From the Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We wish our Year 9, 10 and 11 students all the very best as they enter their examination block this week, we know how hard many of the students have been working to prepare for these assessments and we are very proud of their efforts to date. It will be important over these last couple of weeks (the final stretch!) to encourage your young person to ensure that they are getting enough sleep, good food and exercise. It may also be an appropriate time to have a bit of a ‘digital detox’ on the socials during this busy season. We aim to finish well and we know that we have our parents support in helping us to ensure that student attendance, engagement, uniform and application all remains high right until the very end of term. As always, we thank you for your assistance in this.

This week also marked the rites of passage for our Year 12 Class of 2022. It was wonderful to come together in celebration at Evolution Day, Year 12 Graduation Liturgy Ceremony and Soiree in La Foresta, our House Breakfasts, Final Assembly and the traditional ‘hat toss’. It is indeed a bittersweet moment for all of us.

To our graduands of 2022, on behalf of the entire Mount Alvernia College Community, I wish to publicly thank them for the integrity, the joy, the care and the cohesiveness in which they have led us this year. I thank them for their friendship, their leadership, their mentorship and for all that they have contributed to the life of Mount Alvernia in their time here with us. We hope that their experiences and memories of secondary schooling will be treasured ones, and that the education that you (as parents) have gifted them and the formation that they have received here has equipped them well for the next steps. You can certainly be assured that the class of 2022 have left a legacy here, one for which they can be very proud. The example they have left for our younger students has been a significant one, for not only have they left something FOR us they have left something IN us. This is the inextricable link of the sisterhood, of the relationships that have been nurtured in and amongst us, within the homeroom families and beyond. These relationships are part of the rich tapestry that makes our Franciscan community so unique and precious. To our parents, thank you for entrusting your young person with us here at Mt A. It has been a joy and a privilege to journey with them and we hope that we can maintain our connections and association long after graduation day.

As part of our Graduation Farewell pack, we have included the following (on a bookmark) for our graduates. It is a beautiful poem by Max Ehrmann which speaks to those things we wish for our Class of 2022 as they conclude their journey as secondary school students. It is entitled Desiderata (Latin word for “things desired”) and is worthy sharing of you all in this final farewell to our Year 12 cohort.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, , 1927

It’s not good bye, its see you soon class of 2022!