This College has much to celebrate regarding the talents of our students. One of the greatest pleasures of being a teacher, and I would recommend this job to anyone, is seeing our young people grow and develop in so many different ways over their years with us. Our sporting teams have grown in number and stature and, for the first time in our history, we have a student selected in the Australian Under 19 Cricket team. This is also a first time for the whole AIC competition. Steven Hogan’s selection has come because of hours of persistence, effort and attitude in training and games.

During our assembly on Monday, we celebrated the significant achievements of many of our students within the performing arts cocurricular program. These students commit to many hours of practice across the year and, thanks to the commitment of our staff, have lots of opportunities to transition their skills from practice to performance.

Recently, we had several students from our Dance Crew compete in the Dance X competition. They have made it to the Dance X Finals, which are set to take place at All Hallows’ on Saturday, 12 October. Our student dance team represented St Patrick’s and joined with students from St John Fisher College to compete in a combined dance group for the first time. In the Senior Secondary Any Style teams, we proudly placed fourth out of eleven schools, securing our spot in the State Finals! Our combined St Patrick’s College and St John Fisher College team participated in the Senior Secondary Jazz Teams category and, despite not placing, delivered a wonderful performance. Alex Townsley was a standout in the Senior Secondary Solos - Any Style category. Out of twelve competitors, he earned a wildcard entry to the State Finals with his student-choreographed solo, a wonderful and deserved achievement!

Over the weekend, Villanova College hosted Catholic schools from across Queensland for the Queensland Catholic Musical Festival. The festival started last Thursday morning and finished on Sunday night. St Patrick’s was represented by a large contingent of musicians and singers making up twenty-six ensembles, performing across the four days including our whole Year 5 cohort in one of the competitions. All our students thrived in the performance environment and loved listening to performances from other Colleges across the four days. More boys than ever before received awards for ‘performance excellence’ as adjudicators noted their outstanding contribution during an ensemble performance. Our College remains one of the top three contributors to this music festival in terms of numbers of ensembles and performers.

In the ten years that I have been Principal, I have enjoyed watching the steady progress and improvement of our music and choral program. More importantly, I have loved watching the students grow in confidence and pride and really enjoy the experience of performing for others. This is not an easy task, and I am enviable about how well they can do it. The improved quality of our ensembles is not only evident through these things but also through our student achievements. This year they tallied a record 10 Gold, 15 Silver and 1 Bronze award across the four days. The following students were also awarded individual excellence awards from the judges: Finlay Peppler (Junior Voices), Jesse Burgess (School of Rock), Hugh Tan (Big Band 1), Hunter Esplund (Jazz Ensemble 2), Rohan Chadwick (Jazz Ensemble 1), and Lewis Bullock (Singers).

I would like to recognise the amazing work done by so many staff within the Music department. Each of them is a performer in their own right, and the skills and expertise that they have imbued onto our students is clear to see. In particular, I would like to recognise the efforts of Mr Kane McNally for pulling all the performances together over the weekend and leading the cocurricular Music program as well as Mrs Mel Bell for her outstanding administrative contribution towards this event and with tutorial lessons and other administration tasks.

Across this week, we have also had several athletes competing at the Met North Athletics Championships. Across the two days there were some really strong performances with a number of students achieving personal bests and podium finishes.

Visit from Mrs Amber Hauff
Mrs Amber Hauff, our new College Principal next year, joined us on campus on Monday morning. She was able to meet with our staff and spend time with the current and new school leaders as well as the College Leadership Team. I will work with Mrs Hauff across the remainder of this year to ensure a smooth leadership transition into 2025. Amber expressed her excitement about taking on the role and I am sure, with her experience and fresh eyes, she will continue to improve our College.

Touchstone – Inclusive Community
This touchstone calls every EREA school to authentically accept and welcome all members within it and foster right relationships and be committed to the common good. Our authenticity to this touchstone is evidenced in our pastoral care and service programs. Our care for students is more than just a legal requirement but one that extends to nurturing their dignity and uniqueness. Our service programs are aimed at advocating for, standing in solidarity with, and serving the poor and marginalized. This is not just done for organisational and situations external to the school but also within our own practices with our own families within the College community. Our inclusion is also extended regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, or economic situation. Our practices within our community need to promote social inclusion even if this might be counter-cultural to the broader community. This touchstone also acknowledges our first nation peoples as the traditional owners of our land and welcomes them into our community in whichever way we can. Finally, this touchstone calls EREA schools to be inclusive of and contribute to the overall growth and development of EREA schools in Australia and overseas.

