AJASS Conference
I was fortunate to attend the annual AJASS Principal’s conference in North Sydney this week. One of the sessions was on the Sisters of St Joseph Works, Formation Framework. They have identified 4 key values as part of this Framework which are:

• Creative Courage
• Mutual Respect
• Conscious Compassion
• Intentional Inclusivity

The mission statement reads as “We are a ministry of the Sisters of St Joseph. We strive for positive transformative relationships with Earth and her people. We work in collaboration as in mission to create opportunities for generational change.”

Steve Todd who is a recently retired AJASS Principal spoke about reigniting the Josephite heart through his paintings which depict key events in the lives of St Mary MacKillop, Fr Julian Tenison-Woods and St Joseph. Steve has been principal in three different Josephite schools spanning over 29 years.

Also included was a visit to another AJASS school, Mount St Joseph’s College in Milperra and a pilgrimage and walking tour around the Rocks in Sydney.

Annual report
The Annual report for 2021 is available on the College website. It provides an overview of the 2021 year for Penola Catholic College with reports from the five key areas of the College namely: Education in Faith, Student Wellbeing, Learning and Teaching, Leadership and Management and Community. It also includes a report from myself as Principal and Mrs Alfina Astuto as School Advisory Council Chairperson.

Year 9 City Experience
The Year 9 City Experience Program concluded last Friday 3 June. The program itself is a great opportunity for students to see the day-to-day functions of their capital city as well as learning about its inhabitants, history and infrastructure. This program can only be successful if staff support it through their involvement and supervision. Many thanks to Penny Tully and Katherine Jones for their organisation of such a massive project also, to the vast numbers of staff who assisted throughout the week.

STEAM Project
Much planning has been completed for the projects that are on offer to our Years 7 & 8 students in the last week of Term 2. Students have had the opportunity to look at the projects that are being offered and make a selection about which projects they would most like to be involved with.

Staff News

• Mrs Giusi Graziano is taking 4 weeks of long service leave commencing at the start of next term. I have advertised for a replacement for her Italian teaching role and hope to interview in the next fortnight.
• There are a range of staff taking short periods of long service leave (2 weeks or less) around the Term 2 holidays and we will try to cover these classes internally.
• Mr Chris McBrearty has resigned this week and we have advertised his role externally to take his Senior English and Years 9 & 10 EAL classes.
• Mr Nick Laleas is taking all of Term 3 as long service leave and he will be replaced by Mr Christian Montesano.

Year 10 Work Experience
The Year 10 Work Experience Program took place last week from Monday 6 June to Friday, 10 June. Staff were required to visit some students at their placement, I thank the staff who took on this task. Many thanks to Jenn Doan, Terry McGann, Maria Rullo, Felicity Fox, Elena Natoli, Peter Carpenter and the Careers Office, as well as Steve Woodburn and Emily Hastie for their work in finalising placements for students.

Grade 5 visits
Thanks to Mr Stuart Harrison and Mrs Sandra Warren for all of their organisation of the Grade 5 visits from our Primary Catholic feeder schools. There will be over 450 students in attendance and our staff will take these students through a range of activities on the day. To facilitate the day, our Years 7 & 8 students will complete a Remote Learning Day at home to enable enough room on the Glenroy campus and release teachers to host these students. It gives students in our feeder schools a taste of secondary schooling and provides them with an insight into the facilities on offer at Penola. It is a great marketing and promotional day, and it is great to be able to re-instate this, being 3 years since we last hosted Grade 5 students.

Prayer for the next fortnight
Our country has just celebrated National Reconciliation Week and our world has celebrated International Children’s Day. There are many things to celebrate this week, but in particular, I would like to offer a brief prayer of thanksgiving that I have relied upon heavily, especially throughout the past year as we have suffered as a community, and as a nation, and as a world, in so many ways:

Loving Creator,

We asked for strength, and you gave us difficulties to make us strong.

We asked for wisdom, and you gave us problems to solve.

We asked for prosperity, and you gave us purpose and brains to use.

We asked for courage, and you gave us fears to overcome.

We asked for patience, and you gave us situations where we were forced to wait.

We asked for love, and you gave us troubled people to help.

We asked for justice, and you called us to be just and lead with integrity.

Lord, we have received nothing that we asked for or wanted.

And yet, we receive everything that we needed.

For this we give thanks.