Senior Years
Paul Dillon – Alcohol and Drug Information Sessions
This term we had hoped to welcome Paul Dillon back to Endeavour College to present Alcohol and Drug information sessions to our senior students as he has done for the last eleven years, as part of a collective wellbeing initiative with other Lutheran Schools in South Australia, and an important component of our approach to alcohol and drug education.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 interstate travel restrictions impacted our plans! As such, we arranged for a video conference link for Paul to still connect with our students for the year level sessions on 19 August 2020. This too was nearly jeopardised by a serious injury Paul sustained less than 48 hours prior, but on the day, he presented without a glitch to our Year 10, 11 and 12 cohorts!
As usual, Paul’s presentations were full of facts, statistics and safety tips, as well as a good dose of storytelling and humour, engaging our senior students in powerful and potentially life-saving messages about the realities of alcohol and drug use. We encourage our senior students to keep reflecting on and sharing what they learnt with their family and friends. Endeavour College is the only school Paul presents to in our local region of Adelaide, so he encourages our students to spread his message broadly amongst their peers to support the safety of all young people.
We look forward to welcoming Paul back to the College for his presentations in person next year and wish him well with his recovery from injury.
Marni Harding
College Counsellor
ALWS Social Justice Incursion
On Thursday 20th August, Celia Fielke from Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) spent the morning with our Year 11 students. She delivered an interactive presentation on the topic of Social Justice. Some focus areas were developing an understanding of the difference between Social Justice and Charity, and identification and discussion of the rights of vulnerable groups such as those with a disability, child labour, and victims of bonded labour.
Students completed various group tasks giving them the opportunity to identify and ask questions about particular social justice issues. Tasks exploring the experience of particular groups such as the Dalits, who are at the bottom of the Indian caste system, and face widespread discrimination on a daily basis, were particularly eye opening for our students.
Celia talked to the students about the significant impact of ALWS through a series of personal testimonies. Celia introduced our students to the story of a woman called Ayen. Ayen lives in South Sudan. At the age of 14 she was forced out of school and sent to work in the bush looking after the family’s cattle. With the help of ALWS, Ayen undertook training in cooking. She now has her own restaurant.
This session concludes our series of Social Justice incursions. Over the next few weeks the students will reflect on this valuable learning experience, as they are introduced to their last assessment in Stage 1 Religion Studies.
Alison Slater
Christian Living Learning Leader