Issue 39 / From the Headmaster

Welcome

Welcome to the start of another new year together with all the hopes, promise and anticipation it brings with it. I would especially like to extend a warm Saint’s welcome to the 204 new boys who have commenced with our School this year, (101 in the Senior School and 103 in the Junior School) and of course, a warm welcome to the boys and young men who return to our School community. Also welcomed are our staff, especially those who have joined for the start of this year and the families of the boys.

Following is a list of our new staff members for 2011:

- Mr Sam McKinney, Head of Senior School
- Mr David Hine, Head of Junior School
- Mr Rob van Dort, Director of Student Development
- Mrs Carolyn Walker, Executive Assistant to Headmaster
- Dr Mathew White, Associate Director Excellence, Ethics & Engagement
- Ms Jane Hogarth, Manager Business Services & Finance
- Mr Bryan Bienke, Director of Football
- Mr Ben Bleby, Associate Chaplain
- Dr Sergio Sergi, providing a combined role for IB and Mentoring Support for students and supervisors
- Mr Khoi Phuong, IT Teacher
- Ms Katie Carey, Music teacher, Junior School
- Ms Megan Clark, Year 3 teacher (six month contract)
- Mr Jason Cosgrove, Junior School Sports and PE Coordinator
- Mr Rohan Feegrade, Year 7 teacher
- Mr David Shigrov, Year 7 teacher
- Ms Alison Winter, Teacher Librarian
- Ms Kim Laird, ELC teacher
- Ms Kerry Wood, ELC teacher
- Ms Miranda Rintoul, Junior School Education Support Officer
- Ms Sophie Yankou, ELC Education Support Officer
- Mr Barry Michels, Manager Building Operations
- Ms Sue Schilling, Laboratory Technician, Science Faculty

Saints is seen by many as a fine school and one of the measures of such a school is the strength of the relationships that exist within our School community. I ask you all to do what you can to ensure our new boys, new staff and new parents feel the warmth and friendly nature of the Saints community.

2011 – Just another new year?

There is always a sense of excitement at the start of a new year and this is especially true in a school community where there are many thoughts, dreams and even some fears for what the year ahead may bring; what new experiences will we have? What new friendships will develop?

At our first Muster for the year, I posed many questions to the Senior School boys all framed within the framework of ‘ Is this just another year?’

I would say ‘NO!’ It is indeed a brand new year, there has not been one like it – after all it is 2011 and none of us have been there before.

I asked the boys to consider how they view a new year; do they think of the brand new year in terms of what they are going to make of it? Do they plan to take each day as it comes and see what will unfold? Or, are they looking to this brand new year for all the opportunities that it will allow? There is a sense of excitement and a gathering of energy when you see it this way.

There are many worthwhile questions the boys have been challenged to consider in regard to how they will respond to for the 2011 year:

- What are your hopes and dreams for this year?
- What are your plans, aspirations for how you will work in your classes?
- What are your plans for your contributions to your House and Mentor groups?
- What are your aspirations for your sport, music, drama and outdoor education activities?
- How are you going to be involved in community service?
- What are your plans to help build and strengthen the relationships between other boys and with staff?
- How might you enrich the tone of the School?
- What are your plans to stamp your mark on Saints this year in all the right ways?

Answering these questions with a commitment and a preparedness to give their all will indeed make 2011 a remarkable year for each boy.

That indeed is my charge to all our boys and I look forward with genuine excitement to being with them throughout the year. It is my hope that 2011 is all that each boy wants it to be, all that it can be and may it be all that they are prepared for it to be.

Commissioning services

The Commissioning Services for Sam McKinney, Head of Senior School; David Hine, Head of Junior School and Ben Bleby, Associate Chaplain all occurred at Memorial Hall in the opening weeks of the new School year. The formal services welcoming these senior staff members into the School community were indeed stirring occasions during which the boys and staff extended a warm welcome to these new staff. In accepting various symbols signifying their responsibilities each in turn was warmly welcomed by representatives of the School community.

