Principal’s Message

August Feast Days

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary was on Thursday 15 August. On this morning, students and staff gathered for morning prayer devoted to Mary recognising her great care and support for others. This feast day is important for us as it gives hope to those who suffer, and shows us, as it did for Mary, that as we go about our daily life we need to take up the opportunities that lead us on our pathway to God.

Last week, Benilde House celebrated the Feast of St Benilde. Benilde lived in the 19th century in France. He became a De La Salle Brother who devoted his life to teaching and the administration of schools. Benilde did the ordinary tasks of life extraordinarily well, and was beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1958, then canonised a Saint in October 1967. St Benilde is a great example for all of us to endeavour to do our best at everything we do, and his feast day is on 13 August.

These two feast days are significant and also important in this week for St James College – the week when we hold our Mission Action Day.

Mission Action Day

The Mission Action Day walkathon provides our young men with an opportunity to respond to the challenge to live their faith through good actions, while supporting the De La Salle Brothers’ Mission works, especially at the Lasalle Technical College - Hohola in Port Moresby, New Guinea, with whom we are twinned as part of the Lasallian Mission Service program for schools in our District.

This event is the major Social Justice Activity for St James College. I thank our students and staff for their involvement in the walkathon - A walk that may seem fairly ordinary to us but will have an extraordinary outcome for the students at Lasalle Technical College.

At LTC, young people who do not qualify for the regular government supported Secondary Education are provided with an education, and skills, through the work of the De La Salle Brothers and their team of Partners, without any local financial support. As Lasallians, we are aware of their needs, and thus can make a positive response to assist these young people.  This year we are raising funds for teacher housing via the conversion of shipping containers into dwellings. Any excess funds will be used to assist with the Breakfast Club at Hohola to provide students with a meal to commence their school day.

The support of the needs of the students and staff at Lasalle Technical College is our opportunity to make a difference and the collection of the sponsorships is important over these next few weeks.

I ask that all young men support this cause, administered through the Lasallian Mission Service, by collecting their pledged sponsorships.

Year 7 Retreats

Our Year 7 students have recently been involved in their Homeroom Retreats. Thank you to Mr Joel Harriss, our Lasallian Youth Minister, who has been facilitating these retreats along with College staff. The retreats provide another opportunity for students to explore their faith and to be further immersed in our Lasallian traditions.

Parent - Student - Teacher Interviews and Subject Sections

I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for their attendance and continued support at the Parent/Student/Teacher Evenings scheduled this week and next. It is important that the discussions held at all of these interviews are followed by attention to the recommendations and plans that resulted from those meetings. It is also important that we encourage our sons, to either continue their great efforts, or we support them even more, in their quest to improve their performance over this Semester.

Recently we held our subject selection evening for parents of students moving from Year 9 into 10, and later this term, an evening will be held for the parents of students moving from Year 8 into 9. Thank you to Ms Natalie Bates and Ms Amy Collins, our Curriculum and Learning Leaders, who together with our Domain leaders, are organising these information evenings as part of the process for our students to select their subjects for next year.

Drama Productions

A pleasing number of our students are involved in rehearsals with students from OLSH for our junior production of The Boy at the Edge of Everything, to be performed in October. Thank you to these students who have spent many hours in afterschool rehearsals. We look forward to celebrating their work in Term four. Congratulations also, to those young men who recently performed in the Mentone GGS production of The Drowsy Chaperone, and in the Kilbreda Production of Mary Poppins.

Student Competitions and Activities

Thank you to Mr George Vlamakis for organising the annual St James College Chess Tournament to which we invite students from a number of surrounding schools. This year 25 of our students competed alongside more than 30 other students from other Colleges. We wish our students well as they continue to prepare for the SIS Chess Tournament to be held later this term.

Mr Damian Perry has recently had his group of talented young writers compete in the SIS Write a Book in a Day competition where the students produce an illustrated novel under strict conditions. Congratulations to the students for their participation and dedication to their craft, as we keenly await the judging of their work and those from other schools.

Our Athletics squad are currently in training for the Southern Independent Schools Athletics Carnival to be held at Lakeside Oval on Monday 26 August. We wish the boys involved, and the coaches - Mr Steve Laska, Mr Phil Thomas and Mr Michael Brown every success as they prepare for this competition.

As we move through the halfway point of Term Three, I would like to wish all associated with the College every success in these coming weeks.

Stephen Pooley

Principal