We celebrated Ash Wednesday during this week. This day marks the beginning of the Lenten season, a significant time for our Church. It is customary that the first Gospel reading to begin lent (this Sunday) is the story of Jesus going into the desert alone for 40 days and nights to face the temptations of Satan. Jesus’s journey to the desert was one where he chose to wrestle with the powers of evil alone before he returned to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom to all. I am sure that there have been occasions when each of us has had to wrestle with our own “demons” before, hopefully, coming to contentment after winning “the battle”. In terms of the Gospel story, Jesus going into the location of a desert to face Satan is significant.

Deserts are, by nature, lonely and wild places. One would feel isolated, vulnerable, unsafe and afraid in such an environment. The same feelings can be true when we spend time truly confronting our own temptations and obstacles in life. Very often, they can be so overwhelming that we might feel that we cannot overcome them alone. That is very much the point of this Gospel reading, Jesus confronted the demons through prayer. We are invited to turn to God to help us meet these challenges through prayer and reflection. 

The season of Lent is also a season of Joy for our Church because it is also a season of promise. It is a time when Jesus is crucified and dies, but then rises from death to offer us a new beginning. This notion of new beginnings can also offer a turning point, or new beginning, in our own lives. Lent is a time to reflect upon the obstacles that we face and work out ways to overcome them. In doing so, it can be a time to develop a deeper relationship with our God to help us overcome the obstacles and challenges that we may meet through our own temptations.

Lent is also a time when we may choose to abstain and fast as remembrance of the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made when he died on the cross. Abstinence is the act of “doing without” or avoiding something. In contemporary times, we are all called to abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Some of us may remember times when we were called to abstain from meat on every Friday during lent.

However, in its true sense Lent is a time for us to reflect and make permanent change for the better of our lives. When the ashes are placed on our foreheads we are called to “repent and follow the Gospel”. The act of repentance is about changing our ways. In truth, we are being asked to reflect upon our own lives and make sure that we are true to the gospel values in how we live our lives.

I hope that everybody takes time to try and do this, and in future rather than talk about what we gave up for lent, we can ask ourselves what we changed in our life for the better.

Over the past weeks, there has been much media attention about St Kevin’s College, a fellow EREA school in Melbourne. Since the Four Corners program, there has been some decisive action taken by Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA). They have also acknowledged that mistakes have been made. In his letter to the community and other schools, Wayne Tinsey stated…

The only way we can restore the faith of our community, is to be humble, acknowledge mistakes, recommit to our unwavering support for victims and survivors of abuse and back up our resolve for change and actions. This is what EREA has always strived to do and will continue to do in the future.

As an EREA school, we must also look at the lessons learned from this occurrence, not just in terms of Child Abuse but also the negative cultures that can grow in boys only schools. Over the coming weeks, I will talk to our student body about what challenges we need to consider within our own community. I would also encourage all families to make contact either your son’s House Dean or our Child Protection Officers if there are any concerns that you might have about your own child’s safety within the College. Our Child Protection Officers are Mr Frank Torrisi, Mr John Zappala, Mrs Janet Garside, Mr Darren Kearney and me. EREA is also undertaking other investigations which includes student and staff culture.  The findings of the investigations will be shared with the EREA network across the country so that we can all learn and review our own schools.

During this week, we recognised our students who are involved in the co-curricular activities of debating, music and swimming. I would like to thank all our young men for their participation in these pursuits and wish them all well over the course of the year and at the AIC Swimming Championships next Monday evening.

Next weekend, we will start our enrolment interviews for Year 7 students commencing in 2022. If you know of any families who are interested in sending their son(s) to the College, please remind them that the interviews have started. In some cases, families are not aware that we complete the enrolment process two years in advance of the students starting school. Likewise, I would remind parents and caregivers of current families that enrolment procedures for siblings needs to be completed in the same manner as other new students. 

This weekend we compete against Iona College in Volleyball, Swimming and AFL. Our Years 5-9 teams play at Iona, whilst we host Iona in the Years 10-12 matches. Our AFL teams play at Coorparoo grounds on Friday night. I look forward to catching up with many of you at the games over the weekend.

Live Jesus in our Hearts!

Mr Chris Mayes – College Principal

Term 1 school fee accounts were emailed out on 5 February 2020.  The due date for payment is 19 February 2020 - unless you have a payment arrangement in place.

It is still possible to set up a direct debit payment scheme. The form can be obtained on REALM.

