Do not look forward to what may happen
tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares
for you today will take care of you tomorrow and
every day. Either He will shield you from suffering,
or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace, then. Put aside all anxious thoughts and
imaginations and say continually: "The Lord is my
strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in Him
and I am helped. He is not only with me but in me,
and I in Him."
I hope that you and your families are keeping safe and well in this difficult time.
As you would be aware, the state government has made some significant announcements in relation to arrangements for schools in Victoria for Term 3. I recently outlined these changes in my Principals Video Message at the following link:
Principals Message to Parents 17-07-2020
Based on the advice of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, students in Prep to Year 10 in schools in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will enter a period of remote learning from Monday 20 July until at least 19 August, The purpose of these changed arrangements is to reduce the number of students and families moving across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire in order to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The College office and reception area will remain open throughout this remote learning period from 8:30am to 3:30pm each day. Students who need to access their lockers to collect their books and other resources can continue to do so throughout this week.
Earlier this week, the Victorian Government announced that those in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire must now wear a face covering when they leave home.
All secondary school students who are attending onsite for Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) or onsite supervision will need to wear a face covering, including when travelling to and from school.
Parents and carers will be required to wear face coverings whenever they leave the house, including for school drop-off and pick-up.
The Department of Health and Human Services website has advice about face coverings (click on link), including:
As a College community, we are fully committed to working to provide our students with the best possible learning opportunities during these challenging times. The systems and procedures that we have already put in place at the College will continue to ensure that productive and effective learning will still take place remotely for students this term.
In order to continue to support students and parents through this process, we have updated the 'Remote Learning Guidelines for Students and Parents’ and the 'Frequently Asked Questions'.
I encourage you to read through these documents with your child and re-acquaint yourselves with the remote learning processes and procedures, paying particular attention to the new Homeroom attendance procedures using MS teams.
If you would like further information from the Department of Health and Human services, you can visit www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus.
Once again, I thank you for your patience, support and understanding in these very unique circumstances. I assure you that all staff at Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs are doing their utmost to support your child and we will continue to provide the best possible learning outcomes for all.
Student “Catch Up Day” - Monday 3 August
On Monday 3 August we will have a scheduled "Catch Up Day". No formal timetabled classes will be held on this day; instead, students are encouraged to use this time effectively to "catch up" on any work they may have. This can include work that a student may have fallen behind with, or revision of work covered over the last two weeks to consolidate learning. The Catch Up Day was very much appreciated by our students in our last round of remote learning, providing them with some much-needed breathing space and extra time to consolidate new knowledge, catch up on incomplete tasks and ask questions for clarification. The Catch Up Day is not regarded as a school closure day, so students who currently attend school onsite may continue to come into school on this day.
All teachers will be available on the Catch Up Day to be contacted by their students through direct message, so it is important that students use this day as intended, and reach out to their teachers for additional assistance where required.
Staffing News
We welcome back this Semester from maternity leave Physical Education and Mathematics teacher Joanne Jilbert and we wish Hayley Code all the best as she begins her maternity leave.
May God bless you and your family.
New College Website
Over the school holidays our College website has been replaced by a new and updated website. Please take the time to navigate the website and familiarise yourself with its new functionality.
I would like to thank all staff who were involved in the process to get the new website up and running. I especially would like to thank Elise Nowak, Learning and Teaching Leader and the Technology Advisory Group for their work on the coordination of building this new website.
As we again gear up to commence remote learning we are reminded of the importance of the strong cooperation between our teachers and parents which will be fundamental to supporting our students during this time.
These are unprecedented times for all of us, and we recognise that for some home learning in Term 3 will at times create some challenges. There are numerous websites that provide support for parents and one that has stood out to me is Reachout.com. ReachOut offers practical support, tools and tips for young people and their parents.
I have recently read an article in The Educator Australia which highlights tips for remote learning. Below I have summarised some of the way’s parents can ‘home learn’ with their children:
Check in with your child to see how they’re doing and what they may need help with. You know your child, so a common-sense approach is best. Give both yourself and your child a break from lessons when your child is showing signs of being off-task, tired or irritable.
Older children also need to take ownership of their learning. Upper primary and secondary children, who have specific projects/assignments, should know the due dates and the expectations of their teachers. Older children need to be aware of when and how to meet these deadlines. Parents can ask prompting questions to check the child understands what is required of them.
