Last Friday, many people in the world collectively held their breath when they heard about, or saw, the heinous acts of violence that took place in Christchurch. We have all been left scratching our heads about how such a thing could happen to so many innocent people who had left their families to go and pray. Much has already been said about what the world can learn from this tragedy. I found the commentary of Michael McVeigh, senior editor at Jesuit Communications who publish Eureka Street to be the most poignant to me. He stated in his article ...

In the wake of the Christchurch attacks, I'm not interested in learning how the person who killed those people was radicalised. It's the oldest story in the world. It's what happens when you decide the humanity of a group of people no longer matters. I'm tired of that story.

"I need to refocus on our shared humanity, because that’s the one idea that will expose the lies at the heart of this hateful act."

What I need right now is a new story, one that focuses on the life-givers not the death-dealers. I need to refocus on our shared humanity, because that's the one idea that will expose the lies at the heart of this hateful act.

What I need is to feel a connection to the human beings whose lives have been taken from them. To mourn the loss of their life, their hope, their possibility. To feel diminished by the space that they will leave behind.

I need to open my heart to the courageous and inspiring people in these besieged Muslim communities, who will continue to hold onto their faith and humanity in the face of this hatred. I need to join the thousands of people who are showing their love and support in various ways to Muslim communities — visiting mosques, attending prayer vigils, standing in solidarity.

I need to encourage those leaders who used this tragedy to emphasise our shared humanity, those like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern who called for 'sympathy and love for all Muslim communities'. The story of renewal, of life sprouting out of the ashes of death, is another story that we've seen throughout history. In the wake of these Christchurch attacks, I dearly need that story to be told again.

I need that story to be told because I need to believe that someday we'll find an enduring place of peace and community, where we can live together as one human family, without having to worry about someone bringing it to a bloody and abrupt end.

Last Friday, we launched our new Strategic Plan. This document states that our Mission is to form Men of Action who will make a positive difference throughout their lives. What happened in New Zealand demonstrates why such a Mission is vitally important. Our world today and into the future needs young people who will build others up not knock them down. This starts with an understanding of themselves and what they are capable of as a person and how much difference they can make to the lives of others. Too often we are hearing about and seeing acts of violence or humiliation performed on human beings. Our communities need to start challenging such actions and remind others of our standards and expectations. Allowing others to do such acts without challenge reinforces their belief that what they are doing or saying is acceptable. At St Patrick’s, if we are going to truly form young men to understand how to make a positive difference throughout their lives, our families and College need to work together to ensure that words and actions that depict violence and hatred are not tolerated. In this way our young men will learn and grow to understand the impact that they can truly have on others.

Last Saturday morning, I was fortunate enough to be at the St Patrick’s Day parade. Our College participated in the parade for the first time. The College bus and the Paddy’s Van drove behind our drum corp. The drummers were impressive and drew many positive comments from those around me. I would especially like to thank Mr Kane McNally, Mrs Jackie Upton and Mrs Anne Maree Bliss for their time and efforts in decorating the vehicles and driving them in the parade. Kane led the drum corp. It was a lot of fun.

During this week, Troy Schultz, Elizabeth Gaber, Jonathan Brough and I attended a Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) forum regarding the new QCE 2020. The day was designed around updating us on any recent changes or upgrades that have occurred and informed us about added resources that will be coming to our schools. I have been very impressed with how the QCAA has transitioned into the new system and with the level of support they have shown and continue to offer schools.

On Monday, the College Leadership Team spent most of the day planning some of the significant events on our calendar for 2020. As the Year 12 cohort will finish from school considerably earlier to participate in external exams, there will be some changes to the way things have happened in the past. We will send out a draft of the possible changes for comment early next term.

Mrs Jackie Upton will also forward a draft Social Media Guidelines document to all parents to peruse and give any feedback to questions posed by on-line comment. The audience for this document is all adults associated with the College. Your feedback would be appreciated. It will be open for comment until 26 April.

On Wednesday, the CLT cooked a BBQ lunch for our Year 12 students. This was because they had a 100% attendance at their QCS practice the week earlier. I hope that we will continue to supply such lunches until the real tests. Our Year 12 students also commence their block exams next Thursday. They should be well prepared for their exams by this stage. The Year 11 students no longer require a block examination time as the new senior schooling program that they are undertaking spreads the subject assessment out across several weeks. The new program has less assessment and varying types of assessment spread over longer periods. All Year 11 students are expected to be at school until the last day of school as classes will continue as normal. Likewise, there will be exams across all other year levels spread over the next two weeks. All young men are expected to be at school during the full two weeks.

