Principal’s Update – 20 July 2021: Extension of Remote Learning

EXTENDED LOCKDOWN AND REMOTE LEARNING

The Victorian Government has directed that all Victorians follow the rules for a Stage 4 Coronavirus lockdown. At this stage, the restrictions, including remote learning, will be extended until Tuesday 27 July 11.59pm. We will continue to communicate if changes occur and will confirm any return to onsite learning when we receive confirmation from authorities.

Students will continue to follow their normal timetable through this remote learning period, as they have successfully done yesterday and today. Students will continue to receive support from their teachers in the form of live classes through Google Meets, and online resources to work through. Please refer to our Online Learning @ CMC flyer and Remote Learning FAQs for key supports and links for our online learning.

For students completing a Unit 4 VCE Class. School Assessments (SACs) will operate during remote learning as they did previously. Subject teachers will contact students and parents directly via email with the SAC for completion. Students should expect their SACs to follow the current SAC schedule, except for subjects where there are multiple classes. For these classes, the SAC will be completed during a study period on either Tuesday Periods 4 and 5 or Friday Periods 6 and 7. Subject teachers will notify all students and families of these changes, where required.

We are yet to receive advice on the General Assessment Test (GAT) examination – currently scheduled for 29 July. We will update St Mary’s students and families if and/or when any announcements are made for this assessment.

As with this and previous lockdowns, children who are vulnerable and the children of essential workers will be offered access and supervision at the College – please complete the COVID-19 Arrangements: Students who need to attend school form. Please understand that the College is closed, except for those students. Those approved students will be completing the Remote Learning Program in the Sister Aloysius Martyn Building at Coolock. Buses will still be operating for those students.

If your child/ren needs to collect learning resources then they may collect items at any time during normal school hours. A QR Code/sign in arrangement will be in place.

Our main concern continues to be the safety and wellbeing of all members of our school communities. This remains the focus of all local decisions. I draw your attention to a letter shared with the College community via email this morning regarding former student Ruby Robins passing away. Such sad news and a tragic loss. Please take some time to read the prayer below and keep Ruby, and all in our community, in your thoughts and prayers.

Kind regards

Brian Turner, Principal

A Prayer of Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.
Amen