Dear members of the MLMC community
I am not very good with social media and often younger staff members joke with me trying to teach the ins and outs of various platforms like Instagram, but I struggle to commit the necessary time to it. I have had a Facebook account for a long time, but I do not make much use of it, much to the chagrin of old friends who detail trips, shows and family events on their pages, but I do not. I do, however, follow some pages like ‘Nobel Prize’ which mostly keep me connected with those who have made great scientific discoveries and thus have been honoured.
So, two things of interest have got me thinking this week.
The first relates to the story I shared with you in May about Maurice Hillman, who is considered the father of modern vaccines in developing the mumps vaccine in about 1963. He was never awarded a Nobel prize. The second thing of interest I read was that actor Robert Redford had developed polio as a child, which lead me to think of the many pictures of children in iron lungs struggling to breath. Polio was, and still is, a disabling and life-threatening disease which spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord causing paralysis and an inability to breath. Much work was done to find a cure and two vaccines were developed; the first by Jonas Salk which used inactivated (killed) virus and one by Albert Sabin who used an attenuated (weakened) virus. Both were developed and I understand are still in use with advantages and disadvantages to both. You can read about them HERE if you wish. Neither Salk nor Sabin received the Nobel prize, but years after the vaccine’s development, Salk would recount that sometimes he would meet people who would not even know what polio was — which he found tremendously gratifying.
In the years to come perhaps people will look back and tell a similar story of the great COVID-19 outbreaks of 2020 and 2021 and the work done to find vaccines.
Over these last weeks, I have received a number of questions about the nature of vaccination in our College, the compulsory nature of it, vaccination certificates, if the College will be administering it to students and will it be required to attend exams and the like.
Firstly, the decision to vaccinate is a family decision and not one that can be imposed by the College. If the opportunity becomes available for the College to help in this by providing an opportunity for vaccination under regulated guidelines, then we would do so, but again only with parental consent.
As to the question of compulsory vaccination to attend exams and on campus, I do not believe any such directive has been given by the government and MLMC will always follow the directives and guidelines provided by the government, the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) and Mercy Education Limited.
Having said the above, members of the government have voiced that the current strain is a virus that seems to be caught by the young and the unvaccinated. The government is encouraging young people to be vaccinated. I once again in the attachment below provide the guidelines issued for students aged 16 and above. Please feel free to read them.
The government is strongly encouraging all senior students to be vaccinated before their exams and hopefully this will come to fruition. This week, we have seen the announcement that regional Victoria will slowly open with some students being permitted to attend on-campus classes. Hopefully, with increased vaccination rates, we will see a decrease in the daily spread and very soon an opportunity for our students to return to MLMC as the campus seems almost lifeless without them. Our College exists for them and only becomes fully alive with their presence.
As this is the last newsletter for the term, I do want to thank you for all the support and work you have all done in helping our students during remote learning. I know it has not been easy and the ambiguity and constant extensions of lockdown No.6 have only made it more difficult. Let us remain positive as we approach the future, knowing that everything possible is being done to keep our community safe and to keep our students focused with their learning. A very special vote of thanks must be afforded to the teaching and support staff who continue to work tirelessly in this endeavour.
Some items of note:
(1) College Musical
At the end of last week, I made a video to inform the cast and crew of Matilda that sadly the Musical has been cancelled again in 2021. We have done everything possible including several attempts at rescheduling to have live performances, however, it is no longer possible. I congratulate the cast and crew, the support staff and all involved with the production. You have maintained a positivity and worked tirelessly in the hope of performance and I thank you. I am deeply sorry that the “show could not go on”. We look forward to the Musical of 2022.
(2) Mercy Day/ Mercy Week
Next week was to be our celebration of all things Mercy for 2021, in the year of our 125-year celebration. In particular, during our celebration of Mercy, we give thanks for all those who have come before us and for their dedication to service. Again this year, we find ourselves in lockdown, which will hinder our celebrations, and so next Friday our timetable will be a Mercy Day timetable to allow some celebration, although remotely.
Please find below the bell times for Mercy Day on Friday 17 September. On this day, we will have six shorter periods to allow each class some time:
- Homeroom: 8.50-9.00am
- Mercy Day Homeroom Liturgy: 9.00-10.00am
- Recess: 10.00-10.20am (20 minutes)
- P1: 10:25-10.58am (33min)
- P2: 10.58-11.31am (33 min)
- P3: 11.31am-12.04pm (33 min)
- Lunch: 12:04-12.40pm
- P4: 12:44-1.17pm (33min)
- P5: 1.17-1.50pm (33min)
- P6: 1.50-2.23pm (33 min)
- Homeroom: 2.23-2.30pm.
(3) College Closure
In line with the principle that if you can work from home, you must work from home, the College will be fully closed during the September holiday period, with only a small number of maintenance and IT staff on campus. All other staff will either be on holidays or working from home. The College Office will be closed and the phones on answering machine.
If students need to visit the campus to collect any materials please ensure that this is done some time next week. Students will be required to sign in at the Office and wear masks.
If you need to contact the College during the holidays please email principal@mlmc.vic.edu.au and I will ensure the email is directed to the correct person. It will be followed up in a timely manner as needed.
If any news about changes are announced over the holidays, I will contact you via a video message which will be uploaded onto the Portal and you will receive a SMS message.
Again, I thank you for your support and I wish you every blessing as we move forward with positivity and hope.
In the spirit of Catherine
God bless
Philip A Morison
Principal
