Senior School
It was a pleasure to welcome students back onsite for Term 3. We pray especially for our Year 12 students in their last full term of secondary education, for focus, high work ethics, kindness to help each other and results to reward them for their efforts.
The Senior School production of The Little Mermaid is currently being performed. This sensational show has revealed high performance standards by students and staff, with excellence in set production, choreography, singing, costumes, sound and lighting. The passion of the cast and crew shines brightly for all to see, and the next edition of The Vine will contain some fabulous images!
Music Assembly was a great precursor to an exhilarating month jam-packed with Performing Arts. Each music ensemble presented wonderful renditions and impressed the audience with high quality performances. Every piece was enjoyed by those privileged to witness such excellent musical ability and Mattias Talpan shared a pertinent word from Matthew 25 about utilising our giftings. Well done, and thank you to all involved in practicing, preparing and hosting this marvellous annual event.
At Senior Chapel last week, Tanya Cavanagh from Teen Challenge, hosted a highly engaging session on vaping, utilising the Not Even Once program. Tanya started with a short poll about exposure, attitudes and knowledge, then facilitated a variety of clips, questions, explicit teaching and other modes of learning. Many people were stunned to find out that these products, readily available in shops without either a health and safety warning or an ingredients list have been scientifically shown to contain heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead. They also carry ultrafine particles which cause lung damage, oils and flavourings which can result in lung disease, volatile organic compounds such as benzene and the highly addictive nicotine. Both short and long-term effects were explored through online interviews with young people who had dabbled in vaping and discovered their addictive and insidious nature. Seeing the impact of these substances on real people’s lives was truly an eye opener and we were very grateful to Tanya for increasing our awareness as a community of this dangerous habit.
As a College, we will strive to ensure we are vigilant in protecting our young community from harm and will continue to patrol the grounds for the presence of vapes. Their presence will be treated as a severe disciplinary issue as we would respond to illicit drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.
Michelle Mitchell, an award-winning and bestselling parenting author, was the guest speaker for our Year 7 and 8 student seminar. Michelle provided excellent and grounded advice on Ten Principles To Help Navigate Friendships as we all continue to normalise after the strangeness of isolation and remote learning. Ranging from advice about acceptance of errors from friends to placing a high value on friendship, Michelle supplied exceptional straightforward but practical tips to help each person to build strong and healthy relationships with others in their peer group.
Please feel free to chat with your children about what they have gained from these different events and share with us any feedback or concerns you feel may be useful. We hope this article provides a segue into a conversation on some challenging topics that some may find difficult to commence.
As parents, you have an incredibly important and complex role to play. In Ephesians 6:1-3 Paul tells us,
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honour your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
We, as Oxley staff members, thank you for being willing to entrust us to play a small part in this great calling upon your lives. May God grant you great wisdom and strength as you perform this sacred role.
Greg Barker
Deputy Principal – Head of Senior School