“Courage to be One”
“We leave Footprints of Kindness”
Jean Vanier is a Catholic philosopher, theologian and humanitarian. He founded L'Arche in 1964, an international federation of communities spread over 35 countries, for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. Jean Vanier is an inspiration to all and for that reason he is the patron of Vanier House.
On Thursday morning Vanier House delivered their assembly to the College. The assembly, in keeping with both our College theme ‘Courage to be Merciful’ and our house theme ‘We leave Footprints of Kindness’, was focused on the ‘Courage to be One’.
Courage to stand together:
Students who speak a second language at home volunteered to share a couple of sentences in their native language. As we sang the National Anthem of Australia, we’re reminded that Australia is a country for everyone. ‘With courage let us all combine’ to make both this country and our school even more beautiful and a place of unity.
Courage to be a community:
We spoke of the need to work together to help our thriving community to keep on growing and improving. Students watched a presentation by Mrs Chauntell McNamara regarding ‘Sustainability’ and students viewed a montage of the Year 7 camp. Students were then invited to express their interest in volunteering opportunities for 2016.
Courage to be kind:
The work of Jean Vanier was shared while students from Vanier House stood and described to their peers their own personal commitments to be ‘kind’ in 2016.
Courage to be you:
We had several students speak about their talents which included Dance, Music, Singing, Golf, Athletics, Debating and Water Polo. They spoke of the courage to do something they love and to persevere when things get tough. At JPC we’re interested to know, celebrate and share the achievements of all of our students. With this in mind, all students were encouraged to share their ‘unique’ talents by adding their name and details to a list after the assembly.
Have a lovely weekend
Mr Iain Robertson
Vanier and Integrated Humanities Coordinator