Pastoral Care

From the Assistant Principal Pastoral Care

Wellbeing Anecdotes from the Student Diary Planner:

“Well done is better than well said.”  Benjamin Franklin

 

“Live life as an adventure, the more you live

the more secure you feel”

Call for 3 night Homestays for our Edmund Rice Beyond Borders visitors from Argentina

On the weekend beginning Friday 16 August, five Year 10 /11 students from Cardinal Newman College an Edmund Rice school in Argentina will visit the school and we would like to provide them with home-stays to experience the culture of an Australian family.

If you are willing and able to give one or two Year 11 Argentinian students a bed, shower and breakfast on Friday 16 to Sunday 18 August please contact Mr Sean Brannan. We will keep them busy each day with school/tourist activities. 

Please contact me for more information via sbrannan@stpiusx.nsw.edu.au

St Pius X College Pastoral Care Program

Over the coming weeks we engage with some of the key foundational landmarks within the College’s Pastoral Calendar. Our Year 12 students are currently facing the rigours of preparing for their Week 3-5 Trial HSC Examinations which are a dress rehearsal for the October HSC. In many ways the Trials present a unique challenge in that they are faced as course studies are barely completed or still underway. I encourage students to remember that they are not alone; we all have a network of support. The HSC is very much a team effort, and it is important that we learn from the Trials and use the time, before and after them, to prepare ourselves as fully as practical, without trying to place undue stress or expectations on ourselves, for the HSC and life beyond it.

Indeed the Year 12 Spirituality Retreats in Week 5 will provide a welcome respite from study and school, and Weeks 6 – 10 lessons and the September break are valuable class and study time to further refine our HSC preparations. This time should be approached with a growth mindset:  use the time as best as you can, to do what you can. It’s your HSC, and anything you do to prepare well will help in long run.

I reflect on the collective experience of generations of Year 12 students and parents at the Graduation Ceremonies in September. Not surprisingly it is not the hours in my PDHPE, Physics or Religious Education lessons that are recollected to me as the most memorable formative experiences, although the quality of that learning cannot be underestimated. Rather the experiences and journey with mates: The Year 7 Ski Trip, Year 11 Snowy Hike, Kokoda and Bourke “Red Dirt” Expeditions and the many hours spent on the sporting fields, playgrounds and journeys which are most fondly remembered. We are herd animals and farmers to lesser or greater extents and it is the shared journey, thinking, understanding and relationships which bring rich learning, quality and enjoyment to our lives.

In that context I thank particularly the staff and students who give of themselves to facilitate those experiences and quality of relationships and give up their personal time to “be there”. We must approach each experience as a stepping stone, bringing a growth mindset to our capacity to throw ourselves into the moment with a spirit of trust and unity, and grow into a better person, citizen, student, teacher, son, brother or father from there.

In the spirit of our EREA Touchstones we are, and strive to be, an Inclusive Community in the traditions of Gospel Spirituality, seeking Justice and Solidarity in our quest to Liberate and Improve the lives of ourselves and others through Education. Whether it be the Year 7 Ski Trip, preparation for Year 9 Rites of Passage and Respectful Men of Honour Camp, Year 12 Trials, Retreats, and Graduation Ceremonies, each sequential step in the St Pius X College Pastoral Care program is placed to enhance the holistic development of our young men into the best they can be.

Fide et Labore

Red Dirt Bourke Expedition

The Red Dirt Expedition was celebrated as a transformational experience at Monday's Assembly and at the Our Lady of Dolours Parish Youth Mass on Sunday evening with the following prayer led by Tyson McCallum, Braiden Gunaratnam (Year 11) and Henrik Hogg (Year 8) respectively:

Prayer for the St Pius X College Bourke Red Dirt Expedition

In the first week of July, 52 students and staff from St Pius X College travelled in five vehicles on what we called the Bourke Red Dirt Expedition to rural and remote NSW. We visited the Catholic schools, towns, Aboriginal communities and archaeological sites.

The students from Years 7 to 11 who self-selected to participate in this Social Justice and Pastoral Care outreach visited some of the most rural, remote and unique communities and locations in Western NSW. They were exemplary in their representation of the values of our College. They received high commendation from the Schools, National Parks, Visitors Centres, Museums and towns we visited.

The expedition involved camping for three stunning days and three sub-zero nights in the picturesque Warrumbungles National Park, climbing the igneous Breadknife and Grand High Tops geological features.  We visited the Sandstone Caves, Dandry Gorge and Sculptues in the scrub Aboriginal sites, guided by Gomeroi National Parks Leader Jill Norton, Baradine Local Area Land Council, Discovery Centre and Baradine Hotel.

We visited schools to run sports days with St Lawrence’s Coonabarabran, Coonabarabran High, St Joseph’s Walgett, St Patricks Brewarrina, and St Ignatius Bourke, which are sister Parishes to Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood.

