College Principal

It was so wonderful to welcome so many dads, grandfathers and carers to our Father’s Day Masses and Breakfasts recently. Another ‘first’ for me. I was so delighted to witness the men in our community taking time out to come to the College to show their love for their children by sharing mass and then a meal together. Parenting is by far one of the most challenging jobs we do – knowing when to get involved, when to step back, when to be disappointed and when to be pleased is a fine art and most of us learn this along the way. I always say we can’t go wrong if there is love at the heart of our decision-making and our parenting. As some of you may know, I was recently in an accident and I sustained lacerations to my face and hands after a fall. At the time, we had just arrived in Canberra to celebrate my eldest son’s engagement and it didn’t quite end up the happy weekend we had all anticipated. Nonetheless, there is always a silver lining: I didn’t lose my eye, I have lost a few kilos because I cannot eat properly and my son was by my side the whole weekend, looking after his mother. How quickly the roles reverse and how quickly our children grow up. We can only love them, set boundaries, keep the lines of communication open, be interested in their lives and give them room to grow and think for themselves; then sit back and trust that this is enough to ground them as good, selfless and compassionate people. 

Recently, Mrs Azizian, Ms van der Meer and I met with Dr Lavoratto, Principal of St Patrick’s College and her Senior staff to discuss ways that we can plan for our students to interact more fully with each other. Providing opportunities for our girls and boys to develop respectful relationships is at the heart of this initiative. While we currently have a range of activities in place for our students across both schools to interact, we are hoping to introduce some more purposeful activities from Year 5 which may see our students come together for added academic, sporting and cultural events. While we teach consent education and respectful relationships in our Health and Physical Education curriculum as well as in Pastoral Care classes, we believe we can do more to build respectful relationships between our young men and women by providing opportunities for genuine friendships to develop. We know that violence against women is a major concern in our society and the two Colleges are committed to working together to continue to educate our students about sexual discrimination and respectful behaviours to eradicate violence against women. 

This week we held the student leadership handover ceremony where our Senior Prefects passed on the light of leadership to the incoming leaders. It was wonderful to welcome parents to join us for this special event. As part of the induction process, students will attend a weekend workshop at Tallong next term and we will run sessions with them to support them in stepping into their new roles. They will be involved in planning for the coming year and focussing on setting up projects in each of their ministries so that they will leave a legacy for years to come. I thank the outgoing leaders, and College Captains, Clare Moses and Siena Ters, for their strong leadership, dedication to the College and work in connecting our community, especially in a post lockdown environment. 

After nearly 13 years of education, our Year 12 students are approaching their final lessons and end of school time. After the setbacks of the last two years, this group of girls has made a positive and lasting impression on all of us and they have worked well and contributed to the College in a broad range of areas from sports to the arts, to community service and social justice advocacy. We look forward to walking with them as they complete this milestone and to farewelling them in various ways at the end of this term. As always, our expectation is that they will demonstrate dignity and respect in their final days. Their safety is paramount and we pray that they make decisions in celebrating their end-of-school journey that reflect grace and responsibility. 

I am pleased to announce that Mr George Ayoub, who is known to you as our Director of Sport, will take on a new role in the College in 2023 as he steps onto the College Leadership Team as our new Director of Development. Mr Ayoub has held this role previously in a big independent boys’ school and I am looking forward to working with him in this new capacity. As the College embarks on a significant master planning and capital works phase, Mr Ayoub will play an important role in fundraising and philanthropy. The College Foundation Board will work closely with us to build our giving program so that we are able to ensure the sustainability of our beautiful school, honouring the traditional buildings and innovating for the future. 

With all good wishes

Go gently.

Paulina Skerman
College Principal