Prefs - 93 (90.3%) made up of –
• Offers of 1^st Prefs - 60
• Offers of 2^nd Prefs - 18
• Offers of 3^rd Prefs - 15

I am pleased to be able to report that the Dux of the College is Athraa Dawoud with an ATAR of 96.95 and a further eleven students had ATARs above 80. Our VCE median score decreased from 27 to 26 which was disappointing and may have been reflective of the challenges that many of our students experienced with remote learning. Congratulations to all teachers of Year 12 subjects, and to all other staff who did the preparatory work in years 7 – 11.

2022 Bell Times
I have listed the bell times below

Homeroom	8.40am – 8.50am8.50am
Period 1	8.53am – 9.43am
Period 2	9.45am – 10.35am
Recess	10.35am – 10.55am
Period 3	10.58am – 11.48am
Period 4	11.51am – 12.41pm
Lunch	12.41pm – 1.21pm
Period 5	1.24pm – 2.14pm
Period 6	2.16pm – 3.06pm

ERC
In an attempt to limit the mixing of year levels and cohorts, The following year levels will be rostered to use the ERC, at recess and lunchtimes, on the following days

Day	Broadmeadows	Glenroy
Monday	Year 12	Year 7
Tuesday	Year 11	Year 8
Wednesday	Year 10	Year 7
Thursday	Year 9	Year 8
Friday	Year 12	Year 7

Students will need to present their student card to gain entry to the respective ERCs. If a student has lost their card, they can either go to the Campus Office or notify their Year Level Coordinator for a replacement.

Bags
To limit the number of students congregating around lockers, students are encouraged to bring in small bags to carry their books to class on the Broadmeadows campus. These bags should either be placed at the front of the room at the beginning of class or hang over the back of the chairs to reduce the tripping hazard for staff and students.

Air purifiers
The Victorian Government has delivered air purifier units (model Samsung AX7500) to most Catholic schools. Air purifiers are advised to be prioritised for higher risk areas. These areas include where there are high levels of mixing of staff and reduced mask use when eating, higher levels of exertion and increased aerosol projection, and lower ventilation and possible exposure to illness. For example, sick bays, staffrooms, canteens, school receptions and student centres, gymnasiums and music rooms.

Free rapid antigen tests
Free rapid antigen tests will be available for the first four weeks of Term 1 2022.

The Department of Health is strongly recommending that students complete a test twice a week to help proactively identify any cases, reducing the risks of an outbreak.

We have been supplied with tests by the Victorian Government – you do not need to buy your own.

The Rapid Antigen Tests have been distributed in homeroom to each student on their first day at school. For Years 7, 9, 10, 11 & 12 this was Tuesday 1 February and for Year 8 students was Wednesday 2 February.

At Penola we are encouraging students and staff to do the test on Mondays and Wednesdays as having set days will be easier for people to remember. If a child/staff forgets, that’s OK, they can do it the next day. Remember that this is voluntary and we are not monitoring results.

Students and staff will do the tests at home; they only need to report their result if it is COVID-positive. They must report a COVID-positive result to:

• the school by phone on 03 93012777; this is so that we can support students, record that they will be absent while in 7-day isolation, and let the rest of the school community know there has been a positive case onsite and that they should monitor for symptoms
• the Department of Health via the COVID-19 Positive Rapid Antigen Test Self-Reporting Form or call centre on 1800 675 398.

Parents will be notified by the College if their child is considered a close contact.

Information about how to do a test and how to read RAT results, including a how-to video translated into 33 languages, is available online.

Recently recovered COVID-19 Cases
If a recently recovered COVID-19 case becomes a household or household-like contact of a confirmed case, they do not need to quarantine again if the re-exposure was less than 30 days since the recovered case’s symptom onset (or first positive test if asymptomatic).

Within this 30-day period, recovered cases;

• can continue to attend high-risk settings
• do not need to cease work or studies if re-exposed
• do not need to participate in surveillance testing as part of their employment or education if re-exposed.

Staff, contractors or students whose COVID-19 infections are outside the 30-day period are not considered exempt from quarantine and/or testing requirements. They must, if determined to be a contact of a positive case, follow the requirements for quarantine and/or testing that are applicable in the circumstances (either as household/household-like contacts, or workplace/educational facility contacts,

College Assembly
We have made the decision to only have the award recipients and their parents along with our current Year 7 students present in the Mary Aikenhead Gymnasium at Glenroy for the Academic Assembly on Friday 4 February to restrict the mixing of year levels and reduce the chance of COVID transmission. The Assembly will be livestreamed to our current Years 8-12 students in their respective homerooms. The ASH floor will not be ready, so we have transferred to the Glenroy Gym.

Award winners will be seated at the front on the left-hand side facing the stage with their parents on the right-hand side. Our current Year 7’s will be seated in homeroom groups behind them with a 2-metre gap between each homeroom.

Given the high number of new members of our community, I thought that this prayer was appropriate to begin the school year

The Journey Begins

As we step into this new year,
Restore our spirits.
Renew our passion for sharing your wisdom
And nurture our compassion
for those in need of greater support.

Transform us as we seek to transform:
Guide us as we seek to guide;
Open our minds and hearts
As we seek to open minds and hearts
To the Good News of justice and peace.

Help us listen more deeply
To the world and to your Word,
So we can walk with those in our care,
Attentive to the Wisdom that
Calls us all to the Kingdom of God.

Chris Caldow
Principal