ASA Newsletter September Edition

ASA NEWS

September 2018

President’s Message

Welcome to the spring edition of ASA News.

In this edition of ASA News, we want to look at Student Leadership and Wellbeing.

Feature Articles Leadership and Wellbeing ����������������������������������6 A Journey to Timor Leste �������������������������������������� 8 Wellbeing a pet project at Ivanhoe Grammar �����12 Experience in Martu culture bridges the gap �����15 Connor’s Run goes deep for Brighton Grammar students �������������������������������18

President’s Message While all schools have School Captains and maybe Prefects, the best schools also have strong student leadership programs that are integrated into the fabric of the school. These programs provide opportunities for students to take an active role in the daily operation of the school while providing positive role modelling for their peers and younger students.

Formal leadership opportunities expose students to specific roles and responsibilities. These roles usually have a specific purpose such as House Captain, Faith Prefect or Music Captain. The most suitable students are generally chosen to provide leadership amongst their peers and to assist staff in some way.

However, informal student leadership is just as valuable in my view. Peer mentoring and buddy programs that operate across a school can provide years of friendship and informal mentoring between students that extends far beyond the expectations of staff who oversee these programs.

In our College, we have Year 12 students who volunteer to mentor students from each Primary class. Their weekly visit to their mentor class provides the initial formal contact for this to occur. This is just the start of a series of relationships that blossom over the year. The mentors cheer on their mentees at sport carnivals, see them in the playground on occasions and are also on hand to provide a friendly ear when some big brother or sister advice is needed from time to time. At the final Valedictory Guard of Honour, the extent of these relationships is apparent, as there are gifts galore and plenty of hugs and tears from both the mentors and mentees as the Year 12s leave the College for the final time.

Similarly, Year 6 students nurture their Prep buddies during their first year of school. It is lovely to watch these relationships develop and even better to see the friendships renewed when the Year 12 students return to mentor their former Prep buddies who are by then in Year 6. This type of informal leadership is extremely valuable and made possible in a P-12 school where leadership is an integral part of student wellbeing. After all, positive relationships are at the heart of wellbeing.

There is no doubt that the issue of student wellbeing is at the forefront of our minds. While schools are educational institutions, we do not focus solely on academic development at the expense of everything else. Most of our schools have counsellors and psychologists on staff and a range of wellbeing programs in recognition of the importance of the wellbeing elements of schooling in 2018.

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Positive Education, that is emerging as a popular approach in some schools, is of course based on positive psychology. Positive psychology applies a positive lens to working with young people.

In Anglican schools, we like to look for the good in every situation rather than take a deficit approach that assumes there is a problem to be solved.

Habits of Mind, Habits of Heart and adopting a Growth Mindset are just some of the tools that can provide students with the ability to focus on the positive elements of their schooling and their own wellbeing. I look forward to hearing more about how these elements are developed in Anglican schools across the country.

I hope you enjoy this edition of ASA News. Please make it available to your staff so they can share in the experiences of life in our wide range of schools.

Finally, there is no doubt that our Annual Conference provides a valuable opportunity for delegates from across the country to come together to reflect on what makes us Anglican and how that is expressed in our schools. Congratulations to Phillip Heath and his Sydney Conference Committee for a fantastic ASA Conference last month. The ‘Deep Peace’ theme was reinforced by each speaker, and skilfully woven throughout the entire conference by the Master of Ceremonies, Leigh Hatcher. All in attendance seemed fully engaged throughout the two days. Thank you to everyone who attended the Sydney conference. I look forward to seeing you all again in Hobart in 2019.

Thank you for your continued support of ASA.

Dr Mark Sly President, Anglican Schools Australia Principal, Coomera Anglican College

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CEO’s Column Student Leadership and Wellbeing It’s wonderful to read about so many of our schools around the nation and the different ways in which they approach the key student issues of leadership and wellbeing. Leadership is manifested in many ways and giving our students the skills and opportunity to develop leadership qualities benefits them both now and into the future. Likewise, there is no greater priority for any school than student wellbeing. Many schools have developed unique programs in response to the need for comprehensive pastoral care in a fast-paced social media driven world. Our feature article in this edition is from Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School Principal and ASA Management Committee Member Mrs Debbie Dunwoody who examines the importance of leadership and wellbeing and provides some examples from her own school. I hope you enjoy reading what some of our Anglican schools are doing to promote leadership and wellbeing throughout this edition.

National Redress Last month I wrote to all schools with information from the General Secretary of the Anglican Church, detailing the process for schools to join the National Redress Scheme. Over the coming months, as School Councils and Boards consider the details of the Scheme, one of the options for schools is to join the Scheme through Anglican Participating Group, Anglican Representative National Redress Scheme Limited (ARNRSL). ASA commends ARNRSL as a beneficial way for Anglican schools to access the Redress Scheme. Schools have until 30 June 2020 to join the Scheme.

If you would like further information to assist in your decision-making, please contact the General Synod Office directly: Anglican Church of Australia General Synod Office Ms Anne Hywood, General Secretary T: +61 (0)2 8267 2701 M: +61 (0)412 103 734 E: generalsecretary@anglican.org.au or call us at the ASA office.

Anglican Identity In the coming months, ASA will be publishing a paper authored by The Reverend Dr Daniel Heischman, Executive Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, our sister entity in the USA, on the Anglican identity of our schools. ASA will publish the outcomes of the Forum held in Melbourne in May on this topic. We hope the paper, in various formats, will assist thinking and discussion in schools on the uniqueness of our Anglican identity, on what it is that makes Anglican schools distinctive.

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We are fortunate that Dr Heischman will join us again as a keynote speaker at next year’s conference in Hobart, when he will speak on the topic of the Anglican identity of our schools.

Congratulations Congratulations to Dr John Collier, Head of St Andrew’s Cathedral and Gawura Schools, who has been named NSW’s best educator as the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Sir Harold Wyndham Medal. Dr Collier is the first head of an independent school to receive the Medal in its 24-year history.

2018 Conference 360 delegates met at the International Convention Centre in Sydney for our annual conference last month. A team of first rate speakers inspired and challenged us in a world-class setting.

The President presented a Life Membership to Mrs Lynne Thomson, Principal of St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School at Karrinyup in Western Australia. Lynne retires in a few months after 22 years as Principal of St Mary’s. Lynne has served Anglican Schools Australia with distinction since our foundation in 1999. She hosted our 2002 Conference at St Mary’s, has served on the Management Committee twice since 2002, for a total of 10 years, including two years as President.

The Management Committee felt there could be no finer recipient of this year’s award than Lynne, whose lifetime dedication to educating young people and twenty-year commitment to Anglican Schools Australia speaks for itself. We congratulate our 2018 Life Member recipient, Mrs Lynne Thomson.

Ten-year service awards were also presented to: The following recipients received their ten-year service award in 2018: The Reverend Patrick Duckworth, St Hilda’s School, QLD The Most Reverend Philip Freier, Primate and Archbishop of Melbourne, VIC Mr Anthony Horsley, St Peter’s Anglican College NSW Mr Keith Lindbeck, St George’s Anglican Grammar School, WA Mr Christopher Prance, St Peter’s Woodlands Grammar School, SA The Reverend Anthony Poole, Brighton Grammar, VIC Ms Kerry Robertson, Frederick Irwin Anglican School, WA The Reverend Scott Rowland, St Mark’s Anglican Community School, WA The Reverend Matt Shorten, Lakes Grammar, NSW The Reverend Stewart Taplin, Tintern Grammar, VIC Mr Greg Wain, The Southport School, QLD The Reverend Paul Woodhart, All Saints’ College, NSW Thank you to Mr Phillip Heath (former ASA President, inaugural Life Member and Head of Barker College in New South Wales) and the Conference Organising Committee for their outstanding work in pulling together a program that could be enjoyed by all.

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CEO’s Column We look forward to gathering in Hobart on 8-10 August 2019 for our next conference.

New Travel Management Company The Management Committee has appointed Orbit World Travel as ASA’s new Travel Management Company (TMC). In the coming weeks, Orbit will contact each ASA member school to invite you to consider the benefits of placing our groups and corporate travel through them.

Significant Milestones 2018 marks a significant milestone in each of the following schools: Hale School, WA

160 years

Melbourne Grammar School, VIC

160 years

Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School, VIC

125 years

The aim is to get the best TMC to service all the travel needs of ASA schools, from best priced airfares to hotels, car hire and most importantly our group travel. That is the reason we have moved TMC’s to Orbit World Travel.

Walford Anglican School for Girls, SA

125 years

Shelford Girls’ Grammar, VIC

120 years

Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School, VIC

115 years

Using world-leading technology placed in the hands of the users in schools, together with teams across Australia, schools will ˙have access to the special pricing with our partner airlines Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines, Delta, Etihad Airways and more, together with Orbit’s nationally negotiated pricing for all other travel needs.

Roseville College, NSW

110 years

The Glennie School, QLD

110 years

Trinity Grammar School, NSW

105 years

Blue Mountains Grammar School, NSW

100 years

I encourage you to consider the benefits that Orbit will offer ASA member schools. For more information, you can contact Orbit World Travel at asa@worldtravel.com.au or contact Communications and Community Relations Manager Aila Dann in the ASA Office.

Cranbrook School, NSW

100 years

Newcastle Grammar School, NSW

100 years

Every blessing.

The Reverend Peter Laurence OAM CEO, Anglican Schools Australia

Mentone Grammar, VIC

95 years

Danebank An Anglican School for Girls, NSW

85 years

St John’s Grammar, SA

60 years

Radford College, ACT

35 years

St Paul’s Grammar School, NSW

35 years

Trinity Anglican School, QLD

35 years

Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD

30 years

William Clarke College, NSW

30 years

St Luke’s Grammar School, NSW

25 years

Bishop Tyrrell Anglican College, NSW

20 years

Clarence Valley Anglican School, NSW

20 years

Penrith Anglican College, NSW

20 years

The Riverina Anglican College, NSW

20 years

The Springfield Anglican College, QLD

20 years

Cathedral College Wangaratta, VIC

15 years

Georgiana Molloy Anglican School, WA

15 years

Manning Valley Anglican College, NSW

15 years

St Andrew’s Anglican College, QLD

15 years

St Peter’s Anglican College, NSW

15 years

Esperance Anglican Community School, WA

10 years

Hume Anglican Grammar, VIC

10 years

Mamre Anglican School, NSW

10 years

Trades Norwest Anglican Senior College, NSW 10 years

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SCHOOL NEWS SCHOOL APPOINTMENTS

DEPARTURES

PRINCIPALS

PRINCIPALS

Mr Phil DeYoung, Trinity Grammar School, VIC

Ms Suzanne Bain, St John’s Anglican College, QLD (effective December 2018)

Ms Fiona Johnston, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, WA

Mrs Anne Coutts, Canberra Girls Grammar School, ACT

Mrs Maria McIvor, St John’s Anglican College, QLD (effective January 2019)

Dr Michael Davies, Trinity Grammar School, VIC

Mr Ian Maynard, Blue Mountains Grammar School, NSW (effective January 2019)

Mrs Maria McIvor, Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD (effective December 2018)

CHAPLAINS

CHAPLAINS

The Reverend Jeffrey Jarvis, Fraser Coast Anglican College, QLD

Mr Don Stott, Trinity Grammar School, VIC

The Reverend Gary McLellan, St Andrew’s Anglican College, QLD The Reverend Kristy Ross, Melbourne Girls Grammar School, VIC

The Reverend Michael Lane, Pulteney Grammar School, SA

POSITIONS FOR CHAPLAINS Beaconhills College, VIC Brighton Grammar School, VIC Clarence Valley Anglican School, NSW

Editor’s Note

Anglican Schools Australia invites principals, chaplains and teachers, as well as chairs, governors and friends of Anglican schools to submit articles for publication in ASA NEWS. We are particularly interested in publishing articles about school Religious Studies, Service Learning and Indigenous programs. We welcome submissions of feature articles of approximately 10001500 words and news articles of 400-600 words, together with a selection of high quality digital images of 300 dpi.

Please email submissions to adann@asc.wa.edu.au.

Submissions are published at the discretion of the Editor.

John Wollaston Anglican Community School, WA Peter Carnley Anglican Community School, WA St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, WA

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Leadership and Wellbeing: Developing the Whole Person Educating the mind without educating the heart, is no education at all – Aristotle

By Debbie Dunwoody, Principal Camberwell Girls Grammar School, VIC

The Development of the Whole Person is one of the pillars in our Strategic Plan. We define it as nurturing the spiritual, academic, physical, emotional and social character of each girl to prepare her to embrace opportunities with confidence, resilience and a sense of responsibility for others.

At Camberwell Girls Grammar School (CGGS) we celebrate the important role of female leaders in our global community. We are committed to ensuring that we have a strong culture of developing leaders who care about others and engage in service that will make a positive difference to the lives of others. We also recognise that there is and should be, diversity in leadership in terms of leadership styles, responsibilities, initiatives and contributions. Through our leadership program we encourage a growth mindset, the importance of seeking feedback, reflection and learning from past experiences. Whilst some of our students hold formal leadership positions, others do not, yet are very effective leaders.

A worthwhile education is more than simply the acquisition of academic skills, it is also about providing a carefully crafted environment where students develop essential life skills, including leadership capabilities.

This may involve the ability to become more resilient in the face of adversity, feel more connected with people and their surroundings and lead with a servant heart. At CGGS the development of these skills is underpinned by our student wellbeing framework.

With these questions at the forefront, research and consultation was conducted using focus groups (students, staff and parents), curriculum mapping and needs analysis across our school (F-12), reviewing existing programs, evaluating national and international research-based wellbeing frameworks (such as PROSPER, PERMA, INSPIRE) as well as engaging with current research and evidence in the wellbeing space. Ultimately this led to short term and future focussed recommendations to strengthen, reframe and rethink the direction of our wellbeing programs in 2018 and beyond.

Kath and her team developed our own wellbeing definition: ‘At Camberwell Girls, wellbeing is visible and purposeful. It is underpinned by current research and is characterised by a sense of resilience, purpose, engagement and optimism about the future.

It is where students are connected with their community and the environment, demonstrate academic tenacity and are able to cultivate positive feelings, cognitions, behaviours and respectful relationships, which are nurtured by Anglican teachings and traditions.’

The development of a scope and sequence of programs followed and these now form part of an holistic wellbeing framework across Foundation to Year 12 focusing on achieving wellbeing across all health dimensions as indicated in the diagram below.

Wellbeing itself, and more specifically positive wellbeing, is a notion that many schools, businesses, policymakers and individuals aspire to achieve and improve. And yet, the concept of ‘wellbeing’ can be ambiguous and somewhat intangible, as well as difficult to describe and measure. There is no universally accepted definition, no concrete handbook and no framework that fits all situations and contexts.

In acknowledging this, in 2017 our Deputy Head of Senior School – Student Wellbeing, Kath Woolcock conducted an extensive whole school wellbeing review. Kath examined our current curriculum, programs, procedures and policies to ensure they reflected evidence based best practice. The review comprised of five key components: Research, Consultation, Evaluation, Planning and Implementation, and was driven by the following key questions: 1. What is our definition of Wellbeing?