The Commissioning services for House Captains, Prefects and members of the Senior School Student Representative Council have also been held – during which the boys’ commitment to their leadership roles and the School community was formally acknowledged. Sam McKinney and David Hine have included further information in their columns about these services.

The newly appointed School Captain, Jake Rischbieth and School Vice Captain, Harrison Kadis, were both enthusiastically welcomed to their leadership roles by the School community. Jake gave an inspiring speech during which he promised to be available for each and every boy at the School in his role as School Captain.

Year 12, 2010 Academic Results

The Year 12 academic results for 2010 were outstanding across the board for our boys. These young men should all be especially proud of the outcomes of their hard work and commitment and the options it will provide them for their future plans. In 2010 St Peter’s College had 157 students all of whom achieved an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR).

Below is a summary of the results:

- 20 students (13% of candidates) obtained an ATAR ≥ 99
- 30 students (19% of candidates) obtained an ATAR ≥ 98
- 61 students (39% of candidates) obtained an ATAR ≥ 95
- 94 students (60% of candidates) obtained an ATAR ≥ 90
- Average ATAR for the year group: 88.77
- Median ATAR for the year group: 92.65

You would have all received the 2010 Year 12 Results brochure in the mail which provides a more comprehensive analysis of the results for your information.

These results clearly place Saints amongst the highest level of academic achievement for Year 12 boys across the nation.

Positive Education and the Fellows Program

Imagine an educational approach that fosters academic success in a way that will allow Saints boys to consider positive emotions, build resilience, develop meaningful relationships and find purpose in their lives by using their unique character strengths to contribute to broader society.

The Black Dog Institute tells us that when adolescents leave school we know that 18-24 year olds will have the highest prevalence of mental disorders of any age group. The time is right for Saints to develop proactive approaches to mental health. I argue that Positive Psychology: the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive, offers one such educational approach.

This approach has been the focus of significant developments at Geelong Grammar School and Wellington College in the United Kingdom.  It is the focus of study at The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Melbourne.

Over the past 15 years we have seen a shift in pastoral care from student welfare to student wellbeing. Positive psychology will strengthen what we have been doing right for the past 160 years. My hope is that every Saint’s boy will be able to talk about his strengths and those of his peers with the same rigour as he would discuss Romeo and Juliet, the causes of World War 1, or Newton’s Laws.
I know that the Saints community has a lot to contribute to this area of expertise, we need to capture what we do well, we need to sharpen our tools, and equip our boys with the best skills possible.

I am delighted that Dr Mathew White (Short ’90) has been appointed to the newly created whole school position of Associate Director of Excellence, Ethics & Engagement with the financial support of Dr Rex J Lipman AO (Short ’37).

Mathew’s role and responsibility is a strategic position in the School. He reports directly to the Office of Headmaster and is a whole school appointment. He will collaborate with and advise members of the Senior Leadership Team, Heads of House and Faculty – and will have access to committees across the school.  Being an Old Scholar, Mathew brings a rich understanding of Saints to his important role throughout the School.

In 2011 Mathew will develop Saint’s strategic plan for the introduction of positive psychology across the School. Mathew’s appointment will build the School’s capacity to engage with the substantial development currently being undertaken in the area of Positive Psychology and more recently with Positive Neuroscience and its application in schools.

Rex J Lipman Fellows Program: being and becoming

A further aspect of Mathew’s role is to develop a visiting Fellows program, the purpose of which is to bring the world to Saints. The Rex J Lipman Fellow’s program has been established to bring some of Australia’s most compelling thinkers to the school as an integrated part of the School’s 2020 Vision. The visiting Fellows program, supported by Rex J Lipman, will engage all parts of the Saints community: students, parents and old scholars and reinforce Saints’ position as a leading edge learning community in Australia.

We are honoured to announce two Patrons of the Rex J Lipman Fellows Program: Dr J Robin Warren (Mac ’54) joint winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005 and Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield CBE, Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford. Baroness Greenfield will join us in July this year to launch the program.

