From the Principal

Can you believe it, we have made it to Week 6 already?!

With the Year 12’s theme for 2024 cheering us on “Spirit Soars, Culture Roars” we are certainly meeting their brief this year so far!

Our House spirit was literally ‘breathtaking’ last Friday at our Interhouse Swimming Carnival with record participation, costumes and colour and record decibel readings! I congratulate all our students on their willingness to engage and to compete for their House. Congratulations to Perugia house for their consecutive title win in 2024. The excitement and triumph continued this week with the girls reclaiming the Year 12 Mt A vs Padua College Netball Match – our first win since 2018! Congratulations to our captains who engaged so wholeheartedly in this ‘friendly’ match. We truly did ‘flood the dam’ and I have it on good authority that our brothers across the road are still nursing their pride and their bruises following this loss. 

Of particular note this week, I do want to congratulate all of our students on their continued engagement and participation this year so far. Our newest members, our Year 7’s have certainly been embracing every opportunity presented to them. Keep it up girls! We also wish the best of luck to a record number of students in who will compete next Thursday at the CaSSSA Swimming Carnival with our Year 7 students cheering them on.

It is with much anticipation that we look forward this weekend to our Year 12 Formal at Hillstone, St Lucia. The 20 staff who will be in attendance are very much looking forward to seeing our class of 2024 in all of their finery. We have no doubt it will be a wonderful evening and will look forward to sharing photos of the event with the community in upcoming publications and media.

The CLT and I have spent the last 5 weeks interviewing over 220 families for our 2027 intake. It is fair to say that this is our biggest application batch yet and there is such positive interest from families across 40 primary schools in the northern parts of Brisbane. This is indeed a wonderful testimony to the fabulous community we are and continue to be. I remain convinced that the most powerful advertisement of our college are our students. This has been a common theme in many of the interviews which reference a perception and experience of our MtA students in the public domain, as people of kindness, integrity, and service.

Kindness as Service

We commenced our year with a visit to the source of our guiding value for the year, Service. And since that time, we have continued to speak with our students about the need for kindness as the basis for acts of service. Recently, I came across a fabulous video from Hugh van Cuylenburg at the Resilience Project which looks at the neuroscience behind kindness. As Hugh describes, “We think nice things about people all the time, but for some reason we don’t often say it”. I encourage you when you have some time to preview this short link circulating on LinkedIn or, if you have Prime as a streaming service, to watch it in its entirety. Enjoy!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-resilience-project 

Communication and Partnership is Key

As you well know, at Mt A, we are working hard to ensure that our partnership with each other (parents, staff and students) is as strong and effective as it can be. As the academic year is now in full swing, it is not uncommon for friendship groups to metamorphosise, and assessments and commitments increase. This is prime time for our students, parents and staff to encounter ‘bumps along the road’. It is normal. 

At Mt A, we encourage open and effective dialogue with our parents and carers and extend to you the invitation (always) to reach out to us, when and as required.  I believe that there is almost nothing that we cannot work through and solve together and I know that the staff are of the same belief. A community committed to strong communication and partnership however, does require some parameters. On the MyMtA Parent Dashboard you will find our Communication Protocols and Procedures document which highlights again for parents the key channels of communication, personnel and the responsibilities and obligations we all share in effective and meaningful communication. For exceptional and rare matters that cannot be resolved through the regular channels, we again draw your attention to our Complaints Policy (available on MyMtA and the College Website).

Remember to Look

As we move through our Lenten Season, let us remember to always observe the world around us, continue to look and you will see.

I see God in the faces of friends and loved ones, in the eyes of the newborn, in the birds who sit on my balcony waiting for their supper. God gave us the gift of love. It’s both the method and the outcome. We have failed miserably in our world—but the gift is always there. It’s waiting to be recognized, to be embraced—to be live. (Centre for Action and Contemplation)

Wishing you a wonderful fortnight ahead.

Peace and all good,

Samantha Jensen