We also celebrated Men of Learning and Men of Word week during this week. Our young men had the opportunity to be involved in different activities and competitions over the last five days.

On Tuesday night, I had the great fortune to attend the Senior Music Evening. Across the night, we heard six different ensembles and two choirs perform. The calibre of the performances was quite outstanding. We are indeed so very fortunate to have such talented music teachers who enthuse our young men.

This weekend we compete against St Peter’s Lutheran College in Cricket and Volleyball only. Our older senior teams will be playing at home, whilst the Year 5-8 teams will be playing away at SPLC fields.

Live Jesus in our Hearts!

Mr Chris Mayes – College Principal

Unless you have a payment arrangement in place, your son’s unpaid fees are overdue, could payment please be arranged as soon as possible to avoid further follow up.

If you wish to set up a payment arrangement, please complete the Payment Authority Form on the College website and email to finance@stpatricks.qld.edu.au or if you are needing to discuss payment of fees please contact me at kmattingley@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Regards

Mrs Karen Mattingley – Credit Manager

Men of Learning Week

Congratulations to all students who participate in any of the organised activities for Men of Learning week. The resource centre provided a space for students to view examples of student learning, solver daily quizzes, enter a paper plane competition and match a teacher to bookcase in the “Selfie to Shelfie” competition.

The key event of the week was our student led showcase of student learning at Tuesday’s College Assembly. It was fantastic to see student learning celebrated on the stage in many ways. We saw our College leaders shout out many students for the ways they demonstrate being a Man of Learning; a Year 11 English video around what it takes to get an A; celebrated our young readers who are reading up a storm in the junior and middle school; heard a fantastic short story; saw Year 9 Rite Journey videos; heard from work placement students; PE students and our Challenge Your Potential students shared experiences and were presented certificates.

I talked with the students to introduce the session to set some context:

A Man of Learning, first and foremost, is someone who values the opportunity for learning that this community provides them. Secondly, a Man of Learning has made the choice to be empowered by this opportunity and this is reflected by their actions as they show effort and persistence in their approach to learning. Most importantly, Men of Learning at St Patrick’s show a love for learning. This community is about you and your opportunity to learn, in a way that ensures you become a Man of Action who has the knowledge and skills to make a positive difference in the world. And in the current global context, the need to form young Men of Action is more relevant than ever.

I wish students all the best for upcoming assessment.

Examination structure

We are currently transitioning to a more consistent way of delivering examinations across the College. This change is driven by new policy drivers within the new QCE as well as an identified need to ensure that our supervised assessments reflect the importance we should all be placing on an opportunity for students to do their best to reach their targets. Some of the changes include:

• Extra time and separate supervision are two distinct adjustments to assessment conditions. Students with extra time will not always have separate supervision. This is a change to current practice, but this moves us in line with our guiding policy documents. If you are concerned about any change for your son, please contact me or Mrs Annette Campbell;
• There will be an increased focus on academic misconduct whether that may be disrupting an examination or attempting to cheat;
• Students need to arrive with approved equipment only. Laptops, mobile phones, smart watches and opaque water bottles are prohibited in the Christian Brothers Building and Callan Centre for examinations unless otherwise stated;
• Parents must email or phone the Curriculum Office for Years 7-12 before 8:30am on the day of the exam (or the classroom teacher in Year 5-6) if a student is going to be absent. A Medical Certificate is required for illness or injury for students in Years 10-12.

It is important that examination spaces are places where students can do their best work and your support for their adherence to examination guidelines is appreciated. An updated examination guidelines document will be published on the REALM Teaching and Learning page next week.

Mr Troy Schultz – Dean of Teaching and Learning

The students and staff of the Vocational Pathways program would like to send a very big thank you to all of the work experience providers who’ve accommodated placements throughout Term 1. There are a variety of organisations which host Year 11/12 students, providing them with valuable workplace learning.

Engagement with industry is a core aspect of the Vocational Pathways program which empowers students to make informed career choices. All Year 11 and 12 students are able to access the program, with consideration given to maintaining academic development and personal growth.

Below is Darcy (Year 12) with Mitchell (Owner – Illuma Electrical). Darcy has been shadowing and assisting at Illuma weekly throughout Term 1. This arrangement has enhanced Darcy’s employability, consolidated his learning, and provided him with a valuable insight into the electrical trades industry.

If any members of the St Patrick’s community are willing to be part of the Vocational Pathways program, please be in touch sharrison@stpatricks.qld.edu.au Hosting a student is easy and rewarding! The College provides WorkCover and public liability insurance for placements, and, students are unpaid. Students will meet employer standards to be responsible, safe and diligent. Most of all, the students will appreciate the opportunity and be gracious of the opportunity provided.

