Over the break it was my privilege to attend the Global Forum on Girls Education. Colleagues from 18 different countries came together to learn from each other and share best practice in the area of girls education. Two keynote speakers, Shabana Basij-Rasikh, Co-founder and President, School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) and Leymah Gbowee Nobel Peace Laureate, were truly inspiring and reminded me of the significant impediments for so many young people, particularly girls, for whom education is not a right. While we battle a number of challenges that COVID-19 and our post remote learning world continues to pose; it was humbling to be reminded of how lucky we are to have a right to education and the chance to live in a society free of violent conflict. I look forward to bringing all that I have learnt at the conference to the work we will continue to do here at OLMC.
The term has begun with a flurry of activity and a number of important events. We have begun the process of looking towards 2023 and a number of subject information evenings have been held and will continue next week for Year 8 students going into Year 9. The process of selecting subjects and making choices begins for most of our students this term and will no doubt be the subject of conversations at home. I strongly encourage you to read the subject handbooks, to talk with your daughter and to help her research pathways. Please encourage her and support her as she makes, what can be very tough, decisions.
The Year 8 students spent most of last week on camp. The staff have spoken in glowing term of their enthusiasm and participation. They engaged with every activity and spoke enthusiastically about everything that they were doing. They survived our very cold week, even when they were in the tents. Some of their reflections you will find later in the newsletter.
This week the Premier’s Awards Ceremony was held to recognise high performing VCE students. It is my honour to congratulate Olivia Voulgaris who received a Premier’s VCE Award for being a Top All-Round VCE High Achiever, which is given to students who achieved outstanding results in five or more of their subjects. Olivia worked very hard over her VCE years and achieved this with two years spent in large blocks of remote learning. We congratulate her and wish her every success for the future.
The winter flu season and resurgence of COVID-19 has posed many challenges for us over the last two weeks. We have experienced a high number of absentees and we hope that this will decline in the coming weeks. We continue to do our very best to ensure that the learning continues and students are able to keep moving forward. Please be aware that we have a number of staff absent at the moment due to illness. We appreciate your understanding and patience during this time and thank you for your support of the teaching staff.
We look forward to some warmer mornings and a little less frost in the coming weeks. We hope all families remain safe and well.