Principal's Message
Celebrating a Wonderful Term
It is hard to believe that this is the last week of Term One. There is so much to celebrate from these past 8 weeks, not least of which is how the students have committed to their learning. I am very proud to take tour groups through the College – what they experience and observe is the settled, engaged and focussed learning taking place in different classrooms across the school. Congratulations to all students on prioritising their learning.
Learning Dispositions reports will be distributed shortly. We have set high expectations for these learning behaviours – if a teacher believes that a student is not exhibiting a learning disposition for at least 70% of the time, that disposition will be marked as “Needs Attention”. We are sending a clear message to students about our expectations – and our young people have responded proactively and positively to this challenge.
Athletics Carnival
Congratulations to all those who attended and participated in the Athletics Carnival on Thursday 20 March. A perfect day was ours for the taking, as students participated in events and encouraged one another in their efforts. A huge thank you to Ms Shellie Murton for all of the organisation and preparation that goes into these events, and to the Health and Physical Education Staff for their experienced and practical support on the day.
Cultural Diversity Week
It was a joy to celebrate Cultural Diversity Week at the College, celebrating the diversity that brings life and variety to our humanity. Thank you to the members of the Faith and Mission Team who organised the lunchtime events for this week.
This is a short piece from writer Andy Hamilton, SJ, about why diversity is important to us as a Catholic community.
In Australia cultural diversity is the air we breathe. The people we work with and live among come from many different nations and cultures, and we constantly need to attend to and celebrate our difference.
Diversity is in the Christian DNA. The Gospel initially spread in the Jewish world, but soon extended to many different cultures, adapting itself to each. Christian prayer bears the marks of many different historical cultures, and many Christian heroes are people who have left their own societies and risked their lives to speak of Jesus in other cultures.
The Christian feast day of diversity is Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples and they began to preach to people from many different nations and languages. The miracle of Pentecost was not that the disciples spoke many different languages, but that people heard and understood each in their own language. That is cultural diversity – people gathering together in their difference to celebrate their unity.
International Women’s Day
As a follow-up to the wonderful International Women’s Day celebrations we held at St Columba’s College, I share this speech delivered by the Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP to the NSW Catholic Schools for their IWD Breakfast. In it she particularly honours the nuns who have been society builders since they first arrived in Australia. She called them women of action, who followed vision with practical action; who ran towards need and did so with love. We are the inheritors and keepers of a story filled with courageous women of action whose deeds, large and small, provided the infrastructure for the education, health and social support systems we enjoy today.
Happy Easter
Holy Week commenced this past Sunday, with the joyous celebration of Palm Sunday, as Jesus was welcomed as a celebrity and a hero, into Jerusalem. The Gospel reading on Sunday was Mark’s telling of Jesus being taken into custody, scourged and crucified. Two very different foci as part of the mass. Jesus rode knowingly into Jerusalem, understanding that he had aggrieved the powers that be. Despite his knowledge, he went obediently, doing his Father’s will. The glory, and the fall, and then the glory again on Easter Sunday, but not without sacrifice.
As we journey closer to Easter, we reflect on the small sacrifices we are called to make in our lives, for the sake of love – family, friends, colleagues. It is love that brings us closer to God, and love that helps us to understand Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Wishing all of our families a very Happy Easter, and a safe term break for all our students. We look forward to everyone’s return on 15 April.