2. What does Wellbeing look like in our School context?

3. How do our programs, policies and procedures reflect this understanding?

4. How does our Wellbeing framework meet the current strategic plan?

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This has been achieved by integrating evidenced based wellbeing practices into a dedicated, planned and coordinated series of Pastoral, Curricular, Co-Curricular and student led programs that focus on mental fitness training, explicit wellbeing curriculum and life skills.

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The Student Wellbeing Framework supports our leadership program and our Service Learning Framework, developed by our Head of Service Learning, Liss Campbell and her team.

The Senior School Deputy Heads team have been developing our leadership program; one aspect of which is the process for deciding formal student leadership positions each year. One of these positions is our Faith and Worship Captain. This role involves inviting students to reflect on their spiritual needs and longings, and to also offer a range of ways for students to connect with the sacred, such as through singing, praying, listening, interacting, being challenged. These opportunities occur in assemblies, worship services and other events. The Faith and Worship Captain also has some responsibility for nurturing the students who attend the weekly Christian group in the school.

The tradition and deep commitment to social justice and service learning at CGGS has been evident since the School’s inception in 1920. This is guided by our vision to be ‘a leader and innovator in the education of girls, dedicated to fostering a passion for learning and building a more just and sustainable world’ and is framed by our school motto, Utilis in Ministerium (Usefulness in Service), which is grounded in an Anglican Christian worldview. Our motto was chosen

by The Reverend James Schofield, the second Vicar of St Marks and Chairman of our School Council for 18 years.

In 2016 we reviewed our social justice program and it became clear that we needed to move from a charity focus to more of a learning relationship.

In this context we also decided that it was more accurate to refer to our Service Learning programs rather than Social Justice Programs.

Through our Service Learning Framework, our Head of Service Learning, Mrs Liss Campbell highlights that Service Learning begins with two premises. One is about the nature of the person and the other is about the nature of power. When we look at the nature of the person we know that a person is inseparable from community and when service happens in community and for community, both the community and the person are transformed.

Similarly, when looking at the nature of power it is important to understand that every human exchange or encounter is framed within a dynamic of power. Poverty is not just about the absence of shelter, food, health, water and work, but more about the absence of power to do anything about it. In this light, power is at the centre of service through the empowerment of others and the community in which we exist.

Liss concluded that Service is about being human with others in a way that enriches the other’s humanity; it is flourishing that leads to the flourishing of others. Service must always increase the freedom, the autonomy, the dignity and the power of those being served.

Our Camberwell Girls Service Model is comprised of four strands: Strand 1: Local Community Service Strand 2: Service to Indigenous Australians Strand 3: Global Service Strand 4: Environmental Stewardship In addition to co-curricular opportunities for student engagement, some of these strands are also linked to the curriculum. Strand 1 links with the Year 9 Service Learning curriculum with a focus on local disadvantaged, especially Youth Homelessness. Year 8 Service Learning curriculum is focused on Indigenous Australians and is linked to Strand 2. In Strand 3, the Year 10 Learning curriculum is focused on global issues for women, with a particular emphasis on Cambodia through our relationship with the Green Gecko Project. Environment Stewardship (Strand 4) forms part of the Year 7 curriculum and a number of co-curricular activities.

At Ormiston our Junior School, students are connected with opportunities to serve through Anglicare Winter Warmth programs, participating in the 40 Hour Backpack Challenge as well as visits to Hedley Sutton Aged Care.

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We are very proud of our relationships with a number of key organisations where Camberwell Girls are able to contribute in a meaningful way to their projects. Through the River Nile Learning Centre, Dream Stitches, the Salvation Army, Ladder and The Green Gecko Project we are privileged to learn with those we serve. We also engage with the community through events such as the Winter Sleepout, Relay for Life, Pink Ribbon Day, Project 10, Cold Day, National Reconciliation Week and the Anglicare Winter Warmth Appeal.

Service not only benefits those being served. Studies have also indicated that there are also benefits to those who serve, including greater connectedness to their communities, engagement in learning and enhanced personal and social skills. In serving others we learn about our global community and ourselves through commitment to our values through action. We are clearly guided by our Service Learning Framework in establishing and building long lasting connections with others and honouring the most Christian ideal of service.

At CGGS, we are proud of our commitment to the development of the whole person, recognising that wellbeing is central to this notion. Our wellbeing framework aims to develop our students’ pride, purpose and passion, ultimately helping them to leave the School as strong, independent and self-aware young women and leaders in creating a more just and sustainable world.

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What are we to do with what we have?

A Journey to Timor-Leste Radford College, ACT

Serving a school community can mean many things for a school chaplain. For Radford College’s Chaplain Richard Browning, a partnership with the community in Timor-Leste has been a life-changing experience, returning 11 times and taking students who are “open to having their world turned upside down”.

Here, Father Richard reflects on staff and student journeys to Timor-Leste over the past 10 years.

Juliao dos Santos, master capoeirista, youth leader, mentor, friend.

Just before this photo was taken he looked 2017 Radford travellers in the eye and without envy or sadness, stated plainly: “You. Have.

Everything.”

arrived at the following: why don’t we stand with our closest, poorest neighbour? Capital city to capital city, Dili is only a 65-minute flight from Darwin.

We have significant history, 2nd/2nd Independent companies engaged with the Japanese Imperial army and from INTERFET (International Force East Timor) on, we have Australian Federal Police, Australian Defence Force and a whole range of Non-Government Organisations, parents and community members with experience in Timor-Leste.

What was it about the country that drew you to travel there with students?

The students’ choice. It was as simple as that. We followed through with the decision they made. That was my job. And every year we have gone has affirmed how sound was that first decision.

To my shame – and probably everyone else’s – I knew NOTHING about Timor. Zero. Can you believe that? The reason Timor was put on the table is because Bridget Chivers-Kenneally was in Year 11. Her grand-father, Paddy, was a member of the 2nd/2nd and had returned many times behind Indonesian occupation and advocated on behalf of the Timorese.

It was only later that we learned of the Debt of Honour, the beauty of the land and the people and began to understand the wicked suffering under occupation, Australia’s complicity, outrageous poverty and the dignity of a people who had struggled against impossible odds and won their own sovereignty. This, with a geographically stunning landscape and incredible cultural diversity and expression, makes for a compelling partnership.

And what draws us back is simple: you have to return. You have to deepen what you start or what you started was a lie.

Do you remember that first trip? What you were all expecting?

What did you all find?

Ten days before we left for our very first trip to Timor, two students sat in my office and spoke bluntly: “Richo, (long pause). What actually are we doing in Timor?” The honest answer then and now was this: Starting something.

Without guilt or shame, it begs maybe one of the most important questions: what are we to do with what we have?

LESSONS FROM TIMOR-LESTE: Juliao dos Santos.

Photo: Hugo Webster

How did you first connect with the people of Timor Leste?

In 2008 we opened up a question to the students of the secondary campus. If Radford was to begin a partnership with a community overseas, where should it be? The students advocated for different proposals: an orphanage in Africa, an Oak Tree project in the Philippines, a relationship in the Solomon Islands through AngliCORD; Timor.

The debate was extremely robust, intelligent, articulate. There was some anxiety from senior staff around how best to live with a ‘bad’ decision. In the end, the students themselves cut away the dross and

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In 2009 there were hundreds and hundreds of UN personnel on the ground in Timor. There were still thousands of internally displaced persons from the 2006 troubles. I travelled with an amazing colleague, Tina Crane and fourteen very capable students. The first time Tina or I put a foot on the ground in Timor was behind the students who got off the plane first!

Were you supposed to do risk assessments back then? Our whole risk management plan shook down to one remarkable woman: Maria Neves. She was our host, guide, translator, cultural bridge and became our friend, mentor, advocate and counterpoint.

That first trip was one of constant rebirthing. Every day and almost every corner, brought an experience, an encounter, a friendship that, quite literally blew what we knew right out of the water. It was like we were writing the script to a movie with every step as we went along and then filmed it. Literally.

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Very early on in the trip a student said: “I came here really as a tag along with friends, sceptical to all this business. But I am undone.

This has totally grabbed me. I am in with all that I have.” That same student returned years later to speak at Dirrum Festival and gave an outstanding address on Sustainable Justice. That first year led to a documentary made by the students: 42 Footsteps. That became a Tetum language reader as did the story of the trip of the following year. What did we find? A reason for Radford to return every year with wide eyed, open students.

You’ve reflected on 10 years’ worth of questions and lessons from the Timor-Leste trips for the book I Just Want To Make A Difference. Is there a common theme to these questions and lessons?

Plenty, but they have to be experienced and discovered. You can’t just be told. Some of those themes would be: • Happiness has minimal connection to money.

• Depression and anxiety lives where we do.

• The way to unlock really rich experiences is to give yourself wholly to each moment.

• Say hello more. To more people more often.

• Ask good questions.

• See and see again.

• Why are we not more grateful?

• Why are we not more generous? (Personally, and as a nation) • How can the Timorese be so forgiving?

• What do I now do with what I have experienced?

Note, it is much harder to return home and be confronted with our waste, our luxury, our excesses, our devotion to pixels, our inattention to each other and what really matters. And it takes years to live into that final question.

In many of the student reflections, they seem conflicted by the experience, perhaps best summed up by the question “What actually were we doing there?” Do they always find the answers

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to questions like these? Do they always resolve this conflict within them?

That students often ask this question I think is an indication that we are doing something right. When a seventeen-year-old student has no language, professional skill or cultural background and camps in a foreign land for fourteen days, it serves no one any good that they can feel ‘helpful’. Certainly not the local community and not even the students themselves.

One of our guiding questions is ‘how can you give power to the powerless without diminishing, patronising or dehumanising the other?’ The students work out the starting point: ‘we are not the one’s with answers’; ‘we go as learners, not as experts’; ‘the Timorese are extraordinarily resilient, humorous, generous, intelligent, gracious’. In the end, the remarkable ones are the Timorese. This is not a concept but a reality to experience. Whenever we tell of the experiences, the expectation is that we put ourselves at the centre of the story, when the truth is, the Timorese are the mighty ones.

Of course, education is the best metaphor for bestowing power that allows the ‘other’ to lift themselves up. Working this out is one of the most wonderful things a travelling Radford student can gain because it sets themselves up for a lifetime of engaging, working and walking alongside.

The work of ‘resolution’ is not so easy. Poverty truly sucks. The trauma of violence runs deep and can pass across generations. Cerebral atrophy from childhood protein energy malnutrition is irreparable.

Intractable unemployment is an impossible and dehumanising barrier. If the experience is real, then there is nothing that can easily be resolved. Wealth distribution is unequal and callous. The only way to ‘resolve’ this easily is to forget – put the experience behind and move swiftly on to the next. True resolution only comes with a longer period of living face forward to the recently made Timorese friends and living in a way that honours the encounter and is intentional about who we walk with and how.

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heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ), intelligently, compassionately and move beyond good intentions and impassioned busyness; beyond veiled instruments for delivering faith based or politically contrived agendas; and move way beyond self-referencing good works?

The experience leads us back to two questions and where it all starts, but now with renewed insight: Who am I? How am I to live out my life with meaning, and with whom?

Early in my experiences of Timor I was greatly influenced by my Aunty, Valerie who works among the Afar of Ethiopia. I was reading Paolo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ and touching on some work

by Saul Alinsky and the Alliance movement. I came to the conclusion that every virtue, including compassion, has the potential to cause harm. All these things came together in a very simple phrase which from early on, has been the guiding mantra for our friendships in Timor-Leste: never to not for but with.

Photo: Juliao dos Santos

Is it overstating the experience to describe it as life-changing?

I never say life-changing. The students are the only ones who can say so, and only after they have done more living than talking. For the Timorese? The answer is absolutely, but this is a more nuanced story to be told.

For me, personally? Yes. Totally life changing. My whole family has been to Timor. I have had many Timorese stay in my home. We have worked hard to assist with the education of what are now friends from Timor.

I have learnt, oh my goodness I have learnt, so much and my whole understanding of compassion and justice have been turned upside down. And I have returned eleven times and I continue to return, taking students who are open to having their world turned upside down.

What is the key question and the key lesson you’ve brought away from 10 years of returning to Timor-Leste?

This is a great question and probably lies somewhere near the heart of my impulse to write the book ‘I just want to make a difference’. How can we mobilise more effective work for a shared and common good?

How can people, the young especially, be encouraged in this work and avoid the pitfalls inherent in any phrase that begins with ‘I just want’? How can we give power away (giving away power is at the

From the Timorese I have learnt incalculable lessons. Each one of these I can elaborate on in great detail, but shall leave as bites: • violence is learnt and contagious.

• corrupted trust destroys community.

• forgiveness works (and is a self-healing act of courage and grace) and creates a future of renewed possibility.

• from the struggle for independence to maritime boundary negotiations, the story of Timor-Leste shines brightly: even in the face of overwhelming and utterly impossible obstacles, NEVER EVER give up the struggle.

• Self-determination is worth the struggle; language and land are inseparable from sovereignty; language, story, memory and land are central to identity.

• The victim, when resurgent and triumphant, does not have to become the oppressor.

I do not place the Timorese on a pedestal. Like here in Australia, corruption and nepotism are real problems and their economy is fragile. However, I am not the only one to see in the Timorese an intelligence that the world would do well to witness and copy. It is acted out in so many simple ways, but simply put, for ‘us’ to prosper, all have to prosper, even former enemies. This is an extraordinary transformative principle with the power to heal peoples and nations.

HAPPINESS: Father Richard Browning in Timor Leste.

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Wellbeing a pet project at Ivanhoe Grammar Ivanhoe Grammar School, VIC

When they are feeling the pressure of an upcoming test or class presentation, Ivanhoe Grammar School students know where to turn for help.

Registered therapy dog Nick the greyhound makes regular visits to greet them for a friendly stress-relieving pat.

Nick’s calming presence on campus is one of several initiatives introduced by the school’s Wellbeing Prefects, who play a significant role in its student welfare program.

Led by the school’s pastoral staff, psychologists and four chaplains including The Reverend Kirsten Winkett, Ivanhoe Grammar School’s Wellbeing Program is comprehensive and far-reaching.

FIRM FAVOURITE: Tao Chen and Alyce Miles with Nick the Greyhound

It supports students and encourages them to help others through The Brotherhood of St Laurence’s Urban Camp and the school’s annual Cambodia Service Trip.

Urban Camp sees students work with underprivileged Melbourne families, seniors and refugees. The Cambodia trip sees them teach locals English and help with community projects.

This year’s Wellbeing Prefects, Tao Chen, Allegra Sanderson (The Ridgeway Campus) and Flynn Simsek (Plenty Campus) have also promoted afternoon yoga, table tennis, cooking, gym and basketball.

Tao says Nick started as a therapy dog for Year 12 students but those across year levels now enjoy his visits, which helps create a greater sense of community.

“Studies have shown that dogs are able to calm and relax people in stressful times,” Tao says.

“Having Nick come to the school allows people to forget about school for a couple of minutes, which helps to relieve stress and anxiety levels of students or even to come and see a friendly face.”

