ST THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 2019 ANNUAL REPORT STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 1 of CONTENTS PRINCIPAL’S REPORT 3 DEPUTY PRINCIPAL’S REPORT 5 RELIGIOUS EVENTS 6 VALUE ADDED 7 OTHER HIGHLIGHTS 11 STUDENT RESULTS & DESTINATIONS 14 THE STUDENT BODY 20 SATISFACTION WITH THE SCHOOL 21 FINANCE REPORT 22 STAFF 23 CONTACT DETAILS 24 STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 2 of 24 PRINCIPAL’S REPORT Fr Andrew Cranshaw 2019 has been a busy and very successful year for the College. The Board approved the Five Year Strategic Plan and the Annual Action Plan early in the year, setting the course for the College’s Executive team to follow. A very important part of the Strategic plan is the spiritual formation of the students. To achieve this important work, we have made the weekly school Mass a focal point for their spiritual growth by encouraging greater student participation in serving and singing. To help with this we have developed a Girls’ Chapel Choir and a Boys’ Schola (Gregorian Chant choir). They practice weekly to prepare beautiful pieces for each school Mass. We continue to run our annual retreats for the graduating students, which offer them an occasion to deepen their spiritual lives and discern their vocations. At the level of religious studies, we have responded to parents’ and students’ feedback by revamping our VCE Religion course to address more modern issues facing our youth like dating, alcohol, bioethics, marriage, priesthood, vocational discernment and more. I have continued working closely with teachers to ensure that all curriculum content aligns with Catholic teachings and the Australian Curriculum. In both Science and Humanities, I have guided teachers towards embedding more Catholic content for students, and I have provided professional development focused on helping teachers grow in their knowledge of the College’s ethos so they can embed it in the delivery of their lessons. Child Safety has been a high priority for us. We have reviewed our Child Safety policies to ensure they are up to date with government regulations, and we have been regularly messaging our school community on our Child Safety standards and procedures through our College Chronicle, our website and our Parent evenings. An important part of our Annual Action Plan this year has been to revitalise the P&F Association. I am most grateful to the P&F directors and the parent body for their efforts in this area. The directors are a group of very motivated and organised parents who are doing great work and deserve all our support. They organised a very successful Dinner Auction fundraiser in 2019, raising over $50,000, which we have used to upgrade our cooling and heating systems for the Primary school. 2019 has seen a lot of development around student wellbeing at our College. We have developed the College’s House System as a Pastoral Care mechanism that provides positive discipline, combats bullying, develops leadership and extends education beyond the classroom. For the first time ever, we ran a three-day 7-12 Secondary Houses camp to strengthen the cohesion of House members, form the House captains into better leaders and give the House Mentors the scope they need to nurture the House spirit. The experience was very rewarding and enjoyable for all involved. One of the highlights of 2019 for our VCE Boys was their international trip to Fiji. It was an eye-opening experience for them to live amongst the Fijian villagers and experience their simple, humble but joyful way of life. It was an occasion for our students to join the priests in their rounds of missionary activity and reach-out to other Catholic communities in the South Pacific. The trip later inspired our Primary school to fundraise over $2000 for the support of these communities, for which they were most grateful. The trip was a beautiful experience that both myself and my students will never forget. STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 3 of 24 FIJI 2019 COLLEGE 2019 OPENING MASS SECONDARY GIRLS CAMP STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 4 of 24 DEPUTY PRINCIPAL’S REPORT Mr Mark Stanton 2019 was a great year at the College and we had many highlights throughout the year. Some of these highlights have been provided below. The year started with the introduction of a new House system and the re-appointment of Mrs Sue Pastor as Dean of Primary and the appointment of Mr Lawrence Phillips as Dean of Boys and Mrs Sarah Faulkner and then Miss Alexis Bell as Dean of Girls. The change in leadership coincided with a number of changes rolled out across the College. This included significant work done to the Policy Framework of the College. In 2019 we refined our Secondary curriculum and added