Deputy Head of College News

Mr Bruce McPhee

International Women’s Day

Last year our student leaders presented our female staff with a flower to say thank you for all that they do in the College – as teachers, school officers, coaches, leaders, mentors, advisors, and the list goes on.

 

This year, our leaders started a discussion about IWD a few weeks ago and the possibility of doing something that went beyond simply purchasing a flower to show their appreciation.  The outcome of this discussion was the decision to take time to make flowers for the women of the College and to present these with inspiring quotes attached from important women in our Church history.  Our College Captains delivered the flowers today as a symbolic gesture of respect, appreciation and admiration of all that the women of Marist College Ashgrove do. 

 

The following video is a short insight into what it is the boys discussed and considered as they talked together while making the flowers and the message they wanted to get across through their actions.  (And in the spirit of being open and transparent, it must be stated here that without the leadership of Mrs Mena McLean – who helped turn an idea into a reality – the very large number of flowers that were presented today would never have been made.  It took a strong woman whom our boys admire and care for deeply to keep them on track and remind them of the bigger picture around what they were doing.)

As mentioned in our assembly today, it is our hope that each day we can move one step further away from seeing girls and women as a gender in need of male protection, care, “mansplaining” or looking after and one step closer to accepting girls and women as equals who are deserving of our respect as Mary-ist men.

Resilience

At the moment, one statement that I am hearing more and more is that “surely things can’t get any worse” or “I am not sure we can deal with much more”.

 

I must say, I wholeheartedly agree with both of these and I say a prayer on a daily basis that we as a community are “through the worst of it”, while also acknowledging that there are many other communities who are in fact, very much dealing with “the worst of it”.

 

As a proud member of Marist College Ashgrove, I want to communicate how impressed I am with the boys at our College who continue to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and move forward, more often than not, looking at how they can help others at exactly the same time. This is a characteristic that comes from those who influence their lives: their parents, families, friends and their school.

 

I encourage you to share with your son that this aspect of being a Marist Man has not gone unnoticed and that their attitude and approach is very much acknowledged and appreciated. This is something that I will also do at our assembly tomorrow. BUT, not every member of our community is always resilient and should your son, or your family, be struggling, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Being part of a community is absolutely about caring for others, but it is also about being able to put your hand up when you need help so that someone else can grab hold of it and give you what it is you might need. As always, your first point of call is your son’s Head of House or Primary Pastoral Leader should you need to ask for help of any kind.

Glenlyon Road Bridge

It is with much frustration that at the time of writing this article, the Glenlyon Road Bridge is still not open for students and families. However, this will change (hopefully this week) and at some point, the bridge will re-open – more than likely only for pedestrians for the first little while.

 

With this in mind, I would like to implore all parents who will go back to using the Glenlyon Road bridge entrance to get into the habit of dropping your sons at the edge of the Flats, on Grevillia Road.

 

There are three reasons for this:

  1. Our boys are more than capable of walking this distance and don’t need to be dropped any closer to the school.
  2. The need to drop students on Glenlyon Drive or Acacia Drive creates a very dangerous intersection which can be avoided by using the Grevillia Road drop off area.
  3. Our neighbours along Acacia Drive have experienced flooding in their properties and are still in the throes of cleaning up. Having parents and students clogging up this road at the moment is really the last thing our neighbours in this area need when there is a perfectly good drop off point approximately 50 metres away.

We very much appreciate the patience and care all parents dropping their sons at school in the past week have shown. Let’s continue to convey this over the next few days as things get “back to normal”.