College Principal’s Report Members of the College Family, As the sun sets on another year and we are about to be enveloped by the wonderful Christmas event, we reflect on the year that is ending with its ups and downs, its peaks and its challenges, its moments of excitement and pride and those of disappointment and sadness. Our year parallels the journey of each human story as the community works together to build a community of love, service and development for all who belong. The year has seen a rapid growth in the way we use information technology to inform teaching and learning. The advent of 2012 will see every student (Year 7 – Year 11) with a netbook that will assist each teacher and inform the learning of every boy. Our young men are the product of the digital age and to remove that capacity from their life serves no purpose at all. However its use must also be measured if only because our VCE exams still require a pen and paper. Teachers have put many hours into learning skills themselves and discovering how to make the Moodle platform relevant and accessible. It is all the world of 21st century education. Inherent in this approach is an acceptance that it is good for us to pursue a course that encourages greater transparency with our programs and hence greater public accountability for what we do. As significant recipients of government and private funding we owe it to all our stakeholders to be accountable for our programs and operation. Our new website is one such mechanism for this and our use of Moodle, with appropriate parental access, will be another. Of what use is technology if we cannot use it to assist us all in that we do as parents and teachers. Year 12 Class of 2011
It was once said that “it is good to be good; better to be better; best to be your best”. That should be the motto that drives all our efforts. The 2011 cohort raised the bar for VCE results and the increase in higher achievers was matched by a significant drop this year in bottom end scores. We congratulate the group, in particular our Dux for 2011 – Philip Taranto with 99.35 and closely followed by Calvin Wu and Simon Hearn. The College Leaders again brought great credit to themselves and their Year group with the way they engaged in College-wide activities and led from the front. A leader is one who has the growing capacity to serve, beginning with the end in mind. Our Leaders began the year with the idea that everything would be done collegially and all Year 12s shared that mantle. I applaud the cohort as a group which has brought great leadership not only to our College wide activities e.g. Track and Field Championships, Founders Day celebrations and MAD day in the park, but also taken responsibility for their learning in an increasing way and presented themselves at all times as young men with a mission. The year began with the great flood. Just as school was beginning to settle after the hustle for the first
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three weeks, God sent the rains and flooded a few rooms including the Administration building. It took the rest of the term to re-establish a degree of normality – but we survived well. Then in August God called to Himself, Hannah Kennedy-Curtis, a young woman of great energy, personality and character who had completed a Gap year in De La Salle in 2010. A tragic car accident reminded us all of the fragility of life but also helped us to realize that we are not on earth alone. My mind will ever be etched with the memory of stand- Hannah Kennedy-Curtis RIP 18 August, 2011. ing in Glen Orme Ave, alongside hundreds of young men in blue and gold blazers and dotted with teaching staff and Old Collegians, who stood in quiet respect and brotherhood as the one whom they had known, respected and laughed with was being taken to her rest. We often say that community and a sense of family is at the heart of all that we believe in, and do, at De La! It is true.
