It is with great anticipation that the College embraces the opening of the 2022 Academic Year. It was wonderful to see so many excited Year 7 students arrive on Tuesday along with the Year 12 students. The remaining students then joined on Wednesday and the school yard is alive again with the sound of young people. I would like to welcome all new families to St Brigid’s and I am very pleased to see 54 students joining us in Year 7. We also welcome new teachers and support staff this year and over the coming weeks we will provide a profile of each through our social media platforms.
The first day of February is the Feast Day of St Brigid – our patron saint. Today’s prayer recalls the legend of St Brigid and Year 7 students celebrated this day by making St Brigid (reed) crosses. The theme for this year is “The Greatest Strength is Gentleness”. This reflects our school motto and challenges each of us to consider what does it mean to be gentle.
Gentleness breeds peace, calm, and consistency of character. It is not volatile or abrupt in its response to the world. Gentleness is strength because it remains constant and clear minded across all manner of situations. Gentleness is not weakness; think how difficult it is to be kind and loving to those who hurt us – our children, our families, and our colleagues. Anger is easy and taking a step back to remain calm takes strength.
At the time of writing, we have had one reported positive case of COVID at the college and parents of that year level were notified by email. The advice we have received from the health services is that there will be an expected spike in COVID cases around the middle of next week, so I ask all parents and carers to have their students test regularly using the RAT kits that each student received this week and to call the school in the event of a positive result. Students should not come to school if they feel ill, are symptomatic or receive a positive result on their RAT.
Currently we intend to proceed with the year level activities such as the Yr 12 Retreat and Year 7 camp, however we can not have whole school events or external visitors in large numbers. Consequently, the Year 7 Parent Welcome BBQ and the Opening Mass & 2021 VCE Awards ceremony will be postponed until after February.
I am very much looking forward to the coming year and my hope is that we can settle into a routine to optimise the learning that occurs in the College.
Stay safe,
Gerard Raven
Principal
