Director of Students Report

By Director of Students, Mr Mike Silcock

Albert Einstein once wrote “the only source of knowledge is experience.” As we look forward to welcoming our young men back to onsite learning in Term 4 we have certainly learnt from our experiences of returning from our last period of remote learning. The transition will be challenging, some of your sons will be eagerly awaiting their return, whilst, for others, it will bring anxiety and trepidation. Whichever is applicable to your son please be assured that our whole staff are well prepared and will do all we can at this time and through our final term of 2020. As always, we would encourage you to reach out to your son’s pastoral care tutor as the first point of contact and, whether for a learning or wellbeing need, there exists a comprehensive network of supports that can be accessed. We would particularly make mention of our Counselling team, should you wish for your son to be provided this additional support.

Upon our return in Term 3 we held a number of year level assemblies to articulate a number of changes and to highlight the College’s expectations around our safe return and being together again as a whole community. On Monday, October 12, when all our students will return to onsite learning, we shall commence the day with an extended pastoral care session. In continuing with our desire to journey in partnership with you we wanted to highlight the essence of what we will deliver to our students.

Remote learning has been challenging, as will be the return for a number of our students. We are a community, a community that is at its best when we support one another. As always, we ask our students to strive to be the best version of themselves. To assist with this, we are launching a new pastoral care program, titled RESPECT. Through this we shall support our students to learn how and the value of respecting themselves, each other, our staff, and the College at large. Our wellbeing program must be educational in its essence and we feel strongly that the conversations that will be generated through the delivery of the program will be invaluable in providing the support for all our students as they continue to meet and overcome the challenges presented to them.

Our team of pastoral care tutors will remind our students of some of the expectations that the College has set. As we move into Term 4 we would remind all that our students should be wearing College shorts and not trousers. For your information, the College shop will be open in the second week of the holidays for you to purchase shorts or other items of uniform. That said, we draw your attention to our annual Roll Call photo day on Tuesday, October 13. On this day, and this day only, we would ask that our students come to College in their full winter uniform. In a time of great change, our students can be assured that our expectations around uniform, hair, facial grooming and the like have not changed. Please help us ensure that your son/s present at College is in line with these expectations. It would also be apt to offer a reminder around mobile phone use. Our students should leave their mobile phones in their lockers throughout the day, failure to do so will result in the confiscation of their phone and the issuing of a Thursday after-College detention.

Finally, and in keeping with certain operational aspects that have not changed since the last time we were onsite, we wish to highlight a number of requirements around the continued safe presence of our community onsite. In following state governance, all students must continue to wear a face mask. Students will be sent home if they do not arrive at the College wearing a face mask. In a similar vein, if your son is displaying any symptoms of being unwell, please keep him at home. If your son presents to First Aid, through the College day, with any symptoms of being unwell, he will be sent home.

We want to thank you for your continued support, resilience and patience as we have navigated our way through another round of remote learning and prepare for the imminent return to onsite.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: Mike Silcock, Director of Students, (03) 5322 4408, msilcock@stpats.vic.edu.au