As the world becomes faster and faster we believe it imperative that we remove students from the busyness of their lives. The renewal days at each year level offer them a day where students can RE-treat from their daily routines, RE-charge and gain new energy, RE-fresh with the opportunity to start again and allow them time to RE-new spirituality and faith.
We offer the following renewals at each Year Level:
Their first renewal at St Joseph’s College introduces the students to our three core values, compassion, integrity and innovation. We focus on an individual’s faith journey, specifically how we can live our lives guided by these values while journeying with Christ.
To compliment the students’ Religious Education unit, ‘Be an Upstander! Have the Courage to Care!’, which explores the importance of being an upstander, the team from Courage to Care speak and run workshops with our Year 8 students about their firsthand experience of the Holocaust and the significant impact upstanders had in ensuring their survival.
The students also participate in other sessions throughout the day including a student led liturgy, a ‘Respectful Relationships’ seminar, the importance of ‘Interfaith Dialogue’ and the benefits of ‘Mindfulness’.
Wadawurrung and Beyond was a new unit introduced to the Year 9 Religious Education program in 2021. At the end of Term 3 students will hear from a local elder, celebrate a liturgy on country and explore what it means to be connected to country.
In Year 10, our focus turns to service-learning and to ways we can contribute to the lives of people experiencing hardship in our local community. The students listen to guests from not-for-profit organisations (such as Orange Sky) who service the homeless, as well as from people who have experienced homelessness themselves.
Students conclude the day with a call to action, participating in a liturgy and activities that make a real difference to people in our community.
(Respectful Relationships see Well Being Program)
One of the significant events in the renewal calendar is the annual Year 12 Renewals. Early in Term 2, all of our Year 12 students are allocated to four separate venues (allocated via their House) for three days of reflection, appreciation and prayer. The focus of the renewals is for our Year 12 cohort who have journeyed together over six years to take time out from their busy schedules to gather in their House groups both physically and spiritually. They are encouraged to reflect on their journey thus far, and forge forward into their futures with the strength of all of the touchstones that have formed them over the past six years.