From the Principal

During the week there have been many opportunities to celebrate the significant contribution that our graduating Class of 2023 has made to the College. Equally, our outgoing Year 12 students have seized the opportunity to acknowledge the College’s contribution to their own development. The graduating Class of 2023 is certainly ready for their next chapter, but also conscious of the importance of expressing gratitude to their teachers, which has been uplifting to witness during the week.  At the time of writing, the finishing touches are being made in preparation for tonight’s Year 12 Valete and Supper, which we are all looking forward to. Yesterday, we celebrated our Year 12 students and the substantial contribution they have made to the College, during their Day of Invitation Assembly. Please find below an excerpt from my Address to the graduating Class of 2023.

To the graduating Class of 2023, as I commenced as Principal, I would not have been surprised if your initial thought was,…… why do we have to be the Year 12 year group that gets the new Principal.

 

Interestingly, I never felt that from you, even though you may have been thinking it. I felt quite the opposite in fact, which says a lot about you as a year group. During our Year 12 Principal lunches you have been very generous in sharing your own individual hopes and dreams, what you highly value at the College and the opportunities you see worth pursuing. I have enjoyed our conversations immensely. So much so that you will have noticed other staff needing to keep our conversations within the time allocated by knocking on the door, otherwise you risked missing class time. So engrossing were our conversations.

 

For the benefit of the parents present this morning, I can report that the hopes and dreams of the Class of 2023 are naturally varied. Careers in engineering, nursing, medicine, law, teaching, marine science, finance, agriculture, mechanics, acting, music, sport and business all beckon. I have heard how many hope to travel, experience different cultures, stay connected to friends and many have expressed the hope to be happy, comfortable and able to contribute to a better society in some way…to make a difference has been a common theme mentioned around the lunch table.

 

Clearly Year 12, you have made a significant impact on our College during your time here – and not only in the academic domain. Your contribution has been broad and your impact has been for the good. There is every reason to believe you will do the same in your lives beyond the College boundary……

 

‘………..Interestingly, during Term 3, I was privileged to be in the audience of the Year 10 Atticus Finch Justice Award Finals. As Year 12 students, you may recall your own involvement in the same award, exemplifying our College’s motto, Seek Justice, through the study of Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. It was truly inspiring to listen to the well-crafted arguments from the Year 10 speakers. Many of those speakers referred to the quote, ‘….before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience’……

 

……..As well as the development of conscience and character, education in our Ignatian tradition is also about the proper critique of culture. Our College motto Seek Justice implores us to do just this. The addition of the verb Seek, reframes the concept of justice into one much more active, much more powerful. The addition of the verb Seek also amplifies our responsibility.

 

That has been the invitation to you here at the College and will continue to be as you move beyond the College boundary into the big cities, and new cultures. Our great challenge. Your great challenge. Is to call out and confront the crippling refrains of those false voices of any culture that you find limits human flourishing.

It is a big and bold call to put to you. And why not? 

 

You will continue to be leaders Year 12, each and every one of you, be it in your family, community, workplace, industry. My hope and dream for you is that when you face life’s inevitable challenges and need to answer life’s difficult questions, you do so informed by the values you have learnt during your time at the College. 

My hope and dream for you is that you actively take on the false voices that limit human flourishing.

 

I am confident that when you do face those challenges and answer those difficult questions, the world will be a better place for it……’

Finally, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel and Palestine who have been so drastically impacted by war. Our thoughts and prayers are also with our own First people, as our nation works toward finding a new pathway for closing the gap and acknowledging the place of First Australians.

Daniel Mahon

Principal