Ivanhoe Grammar School Lay Chaplain Andrew Fox joined the school in 1992 as a teacher and has helped run its Wellbeing Program since 2001. Now Assistant Chaplain/Co-Director Charity Committee, Mr Fox said Wellbeing Prefects were introduced several years ago.

He said schools had become much better at recognising and dealing with mental health issues among students. Part of that was listening to them and what they need.

“It’s all well and good for adults to come up with what we think kids need,” he said.

“It’s really important that we listen to what they’re actually saying that they need … and then refine what we do through their lens.”

Allegra said good wellbeing was important to a person’s overall health, and a good attitude and positive mindset allowed us to feel good about ourselves and cope with normal daily stressors.

She said it also made it a lot easier to form positive relationships with friends and teachers.

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WELCOME VISITOR: Nick the greyhound visits Ivanhoe Grammar School

“Our yoga sessions allow students to relieve stress from the heavy workload in Year 12,” she said.

“We have also opened the program to Year 12 teachers, with the aim to build on those relationships and have a positive start to their teaching day - also putting them into a good mood.”

Plenty Campus Wellbeing Prefect Flynn Simsek has also promoted sessions on life skills, dealing with stress, how to study, healthy relationships and financial literacy.

“I have also helped run wellbeing sessions for students in younger levels,” Flynn says.

“These activities, whether they apply directly to personal wellbeing or not, aid in strengthening our wellbeing by helping us deal with uncertainties that we deal with now, or that lie ahead of us.”

Flynn advises other students to make time for hobbies and activities that make them happy.

“Personally, I like to deal with challenges by working through them, planning what needs to be done and making the challenge seem smaller,” he said.

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WELLBEING TIPS

By Wellbeing Prefects Tao Chen and Allegra Sanderson

• Focus on the positives, while acknowledging that we all have ups and downs and make mistakes.

• Take regular study breaks, leave the house, take a walk and enjoy nature.

• Interacting with nature will improve overall mood and quality of life. It will also help you to concentrate in class and hopefully achieve your goals.

• Setting goals can help you to focus.

• Exercise can help form good habits and releases positive hormones that make you feel good.

• If stressors become overwhelming it is extremely important to seek help.

• Schools offer many resources to help students get through stressful times.

• Seek help from House mentors (or other responsible students) who are there to help CALMING PRESENCE: Tess Tsindos from Delta Therapy Dogs and Wellbeing Prefect Tao Chen with Nick the greyhound

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Experience in Martu culture bridges the gap

By Matthew Berg, Head of Learning Enrichment (7-12) St Paul’s Grammar School, NSW

In the July 2018 school holidays, seventeen Secondary School students and two teachers from St Paul’s Grammar School embarked on a service learning trip to Western Australia.

The aim of the trip was to provide an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in Martu culture, one of the oldest cultures in the world.

The trip was supported by Rustic Pathways and Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ), a Martu Cultural Knowledge Programme that aims to develop sustainable programmes for the Martu communities. This particular trip supported KJ’s leadership programme, which enables the Martu people to express, teach and discuss aspects of their culture with the students.

The group departed from Sydney, NSW and arrived in Newman, WA. From there they travelled to Yulpu to set up camp, which is approximately 50km outside the community of Parnngurr.

Students participated in Martu Wangka language lessons, recent history lessons of the Martu people regarding the changes to the last two generations as well as learning about how the Martu leadership programme aims to bridge the gap between their culture and mainstream Australia.

The students also had the opportunity to hear from Martu Elders, such as Thelma Judson. She was born in the desert and spoke about the traditional way of life and her experience of seeing white people for the first time in 1964.

The Martu people shared how they used songlines to find water holes (soaks) in the middle of the desert and also guided students to view some sacred waterholes. Students slept in tents each night and experienced different types of bush tucker such as bush turkey, kangaroo and honey ants.

On the second part of the trip, students visited Karijini National Park.

They hiked through the Weano Gorge (handrail pool), which provided the opportunities for students to challenge themselves in physically demanding situations.

The group then set off to Coral Bay for the last part of the trip. Here they experienced the beautiful Ningaloo Reef. Students were lucky enough to snorkel with manta rays, sea turtles and view an abundance of other flora and fauna in the World Heritage-listed site.

TRADITIONS: Learning to track local wildlife.

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Student Reflections “One of the most rewarding aspects of the trip was seeing God’s beautiful creation unscathed and in the loving hands of the Martu people. The scenery around us was so mesmerising and we were in total awe of the land and the people keeping it healthy. Serving with the KJ (Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa) rangers and Martu communities from Newman, Jigalong and Parnngurr was an extraordinarily high honour and we have grown so much respect for the people we worked with and what they stand for. Learning about the Martu culture and immersing ourselves in that culture was life-changing and for many of us, it has opened our eyes about Indigenous Australia.

As we strive to follow Jesus’ example, we should be seeking opportunities to serve not only our own communities, but in diverse communities around Australia and around the world. This may mean being challenged by alternative faith systems such as that which we encountered. These opportunities can strengthen our own faith as we reflect on what we believe and can challenge us to consider how we are called to serve and love all of God’s people”.

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Keaton Daniels Year 10 Student “It was such an amazing experience to immerse ourselves in the Martu culture for five days and not only to be able to learn about their traditions and history, but also participate in some of their day to day activities such as hunting, as well as going to some of their waterholes to which they hold the upmost care and protection over. We spent the mornings of each day going out exploring and learning about their land and their ways of surviving and spent the afternoons hanging around the camp with the Martu people, where we were able to talk to the elders about their experiences and ask them questions. Many of us also spent our afternoons playing AFL with the Martu children or sitting playing UNO with them.

The first night when we arrived in the community, we were humbly and keenly welcomed by all the Martu people. They had already been hunting that day and were preparing dinner when we had arrived, so once we had all got our tents set up, we went and got involved in helping them. That night we huddled around the fire and a comment that was shared by many students, was how peaceful and calm they felt. “

PHOTO OP: Stopping at the Rabbit Proof Fence on the way to Yulpu campsite in t

Natalie Willis Year 10 Student

FUN TIMES: Students playing a game of AFL at the Yulpu campsite near Parnngu

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the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

urr.

BEAUTIFUL SIGHT: Students spot a turtle while snorkelling at Ningaloo Reef, Coral Bay.

CULTURAL LESSONS: Some of Martu Leadership Team speaking about their aims to bridge the gap between their culture and mainstream Australia.

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Connor’s Run Goes Deep for Brighton Grammar Students Brighton Grammar School, VIC

The magician, the sage, the warrior and the caregiver – these four symbolic images are referenced often within the student community at Brighton Grammar, a single-campus boys’ school in Bayside Melbourne.

After discussions among themselves, the senior students chose these archetypes as representations of those patterns of behaviour required to become a ‘successful man’. Each student in the Secondary School has spent time reflecting on how elements of all the archetypes are present within his own character. And ‘B2M’, an experiential learning program launched recently by the school, is also based around these archetypes.

The B2M program focuses on student leadership and wellbeing at a complex time in the students’ lives. Spanning Years 9 and 10, the program and has been designed to support the boys as they transition from boys to young men. It runs alongside the academic, co-curricular and pastoral care programs but reaches into the dayto-day curriculum at every point. It gives the students a chance to explore in depth the qualities that will ensure their own wellbeing and those of their peers, before they’re plunged into the challenges of VCE. Over two years, each student chooses to take part in activities across a number of components. ‘Service’ activities include ‘living in’ for a week at the Brotherhood of St Laurence and social problemsolving through human-centred design. For their outdoor educational journey, a student might walk the Goolarabooloo’s Lurujarri Heritage Trail or visit the Martyrs Memorial School in PNG, with which Brighton Grammar has a long association.

The boys are challenged to disrupt old-school male stereotypes, to ‘build emotional muscle’ and to take part in no-holds-barred conversations with their mates in ‘Tomorrow Man’ workshops. (The impact of these workshops has been profound. To hear a 15-year-old boy speak with such empathy for his peers, and with such honesty about his own vulnerabilities and struggles, is rare.) Near the end of Year 10, together with their father or another male mentor, each boy takes part in the ‘Making of Men’ rites of passage experience, after which he is welcomed back into the community as a young man, ready to lead the school as a VCE student.

Connor’s Run is part of the service component of B2M. All Year 9 students take part in this annual fundraising event for the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation, which supports research into brain cancer. Brighton Grammar has an intimate relationship with the RCD Foundation; Connor was a student at BGS throughout his school life.

In 2011, near the end of his Year 11 year, Connor was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Although unwell, he continued to attend school during Year 12 as much as he could. He passed away early in 2013.

All Year 9 students either train for and complete Connor’s Run (18.8km or 9.6km) as part of the Brighton Grammar community team, or work for the event in a support capacity. Of the 4000 runners registered for the 2018 run, 200-plus are from the Brighton Grammar community team. Peter Shepard, Deputy Head of Secondary School at Brighton Grammar and coordinator of the B2M program, says that Connor’s Run is a vital part of the program because it “connects the students to the wider community and a bigger purpose”. In particular, it brings out the ‘caregiver’ component in each student, as he works as part of a team to support a cause.

Connor’s Run is a highlight of the school’s calendar and a benchmark for the students. For most of the other components of the B2M program, the boys are split into groups; Connor’s Run brings them together as a cohort within the wider school community. After the event, their sense of wellbeing is heightened; not only have many of them challenged themselves physically, they have supported their peers, developed their leadership skills, been part of a community team and contributed to a wider cause. Through this single event, they have connected with their internal magician, their sage, their warrior and their caregiver.

CONNOR’S RUN: Brighton Grammar students participate in Connor’s Run each year.

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ASA Conference – Sydney 2018 More than 360 delegates from Anglican schools around the nation gathered in Sydney in August for the annual ASA Conference.

The Sydney Organising Committee, headed by Chair Philip Heath, presented a range of high quality keynote speakers to explore the theme of ‘Deep Peace’, in a stunning setting at the International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour, Sydney.

With entertainment from student musicians from Sydney Anglican schools, including a mixed choir, the program presented a range of ways in which we can work towards Deep Peace.

St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School Principal Lynne Thomson was the recipient of the 2018 Life Membership Award for her commitment to Anglican schooling as well as to ASA. A further 12 people received ten-year recognition awards for their commitment to ASA. Photos courtesy of The School Photographer.

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1. LIFE MEMBER: ASA President Dr Mark Sly presented the 2018 ASA Life Membership Award to Mrs Lynne Thomson.

2. SYDNEY: The Conference was held at the International Convention Centre.

3. COMMITMENT: ASA recognises individual commitment to ASA by awarding a lapel pin to delegates who have attended 10 ASA conferences.

4. CELEBRATION: Conference Committee Chair and Barker College Head Philip Heath with All Saints Anglican School Council Chair John Fradgley.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Welcome to Country 6. DISAGREEING WELL: Dr Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney was a keynote speaker.

7. KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Academic Dr Kerry Howells spoke on Deep Gratitude.

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Helping our Students to Disconnect Dr Julie Wilson Reynolds, Principal St Hilda’s School, QLD

We all know that being connected to others is essential – so the title of this article might sound counter intuitive. It tells the story of an initiative that has really taken off at St Hilda’s School, and which has prompted hundreds of our girls to rethink how and when they use technology.

Earlier this year at assembly, I offered a gift to our students. It had begun with a conversation about positive relationships and how messaging others very late at night can be problematic, and how research has shown that putting aside our technology at night can help us enjoy more sleep. So, in response to this, I offered to buy an alarm clock for any girl who would commit to putting away her technology at night. I suggested they recruit a support person – maybe a parent or sibling.

I asked the girls to email me why they would like a clock and I was completely taken aback with the responses. I thought I might need to buy a dozen clocks. I am pleased to say, I have given away nearly 200 alarm clocks!

We live in a world that says it is good to be connected, and it is bad to be disconnected.

We all do it. I check emails when on holidays. I ask my daughter to message me when she arrives somewhere. Sometimes we even message people when we are in the same room.

We try hard not to be disconnected, and sometimes we even become afraid of it. Have you ever sat on a plane on a runway and texted a friend or family member knowing that when the plane takes off you will be unable to communicate and it seems strange, annoying and disturbingly uncomfortable?

So, the message we get is: ‘Connected is good, disconnected is bad’.

But what if always being connected isn’t all we think it is? Media critic and philosopher William Powers, author of “Hamlet’s Blackberry – Building a Good life in the Digital Age”, puts it like this: “The digital crowd frames and defines our expression. This makes us more reactive, our thinking dependent on others. To be hooked up to the crowd all day is a particular way to go through life.”

He argues very powerfully that having times of disconnection can be very good. In fact, being disconnected can give you space, time and permission to be yourself. Disconnecting from technology can help you to be reflective and creative rather than reactive. Rather than hearing everyone else’s voices, you give yourself the gift of time to hear your own voice. Powers argues: “To enjoy your own company is to be at ease not just with yourself, but with everyone and everything in the universe. When you’re inwardly content, you don’t need others to prop you up, so you can think about them more freely and generously.”

The clock I have given our girls is a gift – it is a way to wake up without a phone or an iPad by your pillow. But it is more than that. It is symbolic of a decision to take time to disconnect. To let your mind wander. To find peace in your own thoughts and view of the world. To give you space to sleep and dream uninterrupted. To know that you are enough and you don’t need others to be telling you who you are or how valuable you should feel. It is a symbol of freedom.

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If the girls emailed me, I bought them each a clock. The emails were amazing, some girls expressed their own thoughts about technology and its power over us. Here is an excerpt from one of the emails: “On Monday night I was having dinner with friends …I had forgotten my phone ….I was just so surprised by what was happening around me. I was sitting on a table with all my friends and during the dinner there was no interaction at all between us. Everyone was sitting there on their phones.

As I didn’t have my phone on me I was bored and wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I then tried to have a conversation with the girl sitting next to me and it wasn’t great because she wasn’t engaging with me.

This helped me realise the kind of world we live in. As much as I love my phone I believe that there are times when it should be put away. I haven’t brought my phone to school all week and haven’t used it much at home as it is test week and I have been trying to focus. I was so surprised by how much work I had gotten done without having my phone there to distract me. …. I think it would be a great idea to have an alarm clock. …

This week has been so great and I just feel like a much happier person!”

This reflective St Hilda’s student understands the argument Powers proposes: “Our computers and mobile devices do wonderful things for us. But they also impose a burden, making it harder for us to focus, do our best work, build strong relationships, and find the depth and fulfillment we crave.”

Already we have seen that this little clock has helped our girls to start letting go of that burden. How fabulous that a simple gift might be a first step towards developing focus, good study, building strong relationships and finding depth and fulfilment. To follow up on the program, we surveyed the girls and the results were stunning. The data shows that the clocks have not only helped them to sleep better but have empowered them to reconsider their broader use of technology.

At St Hilda’s, we are inspiring our young women to achieve their full potential. We are optimistic that our girls will continue to think deeply about the ways they engage with their world through technology and will feel evermore confident to make time to disconnect.

TIME TO DISCONNECT: Year 12 students Anna Finlayson and Chiara Hilson with St Hilda’s School Principal Dr Julie Wilson Reynolds.

