Catholic Identity & Mission News

St. Peter's College Experiences

Next Friday marks the start of Catholic Education Week for 2022. Our theme this year is from Mark’s Gospel: ‘Go out into the world and spread the Good News to all creation’ (Mk 16:15). There will be a range of activities during the week but one of the first we’re getting students involved in is a poster competition for our Year 7 students. In RE classes, students have been encouraged to consider what this theme might mean in terms of their lives at St. Peter’s College. Perhaps they can spread the good news of their own new experiences of secondary school life, or our student motto ‘Be not afraid’, or our pillars of Faith, Education and Service. 

I am confident that these St. Peter’s College experiences and values will come to resonate with our Year 7’s because I was privileged to be a part of the Senior VCAL presentations this past week and they certainly have with them! Across both campuses, the Senior VCAL students presented their Senior Projects in response to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. Student presentations should reflect their research and understanding of the formation and role of the United Nations and the purpose and aims of the Sustainable Development Goals. For the most part, they completed these tasks very well but what really struck me, this year, was the empathy and compassion that students expressed when they discussed the challenges faced in terms of the environment and the world’s poor. They have considered these in their personal projects which they must now aim to address these issues. ‘Watch this space’ for more news and updates on their fantastic and often ambitious projects and I wish them every success as they work to fulfill the motto of Catholic Education Week and indeed our own annual theme to ‘Therefore prepare your minds for action’. 

It is going to be a very busy next couple of weeks in the portfolio of Catholic Identity and Mission, providing us with many opportunities to spread the Good News to all creation. We have just had two Year 12 Reflections Days (more about those in the next newsletter) and on Election Day we have the Social Justice BBQ to raise the profile of, and funds for, Trinity Families, the Diocese of Sale’s outreach program to support families in need. We will then commemorate Sorry Day on May 26, the same day we celebrate our Marian House Feast Day, and then we will celebrate Reconciliation Week alongside Catholic Education Week from May 27 to June 3. 

Staff can ‘prepare their minds for action’ with a Twilight Theology professional learning session focused on Catholic Social Teaching and what many consider its foundation document, ‘Rerum Novarum’, while planning is well underway for our St. Peter’s Day in June. Catholic Education Week recognizes and celebrates Catholic Education and all that it works to achieve inside and outside the classroom, at school and in the community because it is absolutely our Mission to ‘Go out into the world and spread the Good News to all creation’! 

Fiona McKenna

Deputy Principal - Catholic Identity & Mission