PRINCIPAL'S PEN

Dear members of the Saints family,

Counter-cultural – to move in the opposite direction of an accepted culture. 

Two weeks ago, I attended the Catholic Schools Debating Competition final hosted by St Augustine’s and initiated by Ms Nguyen-Hales. St Augustine’s had finalists in the junior and senior division, and the topic for the senior debate was, Single-sex schools are an anachronism, which means belonging to another time or outdated.

The debate threw my thoughts back to an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald last June which raised ongoing concerns about boys falling further behind girls academically, and further behind against historical data, in almost every measure that schools have. There are fewer young men at university, fewer boys engaged at school, fewer boys doing Specialist Maths, Physics and Chemistry, fewer boys involved in the visual arts, music and drama. 

To top off the bad news, while watching Sunrise on Tuesday morning the headline being discussed at 7:00am prime time was "NAPLAN - lowest literacy scores for boys ever" with claims that boys are two years behind girls in Year 9 literacy. This is not a new theme, and I’ve heard it before. I heard it at the first school I taught at, a large co-educational school, 25 years ago. I remember attending an Academic Awards Assembly there where nine out of 10 award recipients were female. 

The theories as to why boys are falling behind are largely anecdotal: feminisation of the curriculum, lack of male teachers, digital devices, wealth, busy parents. Experts aren’t sure why, across the country, boys are engaging less in schools. If the culture across the country is that boys are achieving less, then at St Augustine’s we are certainly counter- cultural.

Our Awards Night on 4 November featured numerous examples that St Augustine’s results are in contrast to popular trends. The number of our boys receiving subject prizes, homeroom awards, awards for sporting excellence and boarding spirit awards was impressive. The fact that Lucas De Roma could stand in front of this audience and deliver a monologue, that our percussion band and choir are full, is compelling evidence that we here, in this school, are defying a broader culture. Our culture is of boys succeeding, doing well and becoming good people.

So what evidence is there that we are truly engaging our boys? STEM, an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is booming at Saints. Our uptake of Specialist Maths, Physics and Chemistry defies trends in almost every school in Queensland. 

There were 174 academic awards received at the end of Semester 1. Staff analysed NAPLAN results during the recent pupil-free day, and our Year 9s are up there with the best Maths results in the state. A better measure of the impact teachers make is in how our young men progress. Our Year 9 students have made exceptional progress in writing.

More than 400 boys represented the school in sport this year. Saints won JSS and CISSA competitions and the Melbourne Invitational Hockey Tournament. We are the Northern Queensland Cricket champs, the regional senior AFL champions, and we boast three Australian sporting representatives who are currently at school.

So then, the question becomes why? Why are we counter-cultural and why do boys at Saints perform so well? There are many reasons, but I will outline three:

1. Culture: The young men of Saints are immersed in a school with an outstanding culture. It is a culture where boys are safe to learn, their wellbeing is cared for, and they can take good risks and shine. Success is celebrated and promoted. 
2. Teachers: St Augustine’s has teachers that understand what makes boys thrive. They are experts in boys education and know how to get our boys engaged. Our staff build a sense of belonging, not only in the classroom, but in all aspects of life at St Augustine’s. We develop the whole person. Our teachers strive to develop a spiritual compass in our boys, and the Marist charism is real and can be felt, giving our boys a connection to something greater. 
3. Parents and families: We attract families that have high aspirations for their sons. Parents, ultimately, have the greatest impact on their formation, and families that send their sons here support the College. 

Thank you to our parents and our teachers for having aligned values and working in partnership with each other. Your sons' successes are a testament to the fact that young men can achieve highly, given the right environment. At St Augustine’s we are certainly bucking the trend – we are counter-cultural and proud of the fact.

As to the topic of the senior debating final that Single-sex schools are an anachronism. Our Year 11 debating team argued the negative and won the final convincingly, arguing successfully that single-sex schools are still certainly a valuable option.