Thank you for the very warm welcome that I have received upon my arrival at Tenison Woods Catholic School. In my telephone conversations with many parents before school returned for Term 2, I was heartened by the number who let me know that I was joining a really beautiful community. I have already witnessed so many examples of this and feel truly blessed to be here. I am excited to work with the staff and be in partnership with you as we share in this part of your child’s journey. I have given myself a task of knowing and remembering every child’s name by the end Week 3. This week I have begun talking with children from Year 5/6 to find out what they like about school, what their interests are, who their friends are and how I can help them in their learning journey. I shared with them that schools are simply on about four things: Learning, Friends, Fun and Faith. We need to have a good balance of these aspects.
I come to you after 6 1/2 years as Principal at St Teresa’s School at Brighton and previous to that I was Principal at St Thomas More School at Elizabeth Park for 10 1/2 years. Over the years I have also had some short term Acting Principal roles in our Catholic schools at Evanston, Woomera, Salisbury, Kilburn and Prospect. My wife has also worked in Catholic Education for many years and is the current Acting Assistant Principal at Elizabeth Park. Together we continue to enjoy the many blessings that children bring to our lives each day through our work. We have one daughter who is a paediatric nurse at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
I would like to congratulate John Low on his substantive appointment to St Catherine’s School at Stirling and acknowledge his outstanding work over the past 18 months at Tenison Woods Catholic School. With the current COVID-19 restrictions it has been an interesting time to venture into a new community. Add to this the short turn around time in the change over of Principals, it has made it somewhat more challenging for our staff, students and parents. Likewise for John in his new setting. However I wish to reassure everyone that the staff have been simply amazing in the way that they have managed our change in leadership and the flexible learning that has been taking place for the past two weeks. All of this has placed extra demands on each of them and, as an external person coming in, I think they really have done an excellent job. As more children have returned to school, teachers have begun to move back to the usual face to face explicit teaching. From Monday, all classes will return to face to face teaching. Thank you for your role in supporting your child and our teachers throughout this whole process.
All indications are that the COVID-19 situation will most likely be with us for a long time. While we may well have some restrictions eased, we all need to be prepared for the situation to change at any moment, especially if there is another wave or outbreak of the virus. We all need to be patient with each other as everyone manages to come to terms with this new reality. Thank you for your understanding around parents not entering the school yard at the present time. Hopefully this restriction will be lifted before our Parent Teacher Interviews in the first week of June (Week 6). If not, we may have to conduct them via telephone. All families should have received the link to our School Interviews portal to book in a time with your child's class teacher. If you have any difficulty, or have not received the email, please contact Anna Pivato who will assist you.
This week is Catholic Education Week and usually schools are organising Open Days, excursions or other events as a way to celebrate. Unfortunately the current situation has made it extremely difficult to celebrate as we normally would. This year's theme is 'Raising Hearts and Minds' and you may have seen some posts about this on our Facebook page. For me, those words state quite simply what we are on about in Catholic Education. We are touching the hearts and minds of our students, raising them firstly to love and care for others and the world. Secondly we are helping them to grow in knowledge, understanding and wisdom. We do this with parents in a special partnership. Schools value the wisdom and knowledge that parents bring to the table because they know more about their children than anyone. They are also the first teachers of their children.
Tenison Woods Catholic School regularly offers a Principal Tour for young families deciding on schooling for their children. Usually there are a number of families participating in each tour. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions I am conducting personalised tours rather than taking larger groups through. If you know any families who are currently discerning which school would be best for their children, please encourage them to make a booking through Anna Pivato or via our school website. Later this term we will hold Transition sessions for our Term 3 intake of Reception students and we look forward to them joining us.
Next week our Parents and Friends Committee would normally meet. Given the current restrictions on gatherings I have decided on this occasion to just meet with the executive of the P&F. Hopefully we will be able to return to our usual meetings for the June meeting with a larger group.
I would like to finish this week by wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mums. Unfortunately we were unable to hold our annual Mother's Day Stall this year but trust that your family will look after you on this very special day. I ask that you keep all mums in your prayers this weekend, but also all those women who are, for whatever reason, unable to have children. I know that special days like this can sometimes be difficult for them. I pray that all women feel special and be truly blessed this Sunday.
Peter Mercer
Acting Principal
