News & Events
From the Acting Principal
There is no requirement to speak of one particular matter as we move well through the middle of Term 2, especially since there is so much to celebrate throughout the College, calling for gratitude from our community.
In a great celebration of students, the Primary Years assembly on Tuesday (19 June) witnessed many achievements across academic success, contributions exuding our College values (Faith, Relationships, Excellence, Diversity), and service evident in Jump Rope for Heart.
At the same time, our most senior students in Year 12 immersed themselves in their three-day Year 12 Retreat, where staff led a most formative experience on the theme ‘The End is a New Beginning’. To be so vulnerable with peers while considering the daunting next steps into life (without the daily support of St Paul’s College), is both brave and truly reflective, within a world that is decreasingly ‘present’.
These experiences are only two examples across our College and demonstrate the great breadth of celebration, within varying parts of life’s journey, that benefit our students.
In the coming weeks, our College also prepares for Semester One reports. This is one snapshot of learning over 6 months, knowing that individual feedback that has been given throughout the Semester is far more targeted, timely, and beneficial (since it is more regular). I request each family to use the Semester Report as an opportunity to positively and consecutively celebrate areas of strength and achievement while setting goals for the remainder of 2023.
Quite outrageously, families in Australia have traditionally asked questions such as, “Why didn’t you do better” and “What’s this grade for?”. This perhaps represents many experiences of parents that is now very outdated and unhelpful, since it has no direction on how to improve! Instead, let us seek means for improvement and remain positive, by way of helping our young people improve.
In the same way, I pleaded with our Year 12 students when I had the pleasure of presenting to their Retreat this week, let us ask our students “how they want to be” (positive, kind, fun, inspiring, honest) instead of only “what the want to be” (fireman, lawyer, engineer, teacher). What we are is hard to define and sometimes a long journey to achieve; how we are as people is a proposition each day.
Josh Foulis
Acting Principal