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Servant Leadership

By The Reverend Matt Shorten

Chaplain’s Column

Recently I heard a quote about leadership in a church setting but I believe the principle applies in school settings equally well. If I was any kind of record keeper I could tell you who they were, but administration is not one of my gifts.

The person said something along the lines that there were hundreds of conferences for ministers and religious leaders to go to on the subject matter of ‘leadership’ and none on being a servant. He went on to say that this was a great irony considering that in the New Testament the term leader or leadership is hardly ever mentioned and yet the idea of servant comes up hundreds of times. It begs the question, how many of our school professional development days are dedicated to leadership or leadership type activities and how many are to do with being an effective servant?

I ask this question in the context of our Anglican setting where we are following Jesus’ example of servant leadership. His demonstration of washing the disciples’ feet leaves no doubt about his model of leadership. Remember, he even washed the feet of Judas who would betray him, Peter who would disown him and the others who would abandon him. I’m sure a few Principals can resonate with this story.

Yet surely Jesus’ active demonstration of servant leadership is one that has had a greater impact on the world in which we live than any other. Whether or not we go to a PD on servant leadership or not, I see it being lived out by Anglican School employees across the country every day. It is in this modelling that our students can be inspired to be servant leaders too. Let me share with you two stories from my own experience that are interconnected and display something of how servant leadership is caught.

The first is a currently unfolding story. Two of our Year 9 students are running a lunchtime discipleship group for Year 7’s. At the moment, only about three students from Year 7 attend, but at the same time, over the course of the last few months, several other Year 9 friends have been coming along to find out what is happening. The two students take time out every few weekends to plan the lunchtime gatherings which include games, a Bible study and intentional catching up. They sacrifice one of their lunches to run the group and do so without direct supervision. They are living out in the school setting who they feel called to be as Christians in a way that nurtures the faith lives of those younger than them.

because she wanted to give back something of what she received as a student. On completion of her degree she ended up back at our school as a primary school teacher and grew in her skills and abilities.

She was the type of person who readily put her hand up for those activities that went the extra mile for others. Deeply compassionate, hard-working and insightful, it wasn’t long before she also embarked on her Masters which is now completed. In all of this she still felt called to serve in a way beyond the classroom.

A few years ago, she approached me and our church’s Youth and Children’s minister to see if she could help run our tween/teen youth group. We were ecstatic as we knew how gifted she is, but also how humble and hungry to learn. Salina has grown so much over the last few years as a servant leader and is modelling to our young people what this looks like. She has moved on to another school where she continues to grow but has taken with her all those attributes that were first learnt at our school. Her faith life has moved from genuine enquiry through to active and life-giving action. And our youth group kids adore her and want to be like her, especially the girls. And in three years’ time we will need to call her Dr Salina as she completes her PhD. Servant leadership takes many forms in an Anglican school. I have seen over the years that there are elements that can be taught, but it is, on the whole, caught. As our students watch us in action they will be assessing whether our actions match our words. Servant leadership starts from the Head and filters through the staff to the students. Can our students sense Jesus washing their feet in the subtext of our lives? I surely hope so. Our world is crying out for servant leaders. Who knows, you may well discover Australia’s next top model of servant leadership through your own humble inspirational actions!

What sits in the background of this story is that they have been attending both our local Anglican church as well as youth group. Here it has been modelled to them what servant leadership looks like. They are taking what they have experienced as recipients of servanthood and transforming it into action in their own lives. Subsequently they simultaneously model it to the generation that is only two years younger as well as some of their peers. Yes, occasionally they need some gentle verbal instructions, but, on the whole, their actions of servant leadership have been by watching, reflecting and copying.

The second story I wanted to share is one that dates back more than a decade and is growing momentum. Salina was a student of our school who graduated back in 2009. Her faith life was in a formative stage whilst at school and the first seeds of servant leadership were being sown at school. After graduation Salina chose to train as a teacher

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SERVANT LEADERS: Members of our Anglican Church Youth Group show a picture of four generations of servant leaders. Eight members also attend our local Anglican school.

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Kokoda challenges body and mind St Andrew’s Anglican College, QLD

Courage and teamwork were in full display as 174 St Andrew’s Anglican College runners took on the annual Kokoda Challenge, a gruelling endurance event with a top distance of 48 kilometres.

The Brisbane Kokoda Challenge is an annual event located throughout the D’Aguilar National Park with three distances for teams to choose to participate including 15, 30 and 48 kilometres. Proceeds go to the Kokoda Youth Foundation, a charity founded by Vietnam veteran Doug Henderson OAM.

GIRL POWER: Staff member Brie Murphy runs with her team, Lara P, Lara D, Faith and Livvi.

This is the second year in a row St Andrew’s has won the challenge, with a Year 8 team conquering the 48 kilometre event ahead of 98 teams.

Team member William said the challenge was definitely not easy, with the team running 13 kilometres each week and occasionally a longer run on the weekend.

“The race day came much quicker than we all thought, everyone was a bit nervous and the cold definitely did not help,” he said.

“We all had so much energy until the big hills came up at about the 30-kilometre mark; this is when we started to struggle. At different times different team members were struggling, but lucky for us we were all encouraging each other and helping the people who needed it at that time.

WINNERS: The winning 48km team William, Harry, Max, Luca and Mr Alex Austin.

“The last 3 kilometres felt like they went on forever, but it was all worth it when we finally saw the finish line. It was the best feeling ever crossing the line as a team and everyone was so surprised to see that the first team to cross the finish line was a team of Year 8’s!”

St Andrew’s Director of Sport Steve Robson said this was the ninth year St Andrew’s had participated.

“It is tough, it is a challenge, it tests you mentally and physically, but it gives you so much. I hope that everyone reflects on how well they dealt with the challenge,” Mr Robson said.

“The challenge is full of the unexpected, unplanned and unprepared for, but most importantly thousands of dollars are raised for charity to support young people.”

STOKED: SAAC Stokers team Liam, Madeline, Alexa, Jolie and Jai.

Mr Robson urged students to reflect on the challenge and adapt lessons to other parts of their lives.

“When you look back on the race, even with its curveballs and spanners thrown, the demanding decisions made and the tricky choices you faced – you will remember how you dealt with those situations, how you answered those questions and how you adapted,” he said.

For more information on the Kokoda Youth Foundation and annual Challenge, visit https://www.kokodachallengeevents.com/

START LINE: And they’re off!

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September 2018 ISSUE • Your Yourfuture. future.

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Practical love unites school communities Gippsland Grammar School, VIC

While there are many differences between Gippsland Grammar and Gahini Secondary School, in Rwanda, the connection and relationships they share never wavers. During term two delegates from Africa visited Gippsland Grammar on a professional development tour.

Gahini Principal Luke Karemangingo and Bishop Manaseh from the Gahini Diocese spent time learning more about the way ‘they do things’ at the successful independent school, which has campuses in Sale and Bairnsdale.

Mr Karemangingo, a father of three children, enjoyed connecting with students. He told the story of Rwanda - a story of tragedy and genocide, filled with trauma and tragedy – but also a story of healing, reconciliation and hope.

For more than 10 years the two schools have enjoyed a partnership.

Each community has enjoyed the ripple effect of the ‘practical love’. Annually, Gippsland Grammar students, as an alternative to ‘schoolies’, visit Rwanda to enhance the understanding of the philosophy of service learning which has had a positive impact on both the Rwandan and Australian students.

Rwanda has grown to be the second fastest growing economy in Africa, one of the continent’s safest and most stable countries and one of its most progressive.

“It’s about the respect they have for each other’s students, teachers and community. It’s about being connected, understanding and appreciating different cultures and feeling valued as part of the international world in which we all live,” Gippsland Grammar Principal David Baker said.

The visitors expressed their gratitude to the Gippsland Grammar community, which has for the last four years fundraised to help build a science laboratory in Gahini. African students are now reaping the rewards according to Gahini Principal Luke Karemangingo.

“We live in a country where it has not been pleasant for a very long time. We now have hope, you have never pitied us, and you help us make a greater future for us and our country,” he said.

Gahini Secondary School is a boarding school with 946 students and just 32 teachers. Each bunk-house has beds stacked four high.

During term breaks, Rwandan boarders return home to work in the fields and on farms alongside their parents. In contrast, boarders at Gippsland Grammar enjoy twin rooms with its own ensuite and attend small classes within a contemporary learning environment connected by the very best of technology.

“We do not want to be seen as ‘do gooders’ who do things for others because we think it is what they need,” Mr Baker said.

“The underlying philosophy of service learning is not doing things to or for others but doing things with others.

“Being loved and supported by the global community is important to all of us.”

“It’s time for us to say thanks, thanks for showing practical love. We value your friendship and knowledge very, very much.”

During the visit, Mr Karemangingo said he was most interested in the way Gippsland Grammar was keeping students safe with its child protection policies as well as the Pathways Program providing extra assistance to students who required additional or different strategies to learn. He explained that many Rwandan students suffered disease and blindness, which challenged the school and staff.

Gippsland Grammar’s holistic approach to learning also impressed Mr Karemangingo. He dreams of setting up a garden to grow vegetables and a pen to rear chickens, which will be followed by cooking classes teaching students to cook their produce, just like the Gippsland Grammar VCAL (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) program.

Mr Karemangingo and Bishop Manaseh visited local farms inspecting different irrigation systems to gather knowledge to take back to their country.

“We have lots of hunger in the dry season,” Mr Karemangingo said.

“We too could use sprinklers. One of your teachers showed me an off-grid pedalled machine that could help us pump water to where it is needed.”

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1. LIFE LESSONS: Bishop Manaseh from the Gahini Diocese talking to students in the chapel of St Anne’s at Gippsland Grammar’s Garnsey Campus. | 2. PARTNERSHIP: Rwandan visitors Bishop Manaseh and Luke Karemangingo enjoy a laugh with Gippsland Grammar chaplain Reverend Rich Lanham as they wander around the school grounds. | 3. VALUED VISITOR: Gahini High School Principal Luke Karemangingo in one of Gippsland Grammar’s science classes with Year 11 students.

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Compassion and Community key to Flinders Buddies

By Frances Gillies, Editorial Communications Coordinator Matthew Flinders Anglican College, QLD

Students at Matthew Flinders Anglican College on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast are learning the importance of compassion and community as they continue to host new Australians as part of the Buddies Refugee Support program.

Flinders formed a charity partnership with Buddies Refugee Support in 2017 to support the work of a group of passionate people who advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers.

One of Buddies’ key programs is to offer a Sunshine Coast homestay experience paired with a week-long English language and cultural awareness program, hosted by one of three local schools, including Flinders.

During April this year, Flinders hosted a Buddies group of 30 new Australians from a variety of nations, including from Eritrea, Syria and Palestine.

Six Flinders students and their families, together with Flinders Chaplain, The Reverend Lizzie Gaitskell, welcomed the group and facilitated events at beautiful locations on the Sunshine Coast.

The group enjoyed afternoon beach barbecues and games on Mooloolaba Beach, as well as a feast of international foods at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Buderim, to celebrate the group’s different cultural dishes.

This is the second time Flinders has had the opportunity to engage in a ministry that is profoundly practical, and the College is looking forward to a fruitful partnership, which builds connections with other Sunshine Coast schools.

Reverend Lizzie said the Flinders students and their families found the experience personally rewarding and agreed it gave life to the core Flinders values of compassion, respect, courage and integrity.

“Our young people, through Buddies, have had powerful personal encounters with people who are often ‘othered’ with political rhetoric, and have walked away with richer understandings of what it’s like to be forced from your home and your nation, completely reliant on the hospitality of strangers,” she said.

Flinders students are looking forward to participating in the Buddies Refugee Support program in September, hosted by Immanuel Lutheran College.

“I’ve often found it is in situations where we imagine we’ll be there to answer the questions and provide the solutions that we are surprised by the gentle paradox of service: we get more than we feel we’ve given,” Reverend Lizzie said.

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"Buddies was a chance to open a door for those who have and will continue to be faced with a plethora of closed doors. It was a mutually beneficial opening of symbolic borders and divisions and an example of tangible, yet secular, meaningful positive action by the church."

Zayn Al-TImimi, Year 12 Prefect and Buddies volunteer

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Leadership a family affair for Laura “I believe that leadership is leading from the back, not showing everyone what to do and telling them how to do it.

It’s letting people find their own way and guiding them if they need the help.”

Canberra Girls Grammar School, ACT

Those are the words of Laura Francis, Year 12 Student and Service Captain at Canberra Girls Grammar School. Laura knows something about leadership, both through her time in her current position at the school and having watched two of her sisters hold the position before her. But the position wasn’t always titled Service Captain.

The stripy shirt, which you can see Laura wearing in the accompanying picture, is a shirt that all the young women who sit on the Girls Grammar’s Senior Council wear.

Reflecting on why she wanted to be Service Captain, Laura said: “I know life is difficult, I know it will never be easy, but If I can make it easier for someone, even just a bit, I would like to try. The most important thing, I think, is people’s wellbeing.”

All journeys end eventually, and for Laura the end of her journey through Canberra Girl’s Grammar School means she’s ready to take the next step in her life.

“I know I want to go to university, hopefully in Melbourne because it’s a really great city. I don’t know what I want to do there yet, maybe a Bachelor of Arts. But I’ll definitely be coming back for reunions,” she said.

“It used to be Chapel Captain and that was very much religion based.

Sarah, my eldest sister, she was Chapel Captain. And I think a year after they changed it to Service,” Laura said.

“They changed it to try and get everyone a bit more involved. Some people just don’t like religion, and that’s absolutely fine, but it’s the values that are the most important part. It was the values that they really wanted people to get more into, not necessarily just believing, but actually doing.”

Canberra Girls Grammar, or St Gabriel’s School, as it was called when it first opened in 1926, was founded by the Community of the Sisters of the Church. Laura says she sees the Service Captain position as a way of acknowledging that history.

“None of us would be here without those nuns and I think it’s really amazing what they did, especially in that time period. For women to go out and found a school, and to do what they did to help girls in the future receive an education is actually quite amazing,” she said.

Laura is better placed than most to understand what that legacy means having started her schooling at the Girls Grammar Early Learning Centre. Now in Year 12, she reminisces: “It’s odd to think I’ve seen everyone arrive. I’ve seen the other girls come and have a day at the school to see if they like it.”

In many ways though, her familiarity with the school makes her the perfect person to be Service Captain.

“The juniors, they don’t know anyone, they see the stripy shirt and they know they can come to us. I’ve had them come up to me when they’re lost, because obviously it’s a big school, and just ask for directions, and that’s an example of the little things that I just love to try and do to help,” Laura said.

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Service Captain Laura Francis Photo courtesy of Rebecca Turner

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Imaan Leads by Example Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD

Raising awareness and correcting misunderstanding about Islam within the Mackay community comes naturally to Whitsunday Anglican School captain Imaan Ashraf.

She was recently recognised for this work within the community by being named one of 28 finalists selected from across the State in the 2018 Queensland Multicultural Awards.