Be flexible. With the many distractions at home, parents need to be flexible with their expectations of their child’s behaviour. Children are not working with their regular classroom teacher or with their classmates. How they work will be different at home. Assignment outcomes will look different as well, but the goal is to keep children connected and engaged through learning.
The article pointed out that parents and teachers have both had to work from home and deal with the issues that come with meeting their own work commitments whilst supporting their children. Teachers with their own children have developed a deeper understanding of the work parents were doing in the background. This has led to deeper reciprocal understanding, and stronger connections.
It’s easy to get bogged down in talking about problems. One of the best ways to re-engage your child with remote learning is to talk about the parts they enjoy and find meaningful. For example: their favourite subjects and the teacher they connect with best.
With a recent overload of time at home and on the computer, many children have formed unhealthy relationships with digital media. Constant exposure to news and information about the pandemic might have led to a sense of doom and gloom about the world and their future, so some balance might be healthy.
Here are some tips if you’re finding it hard to get your child into healthy digital habits:
Get in contact with someone at school
It can be a good idea to have a chat with your child’s teacher at school to explore whether they’re able to help. Start by explaining that your child is finding it hard to get motivated. It’s likely that this is an issue they’ve dealt with before, and they should be able to talk through some options with you.
Some useful College resources can be found on the welcome page of SEQTA Engage:
Microsoft Teams Student & Parent/Carer Guidelines Updated
Microsoft Teams Student Etiquette Poster Updated
One of the challenges during this period is to try and avoid the danger of becoming bitter towards others, which overtime can separate us from God.
On the Angelus last Sunday, Pope Francis prayed that the Blessed Virgin Mary might “help us to understand and imitate the patience of God, who wants none of His children to be lost, whom He loves with the love of a Father”.
Referring to Sunday’s Gospel of the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (Matthew 13:24-43) Pope Francis stated that it presents two ways of acting and living. Pope Francis warned against “those who are always hunting for the limitations and defects of others”. Instead, it is “those who know how to recognise the good that silently grows in the field of the Church and history, cultivating it to maturity,” who are able to collaborate in the vision of God. He warned about people who try to divide a peaceful family or community and who may “fall into the temptation of gossip to destroy others.”
Let us take up the words of St Teresa of Avila: “Look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for all”.
Virtual Rosary & Family Prayer
During Term 2 students and staff gathered to pray a decade of the rosary every day to honour our Mother Mary during the month of May. The students embraced the opportunity to pray and this was continued on our return to onsite learning during our lunchtimes. We will be continuing to pray for our College community with a decade every day from 12:45-12:55pm during Term 3. It would be great for students to pray with us during this time.
Also, below are some great resources to support students and their families in nurturing their prayer life in the home. I highly encourage you to access these resources.
Faith and Spirituality in the home
Sunday Gospel Focus
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A - Matthew 13:44-42
Embracing Responsibility with a Positivity Mindset – The Basics of Responding to Coronavirus.
During our first meeting in late January this year, our Principal Jamie Madigan in his welcome address to staff, made the now ill-fated pronouncement: “In 2020, let’s just get back to basics.” But pandemic and basics are two words not often contextualised together.
This morning during a conversation, we recalled that January message and chuckled ironically through our face-coverings. We couldn’t be any further from ‘the basics’, even in our wildest imagination. The distance between pandemic and basics is a lot further than 1.5 metres.
Since then, the staff have had to embrace the responsibility of planning, strategizing, organising, communicating, and responding to the ever-changing, omnipresent crisis which has consumed everyone’s daily life. Now, every decision made by the College is referenced through a coronavirus lens, which assumes even more importance and responsibility to get it right. Many family’s lives depend on it. It is that…basic.
There have been myriad different responses to the crisis. On a continuum, the poles could be represented by those who have shut themselves off completely from the world, and those who selfishly abrogate responsibility, ignore health protocols and place themselves and others at risk.
The College is very conscious of its responsibility to student safety and mandate to conservatively position itself. Systems and procedures have been introduced that strictly follow the advice from various authorities including the State Government, appointed health authorities, the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) and the Department of Education & Training (DET). This was evidenced by the thorough and collaborative response to last term’s positive case.
Lately, much of the focus for people seems to be on the numbers and Premier Daniel Andrew’s begins his 11:00 am press conference everyday with the latest set. We hear the total new cases for the previous day quoted repeatedly for the rest of that day. For many, this figure has superseded normal stimuli and become the pivotal affecting factor for mood and subsequently, a contributor to the general malaise of our broader community.
