Principal's Message

This last week saw a successful celebration of the feast of St Luke, the patron saint of writers, artists and doctors.  

The showcase of talent coming from our community was extraordinary with over 100 videos sent in to audition for the showcase. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time for all of them, however, it was lovely to see that the students all got involved on the day. Please see below a video of some of the acts from the day. 

St Lukes'Catholic College has always had a rich connection to the arts from its inception. We have always been a school that values creativity- indeed, it is in our vision to yet its faith-filled curious children to be creative contributors and innovative problem solvers for a changing world. It is central to our inquiry process where students learn by creating, and is one of our 6 pillars. 

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with the students winning the first Inaugural St Luke’s Art Prize. Over 200 students submitted pieces of work - as I said to the students, this is more than one of our secondary year groups and almost as many students as one of our primary stages. The work was exceptional, and we have asked students if we can “borrow” the work until the end of the term to display both in the foyer of our welcome centre, and one special artwork for the leadership office. 

We know that creativity is a gift to the world, whether that comes in the form of art, music, or a particularly creative way to solve a science or maths problem. Creativity creates an impact on the world by creating solutions to real-world problems and allows us to imagine possibilities and generate ideas (Pillar C1)

Creativity in the form of music and art gives us the tools to express and make meaning in our world; it allows us to have a deeper connection to our emotions and keeps us open to experiencing the beauty of God’s creations. Good art and music cause us to reflect, think more deeply about ourselves and our relationship with the world, and, research suggests, actually stretches our brain and gives us the capacity to solve problems more readily.

Seeing the creativity from the day inspires us to showcase more creativity around the school. Currently, a group of year 10’s as part of their life design project - “how can you leave your legacy at St Luke’s” are proposing a creative arts evening and another group a short film festival. These are ideas that I’d like to see come to fruition this term so that we can invite parents and the community to see the wonderful student work at St Luke’s. 

By the end of term 1 next year, we will also see the opening of our new creative and performance hubs- with the final components of our building program being completed. This program is particularly exciting as the school has supported designing the world-class makerspaces and art studios which will be examples of best practice design across Australia.  These spaces give students the opportunity to experiment, test, design and draw solutions, and use equipment, tools and materials to make and build those solutions.  Students manage projects independently and collaboratively from conception to realisation. They will use design processes to investigate ideas, generate and refine ideas, plan, produce and evaluate designed solutions. They develop a sense of pride, satisfaction and enjoyment from their ability to develop innovative solutions to real world problems. 

To loosely quote Robin Williams: "art, music, dance, this is what we live for. This is what we write and read about." In recognition and acknowledgement of our Patron Saint, Saint Luke, it’s exciting to see the students joyfully celebrating the success and talent of others in the arts this week.