Though she unfortunately did not come away with the win in the Outstanding Young Achiever category, being named a finalist has further fuelled her passion for this personal cause.

Imaan has been a student at Whitsunday Anglican School since Kindergarten and migrated to Mackay with her family from South Africa when she was one-year-old.

Imaan’s cultural background is Pakistani and she describes herself as an “interesting mix of both Australian and Pakistani cultures”.

An advocate for equity and building positive relationships between cultures, Imaan welcomes the progress that has been made within the Mackay community and would like to see the harmony continue to grow.

“We have come so far in acknowledging our diverseness and realising that it’s our uniqueness that binds us together, so I think embracing

each other’s cultures and now focusing on how we are the same is the next step in further harmonising our community,” she said.

Whitsunday Anglican School Principal, Maria McIvor, said Imaan has shown great passion and ability in breaking down barriers.

“She’s a young woman with a voice and she was able to do something to give students an opportunity to ask questions that they may have felt embarrassed about,” Ms McIvor said.

“It really helped improve understanding and there’s so much support for her in the school community.”

Imaan was again out in the community and breaking down barriers recently at the Bakers Creek Mosque Open Day, where the community was invited to build bridges and learn about the Islamic faith.

Finishing her schooling at the end of this year, Imaan plans to continue to help people either through health and medicine or through international relations and diplomacy.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE - Whitsunday Anglican School captains Imaan Ashraf and Hugh Lanser.

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Service an opportunity for All Saints’ students All Saints’ College, WA

For over three years, All Saints’ College has developed a strong partnership with local aged care facility, Amana Living, through its H3: Head, Hearts and Hands Service Learning Program.

Through this partnership, the College provides students in Year 5 and Years 8 – 12 with opportunities to serve in the wider community through interaction with local Amana Living residents and staff.

Students in the Year 5 Amana Living program spend one hour every fortnight with residents at the Amana Living Frederick Guest Village, allowing them to interact with individuals in a relaxed and recreational setting.

Senior School students from Years 8 – 12 participate in the newly established Gen-Connect program that enables older adults to learn about technology in a stress-free and inclusive environment. These students work with residents from two Amana Living centres and the Royal Australian Air Force Association WA Village in one-on-one training sessions to increase the residents’ digital literacy and social connectedness.

As well as the Gen-Connect program, a select number of Year 10 students are chosen each year to become Amana Living Dementia Advocates. These students work closely with residents who live with dementia at the Amana Living Lefroy Care Centre and aim to improve their quality of life.

Students also advocate for those living with dementia by sharing their experiences across a range of platforms, developing their own leadership skills in the process.

Year 11 students are also presented with an opportunity to increase Amana Living residents’ wellbeing by participating in the College’s Outdoor Learning Program. In consultation with residents, the students build movable outdoor and environmental experiences at the Amana Living facilities which can be transported to individuals at the centres for those with mobility issues.

All Saints’ Dean of Student Wellbeing, Reverend Timothy Russell, said the partnership provides students with opportunities to develop their leadership skills, work alongside their peers, build on teamwork capabilities and broaden their experience of life.

“Each program allows students to engage creatively and compassionately with a community beyond their own, with which they may otherwise not have contact,” Reverend Russell said.

“Students not only come to understand the needs of the residents, but also consider what they can do to improve the residents’ life experience and make a positive difference to those with whom they have formed a relationship.”

HELPING HAND: All Saints’ College Years 8 – 12 students and Amana Living residents participating in the Gen-Connect program.

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Preparing to Lead Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School, VIC

Principal of Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School, Ms Elisabeth Rhodes, and Deputy Principal Head of Senior School, Ms Tracy Healy, presented recently at the ‘National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Global Forum on Girls’ Education II’ in Washington DC, USA, on the world class leadership and cross age programs at Lowther Hall.

Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School is a girls only Independent Kinder to Year 12 School of 800 students, located in Essendon, Victoria. The School offers a suite of cross age programs which contribute to an environment of safety and growth for students, and promotes the development of leadership at every level Programs at Lowther Hall begin at Year 1, with girls leading their younger peers in Kinder and Prep in games and learning activities which they plan, communicate and run with staff facilitation. Each girl in Year 1 is provided with a Year 4 mentor, who in turn models good leadership practices for our youngest leaders. Year 1 also work with Year 8 mentors, who engage in 70 positions of leadership that connect them with girls from Years 1 to 6.

The Year 8 mentoring program sees girls act as reading or playground ‘buddies’, ‘gate greeters’, Year 4 camp leaders, or Junior School classroom learning mentors. They also have the opportunity to work with Year 7 girls in a ‘Community Connections’ program, which allows them to run activities for elderly residents in surrounding care homes.

The School’s most senior students in VCE can nominate for any of the 80+ positions of leadership that empower them to advocate for change and inspire others. Aspiring senior leaders who may elect to become a Prefect, a leader in the House system, or any one of the 43 faculty, activity or sport captains enter into the ‘Preparation for Leadership Program’, which provides them with tasks, activities and workshops that involve students in Years 8 and 10 who provide a genuine audience on which the students can ‘practise’ their leadership skills.

Once girls have ended their education at Lowther Hall, they are afforded the opportunity to return as alumnae to speak with current students in any of the ‘Guest Speaker Series’, ‘Leadership Conference’ panels, ‘Pathway Planning’ panels, ‘Careers Expo’, or ‘School History Mornings’.

This solid foundation of leadership learning and growth throughout their entire Lowther Hall journey allows girls to confidently enter life after school with the knowledge, skills and personal qualities needed to make a positive and rewarding contribution to the world.

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MENTOR: Year 8 student Thalia acts as ‘Gate Greeter’ welcoming Prep student Georgia.

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Serving Her Community: Profiling Liss Campbell

INSPIRATION: Liss Campbell is the perfect fit as Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School’s Head of Service Learning.

By Belinda Kranjcic Camberwell Girls Grammar School, VIC

Before moving into the education industry, Liss Campbell worked for many years as Graphic Designer and Illustrator for World Vision Australia. She was also the Creative Director of the 40 Hour Famine.

Liss holds a Bachelor of Arts and after completing her Dip Ed, she joined Camberwell Girls Grammar School in 2012 to teach both art and religious education. In 2017, she was appointed Head of Service Learning, a role which suited her perfectly.

Ultimately, the role exists to help all members of the Camberwell Girls community live out the School’s motto, mission, vision and values.

“I do this through teaching Service Learning classes, coordinating experiential learning opportunities, developing partnerships with local, national and international not-for-profit organisations and leading an annual trip to Cambodia to immerse the girls in a developing context,” Liss said.

organisations but had no connection to their cause or those they worked with,” she said.

Liss created an entire new model. “Our new approach seeks to have us learn from our walk with and alongside those in need, rather than doing things to them or for them that they could otherwise do themselves,” she said.

“The new model is about empowerment. The organisations we partner and work with should be in some way empowered through the experience and so should our girls.

During 2016, Liss conducted a review of the School’s social justice program and she discovered just how ad-hoc the approach was.

“I think we find ourselves more fully when we serve. I want our girls and staff to have a big heart for others, knowing that serving others humbly in whatever capacity, has the potential to change peoples lives and bring great joy and meaning to their own life.”

“We appeared to be throwing money at a huge number of

Liss’ passion stems from personal experiences. She was born

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SHARING THE CAUSE: Liss Campbell helps students learn how they can help others in the world.

with a heart defect but thankfully because she lived in Australia, she survived. After giving birth to her first son, she was told that it would be too risky to put her heart through childbirth again. So, she adopted her youngest son from the Philippines. These experiences confirmed her passion for working with and helping others.

“I feel a great weight of what Warren Buffett called the ‘ovarian lottery’.

I was born here, have a great family and had great opportunities. If I was born in most other countries I wouldn’t have survived my heart defects, she said.

“Our son is ultimately a member of our family because of the devastating effects of poverty. We feel blessed to have this amazing person in our life. I can’t imagine giving up a child because I didn’t have the money and resources to care and provide for them.”

“Witnessing those powerful ‘ah-ha’ is so extremely rewarding,” she says with a huge grin.

Service is in the DNA of Liss’ family. She met husband Matt at Church many years ago. Along with their two sons Will and JM, they fully live out their Christian faith. They support a number of NGO’s financially, serve in formal roles through their local church and sponsor three girls.

“We know that the empowerment of girls in particular is one of the most powerful ways to break the cycle of extreme poverty,” she said.

In addition, both sons have, as part of their pocket money a regular amount designated to those less fortunate “After a conversation with us they decide who they give this to,” Liss says.

Liss admits that she is often overwhelmed with the world’s issues and that she is forever thinking about how she can change the injustices that she sees.

While there are many who inspire Liss to live a life of service, first and foremost she says it is the call of the Bible to, Act Justly, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly with God.

“Ghandi essentially said that ‘we need to be the change we wish to see in the world’ - that is why I do what I do,” she said.

“Also Jesus and his indiscriminate example of counter-cultural love and service regardless of who they were and where they came from.”

The biggest highlight of the role Liss says is seeing the students or staff return from an experience full of joy… transformed in some way through their encounter with others.

Liss, we thank you for setting such a fine example and empowering our Camberwell girls and staff to share peace, restore justice and to imitate the actions of Christ.

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Sleeping Out for a Cause

By Jessica Bridgland, Year 11 student St Luke’s Grammar School, NSW

Last month, St Luke’s students nibbled on Tim Tam’s, mastered self-defence and slept under the stars to raise awareness and funds for the Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter. After hearing about the Rough Edges’ ‘Roughtober’ sleep-out that raises money to aid individuals who are homeless, St Luke’s students Claudia Hayman and Vicki Patapis organised a month-long initiative, with a plethora of activities to raise funds for the Shelter.

The Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter is reliant on external funds to be able to provide a safe haven for up to 13 women at a time who are facing significant hardship.

The main event of the month of fund raising activities was a Year 11 and 12 girls’ sponsored sleep-out and self-defence class. The sleepout commenced with a fun yet informative ju jitsu lesson which raised our own understanding of the strength that women have to be able to stand up for themselves. It also provided us with copious amounts of giggles!

As the night continued, spirits were high, especially with dinner being a whole lot of pizza and Tim Tams, keeping everyone awake till late hours. Fortunately, the next morning, we were all able to reenergise and participate in a dance fitness class. A memorable and quite poignant part of the evening, was the serious and eye-opening discussion about the realities of domestic abuse.

Other fundraising activities throughout the month included a schoolwide ‘Tim Tam Slam’ (the Australian art of using one’s Tim Tam as a straw to drink hot chocolate) which was heartily supported by the students and teachers. Students were also invited to bring in supplies of socks, pyjamas and luggage for the women in the shelter, with piles of these items growing as the Tim Tam stocks quickly depleted!

The fundraising initiative finished with a talk from one of the managers of the Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter, who provided us with a deeper understanding of the role of the shelter, and their mission to provide a safe place for women suffering from domestic violence, mental hardship, financial hardship or who are impacted by drug or alcohol struggles.

Jessica Bridgland is a Year 11 student at St Luke’s Grammar School.

She is a keen writer, who hopes to pursue Journalism and Media beyond school. Jessica is currently a founding member of the School’s newly formed Student Media Team and is part of a group of students who have successfully implemented numerous leadership initiatives at the School, aimed at making a difference in the lives of those who need assistance in the local and global community.

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SLEEP OUT: St Luke’s students enjoyed a fun sleep out, raising funds for women facing hardship.

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Poverty lesson as students dine below the line Arden Anglican College, NSW

Gaining a personal understanding of the practical realities of poverty is an important part of developing as a global citizen. Arden Anglican School’s Social Justice Group (SJG) members have tried to gain a better understanding of these challenges by their involvement in the Live Below The Line Food Challenge.

Arden’s Social Justice Group Coordinator Karen Moss believes that while the experience only provides a small glimpse of the actual challenges faced, it encourages students to engage with the issues of poverty and to realise that they can be changemakers.

unacceptable. They believe that ‘beliefs turn into action, and enough informed action will end extreme poverty in our lifetime.’ The students chose this charity as they loved the idea that this charity is organised by young people who want to and can make a difference.

Arden’s involvement with the Live Below The Line (LBTL) challenge began in 2017 with 30 Social Justice Group members choosing to live for one day on just $2.00, the globally recognised line of poverty.

Some students bravely took on the challenge for five days.

In 2018 the group decided they wanted to take the concept to the whole school, with the aim of educating the broader school community about what extreme poverty is really like, while raising funds for those in poverty overseas.

The LBTL team, led by Social Justice Prefect Alanna Baker, Laura Dimarco and Kate Egan, decided to offer a Dine Below the Line experience whereby members of the school community could purchase a simple, yet filling vegetarian pasta lunch at a cost of $2.00 and were also encouraged to make that portion their only meal for the school day. A group of 12 students with a heart for service and justice cooked all the lunches, with the portion size reflective of the amount being spent. If customers wanted cheese they paid extra as cheese is considered a luxury item. 180 students bought the lunch.

This year all funds raised ($800) were donated to Oak Tree, a movement of young people fighting to end poverty. This organisation believes that change starts with a simple belief; that extreme poverty is

The group also felt that justice is also about the environment and sustainability and thus gave the students the opportunity to bring their own container/food bowl for lunch to reduce plastic pollution. For

Dine below the Line: Hard working chefs Kate Egan, Noah Moss, Mrs Justine Egan, Tara Lamb, Laura Penn, Isobel Bennett and Kaela Sharpe.

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those students who needed containers, paper plates and bamboo recyclable forks were used, reflective of this commitment.

Additionally, around 15 students chose to take on the five day challenge of LBTL to gain a deeper experience and raise additional funds for Oak Tree. Timothy Blowes lived on sausages and popcorn for five days, while Anna Hall ate popcorn, macaroni pasta and tinned spaghetti.

“The most rewarding part of the challenge was finishing a whole day, while the hardest part was dinner when the rest of my family were eating my favourite foods,” Anna said. “I felt what it is like to have consistent hunger.”

Laura Penn took the challenge over a five-day period, and each day consisted of the same meals.

“For breakfast, I had plain porridge, for lunch, I had plain pasta, and for dinner, I had 1/5 of a tin of baked beans and two mini potatoes.

I also had 1/5 of a carrot each day, to eat either as a snack, or as part of a meal,” she said.

“This challenge was so beneficial in gaining a deeper understanding of the struggle that an impoverished person goes through daily. It especially struck me that they have such a lack of nutrients, yet they manage to sustain themselves day-to-day, completing tiresome tasks at hand, even on an empty stomach.

“This was striking to me, as I could experience this weariness first hand, and truly step inside the lives of those many millions of people less fortunate than I, learning to appreciate their strength and positive outlook on life, even with the little things they do have.”

Mrs Moss said the whole experience prompted discussions about malnourishment and about different attitudes towards food. She said in our culture food was seen as enjoyable and a want, whereas in poverty stricken communities food is sustenance and is a need.

Mrs Moss said the students found the experience confronting, particularly when realising that this was an ongoing daily challenge for those in poverty. The hope of the Social Justice Group is that by temporarily ‘stepping inside’ the food experience of someone living in poverty, students will feel challenged to think further about how they can bring change to the lives of these people.