Currently, the numbers are simultaneously tragic, alarming and saddening. We are consistently breaking records, for all the wrong reasons. Each new peak is a new rock-bottom. Often during the winter months anyway, students, families and staff can become more tired, grumpy and unmotivated. We can tend to be more future-focused on the warmer months ahead, and day-dream of being on languid school holidays. We can tend to hit our own rock bottom and it is no coincidence that the combination of cold weather, less sunshine and less daylight feeds these responses.
Michael McGirr, in his book ‘Finding God’s Traces’, recalls a line from Psalm 139: “The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” We are always presented with contrasts in our life: night and day; right and wrong; flight or fight; mask or no mask. But the essence of our humanness is that light always prevails and the spirit will always triumph. ‘Light’, Michael McGirr notes ‘is one of the strongest symbols of our Christian faith.’ In Baptism, we receive the light of Christ and are urged to walk as children of the light.
But we always have choices to make and they are part of an inner struggle that everyone faces. Christopher Gleeson, a Jesuit, refers to this in a North American First Nations story about a warrior telling his grandson that this battle is between ‘two wolves’ within us. One is Evil. The other ‘wolf’ is Good. His grandson thought about this and then asked, “Who wins?” The old warrior replied, “The one that you feed.” (From The Front Page – Everyday Ignatian Spirituality, P. 83.)
So, now we are presented with another choice: we can sink within ourselves and wait six months, 12 months, two years for a cure to arrive; or we can find the positives and new learnings, accepting the new ‘normal’ Gracefully and know that if we all commit to doing the right thing, we are a good chance to navigate through this unprecedented time successfully. Only then can we embrace the optimistic truth that from now the days are growing longer, the sun is rising earlier and setting later, and every living thing will begin to start some cellular preparation for the coming months ahead of which we are an integral part.
I choose to remain positive, optimistic and student-focussed, and undertake my Christian and civic responsibility by looking out for others; wearing a face-covering; social distancing; leaving the house for only the right reasons; maintaining health hygiene and noticing that on my daily drive it is just that tiny bit lighter when I leave and when I return home. I’m sure that every member of our beautiful Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs community will feel compelled to do the same, for the sake of everyone and particularly our loved ones. It is basic really.
Term 3 Whole School Remote Assembly
Students ‘returned’ to schooling on Monday and during an extended homeroom were able to watch our first ever remote whole school assembly, welcoming them back to the new term. They were presented with addresses from the College Leadership Team; wonderful messages of hope from our College Captains; as well as two fantastic music performances. We recognise the ever-important need to remain connected during remote learning and hope you can click on the link below and enjoy the presentation.
Click here to view the Term 3 Whole School Assembly
Current CRCCS families please follow the person icon on the top right hand side of our college website to view important links to our internal portal pages such as SEQTA, PTO, CareMonkey (Operoo) etc.
This is a quick note to inform you that our digital forms and school operations platform provider, CareMonkey, will be rebranding as ‘Operoo’: School processes, without the paperwork.
Operoo’s mission is to help schools eliminate operational inefficiencies so that every dollar and every minute possible can be spent on a students’ education.
The name change will occur the week beginning Monday August 3rd. How you use the service, as well as the ownership and operation of the company, will remain unchanged.
You can continue using the system, and its mobile application, as usual. Just be aware that, after Monday August 3rd, emails and notifications sent from the system will start appearing under the new name ‘Operoo’. You will also be automatically diverted to the new Operoo website if you go to the old CareMonkey website.
We look forward to continuing to digitise, streamline and automate our processes for you with Operoo.
School Fees
Payment plans for school fees are still available. Please download a direct debit form and return it to Reception at your earliest convenience.
Please note that school fee statements are now being sent out by email. If you do however require a paper copy, please contact the finance department.
Year 9 & 10 MacBook Program
Year 9 & 10 MacBook program payment of $490.00 is now overdue If you have not paid for your child’s 2020 MacBook please contact the College Finance department to arrange payment as soon as possible.
2021 Year 7 MacBook Program
MacBook program direct debits have commenced for Grade 6 students that have been accepted into Catholic Regional College Caroline Springs for 2021. If you are having any problems with your direct debit or would still like to set up a payment plan please contact our Finance department.
The 2021 MacBook Program payment of $1977 is due in full on 29 November 2020.
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