iServi News | 16 October 2020 | Term 4, Week 1
Welcome back to what promises to be another very exciting term at Servite. I hope that you had the opportunity to spend some quality time together during the break.
It was wonderful to see our students returning to school safe, well and refreshed this week ready to take full advantage of the many different learning opportunities available at the College. As mentioned in my letter home to families at the start of the week, in beginning a new term, I always encourage students to reflect on past performance and to set achievable goals to support their ongoing growth.
New Campus Facilities
As also mentioned in my letter home earlier this week, I am most grateful to all members of our community for their patience and support as we worked through the completion of Stage 1 of our Master Plan. The results have certainly been worth the wait, with the delivery of a stylish new Piazza, an innovative Learning Diversity Centre and a contemporary Professional Learning Suite.
The delivery of these spaces represents many months of hard work and dedication from designers, builders and College staff, so it was very affirming this week to see students taking full advantage of the different spaces on return to school. We were delighted also to show a number of families through the spaces after school each day this week.
We have a strong focus on personalised learning for each student at Servite. In addition to the differentiated learning programs on offer across and beyond our campus, our new Learning Diversity Centre will enable us to implement additional strategies for students which include acceleration, learning enrichment, gifted and talented and special education programs. We strive to cater for the individual learning needs of every student, every day – a philosophy that will be supported by this exciting new Centre.
The Piazza meanwhile connects us back to our heritage born out of Florence, Italy in providing an outside social meeting place for students. The Piazza also supports our philosophy that ‘learning happens anywhere, anytime’, with students now able to break out from the Shanahan classrooms to collaborate in a functional and contemporary external setting.
The Professional Learning Suite allows for rich collaboration and professional development amongst staff to support the ongoing development of quality learning opportunities for students.
In our ongoing quest to provide the best possible learning environment for our students, our focus now shifts to the next stage of the Master Plan. This includes the refurbishment of the ground floor Shanahan classrooms, the addition of external stairwell and balcony to the Alexis building to support better access to the upstairs spaces and the refurbishment of the ground floor Administration building into a Student Services Centre. This next phase of the plan will commence later this year.
Year 12 Students
Our Year 12 students are very much in our thoughts as they work through the final stages of their courses over the next few weeks and prepare themselves for Graduation. This is a special time in the lives of our students and we look forward to celebrating their contribution to the College during our Graduation events on Friday 23 October 2020.
COVID-19 Precautions
As a College we promote the health and wellbeing of our students. Please rest assured therefore that we continue to support COVID-19 related safety and health protocols across the College. We also continue to educate students on maintaining high standards of hygiene, particularly in this current climate.
Mr Jeff Allen
Principal