Living Dominican Values Through Service and Grace
At Santa Sabina College, our guiding pillars of Faith, Scholarship, Wellbeing, Community and Momentum shape the holistic education we offer every student. We believe education is not only about academic success, but about forming young people of character, compassion and purpose who are ready to flourish in the world.
By Year 12, our students have journeyed through a rich and sequential formation program designed to support their growth as learners and as people. The Year 12 Retreat experience is an important culmination of that journey, creating space for students to pause, reflect and consider who they are becoming as they prepare to complete their schooling and step into the next chapter of life.
At the end of Term 1, Year 12 students participated in their final Retreat as Santa Sabina students, choosing either the Outreach Retreat in Goulburn or the Grace Retreat at Tallong Campus.
While different in structure, both retreats were grounded in our Dominican commitment to truth, justice, compassion and service.
Students participating in the Outreach Retreat were invited to live faith through action. In partnership with Anglicare and local community organisations, students prepared meals, assembled care packs, supported childcare services, visited aged-care residents and learned more deeply about the realities of youth homelessness. Through prayer, scripture and reflection, they were challenged to connect service with dignity, empathy and a responsibility to others.
Students attending the Grace Retreat were invited to slow down and create space for stillness, gratitude and renewal. Through prayer, creative reflection, small-group conversation and quiet moments in nature, students explored identity, hopes, fears and the importance of grace in their own lives. The imagery of the potter and the clay reminded students that growth often comes through trust, vulnerability and openness to change.
Across both retreats, students engaged deeply with the Gospels, with one another and with their own stories. Final liturgies reflected a cohort marked by honesty, maturity and hope.
These retreat experiences are intentionally designed to help students return with perspective, balance and renewed purpose as they begin their final months of schooling and prepare for their examinations.
As a Dominican school, our commitment is to nurture young people who leave us not only well educated, but grounded in faith, guided by values and ready to flourish, come what may.