We learned about the 30,000 year old Brewarrina Fish Traps site and Aboriginal Cultural Museum, trained with the Bourke Rugby Club, attended Bourke PCYC Disco, and rode bikes around Dubbo Zoo.

By far the most significant of our experiences was simply connecting with the young people and community members of these remote communities who are showing incredible resilience in the face of one of the worst droughts in living memory. In so many ways these people are just like us, but the way they manage to live such positive and happy lives, in situations we would consider very isolating and hard, is incredibly uplifting, and something we will remember and enjoy for a long time to come.

In closing, let us pray for the people of remote and rural NSW, and give thanks for the rich learning experiences and safe return of members of our community.

We give thanks for the opportunity of The Bourke Red Dirt Expedition to experience first-hand, something of the story and plight of those unique people and places.        

Lord Hear Us

Lord Hear Our Prayer

At Assembly on Monday the Expedition Team presented Mr Couani with a message stick from Brad Hardy of the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Fish Traps, which has for 30,000 years been a place of community, of meeting, of sharing, of learning and education. The hope is that we can continue that profound tradition in a spirit of reconciliation and positive hope for the future.

Lastly I thank again the staff:  Mr Mendez, Mr Quinn, Mr Stollery, Ms Spanyk, Mr Adrian Brannan, Mr Stollery, Mr Long, Mr Mulheron and Ms Kate Ryder (Acting Deputy of Brigidine College St Ives) who gave up their holidays and led this expedition.

St Stanislaus Bathurst Afternoon Tea and Old Boys Corridor Section

Dedicated to Photographer and Australia’s first Academy Award Winner. Damian Parer.

On one of the most pleasant meteorological Bathurst Rugby fixtures in recent memory (our country cousins lamented the fact that we usually bring rain to the district), our Juniors fared well winning the 13A, B and 14B matches. For others including our 1st XV, who led 7 -0 early after a great start with NSW All Schools Rep James Bragg leading the way, it was a tough physical day at the office.

At the post match afternoon tea in the historic Borders Dining Room, 1st XV Captain Luke Greenland represented our school with the same great dignity, leadership and composure he showed on the field.

Photo:  1st XV Captain Luke Greenland addressing the afternoon tea dignitories in historic St Stainslaus College dining room.

The area outside the dining room features a Museum of honour for past pupils of the 125 year old St Stanislaus College including, among many others Museum items from author of “They’re a Weird Mob” John O Grady who hilariously used the pseudonym and adopted the identity of Italian immigrant Nino Cullotta for that literary masterpiece. 

Of greater interest to our upcoming 2020 Kokoda Expedition however are the collection of photographs from Old Boy and WWII war correspondent Damian Parer. Born on King Island to a Spanish father who was prone to Monaco gambling stints, and a very Catholic Irish Mother, Damian boarded at Stannies in High School before completing his school studies at EREA’s St Kevin’s, Toorak in Melbourne. He then worked and studied photography and cinematography trough the late Depression years. In WWII as an ABC War Correspondent he followed the Australian Infantry 6th and 7th Divisions through Africa and Syria, famously photographing the then little known “Kokoda Hero” Capt. (later Lt Col. and subsequently Australian Ambassador to Ireland and Fairlight resident) Ralph Honner after the battle of Bardia. Ralph’s son John is an EREA Board member and regularly comes to teach our students about his father life and exploits on the Kokoda track and beyond. Tragically after winning Australia’s first ever Academy Award for his documentary Kokoda Frontline, Parer was lost to Australia as the American Marine Corp sought his unique services until he was killed filming the amphibious beach landing in the coconut palm groves on Peleliu.

To learn more about our shared heritage, proud exploits of our forebears and challenge yourself emotionally, spiritually, socially and physically consider joining our 2020 Kokoda Expedition! Students from Years 9 to 11, their Mums, Dads and members of the wider SPX community are welcome.    

EREA Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice “Let’s Talk” Immersion

“Let’s Talk” Immersion:  Next week I will consolidate our experience and learning from the Bourke Red Dirt Expedition to rural and remote communities of Western NSW, by driving a National delegation of EREA staff to visit and stay with Aboriginal communities in Baradine, Narrabri, Myall Creek, Moree, Lightning Ridge, Goodooga and Brewarrina.

The Edmund Rice Centre Immersion in the spirit of Reconciliation is loosely based on components of the Northern Ireland Peace Talks. It is led by an inspirational young Goodooga born Aboriginal Woman Cassandra Gibb and Br Pat Lynch. The journey features ceremony, sharing and conversation where participants are encouraged to remember the occurrences of the past, but also leave them behind in pursuit of a better future of shared wisdom, culture and heritage. We will stay in community with Aboriginal people and visit some of the most remote schools in NSW,

I look forward to sharing my experience and learnings with the students and community of St Pius X College when I return in Week 4.

God go with us all

Mr Sean Brannan - Assistant Principal Pastoral Care