Thanks again to the organisations which support our Men of Learning through involvement in the Vocational Pathways program.

Mr Chris Herrod – Program Leader – Vocational Education and Training

This week at assembly we celebrated our Men of Word and Learning Week. It was a wonderful celebration of some of the outstanding academic work that our boys are producing. Interestingly, when I was nominating boys from my own class to be acknowledged, what was sitting behind each story were certain characteristics or attributes of the learner that they all had in common:

• They had all demonstrated an exceptionally high work ethic
• They had all demonstrated grit, particularly when faced with adversity
• They were all prepared to try again, when things didn’t go right the first time and they were not defeated by their fail moment

We have many boys here at St Patrick’s that set wonderful examples of how to cope with change, challenge and pressure; not just for the younger boys but for the adults amongst our community as well.

This week I will share some more data gathered from our Tutor Group mentoring session at the start of the year regarding the time our boys are spending on gaming, searching YouTube videos, using social media apps on their phones etc:

When I meet one on one with our older students to help them create study timetables to manage their time better, we invariably discuss their phones, gaming and social media. Boys will be honest and say they simply cannot have their phones away from them, that the phone regularly ‘pings’ as alerts relentlessly come through, as they try to focus on their study or homework. To not be able to be separated from your phone is quite concerning. Smart phones are a fantastic device and we are fortunate that whatever we want to know, we can simply pick up our phone and find the answer…. Information at our fingertips! However, if your son cannot hand his phone over for even 30 minutes to an hour each night as he does his homework, I would argue this is a problem that needs addressing.

Similarly, with our younger boys, there are some concerns, but they seem to centre more around gaming. When completing the online survey for me so I can extract their subject targets, they must answer the question, ‘What obstacles may stand in your way to achieving your goal?’.Many will answer that the time they spend on gaming (they usually name Fortnite) is negatively impacting on their achievement of their goals. The World Health Organisation recently recognised ‘gaming disorder’ as a mental health issue defining it as ‘gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities,' and the, 'continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.'

Darren Kearney our Dean of Students spoke at each of our Parent Information Evenings at the start of the year and alerted parents to the addition of SchoolTV to Realm.This can be accessed by your landing page as seen below. I would support Darren in encouraging all parents to utilise this fantastic resource.

Ms Liz Gaber – Dean of Administration and Business Intelligence

Since the tragedy in Christchurch the media has been full of the on-going discussion of hate speech and identifying who is responsible for a culture that could produce such terrible actions. One of the best discussions of the issue that I read this week was from the Australian Jesuit publication called Eureka Street in an article written by Mick McVeigh. One line from that article said –

"I need to refocus on our shared humanity, because that’s the one idea that will expose the lies at the heart of this hateful act."

I agree wholeheartedly with McVeigh – when we de-humanise people whether they are victim or perpetrator we create a world where terrible things occur. When we recognise our shared humanity we have a world where people think about the consequences of their actions.

In our Christian story, our sense of God is, that in Jesus, God is made one with us. Our God knows the experience of human goodness and evil, from the inside, God has shared our human journey. God gifts us with life as the place where we encounter God’s love made real in the people that journey with us.

This week as we continue our journey of Lent towards Easter, we stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in New Zealand; we know something of their pain and pray that we can work with them to build up a world of justice and openness where we can truly value what it means to be human.

I encourage you to read Mick McVeigh’s article which is available here

Get involved in the Identity of our College –

• Paddy’s Van ministries continue this week
• Houses are collecting food items as part of our emergency food pack collections for Sandbag
• Preparation for Kairos is happening

Mr Tim Kenny – Dean of Identity

Please find below Paddy's Van Roster

Paddy's Van Roster

Please find below an Insights article by Michael Grose, "Responding Constructively to the Christchurch Shooting"

Insights Article

Mr Darren Kearney - Dean of Students

As we move into the last round of the AIC Cricket, AFL and Volleyball season it is pleasing to receive feedback from our coaches regarding the vast improvement in individuals and team performances in their chosen sports. The aim of College sport is for the students to have a high degree of fun, further develop physical skills and foster a stronger relationship with other students and College culture. The final round is against St Peter’s with our senior teams playing at home. We are looking to finish the season with aggregate wins in Cricket and Volleyball.

Steve Copping and his coaching group have been impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the Year 5 and 6 Volleyball players. This program started in 2018 to assist students who are going to play Volleyball in future years to gain the basic skills and knowledge in the game. The format of the two sessions per week program has been skills on one day and game play during the second session. The Thursday game day competition finished this week. The ‘top of the table’ and ‘wooden spoon’ teams will enjoy a pizza lunch in coming weeks for their efforts. St Patrick’s look forward to the Year 6 group arriving in 2020 ready to enjoy and perform strongly in the AIC Volleyball competition. Year 5 and 6 Volleyball will again be offered in 2020.

