Deputy Principal

I feel honoured and privileged to start 2022 as the Deputy Principal at St Patrick’s College. Having attended an EREA school myself, it feels like I am coming home. A College that shares my values and beliefs that is grounded in ‘Gospel Spirituality’ that is a lived experience. I have seen that lived experience every day since I have started at the College through the interactions that I have had with staff, students, and parents/carers.

I have been involved in education for 25 years. My first teaching position was at Wade High School in Griffith in country NSW. Since then, I have taught in independent schools in both NSW and QLD. I met my wife Rowena in Griffith, and we are raising three wonderful children. 

I did not think that I would be starting the year meeting parents/carers by giving out rapid antigen home tests and doing bus duty and ‘Kiss and Ride’ in a mask. I have enjoyed chatting to parents and carers whilst doing this and I look forward to meeting all of you over the coming year. 

I spoke to the students at our College Assembly on Monday about the importance of their academics and their spirituality. We are all blessed to have had Edmund Rice start the Christian Brothers, and for the Christian Brothers continuing to educate young men when they started St Patrick’s College in 1928. Over 90 years on, parents/carers are choosing to educate their sons in a faith-based community which serves to allow young men to express their spirituality. Academics is the other key component of a parent’s/carer’s choice to send their son to the College. I look forward to working with the staff to ensure that we offer a ‘Liberating Education’ to every young man that walks through the gates. It is up to us as educators in partnership with a student’s parents/carers to ensure that every student can achieve their best.

The other theme that I was very forthright with the students was about respect. Respect for themselves, respect for others and respect for females. Schools including this College, did a lot of work around ‘consent’ last year. We need to further build on that this year and ensure that it is taught yearly and forms part of our curriculum. I reminded the students that I have been very impressed with the way that they conduct themselves around the College. They must continue with that persona when they are outside of the College gates. They cannot have a different persona when they are at a party. They cannot treat people differently based on status or sex. We pride ourselves on being an ‘Inclusive Community’ and we must always model respectful behaviour.

Lastly, I touched on ‘Justice and Solidarity’, and made mention of the plight of the Uyghur people and their struggles in China. We are blessed in this country to have freedoms that other people around the world are not so fortunate to have. I challenged all the young men to play their part and fight for the freedoms of all of those, not only whilst they are at the College but challenged them to be agents of change once they leave the College gates.

Adrian Byrne

Deputy Principal