Student Wellbeing

mr Brendan Douglas | Assistant Principal - Students

Praying! I’ve been doing a lot of that these days. My number one daily prayer is that 2022 will see the end of remote schooling for our College. It’s been a tough two years. Without a shadow of a doubt, the boys graduating Year 12 at the end of 2021 have had their resilience tested more that any other year level in my memory. I’m delighted to add that they have lifted to the challenge as well. In my time at the College I don’t think I have ever experienced student leadership of the like demonstrated by our College Captains Steven Tran, Keelan Corcoran and Robbie Miller. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep our boys connected, focus on their mental health and made great strides in raising awareness of the need to tackle discriminatory language and homophobia. Credit must also go to Molly Tilley who has worked as Student Leadership Coordinator. Of particular note were the initiatives raised through student leadership that ended up being effectively pursued in meeting with members of leadership including the acting College Principal Mr Carter. The Wellbeing and Pastoral Care traffic light check in system assisted teachers, parents and boys to create awareness of how the boys were travelling, and enabled us to check in with boys and their families who identified that they were struggling while they were in remote learning. This idea came through the sharing of ideas from other schools.

The Wellbeing team was reshaped this year with the resignations of Joelle Chaperon and Shruti Khazanchi. On board came Montana Nicolotsolopoulos and Dan Wood (ex-student Class of 2013), who have worked positively with Tim Swayn in counselling students, running programs for staff and boys, and refining administrative processes that have enabled them to be more effective in their work as part of the Pastoral Team as a whole. In 2021 there was a change to the Year Level Coordinator team as Rhea Beurs took maternity leave to settle in her new baby daughter. Heath Chipperfield stepped into the breech and has done an outstanding job with the boys. His focus on the boys trying to be their best, supporting each other and positively enjoying every moment of their time with each other really resonated with the year level as a whole.

Christina Romano, Craig Giles, Chris Ryan, Malwina Dwyer and Deb Rabot continued their remarkable efforts led by Deans of Junior and Senior school Byron Chen and Kim Beurs. The Pastoral team go above and beyond for our boys. They have a deep love for the community, and their commitment to it brings the charism of St John Bosco and the teachings of our Lord Jesus alive in the daily lives of all they come into contact with.