Many students are already excited with the upcoming Football and Rugby season fast approaching. Trials information has been posted on the specific REALM pages to those students (parents) who have completed the sign on process. Parents and students MUST access this information via this group. Emails will not be sent. Additional information for sports will be posted once coaches, training times and trial information are confirmed. Easter holiday clinics/trials are in the calendar feature under MY Groups. Any students who haven’t completed sign on, time is running out. Please contact Di Twist for any assistance required dtwist@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

The Merchandise Shop has all your son’s Trimester 2 sports requirements. Socks, jerseys etc are available. The Merchandise Shop also has an extensive supply of second-hand rugby/football boots at very cheap prices. Most students will compete in an eight-game season and purchasing brand new boots each season is sometimes cost prohibitive.

Contacts for Trimester 1 and 2 Sport

• Cricket Coordinator Mr Matt Ingram mingram@stpatrick.qld.edu.au
• Rugby Coordinator Mr Matt Ingram mingram@stpatrick.qld.edu.au
• Volleyball Coordinator Mr Steve Coppingscopping@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• AFL Coordinator Mr Dom Crowley dcrowley@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Cross Country Mr Alec Gold AGold@stpatricks.qld.edu.au
• Football Coordinator Mr David Ludlow DaLudlow@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Mr Dan Nethery – Head of Sport

Cultural Support Group News

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Debating

St Patrick’s had a successful night in the QDU Round 2 fixtures at Craigslea State High School on Wednesday night.

The Year 9 and Year 11 teams both secured narrow one point victories.

Year 10 and Year 12 debating will be held again at St Patrick’s next Wednesday, March 27.

Upcoming Debates :

Team 10.1 - YOU ARE: Affirmative vs Grace Lutheran College 10.1 at 8:00pm on 2019-03-27 VENUE: St Patrick's College
Topic: Short preparation topic - Prep time starts at 6:45pm

Team 12.1 - YOU ARE: Affirmative vs Mueller College 12.1 at 8:00pm on 2019-03-27 VENUE: St Patrick's College
Topic: That we should not allow donations to universities conditional upon the teaching of a particular world view

Team 12.2 - YOU ARE: Negative.VS. St Eugene College 12.1 at 6:45pm on 2019-03-27 VENUE: St Patrick's College
Topic: That we should not allow donations to universities conditional upon the teaching of a particular world view

Mr Dennis Clough - Debating Coordinator

Theatresports

Mr Duncan Moir - Theatresports Coordinator

Chess Club

The SPC Chess Club starts up next week, all students are welcome.

• Junior Chess Club (Years 5 to 8) - Mondays at 3:00pm W201/2
• Senior Chess Club - Tuesdays at 3:00pm in W201/2

However, come along on what ever day suits you best.

Mrs Rosemary Butt - Chess Coordinator

Film Crew

Senior Film Crew

The SPC Film Crew is a group of dedicated students who learn about photography and Film Making and then put these skills into practice by:

- documenting the College year in photos and videos

- producing shots /film for College based 'clients' eg sporting, cultural or community projects

- competing in themed Photography Competitions

For more information contact the Cultural Office or Ms Wissman: lwissman@stpatricks.qld.edu.au

Ms Leigh Wissmann - Film Crew Coordinator

Junior Film Crew

2019 has seen the launch of an exciting new club for students in Years 6 to 8. Junior Film Crew teaches up-and-coming film enthusiasts the basics of photography and cinematography to give them the core skills to get started in filmmaking. We have started this term looking at still cameras and learning the basics of taking a great photograph. Also this term, the students have a challenge of creating a stop-motion animation to show off their new photography skills. If this sounds exciting to you, it is not too late to join! We meet Tuesday afternoon from 3:15pm to 4:15pm in B1A1. Email Mrs Lucy Hulme: lhulme@stpatricks.qld.edu.au for any questions or information.

Mrs Lucy Hulme - Junior Film Crew Coordinator

We’re keen to hear from any parents who able to assist setting up for the Mother Son High Tea in the Christian Brothers Building on Tuesday 8 May from 9:00am-12:00noon.

Also, Dads it’s your turn to do the waiting on our Mums. If you have some spare time between 2:30-4:30pm on the afternoon to help with serving our High Tea we’d love to hear from you.

Please feel free to email Stacey Bishop on sbishop@stpatricks.qld.edu.au or phone 3631 9052 if you can assist.