Mount St Bernard College

COMMUNITY NEWS 

Loving God,
We pray that you give us courage and wisdom as we work through the difficulties and realities that currently face the world.
Give to us a profound sense of creative community as we support each other through these times.
Hold us in your arms as we joruney into the future, O Lord, believing that you are with us.
Lift our hearts, O Holy Spirit, as we face each moment.
Amen.

I believe this prayer captures the term that has been so significantly disrupted by the Coronavirus. We have worked through the ‘difficulties and realities’ that we have encountered. Day by day we have adapted to the evolving situation. Parents and students have also adapted and we sincerely thank them for their efforts in supporting the learning journey through out Term 2.
Teachers have adapted their roles to cater for face to face learning as well as remote learning as appropriate and non-teaching staff have taken on other tasks to make a meaningful contribution during the term. Our boarding supervisors as well as teacher aide staff have worked on a variety of alternate tasks when not required to supervise students or support classroom learning including:

• Restoration of College Front Fence – sand, paint, repair, replace spikes
• Establishment of new College Mountain Bike Park – plan, prepare, build
• Restoration of Lourdes Grotto – repair, re-vegetate, irrigate, pond
• Revamp of College Orchard – weed, prepare soil, irrigate, plant new fruit trees
• Revamp College Eco-Garden – weed, prepare beds, new plants, mulch, irrigation
• Clean and tidy Eco-Shed – tidy, pressure clean, re-organise
• Revamp Chapel gardens – edging, soil prep, new gardens, mulch, new grass, irrigation
• Painting a variety of indoor and outdoor surfaces - pressure clean, undercoat, top coat.
• Netball and Basketball Courts cleaned with gurney
• Pin boards in Morrissey to be repaired and refreshed – new cloth, decorations
• Administartion support in school with filing and printing
• Revamp of Lourdes garden and BBQ area – clean, re-veg, lawn.
• Mulching of the garden bed at the cemetery
• Researching, sorting and arranging historical items in the museum rooms
• Liaising and working on arrangements for the centenary celebrations next year

We have also been ‘creative’ in our efforts to be in ‘community’. ‘Zoom’ has become a medium that has helped us connect both within the school as well as outside to the communities. We have held ‘Zoom’ virtual gatherings for activities including:

Assemblies Liturgies Staff meetings Parent information

Enrolment interviews Board meetings Centenary community meetings

And through out the term we have been buoyed by our God who ‘journeys’ with us. St. Ignatius tells us: God’s spirit “stirs up courage and strength, consolations, inspirations and tranquility”. This has helped us through the difficult time, given us the composure to adapt, and move forward, continuing to grow the Mount St Bernard College community.

Next term we hope to welcome back all our Boarding students. Please be sure that we will continue to take every step possible to minimise the opportunity of transmission of COVID-19. Should you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact myself or the College Nurse (Nurse Stef) at the College.

Enrolments for 2021 have been coming in and interview processes have commenced. All enquiries can be directed to Hillary O’Brien at the College.

Wishing you and your families and communities a safe and enjoyable school break.

Ian Margetts - Principal