Religious & Philosophical Education Highlights

Learning, Serving, Making a Difference

This term in the Religion and Philosophy department, students have been hard at work culminating all of their learning across the year to celebrate their classes and what they have achieved. Not only that, but the College Community has also been working on their service-learning, helping to prepare our community for the upcoming Christmas break.

In our studies, we have looked towards our community, understanding how and why helping others, and celebrating the things that make us unique, are so important within a faith community.

Year 7s are busy preparing their infographics and understanding of practical ways we can care for those vulnerable in our society, particularly focusing on homelessness in our local communities. Our Year 8s have been busy at work collaborating and building their knowledge of rituals and have been creatively putting their own flare on elements to reflect the shared identity of each class. We have accessed the art rooms to ensure our personalities and creativity shines through in our rituals to celebrate the year that has been.

Year 10s have studied religious diversity, making critical understandings of how and why religious diversity is so important for young people. They are working through their understandings of the 5 major faiths across the world, understanding that each faith may be different, but all adherents strive to enact good in their world to create a better existence for themselves, the environment, and the wider human family.

Our seniors have been focusing on the environment, being sure to understand how we are called, more now than ever, to show care for creation and how we can be guided and influenced by religious teachings to protect the environments we live in each day.

In Critical and Philosophical Thinking, students are beginning to showcase their skills from across the semester, working on their individual philosophical reflections based on a stimulus. Year 9s are busy arguing if a dictatorship, monarchy, or aristocracy would be a better form of government than democracy, but if the results from the recent US midterms are any indication… it may seem that democracy isn’t too bad, after all!

Across the wider College community, our students are engaging in their Homeroom Term 4 service initiative, collecting groceries and gifts for members of our community who are less fortunate than ourselves. The Vinnies hampers are a perfect reminder of how and why religious service is important to lift others up. Before the end of the year, there will be calls for volunteers to deliver these hampers and we hope that any families who are able can spread the Christmas joy within our local community.

Term 4 has highlighted the importance of looking outward at the communities we exist in, and how we can be conscious contributors to making a harmonious society where our actions and beliefs matter.