2024 | ISSUE 5 | SJC Newsletter

Principal's Video News

Welcome back to Term 2, I hope that the break has been restorative and re-energising for all of our students. At the start of term we welcome back from leave, Gemma Gray. We also welcome new staff, Ellie Purser, Jason Moloney, Taylor Gray, and Melissa Lavender.

I have had the privilege of visiting many schools across Australia and across the world. I firmly believe that St Joseph’s College Geelong has one of the best school uniforms I have seen. The caveat on this of course, is that it must be worn fully and correctly for this to be the case. This week is a week of ‘grace’ during which either full and correct winter or summer uniform may be worn (not a combination). From next Monday, each student must be in full and correct winter uniform as they travel to and from school and when required at school. May I respectfully request that all families support the College in this expectation.

During the holiday break, I had the privilege of spending 10 days with a group of leaders from Edmund Rice schools across the world at an EREBB (Edmund Rice Education Beyond Borders) Symposium in South Africa. EREBB is a global network of over 280 schools educating over 200,000 students. Our involvement in the network is an important element in our strategic goal of providing our students with a global perspective. In coming months and years, there will be opportunities for many of our students to engage online with young people who live in a very different context to ours.

In addition to online interaction, Year 12 students will have the opportunity to visit Kenya and Uganda later this year (after VCE exams). The value of interaction with other communities can be demonstrated by the following true story.

In a hotel foyer there is a fish tank with many brightly coloured goldfish. In a large pond in the hotel garden there are many of the same variety of fish. Those in the tank are tiny, those in the pond are huge. The fish only grow as large as their environment allows. In developing engagement with other young people across the world, we provide our students with the chance to grow and expand.

While in South Africa our group visited a number of schools, some serving wealthy communities and others serving very poor communities. The disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ reminded me of just how important it is that St Joseph’s continues to educate and advocate for a just world.

With Edmund Rice Day early next month, we have the opportunity to support education for our friends at Kensekka. As Pope Francis reminds us “to educate is an act of hope”. On Edmund Rice Day we stand in solidarity with the poor, we advocate for justice for them and we put our money where our mouth is.

During the break, I read a lot about Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and visited Soweto, the centre of so much protest, violence and death during the final years of the apartheid era. Two quotes from Archbishop Tutu really resonated with me:

“The world is getting better. Think about the rights of women or how slavery was considered morally justified a few hundred years ago. We are growing and learning how to be compassionate, how to be caring, how to be human.”

and

“Without forgiveness we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound to the chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us that person will hold the keys to our happiness, that person will be our jailer. When we forgive we take back control of our fate and our feelings. We become our own liberator.”

During the break we refurbished and refitted the Adam Bryant Centre (our weights and fitness centre). It is now equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to support our PE programs and particularly our elite sportsmen who now have the facilities to undertake strength and conditioning programs either set by their own external coaches or by our staff, including our recently appointed Doctoral Researcher from Federation University.

The last College tours for families considering enrolment at St Joseph’s take place over the next two weeks. These tours have been well supported with all but the final day completely booked out. I am very grateful to our College Registrar, Adel Mawson, for her work in arranging these tours and to our student leaders and senior staff who have been involved in leading them in answering any parent queries.

God Bless

Tony Paatsch
Principal