Dear Parents

With St Patrick’s Day on Saturday, and heading into the 5th Sunday of Lent, we are preparing our students for Holy Week through a variety of opportunities for prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Whether receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation, participating in the Rice Bowl day, reminding students that many of the world’s peoples eat only one bowl of rice each day, offering the opportunity to commemorate Jesus’ last days on earth through prayer in front of the Stations of the Cross in the College Chapel at recess, or continuing to raise funds for Project Compassion, our students have been immersed in many faith based activities during Lent. From the Caritas prayer:

Bless our prayers, our fasting and our Lenten gifts to Project Compassion.

Through these actions, may our hearts be open to receive your grace as we work towards a just future for all your creation.

We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Student participation and achievement

I often discuss the broad range of offerings provided our students at Av�԰�. Mathematics teacher Reno Sinagra recently mentioned that we had 101 runners, the highest number ever, at Running Club last week. It was also wonderful to hear we received three very positive comments regarding the behaviour of our students and how great it was to see them involved in this activity from local members of the public who were walking at Piney Lakes. Maintaining fitness whilst studying is something we continue to espouse with our students. ‘The sight of 101 kids dressed in their Av�԰� Sports T-Shirts running figure 8’s around Piney Lakes was something rather special’, said Mr Sinagra.

I am also very proud of Megan Schutte (9 Xa) who was presented with the Owen Fisenden award by the Australian Music Education Board (WA) Chairman Assistant Professor Graeme Gilling, at the AMEB awards at the UWA Music Department recently. This honour has not been awarded in WA for the last few years as no single musician in the State achieved an A+ in Grades 5 or 6 flute. This is also an enormous accolade to our distinguished Flute tutor, Jo Robertson, who is very proud of Megan’s accomplishment too. In Jo’s words: ‘Meg has achieved A+ grades and AMEB awards for three other earlier AMEB Flute grades but this achievement of the Owen Fisenden award is an extremely significant one as she is essentially being singled out as the most promising young flautist in WA! I'm excited to share this news with you and I'm extremely proud of Meg's achievement’. We will acknowledge Megan as is appropriate at our next Whole School Assembly in the last week of term.

Congratulations on high achievement also to Taylor Kroyer (10 Ro) won the Triathlon Australia National Youth Girls title recently, after winning the National Series title as well, having won all 3 races she competed in over the past three months. Taylor will be representing Australia at International events in the future.

I am proud of many of our students who achieve greatness in their chosen activity!

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence: 16 March

Av�԰� Christi College is at the forefront of adopting measures to ensure our students are safe whilst at school through a range of measures to educate students about digital citizenship, and our efforts to stamp out cyberbullying. There have been recent media reports of schools introducing online reporting systems which we have had in place for 5 years. We continually invite our community to take action against bullying in all its forms.

Ahead of the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence on March 16, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has written to school principals across the country in a bid to tackle bullying and violence.

Staff at Av�԰� Christi believe all students have the right to be safe, and that bullying and violence has no place at the College. We have taken a clear stand on this issue.

I need the help of staff and our parent community to ensure we stamp out bullying. We can only do this if students are empowered to stand up to bullies, to know that bystanders have an important part to play to stamp out bullying at the College. Homeroom teachers have facilitated a process to discuss various issues surrounding bullying and what to do in the event they witness any behaviour from a fellow student which is of concern.

The Prime Minister said more than 2300 schools had registered as official National Day of Action schools, with more than one million students committed to take a stand. Av�԰� Christi is one of the registered schools.

For me, it isn’t about taking one day of action, but that we continually address this issue which can do harm to our students. Av�԰� Christi is known for our pastoral care program – we work hard to ensure we continue this positive reputation in our community.

Av�԰� has been a registered e-Smart school since 2012. This means ‘we have a comprehensive approach for managing cybersafety and dealing with bullying and cyberbullying in our school’ according to the national foundation which registers schools.

Av�԰� Christi College has also had an online reporting system called Av�԰� ‘Concerns’ available on the Student Portal since 2011.

Every week, Heads of Year investigate reports made to them regarding cyberbullying. At the most serious end, if students ‘press the red button’ they are provided with the following information with a request for a first name (surname is not required), an email contact, and a brief description of the concern:

HELP NOW!

Urgent, you need Help Now! It's time sensitive and you need help figuring out what to do next.

Example:

A friend in your Year 9 class has been sexting with an adult, you haven't seen the pictures but they've told you they're planning on meeting up with them tonight.

Solution:

It concerns something illegal or a serial and immediate threat of danger. During school hours we will directly contact you and possibly the person(s) to try and help. Outside of school hours, please speak to a trusted adult or call Police 131 444 or Lifeline (Crisis Support) 131 114.

At the lowest level, students are asked the question, ‘Are you seeing something that you’re not sure is ok? You’ve seen it and you want it to stop. You don’t feel comfortable confronting the persons involved’. Our response: ‘We will verify that the incident has occurred, check the level of damage and then decide what action needs to be followed’.

We will always address matters that come to our attention in a sensitive and considered approach consistent with our Pastoral Care, Managing Student Behaviour and ICT related policies.

ACC A Division Swim Team

The annual Swim Av�԰� was based at the Warnbro Swimming Pool after the Inter-House Swimming Carnival was held recently. The Swim camp was a terrific opportunity for Sports Coordinator James Howard and the Health and Physical Education team to work with the senior students who mentor our junior competitors, another ‘induction’ into the College sporting culture.

On behalf of the College I would like to wish Swim Captains Kayla Weekes and Marc Cheney and the ACC Swim team all the best as they perform for their College at Challenge Stadium on Wednesday 21 March.

Winter Uniform Term Two

Given Term Two commences on Tuesday 1 May, there will be no uniform transition period necessary. Therefore, all students will commence Term Two in full winter uniform. Given Photo Day will be on the second day of term, Wednesday 2 May, I remind parents of the importance of checking the sizing of uniforms well before the end of Term One.

Best wishes and God bless

Mrs Caroline Payne

Principal

Av�԰�

From The Principal