Dear Parents

The first week at the College commenced with the College Ball for our Year 12 students held before school commenced at the Rendezvous Ball Room in Scarborough. The students looked resplendent and danced for most of the night to what was a good start to their year. I take this opportunity to congratulate the 2018 graduating class on a fine start to the year, which continued into the first week where the majority of students commenced their academic studies well into their Year 12 courses, having already completing five weeks of their courses in 2017.

College Head Girl Jessica DeFreitas Basilio and Head Boy Liam Rego addressed the College at the Whole School Assembly on Thursday, where we also recognised our high achievers from the Class of 2017 along with their parents, who were also our guests at morning tea.

Jess and Liam delivered an uplifting speech, showing they will be excellent role models for our student community. The speech was an excellent ‘launch pad’ for the 2018 academic year, and was as follows:

‘At the end of last year, the Year 12 Prefects gathered for a Av�԰� over two days. We spent a long evening coming up with four core values that we all hold with high importance and a motto to encompass these. The values that we chose to be our core focus this year are: Service, Unity, Pride and Individuality. From these values, the Prefect Team decided our 2018 motto was to be “Together we serve with pride, united we walk side by side”

These words and the values they encompass, will be what our Prefect Team will aim to represent throughout the year, and in turn, encourage our students, teachers, parents and whole school community of Av�԰� to strive to live by, with Christ as our perfect model.

“Together we serve with pride”. The Prefect team will aim to embody the vision of Christ-like service. To us this means being generous with our time and talents, and being able to serve the community through our Houses, committees, Year Group and College with great pride.

This motto sets the bar high for serving our college through sports, arts and ministry

opportunities, and participating as much as possible to our best abilities. Serving our Homerooms through carnivals and exciting activities, and serving our fellow students and staff with respect and a willingness to help.

The statement also means being proud of our school, being proud of our learning, and being proud of our achievements and those of other students. Therefore, this translates in the way we present ourselves, and the way we proudly represent our College in the wider community.

"United we walk side by side," means a sense of friendship and unity for the college.

It encompasses bringing each person’s individuality together, to form a strong team, united and strengthened by the relationships within it. This is what we want to focus on and bring about in the Av�԰� community, by strengthening the relationships between all students, teachers and parents. This means walking beside and supporting each person at the college. It means investing in the needs of you, the students, and the wider community to enrich unity and togetherness as important values. By working well with others in our small year group and also participating together with the whole school as part of the Av�԰� Christi community, we may bring our individual talents towards a united school body.

The aim of setting a vision statement is to work towards it by the end of the year.

We invite you, and the entire Av�԰� community to share our vision.

As we make use of the many opportunities this school has to offer us all, let us serve in whatever ways we can, by saying ‘Yes!’ to opportunities, and then striving to do our best. Let us also as a College, move forward through the rest of the year, appreciate the successes and achievements of each other. We hope that you can share in the vision “Together we serve with pride, United we walk side by side”, and look forward to a fabulous 2018.’

I couldn’t have said it any better!

At the Community Meeting held last Wednesday, the AGM of the Board and P&F, the Board Chair Mr Greg LeGuier, and Cazz Gould, Chair of the P&F, delivered their Annual Reports, whilst member of the Finance Committee Darren Cutri, presented the 2018 budget on behalf of last year’s Chair, Russell Hardwick.

During the night members of both groups were elected. The newly elected P&F committee is as follows:

Chair:              Sandra Fedele

Treasurer:       Shelley Hill

Secretary:       Silvana Cohen

P&F Rep on the Board: Kate Trainor

Please watch out for communications from your P&F inviting your participation in one of the sub-committees during the year. Their next meeting will be held on 20 March in the College Staffroom above the Administration building.

Congratulations also to our newly elected Board members for 2018:

·            Patrick Bovet

·            Jayson Livingstone

·            Brad Pyrmont

·            Adrienne Wehr

They will join Greg LeGuier, Antonia Girardi, Domenic Santini, Karl Videmanis, Jens Radanovic and P&F representative, Kate Trainor.

I look forward to seeing many parents at the Community Mass held on Tuesday 20 February 6.00pm in front of the Sadler Centre, a compulsory gathering for all students. Its purpose is to welcome new students, families and staff to the College, and reminds us of our mission as a Catholic school in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, to evangelise our community. All are welcome!

Best wishes and God bless

Mrs Caroline Payne

Principal

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