2023 | ISSUE 14 | Identity News

Identity News

Liberating Education Touchstone Assembly

We ended the term gathered as a community to celebrate our Touchstone of Liberating

Education encompassing the core of what we do, as our College mission Statement

emphasises, ‘As a Catholic school we aspire to form students’ hearts and minds to act with

integrity and compassion with in a learning culture that is engaging, rigorous, inclusive,

innovative and within which each student is challenged.’

The Liberating Education Touchstone Leadership team led by Salia Nimley and Liam Alsop collaborated with Rachael Swatman on our final whole school assembly. It celebrated the best of SJC in 2023 showcasing various student’s achievements. Ccurriculum achievements were acknowledge throughout the school in English, LOTE, the Arts and VCE VM along with sharing work and accomplishments from across all sub schools. Highlights included a feature on ‘All Abilities Week’. Travis from Sports4All visited the college that day showcasing the blind sports for cricket and AFL. At Westcourt, ‘Parallel Sports’ were there playing a wheelchair basketball game.

One of the more remarkable aspects of our College is our unwavering commitment to inclusivity, particularly for individuals with diverse abilities. In a world that often emphasises differences, we take pride in fostering an environment that embraces diversity in all its forms. We recognise that every individual possesses unique talents, perspectives, and challenges. We firmly believe that the strength of our community lies in its ability to accommodate and uplift every member, regardless of their abilities. Our campus is designed to be accessible to everyone, ensuring that individuals with mobility challenges can navigate freely and confidently. But our efforts extend far beyond ramps and accessible washrooms. In our classrooms, teachers utilize diverse teaching methods that cater to various learning styles, ensuring that every student can engage with the curriculum effectively and a liberating education is provided for all.
Kade Hyde year 10 Touchstone Leader

Other highlights of the assembly included a compilation of entertaining short films by 2023 Year 12 Media students. VCE VM leaders shared the array of ways their applied learning connects to the projects they engage in. Year 8 students sharing their Italian poetry competition achievements and Lenny Ireland reciting his poem titled, ‘Early Mornings’. Here is a verse.

Dad was ready, all he was waiting for was me,

Hurtling down the icy wooden stairs,

The water stinging my young skin,

The deep blue water churned and tumbled,

Producing perfect waves;

The refreshing feeling of the fresh clear water enveloped me,

Rejuvenating my soul.
Lenny Ireland Year 8 English

The Arts were represented with a Q & A session with successful visual artists Jayden Spiteri and Kai D’Orsa. We were entertained by the talented performances by the College Stage Band playing Michael Jackson’s, ‘Rock with You’, directed by John Collinson and Gerry O’Callaghan. To conclude, our resident band, Good Wood performed. They formed in 2020, when Ben, Jesse and Jack were at Westcourt. Since forming, they have performed at Fed Square, Stay Gold and are playing at GMHBA on the 15^th of September. Their debut single ‘Black Hair’ is available to listen to on all streaming services. Our Deputy Principal of Learning Lisa Pope, encouraged us all to continue to develop a culture of excellence where all our learning drives our success and ensures that our learning opens our hearts and minds connecting us to building a better world, our theme for 2023!

Highlights of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023

My name is George Cotter, and earlier this term I left to embark on a pilgrimage to World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, Portugal. World Youth Day is really a week of activities of faith all building up until the final mass where all pilgrims attending, get together to pray and listen to the wise teachings of Pope Francis. The pilgrimage started off by making visits to holy sites such as Fatima, where Mary appeared to three young children and also performed the miracle of the sun, which has even been documented and observed by thousands of Catholics and atheists alike, to going to large gatherings and eucharists in the lead up to the big mass.

The moments I realized what WYD was, is when we were walking through the streets of the city, I saw the flags and people from all different nationalities, dancing, singing with one another, and also at the final mass where over one and a half million pilgrims attended and slept out in a field overnight that I realised what it truly meant. This is a gathering of people across the world who share one faith and, in those moments, I learnt that so many more people share our faith than I previously thought. My highlight of WYD was meeting hundreds of people from all different countries and trading with them, getting items like hats, keychains, wristbands etc, to joking with them saying that we rode kangaroos everywhere in Australia and even seeing their reactions to trying Vegemite, which many of them did not like and some even said taste like licking a metal pole.

My biggest take away from the pilgrimage was a quote from Pope Francis and that is to, “not be afraid”. So, if anyone is considering participating in an upcoming World Youth Day pilgrimage, I would say the same thing, ‘do not be afraid’, take the opportunity and trust me you will never forget it.
George Cotter Year 12 Student

Mary Malone
Director of Identity