LEADING THE CHARGE: From left, Dine Below The Line organisers Laura Dimarc

Dine Below The Line: From left, Matthew Spiritosanto, William Bargwanna, Tara L Bennett.

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co, Kate Egan and Alanna Baker.

Lamb and Isobel

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Timothy Blowes and Alanna Baker successfully took on the five-day Live Below the Line challenge.

Social Justice Group members Ali Paton and Tara Burdett enjoy their Dine Below the Line lunch.

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Mission students make a difference Arden Anglican School, NSW

Arden Anglican School students and staff served in Cambodia and Vietnam during the June/July school holidays. The mission involved a team of 41 Year 11 students and five staff, building and renovating school facilities for villagers and visiting and supporting a number of local charities in both countries.

Known as the Extra Mile Project, the mission has been run as a major School service activity for the past ten years. The mission has always had a profound impact on students, challenging their world views and own experiences and encouraging them to enact change within their personal realm of influence.

While Noah Davis shared: “One of the major highlights for me was when we had finished building the house for the family. Seeing how grateful and happy they were gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment and made me feel like I had actually done some good in the world.”

“The trip has allowed me to really think about other people in other countries and how I can use my knowledge, skill set and financial background to help others.”

The experience proved to be both challenging and valuable. “The trip challenged me not only physically with the labour, but mentally as well as it made me widen my view on how these people live day to day,” said Amy Kelfkens.

Eliza Dang, Year 11 “This trip has challenged me to consider careers that are humanitarian based.”

Joshua Duncum, Year 11 This year’s mission involved a variety of service projects and visits including: •

Visiting a disability orphanage to play with the children

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Building and painting a fence around a school in the Mekong Delta

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Visiting the Sunshine Centre where people can source education and financial assistance

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Visiting Justees to learn about their organisation, helping young people from the slums to stay in school and gain new skills

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Laying new flooring and plating Mango trees at a school in Siem Reap

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Building a house for a family in Siem Reap

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Visiting a women’s refuge to gain a better understanding of the issues faced in Cambodia

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Donating money to pay building hire for a year for a church to operate in the slums of Phnom Penh

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Students also made several cultural visits to museums and temples, to learn about the history and culture of these countries

To support the program, team members organised a series of school fundraising activities during the year and raised more than $24,000.

All monies were directed to the building projects and charities supported on the tour as participating students and staff covered all their own travel and cultural visit costs.

Eshaan Mahimkar described the highlights as being: “A deeper insight into the world. Visiting less privileged people who were still very joyful and happy gave me a greater appreciation for the things in life and made me more interested in helping others.”

Hannah Smith reflected: “I was really proud of all that we achieved and are so happy to have made a huge impact on so many lives. I now appreciate how much I have and won’t take things for granted.

Learning in depth the history of Cambodia was also emotionally challenging.”

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While Joshua Chelliah reflected: “I was challenged by the reaction of the families and children we were helping and witnessing their endless joy and shock that people they have never seen before would help them even if it was small in respect to the amount we have. It was also amazing to see their entire village community get behind them during this process. I have developed an outlook on poverty and how it is vital not to ignore it as it is a massive problem.”

Mission Coordinator Elizabeth Dunn, reflected: “The whole group were courageous and threw themselves at everything, going the extra mile to help others in need. Through meeting the locals, they learned the struggles people go through on a daily basis due to the terrible histories Vietnam and Cambodia have.”

“At the same time students were able to see that you don’t need possessions to be happy and returned with compassion for the people from these countries, as well as a deep appreciation for the opportunities they have just because they live in Australia.

The students really enjoyed serving alongside the community, getting to understand their needs and seeing their appreciation first hand.

Through the smiling faces of the children, Arden team members saw hope in the future, which was very encouraging.”

Students felt the Mission was a life-changing experience. “I gained more compassion for those less fortunate than me,” said Lara Hutcheson. While Elena Abram concluded: “This trip has opened my eyes to what poverty really looks like instead of just reading about it.

It impacted me in the way I see the power of what fundraising can do.

It challenges me to be more content and grateful with the life I have.”

Antonio Panebianco summarised the mission experience well when he shared: “I now have a much greater appreciation of how fortunate we are back at home to have so much. Seeing the locals’ reactions after their house was finished was very impacting and emotional as they thought that it was just a dream. The school building, orphanage and Sunshine Centre was a challenge in the sense that these kids were very happy with very little and yet we fail to be happy and appreciate what we already have. Overall, the activities impacted and challenged me to truly live out my life to the fullest. It makes me want to go out there in the future and through God, help impact and change the lives of those that are less fortunate.”

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1. NEW FRIENDS: Hannah Smith spends time with village children who came to help the mission team build the house.

2. COMMUNITY BUILDING: Students preparing the framework for a concrete fence for a school in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

3. SCHOOL WORK: students mixing the concrete to form a floor in classrooms in Siem Reap. From left, is Noah Moss, Jeremy Bradekji, Lauren Howard, Kate Egan, Xuyen Le (tour guide) and Lillian Sietsma; and (front row) Jonathan Dowse, Laura Dimarco and Jonathan Myers.

4. GREEN THUMB: Mia Long and Elena Abram planting mango trees in a school in Siem Reap to provide food for the students.

5. TEAM WORK: Students lifting the foundation pole in place for the house they were building in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

6. HELPING HAND: The village students helping Hannah Smith move dirt to level the ground for the new house being built in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

7. FUN AND GAMES: Elena Abram plays with the children that attend kids’ club through Sunshine Centre, Cambodia.

8. SMALL GIFT: Jonathan Myers gives much needed school supplies and school bags to each student of the school Arden renovated in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

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Students serve through Global Citizens Programme Launceston Church Grammar School, TAS

Education is pivotal in helping people to forge more peaceful, tolerant, just and inclusive societies and must also be transformative and bring shared values to life. At Launceston Church Grammar School we aim to cultivate within our students an active care for the world and the people God created. We do this through our Global Citizens Programme.

The purpose of the Global Citizens Programme is to develop within our students the capacity to identify that they are part of an emerging world community and that their actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices. We promote opportunities for our students to reflect upon values, ethics, leadership and citizenship.

The following are just a few of the opportunities our students have had through the Programme to demonstrate leadership through serving, and to encourage them to grow as global citizens.

SONY Christmas Camp At the conclusion of the school year, emerging Grammar student leaders participate in a three-day camp for children with various physical and intellectual disabilities, providing participants with a weekend away from home and their primary carers a few days’ respite. Our student leaders are trained to assume the roles of carer and support buddy, with support and medical expertise available as required. There is much fun and laughter during the variety of activities including swim sessions, no-bake cooking, Christmas craft, a ball pit, golf buggies, dress ups, jumping castles, fire trucks, a police motorbike and, of course, a visit from Santa. The weekend is always an incredibly rewarding and emotionally challenging one for our student leader volunteers. It is a rich leadership learning opportunity that relies on student leaders to understand the needs of their assigned camper, to work as a cohesive team and be flexible to cope with changes to daily routines as a camper’s needs change.

Breakfast Club

New Horizons

Our students provide positive role models and develop respectful relationships with the young members of our local community through our daily breakfast club, where a large team of senior students are rostered on Monday to Friday during term to prepare and serve breakfast. All students from our local primary school are welcome, regardless of family or financial circumstances. “Breakfast clubs are a great place for us to be role models for healthy eating whilst also providing a safe and welcoming environment,” Year 12 student Jack Crawford said.

The New Horizons Club provides people with disabilities an opportunity to be involved in activities that most people take for granted. A strong partnership has developed between New Horizons and a small group of our emerging senior student leaders through the Tuesday morning craft unit. Each Launceston Grammar student supports a New Horizons participant in the production of a craft project. Our students respect the tenacity these participants display to overcome the challenges of disability and now have a heightened awareness of the challenges faced by people with disability in our community. “The friendships formed are so special and unique,” Year 11 student Meg Leyden said. “It is something I will remember forever.”

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Operation Christmas Child God does not reject children and others who are marginalised, ridiculed, impoverished, forgotten and who seem insignificant.

Instead he receives, values, respects and cares for them…and he calls us to do the same. Each year the Launceston Grammar community joins many generous people across the world who, in an expression of God’s unconditional and transformational love, pack shoe boxes with gifts for children in the developing world. Our students put a great deal of thought and care into the selection of gifts to include, and the hope of the student leaders within our pastoral House communities is that these boxes will bring some understanding to the recipients that they are special to God and that young people in Launceston care about them too.

SRC The Student Representative Council consists of emerging leaders from Years 7-11 and is responsible for raising funds and awareness of the work of three charities each year. This body galvanises their peers to support charities that work towards helping those in need.

The SRC has a long-standing relationship with the Fred Hollows Foundation, recognising the contribution that Fred Hollows made to restore sight, hope and dignity to many people in impoverished communities both within Australia and overseas. Other organisations that have received funding from recent SRC barbeques and plain clothes days include Beyond Blue, Canteen, Ronald McDonald House and the McGrath Foundation.

Leadership Development and the LCGS Walkathon Each year our Year 11 students democratically select a charity to be the focus of their fundraising efforts through Year 11 and 12. In 2018 the students chose SPEAK UP! Stay ChatTY, a Tasmanian charity doing great work to combat depression and promote mental health in Tasmanian youth. The students work together to plan a diverse range of fundraising events and activities culminating in a gruelling endurance event: the Launceston Grammar Walkathon.

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Almost all the activities and fundraising events leading up to the Walkathon are student-driven with staff purely in a mentoring role.

Because the days of rattling tins on the roadside are far behind us with modern risk assessment standards, the students plan and conduct all the fundraising to support the main event well in advance.

The biggest supporting event is an annual cocktail party for our broader School community, for which the students coordinate all aspects of this event, including staffing, catering and entertainment.

The event usually brings in more than $5000 in one evening.

The Walkathon itself is an extreme undertaking: a continuous 24 hour walk of 80 kilometres from the far countryside back through the gates of our senior campus to rapturous applause from a large representation of our broader Launceston Grammar community. Most years our Walkathon contributes between $20,000 and $35,000 to the selected charitable cause.

To walk 80 kilometres in 24 hours in any weather is a challenge most students will remember all their lives. This challenge brings out the best of their leadership capacities, as they draw on their deepest reserves of courage, empathy and compassion to nurture each other through the hardest hours of the event. As the students trudge along dark and lonely roads in the cold pre-dawn, it is wonderful to observe individuals with strong leadership attributes support those in most pain and discomfort with encouraging words, cheerful conversation or sometimes just silent accompaniment to help ease the pain. Strong bonds are formed, and the participants learn so much about the incredible depth of their own leadership potential through interdependence and service to each other. “The Walkathon pushes you to be part of something bigger than yourself,” Year 12 student Niamh Hilder said. “But as well as this, the challenge makes such an impact on your personal growth.”

Our alumni overwhelmingly report that the Walkathon is one of their most significant School memories, and it serves as one of the most important leadership development experiences on our annual calendar.

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Australia’s Largest School Sleep Out

By The Reverend Mark McCracken, Mission Leader and Kelly Keall, Schools and Faith Officer, Anglicare WA

How do we touch the hearts and minds of our rising young leaders? This is a question we often ask ourselves at Anglicare WA when we seek to change the world for the better; as we pursue the Kingdom agenda of justice and peace (Mark 1:14-15).

We are thrilled to say we have found one very powerful and effective way to engage young Anglican leaders through our signature Anglicare WA School Sleep Out. Now in its third year, the School Sleep Out has grown in popularity with a sizeable jump in student participation, making it the largest event of its kind in Australia.

On 3 August, despite the bitterly cold and rainy weather, more than 200 students from 14 WA Anglican schools and their supporting school staff gathered at Optus Stadium. They spent the night exploring the realities faced by young people experiencing homelessness, which provided a glimpse into the lives of homeless young people and the issues they face on a daily basis.

Students and school staff suffered the cutting, blustery winds that whipped through the stadium while curled up on thin sheets of cardboard for the night.

That was after a challenging simulation experience that highlighted the deeper issues, especially the alienation and hopelessness young people endure.

Among other tasks in the simulation, the students were required to navigate the bureaucratic complexities of obtaining identification and signing up with Centrelink. Some even encountered Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy working as a Centrelink employee. Students spent time with Anglicare WA’s Street Connect team who offered support and advice amidst this frustrating exercise.

At the end of it all - no student was able to complete the tasks necessary to do well on the streets, providing an accurate reflection of the stark reality of homelessness.

For the 9,000 Western Australians who are homeless on any given night, finding the security and comfort many of us take for granted is a real challenge.

More than 75 per cent of homeless young people are in that position because they have left households struggling with family and domestic violence, battles with mental health and drug and alcohol abuse.

The School Sleep Out is a valuable way for students to learn about social justice in their community and helps to foster compassion for others who are experiencing difficulties.

In the lead up to the big event, students also actively engaged their personal networks to raise funds for Anglicare WA’s homelessness services. Together, they raised a record breaking $82,431 which will make a significant difference to our vital Street Connect service.

Street Connect helps young people experiencing homelessness through a dedicated team which provides much needed support services in the Perth CBD, addressing 3,000 urgent needs each year. We cannot begin to thank these students, supporters, sponsors, volunteers and staff for their incredible passion and determination in making this event such a great success.

To find out more about how you can get involved in the School Sleep Out or donate to Street Connect, please call: 08 9263 2091 or email getinvolved@ anglicarewa.org.au.

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West Moreton Celebrates 25 Years of Educational Leadership West Moreton Anglican College, QLD

West Moreton Anglican College (WestMAC) recently celebrated its silver anniversary by thanking College founders and long-serving staff at a Founders’ Day Service in the Lostroh Centre.

Principal Geoff McLay said the service expressed gratitude for the “vision and hard work of WestMAC’s founders” 25 years ago. He also pointed out that “we are certainly not done yet”.

Among those who attended the service were Foundation Principal, Mr Paul Claridge and Foundation Chair of the College Council, Dr Hugh Bartholomeusz OAM RFD. The College Foundation Stone was laid on Sunday 18 July, 1993, when Mr Claridge said “our children must be made aware, through education, of the richness of cultural, religious and lingual diversity”.

Mr McLay told students, staff, parents and guests at the service that Mr Claridge’s words were still relevant 25 years later.

“Today more than ever, we need to cultivate future leaders and citizens who can engage compassionately and productively with diversity,” he said.

“Today more than ever, we need our young people to care for our environment. Today more than ever, we need to raise up young

people whose faith supports them to push through adversity, whose knowledge equips them to grapple with and solve complex problems, and whose servant hearts motivate them to share their faith and knowledge through example and action.”

Mr McLay also acknowledged the “many ways” current staff, students and parents honour the Foundation’s vision.

“The way we treat each other, the way we apply ourselves to work, study and extracurricular commitments, the way we listen to understand and speak to and about one another – every day, in myriad ways both small and large, we all work together to continue becoming WestMAC,” he said.

“I’m very proud of our origins. I’m very proud of who we are. And I’m very proud of who we’re becoming.”

Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall also presented service medals to three teachers who have been at the College for more than 20 years each.

