Deputy Head of College News

Routines vs Rituals

No doubt households are continuing to adjust to the routines of school life, as we tackle our first full week of the academic year. Some embrace this adjustment with unwavering enthusiasm, others with a dash of avoidance and others somewhere in between. Our young men are encouraged to experience life beyond the routines. They are shaped and formed through rituals.

Rituals are central to the human experience. Rituals enable our minds and our hearts for that which we encounter, be it joy, be it sorrow, be it hope.  Our Marist Family experience purposeful rituals each and every day – we farewell each other from home with a kiss or a hug, we welcome one another to school, we gather to check-in in with one another, we celebrate the milestones and achievements of others, we create quiet places for reflection. 

This week will see our community embrace key rituals which nurture our individuality and strengthen our family spirit. Of particular significance is our Inaugural Mass and Academic Awards gathering this Friday within the Champagnat Centre. Here, we’ll break bread together ritualising our communion as a Marist Family, we’ll pin leadership badges on our Year 12s ritualising the gift and responsibility of leadership and we’ll applaud academic achievement ritualising personal excellence. These rituals will combine words, actions and symbols which highlight and echo that which we value as a Marist community. 

Great thanks must be extended to those involved in taking time to make this Friday’s Inaugural Mass and Academic Awards possible – our College Chaplain Fr Alatini, our Mission team led by Mrs Anna Nsar and our visiting parents. I’m very much looking forward to experiencing this key ritual for the first time, symbolising the commencement of our year together. 

Academic Monitoring Week

Many thanks to our Academic Care Team who have guided our Pastoral Group teachers through the academic monitoring and mentoring of our Year 5-9s this week. Each student will be engaged in a reflective and focused discussion regarding their work to date and their academic goals for this term.

College Uniform

A sincere thank you for the combined approach to ensuring our students are smartly attired. In particular, thank you for ensuring our young men are wearing the new formal hat to and from school. The standard of uniform has been very good this week. We’ll need to continue to work together to ensure this is maintained.

Co-Curricular Activities

Congratulations to all our young men who have involved themselves with this term’s Sport and Cultural activities. The campus has been abuzz with splashes in the pool, balls rolling across our fields and music filling our theatres as we prepare for the formal commencement of AIC Round 1 AFL, Cricket, Volleyball and Swimming and the array of musical performances which commence at our Inaugural Mass and Academic Awards gathering.