Principal’s Report Welcome to the 2020 edition of the Virtus.
huge contribution to St Joseph’s and we are indebted to them.
Since 1935 the Virtus has faithfully recorded the collective and individual achievements of students and staff at St Joseph’s College. The first edition was published just as Australia emerged from the depths of the great depression. Some five years later it reported the College’s achievements in a community fearing invasion and scarred by loss of lives in the Second World War. This Virtus records the 2020 achievements of this great College in the context of the first global pandemic since its establishment, the untimely deaths of students, restrictive state-wide lockdowns, remote learning and the onset of the most serious economic recession in Australia since the early 1930s.
As school commenced we welcomed back a small group of staff and students from the Catholic Youth Festival in Perth. They returned and challenged us to ‘Listen to what the Spirit is saying” (Rev 2:7).This formed the basis of our Liturgy at the Mass celebrating the start of the school year. Unfortunately most other Liturgies throughout the year were also cancelled.
Many events reported on in past magazines have not taken place this year and hence many of the achievements, particularly in competitive spheres including sport, were not possible. I am proud to report however that during 2020 St Joseph’s students have continued to learn and achieve, sometimes with methods and outcomes that would never have been envisaged prior to this year. At the commencement of the year, we welcomed new staff including teachers: Neal Arthurson, Viktor Ceburgs, Jane Emerick, Peter Griffin, Chris Lahey, Thanh Le-Rodda, Marnie Lunnon Johnson, Vanessa McCarthy, Julia Mitchell, Peter Osbourne, Ellie Purser, Natasha Scanlon, Aroon Tremul, Sean Trevaskis and Aaron Westgarth and support staff Heidi Andrews, Lauren Bermistrow, Jessica Chandley, Maddy Cole, Ashleigh Grant, Hayley Haynes, Sarah Klein, Lucy Liu, Lydia Watson, Nerida Zula, Jane Malone, Ryan Birthisel and Charlie Walter. Early in the year we also farewelled College Business Manager Terry Fowler and welcomed Andrew Dowd into this significant role. Midyear, Michelle Brodrick was appointed Principal of Loreto Ballarat. Both Terry and Michelle made a
Edmund Rice Day, when we celebrate our identity, and give practical expression to our commitment to the marginalised, was cancelled. The loss of the on site fundraising component reduced funds available to support our sister school in Kensekka Uganda, but many families generously contributed to provide tuition and meals for Kensekka students for some of the year. During Term 4 many staff chose to donate their social club contributions for the year and many families contributed to a Kensekka ‘Christmas Appeal’ to enable us to continue to support our brothers and sisters in Uganda into 2021. In February we launched our ‘St Joseph’s framework for Learning’ to assist our young men become ‘future ready’. Never was there a timelier document! Early in the year many parts of the state were devastated by bushfire. In addition to our community providing practical and financial support, our VCAL students were privileged to spend a week helping restore fencing on properties around Corryong in the North East of the state. In March this year on site learning ceased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were challenged to find a way to teach and learn remotely. In an extraordinary testament to agile and creative thinking, experiential learning and hard work, we were teaching almost 15,000 classes a week online using dual platforms and a mixture of ‘real time’ and ‘any time’ learning after five days preparation. Quite an extraordinary achievement!
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