Principal Message

In speaking with the students at assembly this week I encouraged them to embrace  the challenge of Project Compassion fundraising in support of Caritas Australia’s #BeMore campaign.

We have set a target of $4 per student, 10c for each day of Lent. In considering that I asked the students to reflect on just what it means to be a part of this fine Catholic College community, to consider our ‘why’ as motivation for how we must act in our lives.

We are inspired in three significant ways. Firstly our founding charisms of Nano Nagle and Blessed Edmund Rice, one built on the inspiration of the other. Second, our peace patrons  for our houses of St. Benedicta, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther-King, St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Oscar Romero and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Thirdly, woven through all of that is Christ as our guiding light, his example of his great commandment to ‘Love One Another’. 

Let’s take one for a moment, Blessed Edmund Rice, who founded the Christian Brothers in 1802, following the example of Nano Nagle. Seeing a problem, not walking past and ignoring it but taking the extraordinary step of putting aside his business life and encouraging others to join him to educate and care for the poor of the town of Waterford in Ireland. Today we interpret this example as placing other people ahead of ourselves, placing others at our centre and helping where we can , giving where we can.

I was reflecting on the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore in England last week who captivated the world by doing 100 laps of his garden to inspire a fundraising which raised close to $60 million for health services during the British lockdown. Apart from his wonderful mantra of “Tomorrow will be a good day” I was also struck by the fact that he tried to make a difference in the world when he couldn’t leave his own yard. He succeeded where no one else seemed able to. 

Caritas is an agency of the church that requires its funding from us all to be able to do the wonderful work it does in developing countries.

My question to us all is that if Tom Moore can raise $60million by walking around his yard, placing others at his centre, what’s stopping us each raising $4? 10 cents per day for the period of Lent.

Can I ask please for our parents to support our ‘why’ and encourage your children, our students, who we work with in partnership, to make the effort and support our fundraising campaign for Project Compassion.

There is no place for bullying in this college- Bullying NoWay.

The second issue I addressed with the students this week is the whole issue of Bullying, that there is no place for it here and we all have to engage to ensure that occurs.

Bullying behaviour can be:

• verbal e.g. name calling, teasing, abuse, putdowns, sarcasm, insults, threats
• physical e.g. hitting, punching, kicking, scratching, tripping, spitting
• social e.g. ignoring, excluding, ostracising, alienating, making inappropriate gestures
• psychological e.g. spreading rumors, “dirty looks”, hiding or damaging possessions, malicious SMS and email messages, inappropriate use of camera phones.

My message to them is that they need to be an ‘upstander’. 

We are all bystanders at times of how people behave. What I’m asking of them is to actually go a step further, lean in and speak up. Be an upstander by speaking up. We generally know when something we see is just wrong. Why do we stay silent when we have enormous capacity to influence each other?

We know this works. Twenty five years of research into bullying in schools tells  us that if the bystander speaks up, you are saying to others that the behaviour is wrong and the odds are you’ll change how someone behaves. If you say nothing you are telling the bully its OK and you are complicit. 

Bullying continues when we don’t speak up. That speaking up can be to each other or to an adult who might be able to help. Don’t stay silent.

That speaking up can be in social media when you see someone being picked on or it can be face to face, I’d particularly like to ask our older students to watch the dynamics of how younger students are relating. If it doesn’t look / feel right it probably isn’t and they have a responsibility to speak up. 

Research on bullying tells us that the solution lies with you more than us as being the upstander. We can act against someone, get someone the help they need but we also know students who are being bullied, struggle to speak up to adults. They need help to be supported.

We shouldn’t just be tolerant of each other but we should, following Christ’s example be accepting of each other. That’s what ‘Love One Another’ means in practice.

Let’s be an ‘upstander’ for each other.

Can I ask parents to please discuss this issue with your child in support of the College position on this. As role models to our children by our own behaviour we influence them in ways we often aren't aware of. 

On 19th March we will mark the Bullying- NoWay day in the college as part of our ongoing day to day campaign against this. 

Thank you for your ongoing support of what we are about.