During the last weeks, our staff and Year 11 students have been involved in a series of ballots for the new student leaders for 2019. The short-listed students were also interviewed by Darren Kearney and me. Today, I had the pleasure of announcing our College Student Leaders for 2019 to the staff and students.The Student Leadership Team for 2019 are:
College Captain: Oscar O’Brien College Vice-Captains: Benjamin Evans and Morgan PrendergastI am looking forward to working with these young men into the future and look forward to learning from each of them. I...
During the last weeks, our staff and Year 11 students have been involved in a series of ballots for the new student leaders for 2019. The short-listed students were also interviewed by Darren Kearney and me. Today, I had the pleasure of announcing our College Student Leaders for 2019 to the staff and students.The Student Leadership Team for 2019 are:
College Captain: Oscar O’Brien
College Vice-Captains: Benjamin Evans and Morgan Prendergast
I am looking forward to working with these young men into the future and look forward to learning from each of them. I am certain that our student body will be in great hands with these three leaders.
It is with great sadness that I inform you that Br Bryan
Roe’s mother, Marie, passed away in the early hours of this morning. Fr Bryan
is a very proud son and often speaks of his mother in his celebrations at St
Patrick’s as he had a very close relationship with her. He is one of six
children and Marie and Noah put the three boys through St Patrick’s College.
Please keep Fr Bryan and his family in your prayers and thoughts. Her funeral
will be held at 10:00am on Friday 17 August at St Kieran’s Church in Brighton.
Schools are always interesting places. All schools have their usual ebbs and flows usually dictated by what needs to occur ahead during the year. At the moment, this includes a series of subject selection meetings for students and their parents in preparation for 2019. We are also in the midst of our interviews for young men (and their families) who wish to join our Year 5 classes in 2020. Next week, we will have many ensembles, bands, orchestras and choirs competing over the four day Queensland Catholic Colleges Music Festival. On the other hand, schools also provide a large amount of spontaneity and enjoyment where our young men and staff can meet daily and enjoy each other’s company and gifts that they bring to the community. One only must attend one of our weekly College assemblies to observe the great gifts that we have within the St Patrick’s community. These are the things that make this school such an enjoyable place to be a part of. At the end of each week, I look over the calendar and diary of events and I am very grateful that I work in such a community where, so many staff are prepared to be involved in different activities so that our young men have the opportunity to try new experiences. I am grateful that we have teaching staff with the expertise that allows us to offer the variety of subjects that we can and work hard together to deliver the best educational pathways and opportunities so that each young man can reach his potential. It is true that we may not be perfect on all occasions, but I certainly believe that everyone is authentic in their attempts to achieve these outcomes.
On Thursday night, we had a number of young men accompany their parents to our Year 10 Subject Selection Evening. The students also sat through presentations earlier in the day from our Heads of Curriculum. During the introduction I mentioned the exciting new phase of education that Queensland senior studies will be taking from 2019. Next year our Year 11 students will be the first cohort, since 1992, to enter into a new way of doing senior school studies. It is referred to as the new QCE 2020. I mentioned last night that we, along with many other schools, have been planning for this introduction for some time and started with changes to our subject offerings and assessment for students as they start Year 10. We are confident that this new structure will well-prepare our young men for the rigours of study in Years 11 and 12. I would like to point out the great work done in this area by Mr Troy Schultz, Ms Elizabeth Gaber and Heads of Curriculum who were all a part of last night’s presentation. We have also set up a tile on REALM for parents and students from any age to understand the new QCE 2020.
On Wednesday, our College Cross Country team competed in the AIC Championships at Limestone Park in Ipswich. It was a warm day and each young man certainly gave of his best. Overall, we finished fourth with Marist College Ashgrove finishing in first place and St Peter’s Lutheran College and Iona College finished tied in second place ahead of us. I would like to thank Mr Dom Crowley for his organisation and planning as the coordinator of the sport and Mr Alec Gold in his role as the Head Coach for the team. Each age group had their own coaches as well and we are very fortunate to have so many staff, old boys and parents be a part of this program. I hope that all now enjoy a well-earned rest from training and competing.
During this week, the Deputy Principal’s from all EREA schools across Australia met for a conference in Brisbane. On Tuesday, we hosted many the visitors showing them some of the work that we have been doing in tracking students and use of data to inform some of our decisions. Ms Elizabeth Gaber also presented to the larger gathering around her role at the College and the great work that she does in developing data so that our teachers know our students as well as they can. I had the good fortune to attend the conference dinner with Frank and Elizabeth. The guest was Li Cunxin, best known as Chairman Mao’s Last Dancer. His conference address was quite inspiring. He emphasised the importance that teachers had on his life and how the special ones helped develop him into the person that he is today.
On Wednesday night, our Year 10 Debating team defeated Cannon Hill Anglican College in the knock-out round of the QDU Debating finals. They move forward next week. Our senior Theatresports team won through into the semi finals against some very tough competition. Our music students are also in preparation mode for next week’s Catholic Colleges Music Festival.
Last weekend’s sport results against St Peter’s Lutheran College was certainly very mixed. We had some wonderful results in Basketball and St Peter’s reversed this trend in Tennis. Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend. This week we host St Laurence’s College in the senior games.
Live Jesus in our Hearts!