Middle School Report

With the imminent return to school set for Tuesday June 9, all Middle School staff are eagerly awaiting this opportunity of reconnecting with all of our students once again. We have had significant success providing learning for our boys whilst utilising the Online Remote and Flexible mode of delivery but there is a sense of excitement in the air as we begin the countdown to the boys return to normal schooling. Our online Remote and Flexible mode of learning will continue up until Friday June 5 and NOT continue after this point in time. Monday June 8 will be a long weekend for the Queen’s Birthday and then all Middle School boys will be expected to return to school from Tuesday June 9. It’s also a pertinent time to remind everyone that you will be required to be in full Winter Uniform with all other standard expectations required to be met.

All classes will revert to normal with the exception of Community Service. We will only be able to operate the Community Service Program in a limited capacity. Our internal groups including Ballarat City Council-Victoria Park, SPC Food Kitchen and the Wood Working group can all continue to function normally, once we have returned to the College. The remaining groups of students, who perform their community service duties externally, will have to remain at school during these sessions until such time as the Victorian Government lifts all COVID-19 restrictions surrounding schools. We will investigate the possible provision of online assistance or virtual tutoring of younger students at the primary schools. Our boys could pre-record some lessons that primary school children need help with e.g. How to do long division? We could then share the files with the teachers/schools who can then allow their students to access them as appropriate. We will also be recording Community Service information videos around the College depicting important locations and procedures for staff and students to be used for new staff and students, when they join the College community.

Finally, we have decided to extend the length of Term 2 by four days into Week 11; thus finishing the term on Thursday June 25, so that staff and students have more time to complete all Term 2 tasks in preparation for the Semester 2 start.

Mr Michael Busscher

Director of Middle School