From the Principal

The Presentation Sisters have been enshrined in history through their inclusion on the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women. At a ceremony held in Launceston, they were presented with an award from the Minister for Women, the Honourable Sarah Courtney MP. 

The Sisters were recognised for their 153–year contribution to Tasmania through education, pastoral care and, most recently, the gift of land at Blackmans Bay for affordable housing. 

I had the privilege of spending Saturday at Lake Barrington with our 70 rowers and their families for the Head of the River Rowing Regatta. The weather was appalling and our students rowed hard despite it. 

Four years ago, I invited the rowing parents to a meeting to tell them we were not continuing with rowing in the College. There were a variety of issues and numbers were dwindling. Those committed families convinced me that they could fundraise and match the school funds to ensure we had a paid rowing coordinator. Liz Carter, staff member, alumni and rowing mum, won the position. Liz, supported by a dedicated team of parents, has built the Rowing Club to be a lively, positive, tenacious club that is also competitive. 

Liz is retiring from the position, so I wanted to take the opportunity to publicly commend and thank her for her work, and also acknowledge the great community spirit alive and well in the Rowing Club.

A prayer of gratitude

We are grateful for eyes that can see and ponder, for taste buds that know the sensuous pleasures of eating and drinking, for hands that hold and touch and feel, for ears that can delight in music and the voice of a friend, for a nose that can smell the aroma of newly mown grass or delicious food, and can also breathe the air that gives us life.

We are grateful for the treasure of loved ones whose hearts of openness and acceptance have encouraged us to be who we are. We are grateful for their faithfulness, for standing by us when our weaknesses stood out glaringly, for being there when we were most in need and for delighting with us in our good days and our joyful seasons.

We are grateful for the eyes of faith, for believing in the presence of God, giving us hope in our darkest days, encouraging us to listen to our spirit’s hunger, and reminding us to trust in the blessings of God’s presence in our most empty days.

We are grateful for the ongoing process of becoming who we are, for the seasons within, for the great adventure of life that challenges and comforts us at one and the same time.

We are grateful for the messengers of God—people, events, written or spoken words—that came to us at just the right time and helped us to grow.

We are grateful for God calling us to work with our gifts, grateful that we can be of service and use our talents in a responsible and just way.

We are grateful that we have the basic necessities of life, that we have the means and the ability to hear the cries of the poor and to respond with our abundance.

We are grateful for the miracle of life, for the green of our earth, for the amazing grace of our history; we are grateful that we still have time to decide the fate of the world by our choices and our actions, grateful that we have it within our power to bring a divided world to peace.

Helen Spencer

Principal