The community of St John’s College in Preston have extended a warm thank you to His Eminence Archbishop Makarios for reviving the school that was set to be shut down.
The school released a statement online on their Facebook page expressing their gratitude on behalf of the Board of Directors, the school community, parents and alumni for “his trust, guidance and dedication to the revival and rescue of this most important educational institution of the Greek Diaspora in Melbourne”.
Archbishop Makarios was determined not to leave the school behind, despite being advised before his arrival in Australia to close its doors due to dwindling enrolments, “large debts”, its “general poor financial situation” and a recent history of “negative record of academic performance”.
The proof was in the pudding, as the school achieved its best ever VCE results.
READ MORE: Results are out! Spotlighting Victoria’s top Greek VCE achievers
“Specifically, St John’s managed to rank 54th among 582 schools in the State of Victoria. This is an outstanding improvement in the school ranking, as in the last three years (2017, 2018, 2019) it was ranked in positions 415, 237 and 344 respectively,” they said in the statement.
In early 2020 St John’s College also welcomed new School Principal Anna Urban who was appointed by His Eminence and was acknowledged for spearheading “a process of continuous improvement and progress in all areas”.
The statement ended off by thanking Archbishop Makarios once again and pledging to “move forward for the glory of Christ and the Greek community in Melbourne”.