Pastoral Care

 FROM THE STUDENT DIARY PLANNER

• Professor Martin Seligman
• Guringai AECG
• Buddies not Bullies Bushwalk Sunday 8 September
• Let’s Talk Edmund Rice Education Australia/Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice Immersion
• Year 7 Religious Education Class 6 - Letters of Reconciliation
• Royal Far West Children’s Home
• Red Dirt Expedition Presentation to OLD Parish Social Justice Committee

Professor Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is the highly regarded father of Positive Psychology and Positive Education through his PERMA model whereby positive engagement, resilient relationships, meaning and purpose and authentic achievement enhance the happiness and self-efficacy of an individual in community.  According to his model, this Happiness can increase longevity by up to 8 years, along with many other health and wellbeing benefits. These principles are achievable and teachable. He presented at Ravenswood School last week where he is the “Educational Psychologist in residence”. The human advancement in developing a curriculum which challenges us to change thinking from “I to We”, from “personal agency to human agency”, that emphasises Morality, Empathy and Literacy and broadens our moral circle, through an “our story” curriculum, connecting people to culture, community and country, are facets of his key teachings.

In the context of our highly successful Year 7 ski expedition last week and our Year 12 Retreats post their HSC Trial Exams next week, it was refreshing to note within the presentation the value placed on a shared curriculum which connects students with their learning, their school, their family and their community. The opportunities offered through our Pastoral care programs and extra-curricular activities achieves this and it is great to see the overwhelmingly positive manner in which St Pius X students engage with these opportunities.

Much of the stimulus material in our Student Diary Planners is based on the work and premises of Professor Seligman’s work as well as the growth mindset principles espoused through the research of leaders such as Carol Dweck.

Guringai AECG

The Guringai Aboriginal Education Consultation Group meet each term at Northern Beaches TAFE Brookvale and last fortnight presented a range of ways in which we can connect with our local traditional custodians of the land and their culture. Stay tuned for opportunities associated with the planned North Head to Barrenjoey Lighthouse coastal walk complete with Sculptures linked to QR coded video files, Surf Club - School sponsored artwork, and a Reconciliation Week relay next year. Given the NSW state government aims of increasing these links and of attainment of HSC in this context it is refreshing to connect with the positive contributions we can potentially make in the enhancement of Reconciliation and our natural environment,

Buddies not Bullies Bushwalk Sunday 8 September

Acron Oval St Ives to Davidson Park Forestville

A reminder to all members of the College community, you are invited to join the Peer Mentors and Peer Mentees program participants in our long awaited annual walk through a picturesque section of The Cascades, Governor Philip and Lyre Bird walking tracks. Join us for a BBQ lunch afterwards on Sunday 8 September in Davidson Park. Please see Mr Russo’s section or contact Mr Russo or Mr Brannan for more information.

Let’s Talk Edmund Rice Education Australia / Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice Immersion

Last week I had the privilege of driving a delegation of 12 EREA teaching staff from schools in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, through rural and remote North Western NSW to visit and stay in community and learn from great leaders and places in Aboriginal Culture, Heritage and the Reconciliation process.

• We were welcomed to Wiradjuri Country by Uncle Peter Peckham in company of a Weilwan man.
• Visited the Myall Creek and Hospital Creek massacre sites and memorials and similarly the Brewarrina Mission, Moree and Collarenebri Aboriginal burial grounds.
• Listened to history from “Moree Mob” author, nationally acclaimed librarian, and restorer-keeper of the Moree Aboriginal Burial ground: Auntie Noeline Briggs-Smith OAM. An amazing, passionate and inspirational woman of great experience and drive.
• Lived in the small Aboriginal community and Central School of Goodooga west of Lightning Ridge where we were hosted selflessly by a community tragically immersed in “sorry business” after the tragic motor accident death of young man last Sunday night.
• Met with Aboriginal Cultural Leader and Documentary maker Brad Steadman at the Brewarrina Fish Traps and Cultural Museum. (Brad’s niece Charlene Williams spoke eloquently at our Term 2 College Reconciliation Assembly).

The Immersion, while not unlike elements of our Red Dirt Expedition and November Immersions to Bowraville and Walgett, was a rich and rewarding learning experience which will be well communicated to our students as they pursue our hopes for a future of celebration and sharing of the great wisdom and connections of Aboriginal Australia with this land and shared culture.

There are many opportunities to link our students in with this rich area of social justice learning into the coming years through our whole school programs, subject specific initiatives and growing positivity in integration of First Nations Principles and groundedness within our culture, thinking and actions.

Year 7 Religious Education Class 6 - Letters of Reconciliation

An important part of the journey towards reconciliation was the opportunity to share letters of compassion and condolence written by our Year 7 Religious Education Class 6 at the Myall Creek massacre site memorial last week.

This act of reconciliation, in consolidation of learning, followed up on the visit to the site by Year 10 students James Baldock, Nick Ward and Dom Panozzo, and our Parish Youth Liaison Minister Mr Adrian Brannan in July this year.

Royal Far West Children’s Home

The theme of empathetic connection with people struggling with issues of distance, health and access in rural and remote locations in Australia was borne on Saturday morning by the opportunity to visit and tour the newly rebuilt Royal Far West Children’s Home at Manly. For a century the Far West home has catered for the health, respite and wellbeing of children who are unwell in the bush. The new facilities afford the opportunity to holistically treat these children and their families either for a week in the school, accommodation and health services there, with access to the beach, Manly and Sydney, or through video conferencing with health professionals to treat ailments and health concerns through ICT.

Several St Pius students such as Charlie Aylmer Year 12 have recently completed their Community Involvement Program (CIP) hours there in Year 10 and 11, so that opportunity of service is an important one. The facilities are also available to corporate functions and weekend accommodation as available, as the centre seeks to supplement its income streams to support its most worthy strategic goals as fully as possible.

See Mr Brannan for more details.

Red Dirt Expedition Presentation to OLD Parish Social Justice Committee

The Social Justice Committee of Our Lady of Dolours Parish chaired by Mrs Trish Wilson and including at least four past parents of St Pius X College, was greatly impressed by a presentation given by Year 10 students Connor Ryan, Ash Johnson and Reuben Jacobsen as well as Cavan Ryan (Year 8) on Tuesday afternoon. These students spoke passionately about their experiences and learnings from the St Pius X July Red Dirt Expedition and their social justice awakening to the challenges in rural and remote communities.

Given the sister Parish status of Chatswood OLD to St Ignatius’, Bourke, and St Patrick’s Brewarrina, the insights our students had of conditions and experiences on the ground in those areas in particular was of great interest to the committee. We hope we can continue to advocate for advancement of connection with the people and places we visited, in a way which supports their plight and cause in the drought and social problems they face so resiliently.

Fide et Labore

Mr Sean Brannan - Assistant Principal Pastoral Care