Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, Staff and Friends of St Norbert College,

It is my pleasure to present my first Principal’s report for St Norbert College and whilst it has only been a short time since my commencement, I have had it reaffirmed this week what an honour and privilege it is to share in the Ministry of leadership here at this terrific school.

Our beloved Pope Francis, in addressing the young people at World Youth Day last year in Krakow, Poland, encouraged the youth throughout the world to focus less on technology and “to download the best link of all… a heart which sees and transmits goodness without growing weary”.

It is a wonderful reminder from Pope Francis of our innate ability as human beings to seek and transmit goodness in all that we do and poignant given the world in which we currently live.

Our students have this ability too. The Catholic Performing Arts Festival is one such way and a most endearing and joyful event on the Catholic school calendar. From very modest origins back in 1989, the Festival this year has grown to include 19,586 Catholic school students performing in a range of artistic disciplines at over 12 venues within the metropolitan area. This year’s Festival commenced with an Opening Mass held on Friday 21 July at Infant Jesus Parish in Morley and culminates some 52 days later with the amazing Festival Concert at the Perth Concert Hall on Monday 11 September.

The Chair of Catholic Arts, Mr John Aldous, suggests: “The underlying goal of the Festival is to provide students with unique ‘performance platforms’ through which they can strive for excellence and perform to a public audience in a spirit of competitive, affirmative participation”.

The Festival has 14 sections of varied and diverse forms, the focus for our own students being the areas of instrumental, band and ensemble music, solo, duet and choral singing, dance and drama.

Congratulations to our team of Year 10 students who came first, out of 18 schools, in the State Final of the Australian Brain Bee Challenge held recently at the University of Western Australia. The calibre of entrants in this year’s competition and the prestige of this event cannot be understated and so for our team of Dawn Saji, Millenium Paneru, Yajnah Juggessur and Mika Bautista to come away in first place was an amazing achievement. Well done also to Dawn, who came third, out of 72 competitors, in the individual challenge. Many thanks to Mrs Colette Miranda (Academic Excellence Coordinator) for her work with this team.

Magdeburg Day was celebrated last Friday followed by Tongerlo Day today, with the significance of these towns in Norbertine history, remembered clearly on these special occasions. The House days were both celebrated with a liturgy, luncheon and tug-of-war competition, organised by the Heads of House, Mr Ah Fong (Magdeburg) and Mr Gherardi (Tongerlo), and their respective student leaders.

The College held our Parent/Student/Teacher interviews on Wednesday this week, an event that gives an opportunity to reiterate the message that school and home must work in partnership if we aim to help our students maximise their potential. I thank the staff for their efforts on Wednesday and those parents who made the time to meet with their children’s teachers.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Fr Peter’s announcement this week of Mr John Rose as the new Principal of St Joseph’s School from 2018. Mr Rose is presently the Principal of St Lawrence’s School, Balcatta, with experience of Principalship at Sacred Heart, Beagle Bay. We look forward to welcoming Mr Rose into our community.

Over this past week I have enjoyed many wonderful conversations with staff, students and parents, who all come together for the betterment of the young people in our care. I am very thankful to all those who have made an effort to greet and welcome me this week. My connection with the College has been well documented recently, to be welcomed back to the community has been very special and I look forward to working closely with all, for the benefit of our students.

At a time of the year where seasons and climate often dictate our physical and mental state of well-being, we must remind ourselves of the joy and goodness that lies in all our hearts and how truly blessed we are to share it with those around us. I thank you all for transmitting goodness in our community.

God Bless

Mr S Harvey (Principal)

PRAYER

Prayer