Hope at Clonard College

Promise, Purpose and Possibilities has been lens that Clonard has taken to exploring our theme of Hope in 2024. 

The staff commenced the year exploring the virtue of hope, a ‘Christian habit’ in a whole staff professional learning session. This session concluded with the challenge to see hope, hear hope, speak hope, practice hope and spread hope. At staff meetings and briefings we have explicitly paused to share stories of the students and colleagues who have been our sources of hope throughout the year.

In introducing the theme of Hope to our students we asked our students what hope means to them and looked at hope through our faith tradition and within scripture such as the resurrection. Students engaged in a ‘dadirri’ meditation as a means of fostering a spirituality of hope. 

In the spirit of looking outward and having a sense of purpose our Year 8 students have ensured that their Growth Projects for the year have all had a focus on ‘the other’. Whilst they have 6 months to further develop their projects some of the work has included active volunteering, teaching others how to garden.

Community Connection Days have featured a focus on hope including racism and reconciliation at Year 7 and developing an understanding of integral ecology with Year 9. The Year 11 Community Connection Day, themed "Stepping Stones," was designed to help students navigate the critical transition period in their educational and personal lives. The theme "Stepping Stones" symbolized the various stages and milestones that students will encounter on their journey to adulthood. In the spirituality session we looked at ‘stepping stones’ being the ‘rocks’, the hard things we encounter on our journey. Rather than letting these challenges weigh us down we need to look on them as a means to step forward, to be resilient. Key phrases from the day encouraged students to look forward with hope. The session concluded with students practising one way of managing the ‘stepping stones’ in life by participating in a meditation on hope. They responded to the meditation by creating personal ‘stepping stones’ to keep with them as reminder that through living with hope, challenges can be overcome.

For International Women’s Day, we listened to Sr Adele Howard speaking about ‘Listening to the Voices of the Peoples of Oceania’ in the quest for ecological justice in the spirit of Laudato Si. With many student leaders and members of the community present we were reminded of the wisdom of the first peoples and how this can bring possibilities for better stewardship of creation.