From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we journey through this second half of Term 3, our thoughts and prayers are very much with our Year 12 students as they undertake their trial examinations. This important milestone not only tests the knowledge and skills they have gained over their years of study but also calls upon their resilience, perseverance, and faith. We wish them every success in these final weeks of preparation for their finals and remind them that their best effort is always enough. As their teachers and peers, we stand behind them with encouragement and support. We also acknowledge their homebase team – you, their parents and loved ones, who are not only cheering them on at the sidelines, but who are also cooking the nutritious meals and creating the right conditions for their educational wellbeing ultimate success. We also recognise the immeasurable efforts of our Year 12 Teachers who continue to offer masterclasses, revision sessions, 1:1 conferrals, feedback, and support to all our students. Their dedication and expertise are second to none and I know that you will continue to express your gratitude to them for the work they continue to do in supporting your daughter (s).

It has been again a joyful fortnight of House Fundraisers, Cultural Festival Heats, Year 8 Sustainability Expo’s, Academic Awards and Leadership Announcements. We acknowledge all students who have engaged so fully and so successfully with each of these experiences and opportunities. To our Diploma Graduates and Academic Award Recipients; congratulations for all that you have achieved! To our 2026 Captains elect, congratulations on what has been the most rigorous and challenging selection process I have known. You are all to be commended on your appointments, and we look forward to watching you lead our college into 2026.

Year 8 Sustainability Expo

Cultural Festival Heats Highlights

Year 12 Diploma Recipients 

Congratulations 2026 Captains

Read with your Dad

On Tuesday, our marvellous iCentre Team curated our annual iconic Read with your Dad evening. This was a truly heartwarming celebration of storytelling, imagination, connection, and presence. Brisbane author Carla Salmon wowed the audience with her insights as a writer, she was fascinating to listen to. In welcoming our Mt A Dad’s to the evening, I had been pondering the meaning of the lost art of reading with your child. I thought it was worthy of sharing, given our busy lives.

“Tonight, we celebrate something far more powerful than simply opening the pages of a book – we celebrate the gift of time, connection and shared discovery between fathers and their daughters… Reading together is more than an academic exercise; it is an act of PRESENCE. When a father reads with his child, he is saying: You matter, your imagination matters, your voice matters. Research continues to tell us that young people who read with their parents build stronger literacy skills and a greater love of learning….”

The evening reminded me of the profound impact of reading together, not only in fostering literacy and a love of stories, but in building memories that anchor us in relationships of trust and love. With the inspiration of our guest author, Carla, we were reminded that storytelling is as much about the bonds it builds as the knowledge it imparts. I would like to also acknowledge the generous sponsorship of our Parent Partnership Panel and the wonderful work of our iCentre Team in making this wonderful event possible. We wish all of our Mt A Dads, Stepdads and Grandfathers a Happy Father’s Day for the 7th of September.

Year 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduation Liturgy

Yesterday, I was also deeply honoured to attend the Year 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduation Liturgy held at St Stephen’s Cathedral, presided by Apostolic Administrator, Mark Coleridge. This was a moving celebration of the journey of our First Nations students, their families, teachers, elders, and communities. Within our Catholic and Franciscan context, we recognise the courage, wisdom, and cultural richness our Mt A Mob bring to our College. 

Their stories, grounded in heritage and faith, are a reminder of the importance of education as a pathway to empowerment, reconciliation, and hope for the future. At the Graduation Ceremony, Clara and Mollie were presented with their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stoles, which I am certain they will treasure. We wish Mollie and Clara the very best for their remaining months at the college and congratulate them on this important occasion.

Thank you! 

On behalf of the College, I also extend our heartfelt gratitude to our Parent Partnership Panel and to all parents and carers of Mt A, who have generously purchased for a gorgeously wrapped Toyota HiAce Commuter Minibus for the College. This gift is a significant contribution to the life of our community and will enhance opportunities for student learning, outreach, sport, excursions, and co-curricular activities. In our Year of Joy, this was the perfect contribution and is already being utilised extensively across a plethora of activities. Thank you to all our parents!

Public Service Announcement – Safe Driving, Walking and Parking

Finally, I remind all members of our community once again, to be vigilant regarding safe driving and parking around the precinct. Last week, we experienced a near-miss accident, with a car mounting the traffic island on the corner of Goodall St and Cremorne Rd (thankfully no students near the pedestrian crossing at this time). However, it does serve as a timely reminder to exercise patience and caution when approaching this congested intersection during drop off and pick up times. Students are also reminded to remove ear pods when crossing roads to ensure maximum awareness of their surroundings, please discuss this with your daughter as we will also be reinforcing this message to all. The safety of our young people is always our highest priority, and together we can foster a culture of care and responsibility.

As we conclude week 7, let us return to our Franciscan roots for some deep, quiet and restful contemplation.  I take this Daily Meditation excerpt from Fr Richard Rohr’s circular  “Centre for Action and Contemplation” on 20 August 2025.

I found it personally enriching and helpful, I hope you do to!

“Brian McLaren describes how contemplative practices allow us to “mind our mind,” making space for thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations without getting caught up in them.  

When you learn to mind your mind, you begin by allowing your thoughts and feelings to shout or cry, to throw a tantrum and have a meltdown. It’s fruitless and ultimately quite harmful to perpetually beat down those feelings. So for some period of time, you let your inner committees express their distress and negotiate, firing up the subway for a frantic rush hour.  And then, at some point, you have to get off the train and exit the subway station and find a quiet place. Perhaps you’ll meet with a circle of trust, processing with some friends what you’re struggling with. Perhaps you’ll find some solitude to practice private contemplation.  

 

One of the most time-tested approaches to private contemplation could be called the focus/release method…. I might focus on a single, simple word. I might focus on a phrase or mantra…. Sometimes, when simple breath, heartbeat, words or phrases aren’t working, I might listen to music, dance, cook, or simply walk mindfully and focus on what I see around me…. I may go running, practice yoga, or play a game, so I have to shift my focus from inner turmoil to physical endurance and prowess.  

McLaren names the freedom and creativity that arises from contemplative practice:  

Contemplation liberates me from being a perpetual prisoner of my trains of thoughts and feelings; it helps me realize that I am not my thoughts and feelings. It helps me see that these inner reactions and negotiations happen to me and within me without my consent, like digestion, like sleep, like fatigue or laughter.  

 

In the stillness, new insights, comfort, and ways of being often arise. If stepping off the train is letting go, and if dwelling in the stillness is letting be, receiving these gifts is letting come. When these new gifts come, I experience a kind of liberation, a setting free. All of my best creative work seems to flow from this deep place of restful, receptive awareness beneath my mental subway system…. 

 

What we experience in the letting-come phase some people describe as intuition. Many would call it the gentle voice of God speaking within them. Seasoned contemplatives like Thomas Merton describe letting go, letting be, letting come, and setting free as discovering the true self. Others call it becoming the best self. I tend to think of it as becoming the integrated, unitive, or connected self…. 

 

This connected self seeks to bring together smaller competing parts into larger harmonious wholes. It seeks to integrate the known and the unknown. It wants to help the parts of [me] to live intentionally in relation to each other and to the reality outside of me. It seeks harmony and interdependence among parts, not domination, manipulation, exclusion, and oppression. It holds the both/and of part and whole.”

Enjoy the weekend when you get there.

Peace and all good,

Samantha

Principal