25 YEARS: Foundation staff members joined with today’s staff to celebrate. From left Carolyn Symonds, Fay Woodland, Geoff McLay, Anita Baker, Paul Claridge, The Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall, Ian Lupton, Sandy Gibson, Hugh Bartholomeusz, Joy Hutchison, Paul Lostroh, Kirsten Mullan and Katherine Munro.

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Japan STEM Tour opens a world of possibilities St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School, VIC

Eight students from St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School recently returned from a nine day exciting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) tour in Japan which has opened their eyes to some of the world’s latest and cutting edge science and technology.

This is the first year St Paul’s has introduced the Japan STEM Tour and students had the opportunity to visit some of the world’s leading organisations immersed in STEM related fields such as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), where they were shown a training facility where prospective astronauts are trialled in isolation and air pressure chambers.

They took the bullet train (Shinkansen) to Nagoya to visit the famous Nagoya City Science Museum with an array of technological and mechanical exhibits as well as space exploration and a nine-metre tall artificial tornado. Year 12 student Reuben Neumair described the museum as “seven floors of fantastic exhibits, most of which were interactive and all of which were fascinating.”

At the Kawasaki Robostage in Odaiba they learnt how robots are used in conjunction with Virtual Reality rides, and also how robots can interpret a photo of a face and then draw the face with pen and paper.

Other adventures in STEM included visits to Panasonic, Fuji TV and the World’s Largest Planetarium.

At Cyberdyne Studio, developers of the world‘s first cyborg-type robot “HAL” (Hybrid Assistive Limb), students were immersed in the intersection of technology and medicine. By experimenting with parts of a HAL suit, they felt first-hand how the exoskeleton utilises bioelectrical signals to control robotic limbs and aid movement.

At Honda Robotics the students were excited to meet humanoid robot ASIMO, and they learnt about its development.

They learnt about the latest technology in motoring at Toyota Headquarters, had coffee made and served by a robot barista at the Henna Café in Tokyo and also visited amusement park Fuji-Q Highland located in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi which contains famous attractions that have held world records for speed, height and steepness.

Year 12 student Cameron Wong said: “Overall, the Japan STEM tour was a great trip that I will always remember – it really showcased the international reach of the STEM industry and I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to go.”

The St Paul’s Japan STEM Tour differs from the St Paul’s Japan Language and Cultural Tour in that students have a specific interest in STEM fields.

The tour has provided students with a broad range of STEM ideas and knowledge that they will take with them in future STEM based careers.

Year 11 student Aditya Kerhalkar said: “This trip has changed all of us.

Our minds have certainly been enlightened, with a different view of the world, and a different view of the future of the world’s technology.”

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1. AT CYBERDYNE STUDIO: Aditya Kerhalkar, Chetan Narayan, Jackson Clerks, Cameron Wong, Mr Peter Clerks, Gerard Wilkinson, Tristan Clark, Adam Ainsworth, Reuben Neumair and Ms Noriko Teranishi. | 2. ALL THINGS SPACE: Year 12 student Chetan Narayan at JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. | 3. CONCENTRATION: Cameron Wong at Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. | 4. St Paul’s students and staff at Kawasaki Robotics in Odaiba during the Japan STEM Tour.

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Compassion and Service the key for Blue Mountains Grammar

By Andrew Beitsch, Acting Deputy Head – Head of Senior School Blue Mountains Grammar School, NSW

Over the past eight years, Blue Mountains Grammar has continued to grow its commitment to service learning. The School, which is currently celebrating its centenary year, has a rich history of service to others. Students are provided a range of ways to engage with service learning initiatives.

For some, this involves door knocking for the less fortunate through the Red Shield Appeal. For others, this involves the challenge of fundraising and completing a gruelling 45km walk from the School to its Outdoor Education campsite, located on the Cox’s River in Little Hartley. For others, this involves travelling overseas to serve the vulnerable to a small island in Fiji or to East Indonesia.

Eight years ago, the School commenced a partnership with Compassion Australia. This has involved the School making good on an annual commitment to raise $15,000 to support an early intervention program which ensures mums and bubs get off to the best possible start in life in East Indonesia. The program is led by Mrs Katrina Knight, an ambassador with the Compassion Project and member of staff in the Senior School.

a sense of perspective as they progress through the Senior School and consider life beyond Year 12.

In the words of one student, the trip “helped me refocus on what is important in life and to be more grateful for what I have.” Another student remarked that the trip “helped me to put the facts and statistics (of poverty) to real life faces and people. The trip has changed me forever.”

Students also noted the way in which the trip had provoked them to become advocates for the vulnerable, with feedback such as “the trip acts as a beautiful reminder of what is important and further encourages me to use my voice and make a difference.”

The School has now visited the project on four occasions, with each group of students and staff returning with different stories and a common resolve to continue to fight to eradicate poverty. Furthermore, pastoral groups within the School have been able to get to know many of the Compassion sponsor children through exchanging letters prior to having a chance to meet each other in Indonesia.

Anglican Schools have a unique opportunity to engage students with a vision of human flourishing and service learning is a key part to this. Through service to others, students can viscerally understand the exhortation found in John’s first Letter, to ‘not love with words or speech but in actions and truth’ (1 John 3:18). Students can also see and participate as the hands and feet of Christ’s church at work as an extension of God’s heart for the poor and downtrodden.

For a generation who are often searching for authenticity this trip is powerful and deeply formative. Students return to School with a desire to share their stories and experiences in Chapel and inspire the next group of students to travel overseas. The trip also provides

Ambassador Katrina Knight said the partnership had been: “an absolute privilege to be a part of, not only to support a very effective Compassion program that lifts children out of poverty, but also to see students moved and changed for the better.”

HELPING HAND: Blue Mountains staff member David Rajesekar with a child in the Compassion Project.

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SERVING: School Captain Miriam Cooney connects with a child from the Compassion Project.

ALL TOGETHER: The entire tour group with their hosts.

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Whitsunday Student a Young Starters’ Winner Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD

Whitsunday Anglican School Year 10 student Thomas Stolberg was named the winner of the 2018 Young Starters’ Competition in Brisbane on Monday.

As part of the competition, Tom pitched his latest Startup “Make it Now” and Project Melt to a panel of judges made up of Aaron Birkby, CEO Startup Catalyst, Susannah George, Founder of Urban List, Michael Reid Qld State Manager for CISCO and Simone Joyce, Founder of Paypa Plane.

The project involves large scale 3D printing using recycled plastic and is currently in the prototype phase.

Tom said the competition was a great opportunity to network and meet likeminded people and winning was an added bonus.

“The Young Starters’ Competition allowed me to network and learn from fellow youth and some of the industry’s best,” he said.

“It was a privilege to compete and an honour to pitch at the final breakfast. Thank you to all the sponsors and people that made it possible.”

Whitsunday Anglican School Principal Mrs Maria McIvor said Tom was going from strength to strength and she could not wait to see what he would come up with next.

“Tom is very passionate about what he does and it is great to see him being recognised for this,” she said.

“If these are the type of entrepreneurial projects he is coming up with now, I cannot wait to see what great ideas he has in the future.”

This win comes on the back of news that Tom has also been named as one of the Courier Mail’s Top 10 Up and Comers in Queensland for 2018 and his recent Futurepreneur mission to the United States.

YOUNG STARTER: Tom Stolberg with Mr Linus Power MP, Member for Logan, following his 2018 Young Starters’ Competition win.

Tom’s entrepreneurial ways began when he launched his first business as a 12 year-old, turning seafood restaurant discards into fishing bait.

PITCHING: Tom Stolberg makes his Project Melt pitch to a panel of judges.

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Vanuatu Outreach St Paul’s School, QLD

Each year, a group of St Paul’s School students spend their winter school holidays volunteering in remote villages on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu.

“On day one, meeting the children who were so eager despite having so few material possessions really set the tone for the next two weeks of the trip.”

In the lead up to the Vanuatu Outreach Trip, students spend months preparing to help teach basic English at local schools, assist with development work in the area and connect with the local people. The trip is life-changing for all who go and makes a tangible difference in the lives of those they visit.

Year 10 student Ashley Edwards said she learnt a lot from speaking with local community leaders.

Year 10 student Gracie Manderson said that although the trip required stepping out of your comfort zone, it was extremely rewarding.

“As someone who had never taught a class before, standing in front of a room of kids, who had been patiently waiting for us was pretty daunting,” Gracie said.

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Students also had the opportunity to meet with community leaders to discuss how St Paul’s School could continue ongoing efforts to support the local villages.

“I had the opportunity to meet with the school principal, Ms Naomi, and the community priest, Father Walter, and I talked to them about how St Paul’s could best help Lorevilko Primary School and their village,” Ashley said.

“I was surprised by their answers, as they included necessities that we could consider basic equipment. This whole trip made me realise how blessed I am and how grateful we should be about every little thing given to us.”

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1. LESSONS: Emily Davidoff (Year 12) assists Year 1 students as they draw a self-portrait and learn what makes them special and unique. | 2. STORYTIME: Anna Russell (Year 10) reads a story to Year 2 students at Lorevilko Primary School. The story spoke about unity – God’s love for us, and our love for others. | 3. RUN LIKE THE WIND: Jack Kim (Year 11) and students from Sakau Primary School testing natural phenomena by catching the wind in their newly constructed paper windmills.

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Friendship and Family a focus at St Hilda’s ‘The Father has loved us so much that we are called children of God. And we really are his children.’ 1 John 3: 1 Father Jon Cornish, Chaplain St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, WA Developing and enhancing friendships is a fundamental part of our personal and collective wellbeing in any community. If the Gospel is about anything, it is about relationships. In particular, our relationship with each other, creation and God. The quality of our relationships with others is a good starting point in measuring the quality of our everyday lives. It is for this reason we had a fun movie evening together with a quiz or two thrown in, to help deepen relationships in a positive way. And so, we came up with the idea of watching Mamma Mia! I know, who would have guessed?

Building friendships across year groups and between groups is important. Especially so, when the older students can help support the younger students through their school years and reflect such a positive outlook on life. As educationalists, we need to constantly encourage and provide opportunities for our youth to regard each other as members of a close family, living together in a caring community.

So we invited all the bell ringing and sacristan students together to sing, dance, relax and eat a meal together (pizza). It was fun. We also had a few hilarious Kahoot quizzes too. It was very positive, the students could just relax and ‘be’. I am sure the next time we hold it, there will be twice as many students.

My thanks to the senior students for helping me select a movie (I had no idea) and construct the quizzes (ditto), along with all the positive energy shown by all on the evening. Our students truly are champions – not to mention children of God in one big family.

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Meditation and Modernity

By Father Jon Cornish, Chaplain St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, WA

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Cor 5: 17 The modern movement to embrace meditation is a re-invigoration of the ancient monastic tradition of centering prayer. It is much needed – what is old has become new again. Meditation has been refashioned by the likes of the Smiling Mind programs available in the modern period, but it is anchored in the ancient desert monastic movement.

Our modern world is designed to distract us, to tempt us with its instant communications. It is full of busyness, gossip, images of dinner and our secrets encrypted in the ether. This electronic clutter takes us from the ‘now’ to the FOMO - the fear of missing out. Fear and greed, rather than peace and generosity. The present moment is lost and we end up somewhere else. The end result for us is; endless attachment, distraction, encrypted deception, self-delusion, loneliness, anxiety and for some depression.

The ancient practice of Christian meditation is a way to reconnect ourselves to God, others and creation. It is a way to find inner peace, to find a stable inner observer.

The Desert Mothers and Fathers started their practices in the Egyptian deserts in the 3rd and 4th centuries with the likes of St Anthony and St Athanasius. Thousands went into the Middle Eastern deserts to escape the distractions in their towns and villages and anchor to God. The one thing you couldn’t escape when you went into the desert was yourself. That is a test.

The one salvation, the Good News, is that God is everywhere – including the desert. That is a blessing.

It was from the Egyptian deserts that the European monastic tradition formed. School’s like St Hilda’s and other religious schools are based on this tradition. At the centre of this tradition is prayer and meditation.

Cynthia Bourgeault, an Anglican priest in North America, writes of meditation and conscious love in her book, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene (2010 p119): ‘The ability to be consciously loving, assumes the existence of a stable inner observer, or witnessing presence, a place to regroup from….. “You can’t move a plank you’re standing on” …… as long as the egoic self is the only self you know, you will cling to it like a raft. In fact, without the development of a strong inner observer….. “all relationships are deeply flawed”, one automatically

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identifies with one’s own needs, agendas and projections, the fatal stew, which can instantly turn romance into armed warfare.’

The act of separating from the ego’s self-absorption, false elevations and its associated projections and distractions (painted as temptations from the devil in the desert monastic movement), is essential to be internally reconciled and consciously loving.

In the schools I have worked in, I have used a number of methods that ancient monasticism would be familiar with. These include the use of modern meditation programs like Smiling Mind which, while the language employed in this program has stripped out religious architypes, it remains anchored to inner stillness and the present moment. In conjunction with this, I use for example, silence in sacramental worship, timed PowerPoints with images and music, along with journaling, mantras like the Jesus Prayer and colouring in Celtic patterns.

More radically for some, other prayer and meditation traditions can be used from the ancient world. The mandala and labyrinth are examples. The labyrinth pre-dated the Christian tradition, but was absorbed by it some time ago. Tracing or walking a labyrinth can certainly help us slow down and operate as a means of centring our inner world. Labyrinths are being installed in hospitals and the like as methods of assisting people to recover and heal.

St Syncletica, a Desert Mother, says this about the initial struggle of meditation and its final revelation: “In the beginning there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing towards God and afterwards, indescribable joy. It is like those who wish to light a fire; at first they are choked by the smoke and cry, and by this means obtain what they seek.”

As it is said, ‘Our God is a consuming fire.’ Heb 12:24 The anchorites know that in meditation we can find a rock, that sure foundation. It is a safe place to stand from the emotional storms that can strike us.

In that calm and still experience, meditation allows us to be more connected, compassionate and loving – to ourselves, creation and others. In meditation’s return to the mainstream curriculum, the modern world is beginning to hear, like Elijah did of old, the ancient sound of ‘sheer silence’ 1 Kings 19: 12b.

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Christ Church blends new with old Christ Church Grammar School, VIC

For many people, Christ Church Grammar School is most recognisable by the beautiful heritage buildings that adorn Punt Road; however, the addition of new advanced learning spaces inside the grounds has set the scene for an exciting future.

Designed by Sally Draper Architects in association with McIldowie Partners, the striking new complex provides six new classrooms, a Resource Centre, and a Science Laboratory, and also incorporates several office spaces, a wonderful new multipurpose sporting area and a large underground car park and storage facilities.

The glass-front classrooms are flexible for all age groups and currently cater for Years 3, 5 and 6 children. They have reconfigurable, ergonomic furnishings and open out to warm and engaging breakout spaces for groups and individuals. Completing the learning environment is state-of-the-art learning technologies, with a dedicated reading nook, teacher’s nook, and an enviable reading chair.

The design has been carefully considered by learning experts, while many members of the school and wider community were also consulted at different times throughout the planning, design and building processes to ensure that it would be a positive and engaging learning environment that met the needs of teachers and students alike.

