Principal’s Update – 16

As Term 4 begins we have much to celebrate. Our students and teachers are safely home from the South African and Solomon Islands Immersions. The experiential learning for both teachers and students undertaking an immersion has a long-lasting and transformative impact on the lives of the participants, as well as on those around them. If education is about fostering people’s capacities to act, and the society’s collective capacities to act in the interests of social justice, then the education gained on immersion is invaluable to that purpose. We regularly hear from our ex-students about the turning point that immersions made in the choice of undergraduate or postgraduate study, and ultimately career. Now is the time for our Year 10 students to start thinking about the possibility of immersion in 2018. We will be organising information sessions this term.

Our connections with the Dominican Sisters from the Solomon Islands continues to grow, and we look forward to welcoming them to the College next week. They will have the opportunity to catch up with the students from the recent immersion, as well as visiting classes across the College.

Year 5 students have won first place in the National Competition for Maths for their exploration of “Out of this world”. Congratulations girls!  Year 3 viola students began their Instrumental Lesson this week. They are enjoying their learning along with their equally wonderful viola teachers, Nicole Forsyth and Thea Turnbull. Nicole has captured and shared the joy, creativity and strength of our young viola learners for International Day of the Girl Child.

The Santa Sabina Middle Years Program for Years 6-8 extends and grows the best aspects of ‘Middle School’ as we have known it since the late 1990s. Current and future parents had the opportunity on Tuesday night to hear more about the program, and then to talk in smaller with the members of staff present. The Middle Years Program will have distinctive features that include a strong focus on STEAM; the continued development of research skills, building on the IB Primary Years Program; opportunities for formal and informal leadership roles; meaningful service activities; and tailored academic programs to meet the diverse needs of our students.

The new student leadership team on the 6-12 campus were inaugurated on Thursday in front of family, students and staff. The student executive – College Captain, Daniella Abal; College Vice-Captain, Kaitlan Merhi; College SRC Captains, Kate Coyne and Rafqua Touma; College House Captain, Patricia Schwarzkopf; Committees’ Captain, Alexandra Witting – were acknowledged and congratulated as they received their badges. They in turn introduced and acknowledged the broader leadership team of House Captains, Committee Captains, and Senior Leaders. All of the leaders made the following pledge in front of the community. ‘We pledge to be role models for the school community, seeking justice and compassion in all that we do. We strive to remind all students that education is a privilege, and we should demonstrate to others the fullest potential of this opportunity. On behalf of the College, we pledge a commitment to seek change; in our world, in our school, and in our lives’.

These students will be strongly supported by staff and peers in the adventure that is leadership. When addressing the students, I drew on some recent words from Pope Francis to pilgrims at St Peter’s Square. He was talking about the importance of hope, and said:

‘Do not listen to deluded and unhappy people; don’t listen to those who cynically recommend not to cultivate hope in life……Let us not entrust ourselves to those who extinguish every enthusiasm….don’t listen to the ‘elderly’ of heart who suffocate youthful euphoria.’

Rather, Francis told pilgrims to instead ‘cultivate healthy utopias’. ‘God’, he said, ‘wants us to be able to dream like him and with him, while we walk well aware of reality’, and if a dream goes out, ‘go back and dream it again, drawing with hope on the memory of its beginnings’.

He goes further and tells us to: ‘Ignore gloomy people…And maintain a healthy dose of joy’.

I think that is a wonderful message for our students, and a reminder to all of us to find those moments of joy amidst the challenges of our daily lives.