This week we welcomed 14 members and guests of Daybreak to our meeting.
There were 10 apologies
President Peter welcomed members and guests.
Guest Speaker
Our guest speaker today was Michael Gray from the St Joseph’s Primary School.
Michael has been the principal of St Josephs for 25 years but has now moved on to other pursuits in his role as President of the Victorian Association of Catholic Primary Principals, which is a group that facilitates collegiality between principals of Catholic Primary Schools and supports young career professionals. He will be based at the Catholic Education Leadership Centre in Melbourne but can work remotely from home.
Michael grew up in Birchip where he knew everyone and was related to half of them.
The family moved to Geelong and lived in a close knot community. From there to Torquay where his parents had a supermarket and he learned about communicating with people. After finishing his training, he taught in Geelong, then Seymour and then became a curriculum consultant for Catholic Education.
He picked up the job as principal of St Mary’s in Geelong and then at the tender age of 32 applied for St Josephs. He got the job.
There were 300 students when he first arrived and during his time there steered the school through the very ambitious task of relocating to a flood prone area on both sides of Russells Creek. It seemed a long way out at the time, ut is now deemed to be quite central. Fast-forward 25 years and there are now 603 students, 400 families and 84 staff. The school is now run like a business with an $8 – 9m budget.
Michael stressed the importance of education being the foundation for future life and how developing the basic skills is essential to et kids up for life.
He believes the most important aspects of schools are having a strong leadership and the development of learning teams. The team aspect is so important because the everyone contributes to the team and thus the whole is stronger through sharing.
He has a firm belief that it is so important to work with young people to help their development.
Soup Kitchen
Those members who are rostered on for next Monday night will be notified. They are Janey, Ali, Sergio and Barry M.
Quiz
Sandra’s quiz attracted a lot of thought and much competition.
Movie Night
Chez has reminded everyone about the movie night next Wednesday. We are showing ‘The Father” and we need members to sell as many tickets as they can.
Backyard Blitz
Chez and Barry will do an appraisal of Annie’s yard to see what needs to be done and will work out the when, who and how we will make it happen.
CELEBRATIONS
Rotary Anniversaries
Sandra Batten 14 May 2003
Program for May
19 May Guest Speaker - Sue Cassidy
26 May Members Choice - Ali Dennis
MEALS ON WHEELS
21 May Dianne Brown
21 May Dianne Brown
28 May Jan Read
4 June Ali Dennis
11 June Fiona Steenhuis
18 June Dianne Brown
25 June Ann Barker
2 July Barry Moran
9 July Cheryl Bellman
16 July Ian Harper
23 July Ali Dennis
30 July Ann Barker