Father and Son breakfast
Thank you to the many fathers who could join us this morning for our breakfast. We were fortunate to have Doug Baird OAM as guest speaker. Doug spoke of his son Corporal Cameron Baird VC MG, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery and sacrifice. Doug touched on themes of resilience and spoke about having the courage to stand up for those around you and what it truly means to be of service to others.

Social Media – Coercive Behaviours
This week I will concentrate on the issue of online coercive behaviours. In Queensland, coercive control is defined as a pattern of abusive behaviours that can include emotional, mental, and financial abuse, isolation, intimidation, sexual coercion, and cyberstalking. This behaviour is intended to control or coerce another person, often in a relationship, and can cause significant harm to young people, whether physical, emotional, financial, psychological, or mental. 

In March 2024, the Queensland Government passed laws to criminalise coercive control as a standalone offence. These laws will come into effect in 2025 and will carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail. I am sure that everyone would agree that our young people need to understand the meaning and nature of this type of behaviour for their own sake and those they may enter into relationships as they grow older.

I fear that some of our students are already being fed some harmful information through social media influencers such as Andrew Tate. I would encourage all parents to talk to your sons about their ideas of respectful relationships and if they have been involved in such conversations about Tate or the “sigma” male. You may be surprised and quite disturbed by what you might hear.

I would also remind everyone about the Parent Information evening hosted by Madonna King in the Christian Brothers Building on Wednesday 28 August starting at 6:30pm. The session is entitled Stories you need to hear because, unfortunately, many adults including parents, have very little knowledge of what our young people encounter regularly through their use of social media. This is a very relevant and compelling presentation. I would love to have as many of our parents as possible at this event. I am very confident that it will be an enlightening experience for all who attend.

Year 12 News
Many of our 12 students and staff participated in KAIROS retreats from last Sunday to Tuesday. As always, the retreats were well attended and the feedback most positive from staff and students. Thank you to parents who supported their sons in attending and I hope that you also received great feedback.

Monday 26 August, they start their mock exams. These are practice exams getting them ready for external assessment. It is vital that the students prepare well for these exams as they give our teachers clarity around individual and cohort strengths and weaknesses that we can work on. Students that are well prepared for these tests will benefit more, as will we because it will give up more clarity in the areas that we need to work on leading into the external exams. I urge all parents to impress this upon your son. “It is only practice” is not good enough anymore!

There are also several planned study activities over the coming holiday period which are combined with the girls from St John Fisher and Mary MacKillop Colleges. They will be held at St Patrick’s and St John Fisher campuses. Please check with your son to see if he is available and plans to attend.

Next week I will forward a letter outlining the important dates and events that will occur from here through to the graduation of our students so that you have the chance to plan for what will be a fitting, but emotional, finish to their schooling journey. We have started some events already within school through the “rite of passage” sessions that they are currently participating in.

EREA Colleges Ltd Principals' Meeting
Over the past two days several College Principals from EREA schools from Tasmania, ACT, and Queensland attended a Principal’s Conference. On Thursday, we hosted them at St Patrick’s and presented some materials about our journey to school improvement since 2013. We also participated in workshops and discussions facilitated by Mr Peter Fullagar (Regional Director) and Mr Chris Woolley (CEO) from the EREA College Ltd’s office. They were interesting and a great way to network and share ideas from across our schools.

Live Jesus in our Hearts!

Chris Mayes 

College Principal

From 18th to 25th September, St Patrick’s College, in partnership with Share The Dignity, will be hosting our annual Sponsor a Bag Packing Event. We’re coming together to pack bags filled with essentials for women, girls, and those in need, while also learning how a single bag of basic hygiene products can be a beacon of hope for the recipients.

We need your help to reach our goal of packing 5,000 bags! These bags will be sent to Charity Partners across Australia to support those experiencing homelessness or fleeing domestic violence.

EVENT DETAILS

Location: St Patrick’s College, Callan CentreDate & Time: 18-25 September, 9:30am – 11:30am

Dress Code: Comfortable clothes and closed-toe shoes

Key Tasks: Packing bags, light lifting/moving items, unpacking items, opening boxes, walking

Who Can Attend: Volunteers aged 10-17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Parking: Plenty of free street parking available nearby.

Transport: The closest train station is Shorncliffe Train Station.

Join us for a couple of hours and learn about how a single bag can offer hope to someone in need. 

Register your interest here: https://events.humanitix.com/copy-of-share-the-dignity-s-sponsor-a-bag-packing-event

Let’s come together as a community and make a real difference!