Principal's Report

‘Be Who God Intended You To Be and You Will Set The World On Fire’

This is our College theme for 2020, a quote attributed to St Catherine of Sienna, a remarkable woman who was deeply committed to her faith and love for Jesus. St Catherine was not intending that her words would be taken literally. The Holy Spirit is often represented by fire in many art works and in the Bible. In fact fire is a very powerful symbol for Christians. Pentecost is one such example.

We are all blessed with gifts and talents. Each of us is made in the likeness of God. We are each unique and each of us has been gifted the chance to be self determining as we live our lives together on this planet. We gather as a community at Catholic Regional College Sydenham and in doing so each of us brings with us these special gifts and talents. Individually we are important, as a community we are more than one for ‘when two or more gather in my name, I shall be present’ Jesus tells us. The Spirit is present. The spirit is within each of us and the Spirit can create something beautiful by moving each of us to be open to sharing our gift and talents for the greater good.

Our theme then encourages each of us to be who God intended us to be. To use all of our gifts and talents for the sake of all. To share what we have and encourage others to do the same. Together, when we do this, we build the Kingdom. As a people of the Eucharist and as members of a Catholic school community we gather in Christ’s name each and every day. Christ is present with us through the gift of the Spirit.

To set the world on fire means to be awesome. To be amazing! To be the best we can be! To leave our mark on the world. My prayer for all of our students in 2020 will be for them to receive the gift of courage, openness and of compassion so that they might be moved by the Spirit to share their gifts and talents, to share who God intended them to be. In doing so I believe they will be seen for the remarkable and amazing young people they are. The community around them will respond in kind and we will celebrate each. How might any individual achieve this?

Our Student Leadership Group have started the year leading by example. They have introduced FriYAY! to be held at the College each and every Friday. There are two aspects to FriYAY! The first is a fundraising aspect, fundraising for those in need. This is a social justice response and will see our College community raise money for Mercy Hospice, Time Leste, St Vincent De Paul Society, Ozanam House and other very worthy organisations that help those in the community who need a hand up. The raising of funds will usually be via food stalls and there are many different stalls being planned from hot cinnamon donuts to frozen yoghurt cups and even whole freshly baked pizzas to share being sold.

The second part of the FriYAY! concept is to build community and to provide a variety of different activities so that the student cohort will have a range of activities to engage with a and in at lunchtimes on Friday. These end of week lunchtime activities will include Cluster Sport competitions to DJs on the Green, jumping castles, mini Olympics, pass the parcel and musical chairs (our students are also kids and sometimes we need to laugh and do something silly) as well as bands and many other great initiatives. Already we have seen roses on St Valentines Day with strawberries and cream together with a fun photo booth followed by a sausage sizzle and footy skills competition for Cluster points. Get involved and enjoy the community building FriYAY! Held every Friday at lunchtime is the message.

I congratulate the Student Leadership Group on this wonderful initiative. The first few weeks have been terrific and the program ahead looks sure to continue the fundraising as well as awareness raising for social justice issues together with a lot of fun.

Yours Faithfully

Brendan J Watson OAM

Principal