We will be communicating to the whole School community the dates for each speaker shortly. Mathew has secured ten speakers for the 2011 Fellows Program. It will be a remarkable start to our school year. Each speaker will spend time with boys in classes and complete a public lecture. We anticipate that there will be great interest in the Fellows program. It will be essential to book places for each lecture. I hope that you will be able to join us for as many lectures as possible.

SACE 2011

The new SACE was introduced to St Peter’s College in 2009 when for the first time Year 10 students undertook the new subject of Personal Learning Plan (PLP). Designed to allow students to more carefully consider and plan their learning pathways within school and beyond, the PLP offered our boys the chance to take responsibility for their own futures. The introduction of Stage One of new SACE followed in 2010, and this year the Year 12 boys will be the first to complete that qualification at Stage Two level.

The new SACE has brought some changes to the things we do. Students now have the choice of studying four or five Stage Two subjects, although in addition all must study the Research Project, a compulsory subject that allows the students to focus on an area of interest be it composing music, writing essays, mapping sporting achievement, designing webpages or building a BBQ, and each boy has the opportunity to research that area of interest and to work in a small group with a teacher to enhance his research skills: skills that will stand him in good stead in university and beyond.

The new SACE has also brought with it more flexible learning pathways. Several of our boys have studied Stage Two subjects in Year 11 or even in some cases in Year 10, and for the first time under new SACE guidelines students have been able to study single semesters of a subject instead of a whole year. The new SACE method of accreditation has allowed students to be more aware of and engaged with their pathways to success, therefore offering each boy more clearly defined goals and objectives.

The PLP is designed to give the boys a greater understanding of learning and career paths, and the Research Project is specifically designed to provide them with opportunities for university style independent learning. As the Year 12 boys embark on the first journey through Stage Two of SACE, they will find themselves better equipped than ever to face the challenges of university and beyond.

ICLT update

One to One programs – MacBook and iPad

As you would be aware from the information sessions and correspondence during 2010, Saints placed a strategic focus on how best to use digital technologies to enhance the education offered at St Peter’s College. I am pleased to say that this hard work has now come to fruition and is being embraced by both the staff and boys.

With the commencement of the 2011 School year, Saints has embarked on stage one of its One to One laptop program. This has involved the introduction of two ICLT programs; a MacBook program in the Junior School and an iPad program in the Senior School.

In the Junior School, 91 Year 7 students have introduced their MacBook or MacBook Pro to the school network, whilst in the Senior School, 338 Years 11 and 12 boys have been provided with iPads to support our eBook program.

The next phase of the program will see Year 8 students using MacBooks or MacBook Pros from the start of Term Two. The School will be in contact with the parents of these boys shortly to outline machine requirements and the process to access special discounting for the purchase of a compatible device.

Keystone – Building knowledge

The creation of a network where the boys and staff can solve problems, seek assistance and share resources is crucial for the realisation of a vibrant and dynamic digital learning community. This too, has been a strategic ICLT goal at Saints to further enrich the learning experience for our students.
Keystone – Building Knowledge, is such an information system which brings users’ digital assets and information into a central personalised environment. Ease of accessibility to the system (24 hours a day, seven days a week) by students, parents, staff and old scholars is an important feature allowing users to have access to all of their digital information and resources at anytime, anyplace.

Keystone will soon become the information source for our digital lives at Saints. Users will have the ability to download and purchase eBooks, upload and share their work and ideas, while, importantly, ensuring all users’ the right to a safe and secure online experience.

Given the significant scope of a project of this type, we will be dividing the development of this information system into stages.

Phase one of the project has been completed, with the following outcomes achieved:

- A school wide calendar created.
- A personalised news and daily notices tool for staff and students.
- Personalised secure eBook access.
- An interactive pastoral care tool used to share and monitor information about students at risk, meritorious behaviour and behaviour issues.

Phase two, which will commence shortly, will consider a parent communication tool for sport, resource booking and other productivity and virtual learning tools.

We will continue to provide you with updates regarding this program in future Newsletters.

Simon Murray
Headmaster

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