The last weeks of the school term for 2016 have seen both our staff, students and parents involved in a number of community events.

The Coordinators of Learning – Year, had two planning days to review our Pastoral Care Program and to prepare for next year. We hope to give our students as many skills as possible and as much information as we can to be engaged, informed and resilient students, striving to do their very best at school.

In preparation for next year, there has been a change in homerooms and leadership structures for staff and students.  Our Year Nine students have been offered the opportunity to be “big sisters” in their new CLC groups. After submitting their application and presenting a speech to their new CLC group, the 24 student leaders attended three sessions of training last Friday. They looked at their new role description and College expectations that will necessitate them to work collaboratively with their CLC teacher in planning and running literacy activities.

Ms Boustani and I were impressed with the level of interest and maturity shown by the students. By the end of the third session they had brainstormed many ideas and decided on a variety of activities to use during CLC time next year.

The group heard from Erin Zappia, our College Vice Captain, about how the Senior Leaders formulated their vision and mission statements for 2017. She also took the students through the workshop on Growth Mindset, which is so important for all students, but especially for those in a leadership position.

This brings me to the speech made by Captain Ian Carter on Awards Night as he was presenting the Long Tan leadership awards to Casey Martin from Year 10 and Mena Yousif, our Year 12 student.

Captain Carter’s words sent a poignant message and resonated strongly with the audience. With his permission, I would like to share an excerpt from his speech:

“In today’s modern society where hypocrisy, misinformation, unjustified outrageous offence and pseudo-celebrities are commonplace, it is no surprise that genuine leadership is hard to find. Falsities and platitudes fill every waking moment on social media giving the illusion of depth of character, intelligence and integrity for these so-called ‘influences’. However, I will guarantee you that true leadership can not be found behind a #Hash-tag or measured with ‘Likes’ and “Re-tweets’. It seems that poor leaders are abundant in the wider world. You only have to look at so-called ‘Social Justice Warriors’ to see that simply being loud and somewhere near a just cause does not make you a positive influence. Thankfully we can still use these toxic examples as lessons in what not to do. You see, true leadership comes from respectful personal interaction, the sacrificing of one’s own time and meaningful community service. Long Tan awards reward students who have demonstrated core values of leadership and mateship. The recipients are selected for going above and beyond in their school life to promote community values whilst displaying respect and mateship.”

Thank you to Captain Carter for his wise words. Congratulations to Casey and Mena on the Long Tan award, our two very worthy recipients.

I would like to extend my gratitude to all our community service providers, Psychlinx counsellors and organizers of workshops and training sessions and wish our staff, students and parents a restful holiday and a joyous Christmas. See you in the new year with more exciting programs and workshops.

Natalie Gesson

Leader of Learning, Community Engagement