NAIDOC Celebrations 2023

The College gathered this week to celebrate NAIDOC Week. Our Aboriginal Education Worker, Tamika Gaudie led a team of students in presentations that shared and celebrated Indigenous Culture.

The theme of NAIDOC for 2023 is “For the Elders”. We were reminded of the contribution that our elders play in the holding our communities together, and the importance of recognising and respecting the contributions of many.

During the assembly The students shared Lumen Christi’s reconciliation action plan (RAP) statement with the College and the assembly viewed Kristy McBain’s speech in parliament when she tabled the Lumen document “From the Heart” in support of the aims of the Uluru statement.

A highlight of the assembly was our Year 1 students singing head, heart, knee and feet in Language.

NAIDOC celebrations continue through the term break, and students from Lumen will attend NAIDOC Mass in Moruya on 21 July.

Lumen Christi is proud to celebrate NAIDOC week and to share in the gifts of Indigenous cultures.

Be the light of Christ.

The Last Fortnight!

I am always trying to look for a bit of balance and perspective, and am conscious that recently I have had a red hot go at screen time and pornography, followed by poor diet. It’s not healthy (or very readable I imagine) to forever dwell on the negative. 

It puts me in mind that every time I stride (shuffle?) through the playground looking for the misbehaving one, I am passing, without sufficient acknowledgement, the many dozens and dozens who are wonderful nearly all the time. When we staff discuss students who require intervention, often we are putting our heads together about two or three percent of the kids. That’s OK, that’s how it goes and these few need us. But when searching for the perspective, it is valuable to acknowledge the contribution of the vast majority of kids who are just plain wonderful and ask for very little in way of extra attention. 

Over the last fortnight, I have been in webinars on the link between violent gaming and aggression in adolescents; on N Determinations; on Supporting HSC Students with Lived Experience of Mental Distress, and been reading articles like, “Poor discipline in Australian schools among factors driving teachers away, OECD warns” (The Guardian 10.4.23). And in a school of 750, odds are that a couple of students and their families haven’t been travelling well. And I’m sure that I don’t get everything right in my decision making (despite what I hope are good intentions). Inevitably it can feel like half of the people think you are too strict, the other half not strict enough is the simplest way I can put it. You try to fix everything, but it never turns out that way. 

Conversely (perhaps not conversely because it is all related): 

We had the Pambula – Merimbula Probus Club visit a little while ago, the first time after a COVID hiatus. We (the royal “we”, actually Mrs Reckord, Mrs Trethewey,      Ms Dinwoodie, Mrs Baker, Mrs Larter, Mrs O’Reilly and Mrs Fraser - but if you want to think that I did it all myself, be my guest) put on some entertainment and a cuppa. What an absolute joy! The Probus members are always, without reservation, the most positive and engaged and gracious of audiences. I often say to a few nervy students that it’s going to be like performing in a room where everyone is your favourite grandparent who loves you to death; and so it was. On this particular visit The Male Choir and Luminescence sang and I took a minute of my time to have a good look at some of these young people, mostly Year 12s. I was as proud of them as I have been of any over the last forty years.  Not because of their singing, but because in some instances I recognised what had grown from the troubled Year 8 kid, in some instances I recognised that the shy Year 10 had stepped up into leadership (badge or no badge) and I recognised some who were always going to go places if they just began to have that positive sense of themselves and understanding of what they can do for others. Awesome, really. 

I then watched the Primary teachers marshal and interact with their little ones. Impressive as always. If it is a rule of acting never to work with children or animals, it is probably a rule in schools that Kindergarten always steal the show. Cute. 

And Year 8 Camp was a hit (thanks staff), my classes are a joy, the SJAs inspire me with initiatives like peer tutoring, the College embraced Reconciliation Week        (Mrs Woods and Tamika are guns), Baringa kids are raising money for the Fred Hollows’ Foundation, some great reports from sporting trips, Heads of House are always up for a bit of gallows humour, enjoyed the Athletics Carnival (if not the result, but nevertheless, well done Mrs Hergenhan!) it was St Lucy’s Day, Australia won some cricket and there are gang gangs in Candelo .… 

Balance restored.   

I was privileged to attend an Assistant Principals’ Retreat last week where we looked at mercy in our faith and vocation. I liked this very much from the social activist and Catholic reformer Dorothy Day: 

“…we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbour, to love our enemy as our friend.” 

Let’s keep throwing the pebbles. The issue is less the challenges and much more about rising to meet them. 

Study Work Grow - Getting a Job?!

This week I am including a great resource for students who are looking at getting a job. This guide, produced by Study Work Grow, covers all the fundamentals of looking for and applying to get a job. It is a great resource to help support your young person as they navigate the world of work.