Principal's Update 

Celebrating World Teachers’ Day

We celebrated World Teachers’ Day on October 27. The day is a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge and thank teachers everywhere for the incredible contribution that they make to their community. 

This is a heartfelt tribute to the dedicated educators who shape the future by imparting knowledge and inspiring young minds. This global celebration acknowledges the invaluable contributions of teachers and their role in nurturing generations.  

At St Bede's College, we recognise the passion our teachers have, and how teaching has now extended well beyond the classroom to maintain connections through flexible learning. At a time of major teacher shortages, I thank all our staff here at the College for their continuous dedication to the education of our students. 

Public Speaking Finals

It was a pleasure to observe and listen to our student hosts and the very accomplished student speakers who recently took part in the 2023 Brother Quentin O'Halloran Public Speaking Finals. The speeches - both prepared and impromptu - were of a high standard.  Congratulations to Austin Warfe (Year 12) who was awarded Overall Best Speaker at the event. 

Br Quentin's presence was very much missed at the Public Speaking Final named in his honour.  I am pleased to share that he is recovering well after being hospitalised from a recent fall. 

An Urgent Prayer for Peace

God of compassion,

We turn to you with heavy hearts

As we consider the needs of your family. 

Israelis and Palestinians, we are all your people, each of us loved by You

And called to live in peace and justice. We lament the dreadful loss of life,

Destruction of property and loss of human dignity. We are pained by so much suffering.

We beg you to bring healing to this ancient place. Help your people find a way forward.

Enable everyone to look each other in the eye, and embrace each other as sisters and brothers, as they find your image in every face.

We ask that courage and grace

Will help create a wiser and more gentle future, where everyone has a home.

God of wisdom, come to our aid. Amen 

Michael McGirr 

Caritas Australia

Year 11 Exam Preparation

Best wishes to our Year 11 students completing their end-of-year examinations. 

We encourage these students to revisit the advice for preparation from our previous Wellbeing articles. 

I strongly encourage these students approach their examinations with care, seriousness and dedication, as they remain important practices prior to the Year 12 final examinations at the end of next year. 

Flying Start Program

Our Flying Start Program for 2024 commences Monday 27 November.  

This innovative program enables our students to meet each of their subject teachers, know their classrooms and locker spaces, and to familiarise themselves with the requirements of their new year level.   

It is also an opportunity for a student to confirm their homeroom or tutor teacher. It is our hope that your son moves into the summer break knowing what work is required of him, is aware of the staff and students he will be most directly involved with, and equally important, feels excited about what lies ahead. 

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is commemorated on Saturday 11th November (the 11th day of the 11th month), the month dedicated to peace.   We now remember all Australians who have suffered in war during, and since, World War I. Remembrance Day was initiated by King George V in 1919 a year after the Armistice was signed by the allies of WWI and Germany and was originally known as Armistice Day.  Remembrance Day is a day of remembering war and what happened in it.  By this we mean remembering the people that fought, that died, and survived with many problems like loss of limbs and post-traumatic stress disorder.  It is also a time when those that survived knew that they would hopefully see their families soon.  It is a day of remembering the bloody battle that happened during the time of the war.  During WW1 it was not always a bloody battle.  During one of the Christmas times the two different sides called a truce and played soccer.  They also called truces to be able to remove the bodies of their former colleagues from no man's land who died trying to gain ground.

In the trenches on the morning of the 11th of November all the troops were happy that the armistice was getting signed at 11am but they still knew anything could happen and they still might not make it past 11am.  The armistice was signed by all the countries that were involved in the war.  This was to declare that the war would be ending with a cease fire.

In November it is common in the UK and across the Commonwealth to wear a poppy, the most popular symbol of Remembrance Day in western and allied countries.  The red poppy was the only flower resilient enough to grow in the previously beautiful landscapes that had been turned into barren and muddy battlefields and symbolises the blood of soldiers who lost their lives.  

This is captured in the poem entitled ‘In Flanders Fields’ by Canadian Doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, shortly after losing his friend in the battle of Ypres.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. 

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,    

In Flanders fields

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow        

In Flanders fields.

Per vias rectas

Deb Frizza

Principal