PRINCIPAL’S ADDRESS TO SCHOOL ASSEMBLY – FEBRUARY 13, 2018
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.
Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. At our Liturgy tomorrow you will all be invited to accept the ashes as a visible symbol of penance. The ashes will be put on our foreheads in the shape of a Cross. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made us. The ashes are made from blessed palm branches, taken from the previous year’s Palm Sunday Mass.
Lent is intended to be a time of self-denial, moderation, fasting, and the forsaking of sinful activities and habits. If you have not already done so, I ask you to reflect on what Lent might look like for you.
Changes to Tutor Time
At our staff meeting last night I led a discussion about the role of technology in education. As you will learn about me, I am a strong advocates for the use of technology in supporting effective teaching and learning, but I also have a heightened sense of awareness as to the important role of human interpersonal interactions and our role in facilitating opportunities for these. It is important therefore that we facilitate deliberate acts whereby you have the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills and engage on a social level with students outside of your direct peer level.
I have therefore decided, with support of our staff that Tutor time will be device free. This means no phones, tablets, laptops or other such devices.
- We want Tutor time to be a space for engaging with other on a personal and spiritual level. A place to emphasise the Touchstones of Family, Joy and Prayer.
- Tutor time represents the opportunity to further develop interpersonal skills with others outside of students’ direct peer group, an advantage of our vertical Tutor groups.
- It’s also an opportunity to develop and harness school spirit and technology, specifically phones in my opinion are counterintuitive to these aspirations.
I am looking for your support in this initiative. I urge you to engage and build a sense of partnership in your journey as a tutor class.
Survey
Lastly for me, I will be sending each of you a link to a short, four question survey. I will be also sending this survey to your families and the staff. It is my intention by surveying these three groups that I will garner valuable feedback about the direction our College is taking.
Mr. Dalton
Principal.
