Wellbeing Report – February 7, 2019

A very warm welcome back to all students and families (in more than one sense!). We particularly welcome those who are joining the College community for the first time In particular, we welcome all our 232 new students in Year 7 as well as the 40 new students at other year levels. 2019 promises to be a year full of wonderful opportunities for the boys to take advantage of. Term 1 in particular will be very busy with St Patrick’s Day and House Swimming and House Athletics Days all taking place. These days are compulsory for all students and provide a fantastic opportunity for students to develop House spirit.

One of the features of the College is the obvious school spirit and pride that many of the students and staff possess. The sense of community is a significant strength of the College and I look forward to contributing to this sense of community in the years ahead.

The College is obviously proud of its heritage and its reputation. Enormous amounts of work go into preparing facilities such as classrooms, IT facilities, sporting facilities and the College grounds for the boys during the annual Christmas holidays. I thank all staff involved in this important work as it contributes significantly to the educational environment for our boys.- –

Communication:

A key element in helping your son to succeed at the College is communication between you and your son’s teachers. While Pam and App4 are the primary means of communication between teachers and families we also encourage other means of communication.- The email addresses of all staff at the College is the first initial of the Christian name followed by their surname. For example Mrs. Elizabeth Ryan – ERyan@stpats.vic.edu.au – – We hope that this will further facilitate our ability to work closely with you in catering for the wellbeing and educational needs of your son.- Your son’s Homeroom teacher should be the first port of call for any enquiries with the College.- Please feel free to make contact with me if you have concerns that are unable to be resolved by your son’s Homeroom teacher, subject teacher, Year Level Coordinators or Director of School. I hope that all boys will settle into a productive routine as quickly as possible; I hope they will participate in activities new to them this year; and I look forward to witnessing a genuine spirit of cooperation and partnership between all boys and their teachers this year.

College Uniform: Suitcoats

The suit coat is an integral part of the College Uniform worn to and from school and for all formal occasions including Assemblies, College photos, excursions, incursions and other special events.

During Term one the long-term forecast is for very warm weather. To balance common sense and the Colleges’ traditions and expectations the following accommodations will be made for term one only:

-·- – – – – – – – Students must bring their suitcoat to school each day. However they may choose not to wear their suitcoat to and from College opting to wear only the College shirt and tie.

-·- – – – – – – – – Students may not substitute the College suit coat for the College jumper or spray jacket

-·- – – – – – – – All students must have their suit coat at school each day giving them ready access to it for College Assemblies, College photos etc

-·- – – – – – – – Students may elect to store their suit coat in their secured locker rather than transporting it to and from the College each day in their backpack.

Buses

A significant number of our boys travel both to and from St Patrick’s College on buses.- With so many students from the Ballarat area catching school busses it is important for all students and their families to be fully aware of behaviour expectations while on the bus and the consequences for breaching these.

Poor behaviour on the busses jeopardises the safety of all and often intimidates younger students. It is the responsibility of bus drivers to transport students to and from school safely and this job is made more difficult if students are behaving in a distracting manner.

The following list includes the expectations of all St Patrick’s students travelling on any bus either to and from school or on school based activities:

-¢ Where possible students refrain from moving around the bus and remain in seats at all times.

-¢ Students are not to engage in any physical contact at any time. -¢ No items are to be thrown around or from the bus.

-¢ Consumption of food and drink is at the driver’s discretion however; all rubbish is to be appropriately disposed of.

– -¢ The use of offensive language is not acceptable.

-¢ Behaviour that intimidates other students is unacceptable.

Any other behaviour jeopardising the safety of bus travelers is also unacceptable. Students not abiding by this list of expectations will face suspensions from the bus along with other school based consequences. Clarification of any detail outlined above can be sought by contacting Mrs Elizabeth Ryan at the College.

– Victorian P plate passenger restrictions

As many of our Year 12 cohort of 2019 are about to gain or have gained their Victorian Probationary Driver’s License it is timely to remind all P plate drives of the passenger restrictions that are placed upon them.

Victorian P plate passenger restrictions

The Peer Passenger Restriction is where a probationary (P1) driver is not allowed to carry more than one peer passenger when driving. A peer passenger is any person aged between 16 and less than 22, but does not include the driver’s spouse, domestic partner, sibling or step-sibling.

Peer passenger restriction

You can’t:

• Carry more than one peer passenger aged between 16 and less than 22 years old unless you’re:

  • a member of the police force driving a vehicle for work
  • driving an emergency vehicle for work in line with contract terms
  • driving with an experienced driver next to you
  • driving under instruction of a driving coach who’s in the vehicle
  • granted an exemption from this restriction by VicRoads.

Passenger restriction

If your licence is cancelled or suspended on your P1 licence from a traffic offence, you’ll be restricted from carrying passengers for the rest of your P1 licence period. This means you can only carry one passenger regardless of their age.

The passenger restriction is separate to the -‘peer passenger restriction’ and will override any peer passenger restriction exemptions.-

If you’ve already got a passenger restriction on your P1 licence and it gets suspended or cancelled, the passenger restriction is re-imposed on the rest of your P1 period including any extensions to the P1 probationary period.

The passenger restriction condition code a probationary licence is XPAS.

General Behaviour

Throughout 2019 a major focus will be on insisting high standards of behaviour are maintained at all times. Students who interfere with the learning and teaching process will be dealt with severely. This is to ensure that the rights of all students to learn and feel safe are respected. It will also ensure our school motto of Facere et Docere -“ To Do and To Teach can be achieved.

God Bless

Mrs Elizabeth Ryan

Deputy Headmaster – Wellbeing