Principal's Message
"Education cannot be neutral…It is either positive or negative, either it enriches or it impoverishes, either it enables a person to grow or it lessens, even corrupts them. The mission of schools is to develop a sense of truth, of what is good and beautiful"
Pope Francis
Welcome to the 2020 academic year
The beginning of the academic year is one of the busiest times for schools. A real sense of excitement exists amongst the student body and the staff. Excitement of seeing one another again, of being in a higher grade or just pleased to be back in a place where they feel they ‘belong’.
As educators we must focus on learning:
- How best we learn
- How best our students learn
- How we can help them learn about their learning
Next week I will challenge each and every student to ‘buy in’ to their own learning at the opening assembly. To make a commitment from the start of the year to engage and take ownership of how they prefer to learn and what this might look like in the classroom and at home.
Each of us, teachers, parents and students want the best outcome possible and together we need to find how we can best deliver lifelong learning for all our students. No easy task, but one you can rest assured that we are committed to.
Good learning habits can be established by students of any age with regular practice and ongoing parent support. These habits will help children as they continue through school and into tertiary study or working life.
The heart of a Catholic learning community should be the desire to “…seek to recognise and proclaim the presence of Christ in all people and in all creation. Through compassion, practical actions of justice and with a sense of family atmosphere. We strive to build right relationships with all people……”
- Catholic learning communities should be marked by “right relationships”.
- These “right relationships” or positive relationships are built best in our classrooms where “compassion” is seen in our response to those who find it hard to learn and where “practical actions of justice” have an audience.
- These relationships and the learning that occurs within them are the most fundamental and visible demonstration of our pastoral care for our students, staff and parents.
If we fail to build and maintain right relationships with Christ at the centre of all we do, then our work is not complete and lacks the very core of what we are asked to do in a Catholic Learning Community.
A very special welcome to all our new families to the SJPC community this year. I hope that you feel a sense of welcome and over time, grow to know you have a very important place in this community.
God Bless