If you did not receive your account please contact Judy Kelly via email finance@stpatricks.qld.edu.au or jkelly@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Thank you

 

In Week 5, the Year 9 Honours class attended a QUT Mechatronics workshop to immerse themselves in the field of robotic engineering to help solve real life problems. During the workshop, the students had to design, build, test and modify a robotic arm. After problem solving to get the best design possible, they were then able to get creative and apply the concept of the arm to situations where an automated arm may be useful. Among their designs were arms which could hold and use a pencil, accurately move objects from one area to another, rescue Lego people from precarious situations and disconnect from an electric power source. After a day full of great teamwork and creativity, some time was spent investigating The Cube’s Physics Observatory. The success of the day was evident with some students continuing with the knowledge gained to further develop these ideas in the classroom.

Mrs Sharon Carr – Honours Program

Ash Wednesday, the Beginning of Lent - the Season of Transformation

The reading from the Gospel for Ash Wednesday is all about doing good and the expectation of a reward for what we have done. That is a normal human response, I do something good and I expect something in return. But, as is often the case, Jesus is saying to us ‘wake up’, doing good is the important thing whether there is reward or not. Jesus is calling us to be authentic people.

The bushfires this year have shown us how fragile our planet is. The generosity of so many firies and other volunteers shows us how good people can be, the capacity for amazing action and incredible generosity and compassion. 

We also see that whilst there is a real feeling of loss when people lose their homes and possessions, what is important to them always is the gift of being alive and the vital importance of our relationships, of family, friends and all those who love us.

The fires and the way that so many people have responded shows what it means to be authentic – to give generously; to reach out in compassion when we see people in need; to value life more than things; to hold close those we love.

During Lent we are on a journey, a journey towards Easter, and a journey towards being more authentic people. We put ashes on our foreheads as a sign that we are willing to make some changes in our lives for the better. In this ash we remember the bushfires but we know too that the bush is coming back to life, there is new growth happening all across our land. Are we willing to work to try something new in order to see new shoots of life grow in us this Lent?

During Lent there are three main practices that the Church uses to help us become more authentic people – prayer, fasting or disciplining ourselves by giving something up, and working for justice in our world.

Think about what you could do during this Lent to help you grow: 

• Helping out with the Paddy’s Van
• Planting and then caring for a tree as it grows
• Giving up gaming or social media to spend more time with family and friends or helping out at home
• Raising money through Shore 2 Gate for the charities we support such as Sandbag and the people we meet on our immersions to India and Timor Leste
• Smiling at someone you walk past in the yard
• Joining in the advocacy work of ERA for Change

The season of Lent is a call to live life to the full.

A group of Bangladeshi Catholics have committed to spend time during Lent cleaning up their local environment, there is a link to an article about this here Bangladeshi Catholics Clean Up Village During LentThis might be a good model for us and our community.

Coming up in Identity this week:

• Wednesday 4 March – Year 5 Retreat Day
• Friday 6 March – Year 6 Retreat Day

Mr Tim Kenny – Dean of Identity

Last Friday saw the annual Inter-House Swimming Carnival held out at Lawnton Aquatic Centre. The carnival was hotly contested across the day with the lead changing multiple times throughout the day. As it was it came down to the last relay of the day to decide the overall winner. Congratulations to Mooney House who won the first points in the 2020 Inter-House Shield.

Full results:

The AIC Swimming Carnival is now only four days away. On Thursday morning the Swimming team was presented to the College at the Spirit Assembly. This year 2e have some very capable swimmers in the group and it will be exciting to watch them race against the best swimmers from the other AIC Schools. I wish all of our swimmers the best of luck at the big day on Monday.

Strong results from our Cricketers: 
Last weekend our cricketers finally managed to get out on the fields. After two weeks of rain the boys were chomping at the bit to play and there were some outstanding team and individual performances. The 1st XI had a great win against St Edmund’s College.  Batting first on a tricky wicket, the team looked to be in some trouble at 9/80. Hayden Vickers and Bailey Reid on debut, calmly put on 70 runs for the 10th wicket partnership to steer the side to a competitive total of 151. 

In return St Patrick’s were magnificent in the field and made scoring runs very difficult for the St Edmund’s batsmen. Bailey backed up his heroics with the bat by claiming 3 wickets to finish with impressive figures of 10 overs, 3 wickets for 20 runs. Ben Buechler was also in great form with the ball as he bowled an incredible spell to finish with figures of 10 overs, 5 maidens (consecutively!), 1 wicket for 6 runs. St Edmund’s were all out for 93 in the 36th over to hand our boys a convincing 58 run victory.

