Welcome back to Term 2!

We hope the Easter break provided your family with a chance to rest, reconnect and recharge. It’s been a joy to see our students return to campus full of energy, wearing their uniforms with pride, and ready to embrace the opportunities that lie ahead. This term, we continue to be guided by our 2025 College Theme: “Resolve to do good today but better tomorrow”—a powerful reminder of the importance of daily growth, kindness, and striving for excellence in all that we do.

There’s already been a great deal of energy and enthusiasm around the campus, including our ongoing House Challenge Tournament. The competition remains close, with Cardijn House currently in the lead, followed by Doyle, McCormack, and Geoghegan. With more opportunities ahead to earn points, we’re excited to see the friendly rivalry continue to grow!

At our first Day 10 Assembly for the term, we presented our newly appointed year 7 House Leaders with their badges. We look forward to welcoming (from left to right) Libby Parkes and Kiran Symes (Doyle House), Maddie Dale (Cardijn), Tom Kyriacou and Chelsea Garland (McCormack House) and Esme Steidle and Eva McLean (Geoghegan House) to the Tyabb SRC team.

In this edition of our newsletter, you’ll find student-written extracts celebrating some of the other amazing things already happening in our school community this term. I hope that you enjoy reading about their experiences and achievements.

House XC

Tyabb’s House Cross-Country Carnival was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to see everyone participating. The weather was perfect for the event. We recorded some very impressive times, and we wish all the students who placed in the top 10 the best of luck at the intercampus competition. The teachers joined in the spirit as well, cheering for the students and encouraging everyone to keep running. Congratulations to McCormack House who were the overall winners on the day!

Lily Miglioranza, Year 9 McCormack

ANZAC Day Dawn Service

On Friday 25 April, Padua Tyabb students attended the dawn service at the Tyabb Cenotaph. We all gathered with the local community to celebrate and remember all soldiers who fought for our country and the great sacrifice they made for us, making us remember how fortunate we are to live in Australia. The weather was beautiful during the service, but as soon as it finished, it began raining, just holding off until the end. Thank you to Ms Wilkinson for allowing us to participate in this wonderful event.

Holly Modderkolk, Year 9 Geoghegan

Tyabb ANZAC Service

On 24 April, we celebrated Anzac Day as a campus. We held a liturgy halfway through period 5 commemorating the fallen and injured soldiers and the family and friends who lost people due to war, we started with acknowledgment of the country and an introduction to Anzac Day then moved on to lighting the candles, one for mourning, one for change and the other for the lives of the soldiers lost in war, then some of the leaders came up and gave prayers to honor their lives, in summary, It was a beautiful way to pay tribute to those who fought for the Australia we have today.

Kate Clode, Year 8 McCormack

Mother’s Day Breakfast

On the Thursday before Mother’s Day, we all gathered to celebrate the mothers and motherly figures with a special breakfast. It was a morning filled with fun, food and words of wisdom from our guest speaker, Megan Rogers. We thank everyone who helped out and made this beautiful morning possible.

Ava Rogers, Year 8 Geoghegan

Mother’s Day Cookies

On Monday, Lucy, Emily, Anna, and I came together with Mrs Palatinus and Mrs Markham to create something special for Mother’s Day, thoughtful handmade cookies crafted with care. Working side by side, we mixed, shaped, and decorated the cookies, adding our own personal touch. To make the treats even more meaningful, we used a custom stamp made by Mrs Colcott and Mr Robinson to imprint the word ‘Mum’ onto the cookies, giving them a unique, handmade charm.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate creativity, teamwork, and gratitude, all while preparing a sweet surprise for the amazing mothers in our lives. We had so much fun doing this, it taught us how to work together and how to make delicious shortbread biscuits. As much as we enjoyed baking the cookies it also made us think about how special our mothers are and how much they deserve.

Ada Judd, Year 8 Cardijn

Aspire 9 Focus Week

City Experience

During our first Aspire 9 focus week, Cardijn and McCormack Houses went into the city daily to explore urban life. On Monday, Cardijn stayed on campus and we met our groups to plan our self planned day. During this day we had to go to certain places to explore and get to different places on time. We also got to choose a group and my group decided to go ice skating which was super fun even though some of us fell over. For the rest of the days we have planned places that we need to get to by using local transportation. Some of these activities are visiting the Museum, the State Library and the National Gallery. We also got to go to the Big Issue which helps homeless people and we got to listen to a person's story and how the Big Issue helped them. Finally we also got to go to the MCG and have a tour which was amazing. We got to go behind the scenes and see what it is like in the places that you don’t get to see and how big it really is. Overall this experience was super fun and a great way to learn new things.

Amelia Lee, Year 9 Cardijn

Murray River Kayaking

We left Tyabb Padua with smiles on our faces ready to conquer the mighty adventure camp of the Murray River. Once we set foot, our tents were constructed and our warm clothes were put into use very quickly. The first night was a charm with the fire crackling and the stars shining. The next couple days were full of paddling and navigating the great Murray River which was full of obstacles that could capsize your boat and clothes along with it. Many sights to see and lots of historic boats and giant bridges to gaze at. The stream was calm and the twists and turns were very fun yet difficult. The Murray River is a strongly recommended camp to try and the challenges ahead will test your survival skills and patience to the next level. Overall this camp was just an amazing experience and a memory cherished forever.

Zach Davies, Year 9 Doyle

SIS Public Speaking

All three Padua campuses attended the SIS Public Speaking event. Throughout the day we enjoyed speaking about various topics, or we happily cheered other schools and teammates outside the rooms. It was a flurry of activity as students prepared speeches for presentation, we all gave it a go and we look forward to doing it again next year.

Scarlette Walsh, Year 8 McCormack

Student Photo Permissions

At times, photographs or videos of our students will be published in newsletters, on the school intranet or website, or in our social media. Copies of our Standard Collection Notice and Privacy Policy are available on the College website in the Enrolments section of our Policies page. Please note that consent to use these images in this way, if provided at enrolment, may be withdrawn at any time by contacting our marketing team via email: marketing@padua.vic.edu.au .