From the Principal

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and Friends of St Norbert College,

“I would like to come to Saint Norbert College because it’s a Catholic school, it’s a great school and the students and the teachers are really nice. And you do so many great things here” _ (Year 5 student)

I get the privilege to interview all prospective students from our new families and begin by asking the young person why they would like to come to Saint Norbert’s. I have included the response above from one of the Year 5 students I interviewed earlier this week. The answers to that question are often varied and, on occasion, quite surprising. The common elements raised however include, delightedly, that we are a Catholic school, a welcoming environment of good reputation and achieving quality outcomes for our students in a myriad of areas.

With youthful exuberance, many of these young people are already using their own words to express our College Mission.

On the very rare occasion that families do decline our offer of enrolment, they often justify that they have received an offer of an enrolment at another school that specialises in a sporting program, or the Arts, or Gifted and Talented, or a scholarship program, or because of the opportunities to tour overseas, and many other reasons. It would be scant arrogance that would see me purport that offerings in these areas are not important – we offer many of these programs and opportunities, complementary to the values of our College.

In the spirit of today’s first reading, I take this opportunity to boast of Saint Norbert College;

“So many people boast on merely human grounds that I shall too”. (2 Corinthians 11: 18).

When families decline our invitations for enrolment on these grounds, I sit comfortably in the knowledge that the people who do choose a Saint Norbert College education, now valued members of our community, do so because we live, breath and exist in a Christian community, with the guiding presence of the Norbertine ethos, dedicated to fostering the growth of our students as whole persons, in the image of Christ. All key components of our College Mission as you will read below. We are more than any one specific part of our College, we are the sum of all of our parts that makes us, so correctly stated by a Year 5 student, “. . . . a Catholic school, a great school . . .”

Respectful of our programs and the great work that our staff, families and students contribute, I categorically state that we are not a specialist sport school, we are not an arts school, we don’t just focus on academic excellence and other adjectives that I’ve heard used to describe us. We are all of these and so much more.

“St Norbert College is a Christian community; a Catholic school influenced by the ethos of the Norbertine order to foster the growth of our students as whole persons who will live in faith with the Church and humanity, in the image of Christ” (Saint Norbert College Mission).

I thank our families for investing in us to educate and care for their young people and for supporting us in helping our students be “Prepared for all good works”.

“For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be too”. (Matthew 6: 21).

God bless.

Mr S Harvey (Principal)