Principal's Report
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Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day was acknowledged at Aquinas this week with a prayer and respectful student reflections conducted in each of our Homerooms. We remember and give thanks to all those who have so bravely given their lives in the service of our country.
酴圖弝け School Advisory Council
The School Advisory Council will meet for the last time in 2021 next week. I would like to express my thanks to all of the members for their generosity in committing to this valuable advisory group: Fr. Dispin John, Mr Paul Ayton (Chair), Mr Chris Leahy (Deputy Chair), Mr James Burston, Ms Cheryl Kane, Ms Jo White, Ms Angela Jordan, Mr Dave Mutimer, Ms Denise Raven, Mr Dean Scott, and Miss Charlise Smith. We farewell long serving member and Chairperson, Paul Ayton, whose youngest child graduates this year. Paul has been extremely generous in the time has given to the College since joining the Board in 2008 and has also acted as Chair of the Finance and Risk Sub-committee over more recent times. We also farewell Charlise Smith who completes an excellent year as Student Representative.
Year 7 Orientation Day 2021
December 6 is Orientation Day for our new cohort of Year 7 and we are planning that they will be able to attend in person at the College and get a true sense of the physical layout as well as meet some of the key people.
Superannuation back payment for staff
As reported in The Age newspaper today, the College continues to work in good faith to finalise back payments of superannuation payable on the leave loading component of staff annual leave pay for employees between 2009 and 2018. This has been a complex issue arising following clarification of legislative requirements by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in late 2018 which impacted multiple schools and organisations. Please be assured that the College complies with all legislative requirements and is committed to ensuring staff remuneration entitlements are always met. Most of the back payment entitlements were paid in September 2020. Adjustments to payments for a further group of employees is anticipated to be finalised this month to complete the process.
Celebrate Excellence Evening
The feedback on our Celebrate Excellence Evening at the start of this year was positive and we have decided to continue with this format in 2022 and recognise Years 7 to 11 excellence at the same time as our Opening Assembly for 2022 in the second week of February.
Year 12 Graduation Ceremony
We are pleased to be able to advise that an in-person Graduation Ceremony for the class of 2021 will go ahead on site this Thursday 18th November. In consideration of our CovidSafe guidelines the ceremony will be conducted outdoors and the group will be broken into two bubbles. The evening will commence with prayer and then the presentation of certificates to the graduates. Once the official ceremonies have occurred, the parents will leave and the students will enjoy dinner and some entertainment together.
Aquinas Wishing Tree
We have launched our annual Christmas Wishing Tree Appeal for 2021. Each year we collect gifts for those in need within our local communities. We work with St Vincent De Paul to distribute these gifts. This year, with the number of people affected by the impacts of Covid-19 there is an even greater need within our local community. Gift tags can be collected from the Christmas Tree in the ARC and gifts should be placed under the tree by November 26. At the end of the term, St Vinnies representatives will come to Aquinas and collect the donations to hand out to those who they are supporting.
Darren Atkinson
Principal