From the Principal – Issue #12, 2024

From the Principal – Issue #12, 2024

Dear Parents/Guardians, Friends & Students of SAC,

This week’s newsletter comes to you from the Tiwi Islands! We have enjoyed the warm weather and the warm welcome from Sr Anne Gardiner and the staff and students of Murrupurtiyanwu Catholic Primary School. SAC has been visiting Bathurst Island for over 20 years, with most of these trips having been led by Alan Brown as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards program. This year, seven students who are seeking to complete their Gold Duke’s Award have come to Tiwi, along with Alan, Viviana Graney and me, to learn more about the Tiwi people and their culture. We have quickly felt at home in the school, and there were many sad goodbyes between the students this morning as we prepared to return home. I am grateful to Sr Anne and the school community for their constant welcome of our students and the authentic experience of Tiwi culture they make possible.

It was a much chillier first day of term for students at SAC last week. The new Reception class quickly settled into their new home, alongside the girls celebrating 100 days of school in the other two Reception classes. These significant milestones certainly created an air of celebration, and we are grateful to the teachers and the marketing team for their preparations for this special day and for capturing these moments on camera.

Last night the families of our Year 10 students gathered in the Catherine McAuley Auditorium to learn more about the South Australian Certificate of Education and the pathways available to our senior students. Some recent changes to the compulsory elements of the SACE (Stage 1 PLP is now Exploring Identities and Futures (EIF) and Stage 2 RP is now Activating Identities and Futures (AIF)) are designed to ensure that students have an authentic voice in shaping their own learning and are able to achieve success in a variety of ways.

In case you haven’t had time to visit the College yourself in the last week, I wanted to share some images of the finalised Mitchell Steps redevelopment. Creating this significant Acknowledgement of Country in the centre of our campus was a priority for the Reconciliation Action Plan Committee. First Nations students of all ages contributed to the artworks, designed in collaboration with talented artist Cedric Varcoe and First Nations Student Support worker Maja Tongerie. Each artwork comes with its own statement, capturing the meaning and essence of the work. These statements can be accessed using the QR code alongside each work. I hope you will find time to read them and appreciate the depth of talent and the strength of vision amongst our First Nations students at SAC. Thanks must also go to the Maintenance Team, INCA Constructions and our Business Manager, Steve Andrews, who together turned ideas into reality.

Ms Paddy McEvoy
Principal

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