College Headmaster’s Report

The great civil rights activist, Baptist minister and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, asserted: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?” King, who was gunned down on April 4th, 1968, at the age of 39, preached an inspiring sermon two months before he died. In it he requested that at his funeral no mention be made of the awards and honours he had received. In fact, at his funeral, they played a tape of this sermon now titled “The Drum Major Initiative”. In it he said: “Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important — wonderful. If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness... I want you to be able to say that day (his funeral day) that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity…” A few years later in 1973, another inspiring leader, the world-wide leader of the Jesuits, Father Pedro Arupe, in a speech which he called, “Men for Others”, said: “Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ — for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbours; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.... Jesus makes these despised and marginalized folk his brothers. He identifies himself with the poor and the powerless, with all who are hungry and miserable. Every person in this condition is Christ’s brother or sister; that is why what is done for them is done for Christ himself.” This is where Arupe’s language becomes the same that we use when we express the essential Christian message in terms of our Lasallian tradition: “Every person is our brother or sister before God.” The real question is what do we do about it here and now? How are we expressing our love of neighbour? What are we doing for others? In 2006, twelve De La Salle senior students, led by Brother Denis, volunteered to be “Coolies” rather than “Schoolies”: to raise the money to go to India for six weeks over Christmas and to work building houses for the poor people in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu, India. They were also warned that they would be expected to live in a village, eat the local food, and do without many luxuries we take as normal. They were to work with “Reaching The Unreached” a project established and run by Br James Kimpton, an 83 year-old English Brother. Not only did these students rise to the challenge magnificently, some have been back since. Some have told their stories to the next class and eighteen volunteer students from Year 12, plus four staff, will be “Coolies” this year. Enhancing this powerful message is the very strong support of the boys’ parents, the College community and surrounding parishes. This is faith in action. This year also, fourteen Year 11 boys and four adults went to Papua New Guinea for three weeks in September to work, building and renovating, at a boarding school conducted by the Brothers at Bereina. I was deeply moved by the supportive generosity of a parent, with a son in another year level, who rang while the group was in PNG, to say he and his wife thought this was so important, they would send a hundred dollar donation for each of the fourteen boys to help with expenses. What a powerful statement of priorities. We are also developing a cooperative liaison with the aboriginal community at Balgo Hills, where the De La Salle Brothers work in a remote region of Western Australia. Year 12 student 2006, Ryan Scanlan, has worked very effectively as a volunteer at Balgo Hills all of this year. We plan to have staff and boys go to Balgo Hills in 2008, and some from there come here, to participate in mutually beneficial educational initiatives. De La Salle has specific Social Justice opportunities for each year level as well as the Mission Action Day, an annual whole-school event in Holy Week which, in 2007, raised more than $60,000. Such a sum results from very generous support by most parents and extended families as well as the extraordinary effort by the boys. The policy at De La Salle is not only to teach the Christian faith but to create opportunity to put faith into action. Our sacramental initiation programme is very supportive of Church priorities for participation in the fullness of the Christian life. Our retreat programme and school liturgies have provided valuable faith experiences for the boys, while extra time has

been given to the delivery of our Religious Education programme. Our cultural exchange activities with the Philippines continued very successfully again this year and our staff are seeking to develop further opportunities for international cultural exchange for our students of languages other than English. We hosted students from Italy at De La Salle in October this year. None of this, of course, can be allowed to distract us from other aspects of high quality curriculum delivery and focussed academic pursuit based in the classroom. We have invested heavily in additional resources for our Mary MacKillop Enhancement Centre and test results do indicate significant improvements in literacy. Next year, we shall be directing more resources into helping boys who require assistance in improving their standards of numeracy. This will be done within a framework of best use of technology for testing, analysis of results, implementation of individual education plans and encouraging more collaborative, personal contact with parents. The implementation, this year, of the Student Behaviour Management Databases and the introduction of school nurses are further significant development in seeking to ensure our pastoral care is of the highest standard. The College has also begun a three-year analysis, utilising benchmarked testing by outside professionals, of staff attitudes, consistency and commitment to our goals. Moreover, we have commenced a process of systematic teacher performance review by another outside consultant and will be participating in an independent schools’ survey to test parental satisfaction. We think we are moving in the right direction but we need always to ensure we are open to informed criticism and that the goals and targets we are setting are appropriate. Albert Schweitzer once stated: “The final decision as to what the future of a society shall be depends not on how near its organization is to perfection, but on the degree of worthiness in its individual members.” Replace the word “society” by “school” and his words point to the priority we are giving to our “worthiness”. I believe I observe high quality interaction between staff and students every day at this College, but in every human situation there are always issues to address, as we try to become better at what we are doing. While the first issue of Roll Call for 2007 focussed on our Social Justice programme, the second highlighted the increasingly diverse and successful opportunities offered in music, dance and performing arts. The Wiz, the Rock Eisteddfod (unfortunate fire notwithstanding), Room with a View, the Blue & Gold Ball, and various music events were great opportunities for our students and those from other schools to develop and display their talents. Our sport and outdoor education opportunities have also increased and diversified with most enthusiastic student response. I wish to thank the staff for their great work in providing a quality Catholic education which includes so many extracurricular opportunities for the boys. My embarrassment is that space precludes my naming so many who have been extraordinarily generous and committed, but I know the pages of this Blue and Gold will illustrate what I would wish to say. The day-to-day running of the College is very capably handled by the Deputy Principal, Peter Riordan. Peter is very generous with his time and does a superb job in leading and supporting staff, students and the wider school community. The work of Mr Henry Corcoran as Head of the Kinnoull Campus has been outstanding but I respect his personal wish to be relieved of that role from the end of this year. The leadership offered by College Captain, Matt Windley, and the other College Leaders has contributed greatly to the life of the College. We thank them for their genuine enthusiasm and loyal cooperation with staff. Year 12, 2007, will be remembered as a mature and compliant group of students who have been very positive in their outlook. Finally, my thanks to our dedicated and talented editor of the Blue and Gold, Jonathan Hewett, for producing this quality production as well as the two 2007 editions of Roll Call, working in collaboration with gifted editor, Kerry Martin. In the way described above by Martin Luther King, we have a “great” College. John Steinbeck, renowned author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature — who died in the same year as Martin Luther King — wrote: “It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him”. We expect a lot from the young men of De La Salle. The evidence in these pages is that they respond magnificently.