Hospitality at Clonard College
Clonard College chose the theme ‘Open Encounter Transform’ to explore the value of Hospitality. This captures the power of the message of Pope Francis in his call to be people of dialogue and encounter. In light of the Kildare Ministries’ vision we considered this in terms of humanity and the natural world.
Our Religious Education Team engaged in professional learning across the year around the topics of Integral Ecology, Inclusive Liturgy and Interfaith dialogue. In each session they learned about the Church’s invitation to us in each space and discerned how they could bring this to life for the students particularly through the College’s RE program.
To deepen our understanding of hospitality we partnered with Saltbush Balnarring in 2025. We also set a target of raising $10000 and increasing community awareness to support their work. Maree Feutrill facilitated a workshop for our Year 8 and 9 students, helping them understand the work of Saltbush as a place of Hospitality, their background and what they do. Students then engaged in an integral ecology activity aligned with the work of Saltbush.
Our Year 9 community spent Term 3 focused on delivering an Awareness Campaign on a social problem that Saltbush addresses. They analysed the work of the referral partners eg. Brigidine Asylum seekers, Royal Children’s Hospital, to determine what the social problem was that was under the umbrella of the referral and then analysed the impact, feelings and actions and the Catholic church’s response using the Catholic Social Principles, gospel values and the Bishops statements to unpack this issue.
The connection to responsibility became clearer to the students as they developed their campaigns. From here students took on the spiritual responsibility to fundraise for Saltbush by creating and running stalls as a school activity and integrating their Awareness Campaigns within them with posters, images, PowerPoint slides etc.
They did a wonderful job of raising awareness and funds for Saltbush in an incredible whole-school fair which raised $4000 from their efforts. We are very proud of the work they did and grateful to the Year 9 Religion teachers for taking on this project in such a vibrant and informed way.
A team of staff spent a day with Saltbush tree planting and engaging in volunteer activities in the form of gardening. Staff were provided a tour in which they learnt about the Revegetation Program which partners with Merricks Coolart Catchment Landcare Group (MCCLG).
Staff revisited the Tasneem Chopra keynote from the Kildare Ministries 10th Anniversary conference to challenge some of our thoughts and perceptions about cultural diversity. This helped us to understand implications of the ‘cultural iceberg’ growing awareness of the challenges that our students and families grapple with yet might not be visible. This was supported by breaking open the document ‘Welcoming Each Other: Guidelines for Interfaith Education in the Schools of the Archdiocese of Melbourne’. This was put into practice when we hosted the Geelong Catholic Secondary Schools Refugee Holiday Program. We expanded our student led celebration of multicultural week and received feedback from one of our African families about how wonderful it was to see their traditional dress shared in a social media post.
We continued our relationships with Viqueque in Timor Leste and Santa Teresa NT through our annual visits. These experiences allow our students to experience the hospitality of both communities as they are immersed in the culture and life of these unique communities.