greater emphasis on Drama and Music and Technology and Visual Communication and Design. In Primary we decided to introduce Latin as our second language since it goes hand in glove with the Latin Mass conducted within our Community. These changes have made a significant difference to the experience of our students throughout the School. We had a few staff changes, including Mrs Sarah Faulkner going on leave for the birth of her second child. We welcomed and said goodbye to Mr Patrick Lyons and Mrs Kirsten Wheeler who helped shape our Music and Performing Arts courses in Secondary. We welcomed Miss Helena Massey on exchange from our Sister school in Brisbane and thank her for a wonderful year. And we said goodbye to Father Damian Fox, Mr Michael Dillon, Mr Trevor Thomas, Mrs Yan Robinson, Mrs Preeti Dhanoti and Mrs Jessica Irvin. We thank them all for their wonderful service. I had the privilege of working with a new team of parents on our Parents and Friends Committee this year. Their achievements in helping the College raise funds in 2019 was amazing. A big thank-you to all of the parents who volunteer their time for the benefit of our students. We greatly appreciate your efforts. Before I move on to some of the highlights of the year, I’d like to thank the staff of St Thomas Aquinas College for their hard work and for their efforts in making 2019 such a wonderful year for the College. I’d also like to thank the students and their parents for their cooperation and support. We greatly appreciate it. STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 5 of 24 RELIGIOUS EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF THE COLLEGE 2019 started with our Official Opening School Mass held at Corpus Christi Church on the first Sunday of Term One. This was a beautiful occasion where staff, students, parents, and friends were able to come together to pray for the College. In 2019 we refined our in-School Mass program so that our Primary sub-school had time for Mass set aside once a week, and our Secondary sub-School also had a common time set aside for Mass every Friday. This change made the Mass both more significant and more appropriate for our setting. Throughout the year, we celebrated key events in our Religious Calendar, including Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Easter, and the Hold Days of Obligation – the Ascension of Our Lord, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Feast of All Saints. We also marked many other special days including the Feasts of St Thomas Aquinas, St Joseph, Corpus Christi, St Pius X, and Christ the King. Our Primary students marked the Feast of All Saints with a Saints Parade where they dressed up as their favourite Saint. This was a wonderful event which our students and parents alike loved. STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 6 of 24 VALUE ADDED INCREASED FOCUS ON HOUSES Across all three sub-Schools – i.e., the Primary and Secondary Boys and Girls – we held a series of events and activities designed to build team spirit, foster the development of leadership, and generally provide a sense of fun to students in the School. The new House system in the Secondary sub-Schools meant that morning and afternoon roll call occurred in House Mentor groups or in line ups in House order. The increased focus on House has added a lot of colour and life to the life of the College. These activities were run across all three schools. Some of the highlights (only) have been referred to below. • We asked House Captains to work with their Houses to design a House Flag which they felt represented their House. HOUSES PRIMARY SECONDARY BOYS SECONDARY GIRLS BOSCO KOLBE MacKILLOP MANNIX STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 7 of 24 • Going hand-in-hand with the new House Mentor system, we introduced a raft of House Activities to engage students and help them learn to work together as a team. These House Activities included a Crucible Challenge which was a test of leadership and teamwork, which will become an integral part of the start of each College Year. The winners of the Crucible Challenge for 2019 were Mannix (Boys’ sub-School), Bosco (Girls’ sub-School) and Mackillop (Primary). • In March, we held our College Athletics at Edwin Flack Reserve (home of Berwick Little Athletics Club). The event was an enormous success. Our House Athletics Winners for 2019 were: Mannix (Boys’ sub-School), Kolbe (Girls’ sub-School) and Mannix (Primary sub-School) STAC 2019 Annual Report Page 8 of 24 • Throughout the year we ran a series of competitive House activities, including House Volleyball. These ran in two parts – a team of students in Years 5 to 8 played then a team of students in Years 9-12 played. Volleyball was played in amazing spirit and drew huge crowds.