“The classrooms allow for us to seamlessly run our differentiated explicit literacy and numeracy classes each day. Alongside this, we built a new Science Laboratory and Resource Centre to maximise these important aspects of our children’s learning.”

The building faces into the expanded and upgraded quadrangle, long recognised as the heart of the school community, and now features a multi-sport zone with unique play surface. Importantly, it also connects to the school’s music building, ensuring seamless movement across facilities, and presenting the school as a unified education facility where all subjects are encouraged and welcomed.

At heart, it is a modern approach to education and growth, built on a heritage and culture that has developed for more than a century.

The new complex was officially opened by the Governor of Victoria, The Honourable Linda Dessau AC and dedicated by The Most Reverend Dr Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne and Primate, coinciding with Christ Church Grammar School’s 120th Anniversary.

This article first appeared in 3004 Magazine.

Although the complex is obviously very new, Christ Church Grammar School Principal Chrissy Gamble says the response has been exceptional by everyone who has interacted with it.

“Our entire school community is delighted by our new facilities,” Chrissy said.

“The reaction has been a joy to behold and we feel blessed to be able to provide future generations with such a wonderful environment in which to learn and grow.”

While the modern facilities are imperative for students to help their development and learning, Chrissy also says that she is delighted in how they have been able to blend the school’s beautiful heritage with a new, exciting future.

“We believe our new building sensitively blends our 120 years of heritage with our exciting aspirations for the future,” she says.

SPECIAL DAY: The Most Reverend Dr Philip Freier, Archbishop of Melbourne and Primate performed the dedication at the official opening.

OFFICIAL: Governor of Victoria, the Honourable Linda Dessau AC is flanked by School Captains Esther Nastri and Baxter Kam after officially opening the complex.

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NEW: The new complex was received with much joy by the school community.

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Music is the Prayer the Heart Sings Anonymous

By Natasha Materne, Head of Religion and Values Education Coomera Anglican College, QLD

Coomera Anglican College Senior Worship Band enjoyed the opportunity to share their passion for music and worship when they played for the opening Eucharist of the Queensland Provincial Clergy Conference at Sea World Resort at the end of July where the theme was: Reimagine Faith Formation for the 21st Century.

Performing contemporary worship songs by Matt Maher, Matt Redman, Newsboys, Rend Collective and Hillsong, the students engaged with a very appreciative and enthusiastic congregation of clergy delegates. In particular, the recently modernised traditional hymns, It is Well and Thou Be My Vision, provided cross-generational appeal for musicians and congregation alike. The students were grateful for the gracious reception and appreciation they received from clergy delegates who sometimes prefer more traditional worship styles.

Head of RAVE and Senior Music teacher Natasha Materne said the experience was also transformative for the students.

“As with all service activities, I think the students gained so much from the experience and I know that they really appreciated being in a setting where the worship was passionate and important,” she said.

“I think they were moved on a deeper level and were strengthened in their resolve to provide meaningful connections through music in the worship setting.”

The contemporary worship band program at Coomera Anglican College commenced in 2011 with a small group of talented Year 11

Music students who provided music for weekly worship. The following year a Junior Worship Band formed to serve at Junior Secondary Worship, incorporating music students from Years 7-9.

This year, seventeen gifted musicians comprise the Senior Worship Band: three guitarists, three keyboard players, a bass player, a drummer, a cellist, and nine singers from Years 10 and 11. The Junior Worship Band programme also provides opportunities for twentyone young musicians who perform in the Christian rock genre to lead students in a style that connects with youth culture.

The worship bands are service-based ensembles that actively support Worship in the life of the College and therefore contribute to the College’s #justiceandmercyPROJECt. As well as playing for student worship each week, the Senior Worship Band plays for House Worships, Baptism and Confirmation services, Staff Eucharists and other services as required. The students lead their congregations in meaningful worship while celebrating their joy for music. The Senior Worship Band epitomises the College’s mission to inspire excellence in Service and Faith.

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1. ALL TOGETHER: The Coomera Anglican College Senior Worship Band. | 2. BEAT IT: Christopher Airey keeping the beat and providing the vibe for the CAC Senior Worship Band. | 3. STRING THEORY: Jackson King and Lucy Suhr performing Broken Vessels as part of the CAC Senior Worship Band. | 4. SING IT: From left, Alysha Alabaster, Abbey Harris, Claire Wilson, Thomas Buenano-Thompson and Mia Bromilow singing And All the People Said Amen. | 5. MUSIC GROUP: From left, Dylan Blair, Thomas Buenano-Thompson, Jackson King, Lucy Suhr, Eden Juett and Christiaan van Peppen leading the music for Broken Vessels. | 6. VOICES: From left, Mikayla Melhem, Cullyn Beckton, Montana Pitt and Alysha Alabaster at the Qld Provincial Clergy Conference opening Eucharist. | 7. HARMONY: From left, Cullyn Beckton, Harrison McMahon, Thomas Buenano-Thompson and Jackson King sing in two-part harmony for Least of These by Matt Maher

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Environment a focus at Arden Arden Anglican School, NSW

Arden Anglican School’s Environment Group (EG) is thriving. This year the group has grown to 45 students. More importantly though is their mindset and growing sense of empowerment.

EG Coordinator Karen Moss said the group had captured the hearts and minds of even the youngest in the Secondary School.

“They are actively engaged and have an opinion which represents the 21st Century mindset of sustainability. The children know that sustainability of earth is their responsibility and they are serious about it,” Mrs Moss said.

2018 EG’ Prefect, Cordealia Evans said we must remember that the environment is not just yours or mine.

“Rather, it belongs to future generations and it is therefore essential that we nurture and care for it, ensuring we educate ourselves about the most pressing environmental issues of our times,” she said.

“We will be discussing many topics within our meetings including plastic pollution, animal cruelty, the coal industry; looking closely at the implications upon the Great Barrier Reef, food wastage and species extinction.

“Knowing will never be enough. Lobbying for change and taking action is what we as a group must be committed to achieving. Those who are passionate about the environment should not be afraid to stand up and express their opinion and continue to share their knowledge with others. We must ‘be the change we want to see in the world’.

Students have also been encouraged to recycle not only at school, but at home, and have been encouraged to earn money from recycling products and then consider donating some of that money to support the saving of the orangutans’ project.

Mrs Moss reported that $350 had already been raised from recycling efforts, with the larger benefit that 3,500 items have not gone to landfill as a direct result! She said there was already a changed attitude both towards the importance of recycling and reducing plastics use within the school community because of all these activities.

Recently the group held their annual fundraiser, selling both hot chocolate and baked goods at both recess and lunch, with palm-oil free hot chocolate and encouraged use of ‘keep cups’ to reduce waste. More than $800 was raised to help habitat protection in Borneo - that area into which Arden’s sponsored orangutans will eventually be released after their rehabilitation is complete.

Reflecting upon the link between social justice and the environment, Mrs Moss said: “You cannot bring justice to the poverty stricken in the world unless you understand their environment and the environmental problems they face. Issues such as deforestation, habitat destruction, water way pollution and climate change.

“The EG is critical in ensuring that all our other good works are contextualised. It brings depth to the Social Justice Group.

“Thank God that these students understand their God-given responsibility to care for the environment, otherwise we will only be helping by giving money or food, rather than helping them to help themselves by giving them back a sustainable environment.”

“The Prefect body’s focus on service and compassion will be clearly seen through the Environment Group’s lobbying and fundraising activities and our commitment to education on environmental equity.”

Mrs Moss said the EG has chosen to discuss issues which will engage the students and enable them to make change at a grass roots level in 2018. Recycling has been a key topic and has been raised at assemblies and promoted at school via posters.

The EG has challenged all students to consider how they can more effectively recycle in three key ways. The first is by encouraging more recycling at school. This has involved the group members meeting with various stakeholders to make some positive changes.

For example, recycling is being encouraged at major school events including the Girls’ Night In, Boys’ Bash, Dine Below the Line and House fundraising days. To assist with this, Orangutan recycling bins have been installed, to visually remind the students of the link between recycling and ensuring sustainability of both habitats and species.

FUNDRAISER: From left Joshua Massey, Noah Moss, Oliver Ticehurst and Timothy Blowes work at the cake and hot chocolate stall.

“They have been called orangutan bins because the money we raise from the recycling is being used to continue our sponsorship of five orangutans that were rescued in Borneo, as part of the orangutan.org organisation - an Australian NGO,” Mrs Moss said.

Likewise, once the Secondary Canteen building is redeveloped, plastics will not be used in the packaging of products where possible and will be recycled when needed. Additionally, members of the EG have met with the School’s architects to discuss appropriate waste management receptacles for the redeveloped Epping campus to encourage maximum recycling.

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RESPONSIBLE: Arden’s environmental orangutan bins.

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STEM approach a winner for Whitsunday Anglican School Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD

Whitsunday Anglican School has been named one of The Educator’s Innovative Schools for 2018. The Educator’s report profiles Australian schools leading the way in their efforts to best prepare students for tomorrow’s world.

Whitsunday Anglican School was recognised for its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) elective subject, which was introduced this year, and the exciting educational opportunities its students have experienced in this area so far.

Whitsunday Anglican School Principal Mrs Maria McIvor said it was an honour to be recognised as an “Innovative School” and highlighted the importance of our children developing 21st Century skills in schools.

“It is an honour for the School to be recognised for innovation in the area of STEM,” she said.

“As part of our STEM elective, our students engage in project and challenge-based learning activities that align with 21st Century learning and focus on creative solutions. This will in turn give them the best chance to succeed when exploring career pathways after completing school.”

One such example of these type of learning activities is the CoDrone Educational Program which Middle School students recently engaged in.

This involved a search and rescue mission where students planned and coded a rescue mission using the CoDrone unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

The Educator’s Innovative Schools report has been published in issue 4.3 of the magazine and online at https://www.theeducatoronline. com/au/rankings/innovative-schools-2018

Anglican schools around the country were recognised for their innovation, making it into the final 40 schools in The Educator’s Innovative Schools Report.

Brighton Grammar School, VIC Canterbury College, QLD St Paul’s School, QLD Perth College Anglican School for Girls, WA Pulteney Grammar School, SA Melbourne Girls Grammar School, VIC Whitsunday Anglican School, QLD St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School, QLD

2018 Australian Education Awards winners Innovation in Curriculum Design Winner: St Paul’s School Secondary School of the Year – Non-Government Winner: Korowa Anglican Girls’ School Boarding School of the Year Winner: Snowy Mountains Grammar School Best School Strategic Plan Winner: St Paul’s School Best Professional Learning Program Winner: St Paul’s School School Principal of the Year – Non-Government Winner: Dr Paul Browning, St Paul’s School

STEM FUN: From left, Year 6 students Gracie Smith, Isabella Welford, Mariselle Botha, Nicholas Cheesman and Tristan Smith try out a drone as part of the CoDrone Educational Program with the help of Head of Information Technology, Design and eLearning Mr Brett Cruse.

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Building Good Men

By David Anderson, Shore School, NSW

Shore is a Christian school and we seek to educate our boys with a clear understanding of the principles and values of the Christian faith.

Shore’s Building Good Men programme promotes the importance of virtue and character based upon the School’s Christian values. Our aim is to build and strengthen character within our boys to influence how they think and act, especially when faced with challenging situations that will confront them as they move through their adolescent years and into manhood.

Too often we read in the newspapers of teenagers, university students, sports stars, and business and political leaders behaving selfishly and showing a complete lack of integrity, respect and selfcontrol. Our hope is that our boys will always consider the needs of others ahead of their own and have the moral courage to stand up for what is right.

Building Good Men is a programme in character education, which challenges boys to consider the type of man that they want to become and the virtues that will guide them through their adult life. It was written by a team of twelve Shore staff (six Housemasters and six Tutors) and is specifically tailored for the ‘Shore boy’.

All Year 11 boys facilitate sessions within Tutor Group, under the guidance and assistance of a Tutor, providing them with opportunities to develop their leadership skills. The Year 11 boys receive training in delivering the programme and leading a small discussion group.

They work in teams of 3-4 and meet with a specific Year group from within their House. The programme uses a number of teaching strategies and resources such as film clips to provide clear examples of the virtue being addressed and to motivate and inspire the boys.

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Generation of Change Trinity College, SA Trinity College Captains Jackson Hately and Sophie Hancock, as well as Student Leaders recently attended Reconciliation SA and ActNow Theatre Schools’ Congress called Generation of Change; a full day anti-racism program for young people.

This program has reached thousands of students and teachers across the state over the past four years, facilitating important but often difficult conversations about race.

Jackson said: “It was a really inspiring day where we interacted with students from other schools and actors from the ActNow Theatre to look at ways to combat and prevent racism in the community and in schools.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the day and it inspired me to be a role model in the area and to help build on the culturally safe environment we already have at Trinity.”

The program uses group discussions, games, guest speakers, live music, school planning and an interactive performance, Responding to Racism, which focuses on addressing, preventing and building resilience against racism to help empower and inspire young people to stop racism in their schools.

Students learn how they can personally combat racism and are taught methods to take back to their schools to share these lessons within their own school communities.

“The day was an amazing experience where we learned a lot about the impacts of racism in our community and the important role we can play to help eliminate this prevalent issue,” Sophie said.

“For me the experience highlighted how crucial it is that Australians work together to eliminate racism, as the effects on the individuals impacted by racism is heartbreaking.”

CHANGE MAKERS: Back row (second from left) Trinity College Captains Jackson Hately and Sophie Hancock with fellow Student Leaders at the recent Schools Congress Generation of Change.

Jade’s battle with epilepsy helps raise awareness St Andrew’s Anglican College, QLD “Sixty-five million people worldwide currently live with Epilepsy, and I am one of them.”

This is what 13-year-old Jade recently told her 700-strong Secondary cohort at St Andrew’s Anglican College, and all for one reason: she wants to create more awareness about epilepsy.

Jade was diagnosed in 2016 and has navigated the ups and downs of the disorder ever since, in which seizures are caused by changes in brain cell activity.

Jade told fellow students that if they witness someone experiencing a seizure, it is important to ensure their head is supported, any surrounding objects are cleared, their breathing is monitored and they are gently reassured until recovered. If possible, the seizure can be timed and it is also important to call for medical help or get a teacher to do so.

For more information on epilepsy, visit https://www.epilepsy.org.au/ about-epilepsy/

“When I was diagnosed it changed my life pretty much straight away; I could no longer stay at home alone or do other activities by myself,” she said.

“The reason why I want to raise awareness is because I feel like a lot of kids aren’t opening up about it.”

As well as putting posters up around the College to educate on actions for a seizure, Jade talked about epilepsy during a student Assembly.

“I believe more schools should become Epilepsy Aware so anyone in any school, playground or beach can help someone who may be having a seizure,” she said.

RAISING AWARENESS: Jade addressed students at St Andrew’s Anglican College to help them learn more about epilepsy.

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Anglican Schools Australia PHONE 08 9286 0290 EMAIL asa@asc.wa.edu.au WEB www.anglicanschoolsaustralia.edu.au

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