In other matches there were convincing wins for the 8As, 9As and 9Bs. Special mention to Ben Dempsey of the 9As and Joe Byers of the 8As who both scored centuries. After being dropped on this third ball of the day Ben went on to torment the St Edmund’s bowlers and finished with a very impressive 102 Not Out. In the 8As, Joe scored an impressive 156 with some powerful boundary hitting.

The AFL teams, who had also had two rounds washed out, were excited to finally get out on to the ovals. The Year 8 and 9 team recorded a convincing 16.14 (110) – 1.1 (7) victory over St Edmund’s. The Open’s team, also against St Edmund’s, posted an equally impressive win 15.10 (100) – 3. 1 (19). 

In the Volleyball it was once again a tough day for our teams. The 1st and 2nd teams battled hard but came away on the wrong side of the ledger. In total there were five wins across the round with the 3rds, 11B, 9C, 8A and 8Cs all tasting success this week. There were a number of teams who had tight contests but there were still too many unforced errors and instances of St Patrick’s losing points as opposed to the other team winning them.

Round 4 matches this weekend are against Iona College. Our Senior Teams will be playing at home on Saturday and the Paddies Battalion leaders are encouraging as many spectators as possible to come along and support our Volleyball and Cricket teams. It would be great to have a large home crowd to get behind the boys and hopefully spur them on to victories.

Representative selections:
Trials for representative sports are in full swing and we have had a large number of students trialling across a wide range of sports. Congratulations to the following students who have been selected for either Bramble Bay or Metropolitan North.

Met North Triathlon 
Matthew Moate

Bramble Bay AFL
Harper Cooper
Harper Ayre
Hamish Page
Charlie James
Brock O’Sullivan

Bramble Bay Rugby League
Isaiah Nalatu
Ryan Smallhorne

Queensland Cricket
Congratulations to Steven Hogan (Year 7 Rice) who has been selected to represent Queensland in U13’s at the Indoor Cricket Junior Nationals in Melbourne in July.

Term 2 Sport Sign on 
The electronic sign on process for Football, Rugby and Golf has been emailed to parents. Please follow the instructions to complete the process.  The sign on needs to be completed by Sunday 15 March in Parent Lounge via REALM. If you have any problems with the process or have any questions please contact Kate Grainger - kgrainger@stpatricks.qld.edu.au  

Parents and students will be notified about trials and training times once player numbers and coach allocations have been finalised. 

Balancing commitments
Parents are requested to contact the Sports Department if you have any concerns regarding your son having multiple training sessions that are causing them to fall behind in their homework and general studies.  Many students have visited the Sports Office this term to have an individualised training plan organised to make more efficient use of their time. 
 
Contacts for Trimester 1 & 2 Sport 

Term 1 Sport Coordinators 

• Swimming - Kelsey Duke kduke@stpatricks.qld.edu.au 
• Cricket - Dan Nethery dnethery@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Volleyball - Steve Copping scopping@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• AFL - Adrian Brown abrown@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Sports Administrator - Kate Grainger kgrainger@stpatricks.edu.au

Term 2 Sport Coordinators

• Rugby - Mr Daniel Nethery dnethery@stpatricks.qld.edu.au 
• Football - Mr David Ludlow daludlow@stpatricks.qld.edu.au 
• Golf (Competitive & Social) - Mr Andrew Maynard amaynard@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Mr Jim Potts – Head of Sport

Thank you to all great parental volunteers for your enormous efforts over the start of Term 1 through the various sports, especially with the Volleyball Canteen and Curlew Park Cricket Canteen.

Our next meeting of this parental volunteer Support Group is on Tuesday 3 March 2020 for approximately an hour at 6:30pm, in the College Boardroom, Morven Building. All are welcome, especially new parents and parents with sons involved in the current trimester sport: AFL; Cricket; Swimming; and Volleyball.

Nicole Harman - Chair SSG

 

Cultural Support Group News

SPC Trivia Night 2020

BYO Food

RSVP 9 March 2020 

Beer, cider, wine and soft drinks will be available for purchase.

Tickets are on sale now!  To purchase your seat or table click here.  

We are also looking for prize donations for our door prizes and raffle. Please contact the Cultural Department if you would like to donate an item and a Committee member will be in touch to collect the donation.

Proceeds benefit the Cultural Programs at the College.

on Behalf of the Cultural Support Group

Art Club

Senior Art Club is open to all students in years 9 to 12 who would like to pursue creative artistic projects. These can be self-directed (oils, pastels, watercolour, sculpture, digital art etc) or work with others on a combined task (eg. Printmaking). This is a great opportunity to extend your classroom art works or to explore new areas. The group meets every Monday afternoon in B1A1 with Ms Eloise Svendsen.

