From the Principal

Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of Mazenod College,

We feel and experience a host of anomalies each year during Term Four – we farewell our Year 12 students and start the orientation program for the new students who join us in 2025, staff are farewelled and new staff inducted, the handover of student leadership roles, teachers review current programs and start planning for the year ahead, our physical campus and grounds staff “welcome” a break to take stock and prepare for the road ahead and all the while, the teaching and learning program flows throughout.

2025 Student Leadership Team 

It was with great joy of course, when we announced our 2025 Student Leadership Team last week firstly, to our Year 11 students from which these leaders stem, and then to our wider community. We are very excited that the calibre of our 2025 leaders maintains the standards of leadership excellence exhibited in the past. Congratulations have been extended to those who were appointed to formal roles, but I extend that to all our Year 11 students who had the courage to participate in the program.

Year 12 Graduation and Valedictory

The time of this newsletter marks a very important date and milestone in the lives of our current Year 12 students. Of course I speak of the Graduation events for the Class of 2024. This group of wonderful young men have made fantastic contributions to the Mazenod College community, and it is always with some sadness that we farewell our students at the end of their time with us.

In speaking at the Graduation assembly today, I addressed the fact that at the end of their time in a Catholic school, generally students won’t recall much about their facilities but they will remember the people. It is our hope that our students will remember the engagement that they have had with the Oblates, the teaching and non-teaching staff, their fellow students and members of the wider College community.

I would also like to reiterate a message from my address at our Graduation Assembly this morning in thanking the staff, parents and families, friends and fellow students who have played such an important role in helping our Year 12 students get to this point today.

It was wonderful to see so many parents and families members attending our Assembly this morning and we look forward to the Valedictory Mass and dinner tomorrow evening. My heartfelt thanks to the generosity of our families under the guidance and direction of Ms Varischetti, who shared lovely treats for our morning tea, a wonderful example of the community spirit that exists within our College.

As Pope Francis tweeted, 

“Hope is the virtue of the heart that does not close itself in darkness or remain locked in the past, but looks toward the future”. 

And so, in the week where we officially farewelled our Graduating Class of 2024, we encourage them to look upon the future with hope, and to reminisce of their experiences at our College with joy and happiness. Above all, we encourage them to have faith in God and confidence that, in their time here at Mazenod College, they are all well on their way to;

“Learn, what they are in the eyes of God”.

God bless.

Simon Harvey

Principal