Reflection and Celebration
By Mrs Liz Illingworth, Principal
CELEBRATING
Our Arts Faculty has been a recent highlight at the College over the last few weeks. The Senior Art Exhibition saw many community members visiting the art space to view the high quality work that our Year 11 and 12 students have produced over the year. Our students were able to express themselves, their creativity and their story through their art. Reading the ‘context statements’ written by the students allowed the viewer an insight into the artists’ thought process and helped them to understand why they had created their pieces as they had.
Croagh Patrick also had their Annual Art Show. Once again, the calibre of work was outstanding and reflected each individual students' ability and artistry.
Our students are so lucky to have such amazing staff who work in this space, supporting them as they put together pieces that reflect and demonstrate their many talents, whilst providing them with an outlet to tell their story.
CHALLENGING
It is always tricky writing about challenges within the College. I am always careful not to communicate something that only relates to a small group of people to a whole group, this is not fair and often does not achieve anything other than harming our culture. However, sometimes by not mentioning challenges this can be interpreted as ignoring them or sweeping them under the rug.
Our College values respectful mutual relationships. So when we see some members in our community involve themselves in relationships that are not respectful, we struggle and find it hard to accept.
In a large College like ours it is to be expected that everybody will not be friends. That is okay. It is not okay to be mean, disrespectful, hurtful or unkind to another person. Sometimes I am challenged by some students within our community who think it is okay to be physical towards others, to make mean and hurtful statements, or share content on social media that is unkind. I encourage parents/guardians to have these challenging conversations with our young people. Check in on them. Are they being treated respectfully by their peers, are they treating themselves respectfully, and are they treating others respectfully?
I often think of a famous quote by Maya Angelou who said, 'Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not yet solved one’. I hope we can all encourage a community of kindness, care and compassion - this does solve problems.
REFLECTING
After a commemorative service for Remembrance Day at the College last Friday, 2024 Captains, Tumai Bennett and Kate Rigby, and Vice Captain, Owen Millar, represented St Patrick's College at the Launceston Remembrance Day Service on Saturday.
During the College service, Year 11 student, Emmaleigh Groeneveld, shared a personal story of her family and also spoke about leadership and service. We thank Emmaleigh for sharing her story and organising our Cadet students to officiate our service. Well done to all involved.
PROTECTING
The National Office for Child Safety has recently launched One Talk at a Time, a national awareness raising and behavioural change campaign on child sexual abuse. ‘One Talk at a Time’ aims to protect children and young people from sexual abuse by helping adults understand that child sexual abuse can be preventable, encouraging them to have ongoing, proactive, preventative conversations with children, young people and other adults in their lives. You may like to visit this site https://stpatricks.co/3R2QKvM and review the information.
COLLEGE UNIFORM
Attending St Patrick’s College is a commitment to the values and standards of our community. Our College Uniform expectations are high and so many within our community already meet this standard. It is unfortunate that there are some students who are not committed to the expectations of our College. We request that parents/guardians take the time to revisit our Uniform Expectations which can be viewed here: https://stpatricks.co/UniformP...
END OF YEAR MASS AND GRADUATION
Our End of Year Mass and Year 12 Graduation Ceremony is fast approaching. I would like to highlight that all students are required to attend this special occasion at the Silverdome on Tuesday 12 December 2023. Students are expected to arrive at 6:00pm for a 6:30pm start.
We look forward to celebrating the 2023 academic year, presenting our major College awards and acknowledging our Year 12 graduates with all our students and families.
Kind regards