Debating News

Debating has returned to St Patrick’s College this week with the commencement of the 2020 Queensland Debating Union season.

Our Year 11.1 team coached by Mrs O’Sullivan recorded a two point win in its round 1 debate against Redcliffe State High School, arguing the negative side of the topic, “That all politicians should be paid the Australian median full-time wage.” Sean Affleck top-scored with an impressive 77. Sean was joined by Stevan Van Tam and Joshua Hentscher with Caleb Williams serving as timekeeper.

The 9.1 and 9.2 teams, coached by Mrs Sutton and Mr Denkes, also got off to winning starts in their respective debates.

This will be an exciting year for debating at the college with our first entry in the prestigious QDU Senior A competition since 2005. The Senior A and 12.1 teams were presented at the college assembly last Tuesday with 2020 College Debating Captain Jared Noble addressing the staff and student body.

Upcoming debates:

Team: St Patrick's College 12.1
Round 1: YOU ARE: Negative VS St Benedict's College 12.1 at 6:45pm on 4-3-2020 VENUE: St Patrick's College  Topic: That all university education should be free

Team: St Patrick's College 10.1
Round 1: YOU ARE: Affirmative VS Mueller College 10.1 at 8:00pm on 4-3-2020 VENUE: St Patrick's College
Topic: That all school assessment should be pass / fail

Mr Dennis Clough - Debating Coordinator

Theatresports

Please see the table below for the list of training times and locations.

When the second session of training has been confirmed, we advise students to attend as many training sessions as possible, but understand that students may not be able to for various reasons. 

Teams for the YTS competition will be selected towards the end of Term 1. If students wish to be considered for a spot in one of the teams, it is absolutely crucial that they attend at least one of weekly training sessions on a regular basis. 
If you have any questions, queries or concerns, please contact me. 
Looking forward to a great year!  All welcome!

Wednesday 3:15–4:30pm, (Mr Duncan Moir duncan.moir5@gmail.com)

Experienced and novice players come and learn the games, practice performing in the lead-up to YTS competition.

Duncan Moir – Theatresports Coordinator

Chess News

Junior Chess Club - Tuesday afternoons 3:00-4:15pm, W202 (Ms Rosemary Butt rbutt@stpatricks.qld.edu.au )

Senior Chess Club - Monday afternoons 3:00-4:30pm, W202, (Ms Rosemary Butt rbutt@stpatricks.qld.edu.au)

Please Note: If chess players have training conflicts on the designated club day, they are invited to attend either Monday or Tuesday afternoons irrespective of age.  Afternoon tea is provided.

Rosemary Butt - Chess Coordinator

Music - Pemulwuy Prelude Concert

The annual St Patrick's College Mother Son High Tea is set for Wednesday, 6 May at 3:15pm in the Christian Brothers Building, featuring special guest speaker Mr Trent Dalton. Trent is a Brisbane journalist and author and his most recent book “Boy Swallows Universe” has sold over 100,000 copies with the television movie rights being sold and Australian Actor, Joel Edgerton producing the project. 

Tickets will go on sale at 9:00am on Wednesday, 1 April for $25 each. 

Keep your eye out for further details as it is bound to be a sell-out event.  All proceeds will assist the Foundation’s goal to upgrade facilities at Curlew Park.

If you are interested in providing a raffle prize, please contact Mrs Stacey Bishop on 3631 9052 or sbishop@stpatricks.qld.edu.au. We are also offering sponsorship opportunities for this event, please see below.

Sponsorship Opportunities $500 

• 2 tickets to the event
• Acknowledgement via the MC on the afternoon
• Logo on tickets/program and any promotional materials
• Ability to provide marketing collateral on tables
• Welcome to provide a raffle prize if you wish
• Provide a banner for display on the day 

Please contact Mrs Stacey Bishop on 3631 9052 or sbishop@stpatricks.qld.edu.au for further details.

Dear St Patrick’s Year 5-9 Students and Parents 

Unfortunately, due the current COVID-19 government restrictions, the Easter Holiday Camp on Monday 6 April to Thursday 9 April has been cancelled.

Camps for the June, September and Christmas holidays have not been cancelled at this stage.

Mr Heath Mackintosh

Interviews for Year 7, 2022 will occur in March with letters of offer being sent prior to the Easter holidays.  If you would like a formal application or further information regarding the enrolment process please contact our Enrolments Office on 3631 9052 or enrolments@stpatricks.qld.edu.au