Message From the Principal

As this semester comes to a close, we are all now blessed with the opportunity to stop, rest, take a breath and reflect on how much our world has changed. I feel so proud to serve such a strong and loving community. I am so grateful to all of the staff who have been so patient, flexible and supportive of one another. Their genuine, deep care and concern for our students is beyond anything I have ever experienced in a school environment.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank and farewell one of our amazing teachers, Ms Hannah Martens. Hannah leaves us this term to join her family on the Gold Coast. We have been so fortunate to benefit from Hannah’s expertise, humour and obvious love for our students. She will be greatly missed and we wish her all the very best for her next chapter. We also farewell Ms Lizzie Wood and Ms Courtney Zagami as they leave us to go on maternity leave until 2021. We cannot wait to meet the new additions to their family in the near future and share in their joy. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ms Barbara Lansbury, who has once again helped out our community. Barbara is a very experienced educator with an incredible generosity of spirit and we are grateful once again.

The completion of our stunning East Precinct Building this month will provide the opportunity for our staff and students to gather, to celebrate, to perform and to learn in a beautiful, architecturally designed space.  Sadly, COVID-19 Government restrictions have prevented us from holding the official launch that we had hoped to at this time. However, I will communicate with our community as soon as we are able to announce a date when we can officially open this magnificent building. In the meantime, I am so thankful our staff and students will be able to benefit from this state of the art facility from the beginning of Term 3.

I would also like to thank all of the parents and students who provided me with detailed feedback through the mini-survey I sent out a few weeks ago. It was certainly heart-warming to read the responses. How blessed we all are to be a part of this unique and beautiful College community.

Last week I spoke to our community to highlight the fact that as a Mercy ministry we have all accepted and embraced the responsibility of living out the Mercy values and challenging injustice and inequality in our world. Fortunately, we have the opportunity every day in our College to deepen our cultural competence. That is, to develop our ability to better listen, understand, respect, honour and value people from all cultures. I reminded everyone that each person in this community has a right to feel safe and secure, loved and valued for who they are as an individual. Racism simply has no place in our Mercy school. I also shared the wording from a great Instagram post I had seen that challenged everyone to reflect and think about whether their actions, words or thoughts put them on the side where empathy, inclusion, kindness, fairness and love are, or do they put them on the side of hate, discrimination or meanness? I challenged our students to always seek to operate from a place of kindness and love, that way we can know we are in the right place moving towards positive change. We are incredibly blessed that our community is rich in diversity and we are all able to listen, respect and learn from each other. That is community and that is love.

This week I was able to work with our Year 11 students as they progress on their leadership development journey towards 2021.  I spoke of the endless examples of leadership in our world, our nation and in our local community in a time of crisis and how kindness and holding people in a space of love is the key to positively moving forward. I also used the analogy of leadership as a gift that can only be given to you by those that follow. That leadership is not about the badge or the title, leadership is about impact, influence and inspiration. It is a hope-filled opportunity to bring joy and love to those around you, encouraging and empowering them to share their voice and share in the journey.

I used our very own 2020 Year 12 cohort as a prime example of how unexpected challenges can provide opportunities for new ways and better ways. This group has demonstrated their ability to dig deep and turn towards each other, rather than away in order to proudly lead our College in such challenging times.

May God bless you all.

Amber Hauff

College Principal