MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Living and Learning in a Joy-filled Community

It was so exciting to launch our 2023 College theme with staff and students which is: ‘Living and Learning in a Joy-filled Community’. This theme will help illuminate and celebrate the deeper meaning and purpose at the very heart of this Mercy ministry. We all know in our hearts that every day, in this community, we are called to work together to help create a better world by bringing Mercy, love and joy to life. Joy, peace, and Mercy are the principle acts of the love of God in our souls and as we look to increase our joy, we should strive to grow in our love of God and in all those around us.

Joy really is everywhere, it is wonderful and we all have an opportunity to intentionally seek, experience and share our Joy with others every day. You may have also noticed that the notion of community is featured in our theme this year. This is deliberate. We are very blessed to enjoy a beautiful location, we have some amazing facilities (some more on the way to be completed this year) and we have a positive and strong reputation as an empowering learning community. However, the true heart of this place is in its people, the staff, students and our families. We are the community and it is in the way we care for one another in this place that sets us apart. We are a place of Mercy and a place of love and people are at the heart of everything we do. In one of the world’s longest studies of adult life, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a group of people were followed for 80 years to determine what makes for a healthy life. It was found that while genetics plays a certain role, having a sense of community was by far the most influential aspect of leading a joyful life. We really do need each other, for sustainable joy to emerge and flourish in us. This year we are going to take this to a new level and intentionally look for ways to deepen our sense of community and we are going to do this by actively being ‘pro-joy’ in our actions and words. By doing this we will strengthen our community, deepen the sense of belonging, and build stronger connections with each other. We will look for more ways to laugh, sing, dance, celebrate, gather and give of our time to help do good work, in service of others, to help make this world a better place. To achieve our goal, we as a community have agreed to embrace the following challenges:

To seek and share joy with those around us.
To intentionally adopt a daily attitude of gratitude.
To find ways to highlight the joy of learning.
To encourage joyful ways to strengthen our community.

Student Achievements

Recently, 12 students proudly represented our College at the Qld State Rowing Championships at Lake Wyaralong in Brisbane. They faced fierce competition and did themselves, their families and this community proud with some outstanding results and personal best times. I would like to once again thank Harrison Parks, the Combined Schools Rowing Program Head Coach and Zac Judge, Coach and Boat Captain who accompanied the team/squad. I am also very appreciative of Catherine Rentoule, our College Rowing Coordinator and Susan Wilkinson, Combined Schools Rowing Program Administration Support Officer, for their support of our growing program.

I also am aware that many of our students have proudly competed at national, state or club level in a wide variety of sports and or performed at various events or entered competitions over the break. Please continue to share this with our College via office@stpatscollege.qld.edu.au, or via Facebook or Instagram messages so we can look at ways to acknowledge them. We are looking at various ways to do this via different platforms such as social media, College newsletters or assemblies. We do try to share International, National or State-level student representation via our social media platforms where possible, and in this case, we will need high quality photographs from parent/guardians to accompany the posts.

Staffing Updates

With an increase in enrolments this year and in response to some high-level strategic reviews carried out in 2022, I am able to announce some changes and introduce new members to our community. Ms Cooper, Head of Sport and Fitness and Mr Littler, IT Manager, left our College over the holiday break to embark on new adventures and Ms Kulbicki, our Community Education Counsellor has sadly left to finish her primary education degree as a fulltime student. We have also had some internal staff changes including:

Jillian Turner starting 2023 as our new Head of Faculty – English and Languages,
Jaimee Seebohm will be Acting Head of Department – HPE for Semester 1
McKye Turner will be Acting Head of House – Thrones for Semester One
Rosie Maguire is Acting Head of Year 12 for Semester One
Jodie Roberts, Head of House – Princes is taking some leave later this term and Rosie Maguire will also help look after Princes House in her absence, and
Rebecca Langford is Acting Head of House – DOMS and Acting College Chaplain for this year.

We also welcomed some wonderful new staff to our College community including:

Ms Isabel Bowrey – Marketing and Communications Manager
Ms Krystelle Quabba – Management Accountant
Brycean McQuillan – Science Faculty
Mark Clancy – Maths & Science Faculty
Jessica John – English Faculty
Diana Muftic, Helen Spina and Tiffany Apap – Religion Faculty
Sam Lowry (From Week 6) – Head of Sport & Fitness
Emma Dobbins, Brigitte Tickle and Elizabeth Caldecourt – Teacher Aide Team

We are also looking forward to welcoming a new HPE Teacher soon to our College community.

I wish our community well for 2023 and look forward to leading and serving this beautiful and joy-filled place.

Amber Hauff

COLLEGE PRINCIPAL