Deputy Principal

We are We are SVC

House spirit is a great driving force behind participation, engagement, fostering connection and building relationships with both staff and students. Our Athletics Carnival held on Monday of this week was another great example of house spirit and representing who we are and what we stand for. The atmosphere and attitude amongst the boys was exceptional and made for a fantastic day all round. House spirit and pride in what we stand for does not only occur in major events. The everyday standards, application to learning, attitude and working relationships we uphold inevitably have the power to influence our sense of buy in. We work hard to create an environment which is supportive, is encouraging, is welcoming, however this relies on everyone to be on the same page. In creating this environment, we will continue to instill pride and passion for who we are and what we stand for and in the process pay respect to all those who have go before us in shaping our SVC community.

The Holy Trinity of Partnership

Last week we held our annual Mother and Father Son sessions run by Time and Space. We are in our 18th year of this programme which has become extremely popular amongst EREA Network Schools and other Tasmanian Catholic Schools. These evenings highlight the significant investment we as a college are making in continuing to build partnership between home, student and school. When all three are aligned we give the students the best possible change to succeed. When goals are aligned and approaches are agreed upon we then start to formalise a way forward for successful outcomes to eventuate. Any communication home comes from a place of support and provides a means to work through any given scenario or context.

The Bystander Effect

A particular aspect of focus within our welfare team is to challenge the bystander effect. As is part of life we will inevitably come across things in which we do not condone and consider wrong, there is probably no getting away from this. Our response, however, to these situations is where our emphasis lies. We encourage our young men to speak up when they witness things which are not right. We encourage our young men to come and speak with staff when they experience inappropriate behaviour. I would like to commend those young men who have already adopted this approach and do not accept what they have witnessed or experienced. We expect to see our values in our actions and through our deeds we will respond with what is the right thing to do.