From the Principal – Issue #17, 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

Dear Parents/Guardians, Friends & Students of SAC,

Below are my words of farewell to the Class of 2024 at today’s Graduation Assembly:

Today, we gather to celebrate 134 people who have made the Class of 2024 a very special cohort. We reflect on challenges overcome, successes achieved, and as we bid them farewell from SAC, we applaud them as they take their first steps into life beyond. Whilst we acknowledge some individual students with awards at today’s assembly, every student will be recognised at the Graduation Mass this evening and at the Graduation Dinner following the exams. I would like to share a few reflections on the Class of 2024:

• They have encouraged and supported one another through the challenges of Year 12. When the going was tough, they rallied around each other, recognising each other’s strengths, staying positive and helping one another to keep the end in sight.
• They have been generous and creative in their service, both within and beyond the school. From making bracelets in the Art Room on Valentine’s Day, to taking younger students to the Adelaide Day Centre at lunchtimes, the Class of 2024 has found new ways to lead and serve their community.
• Most of all, they have made space for individuality, allowing everyone to be themselves. Students have found their people, whilst staying connected as a group, modelling the values of inclusion and respect that are so central to our Mercy identity.

And it seems fitting that their final day of school falls on the International Day of the Teacher. I want to take a moment to thank the teachers who have inspired and nurtured the Class of 2024. From Reception to Year 12, each student will have had teachers who created learning moments that made them feel seen, sparked something inside them that they hadn’t even noticed in themselves, or helped them to understand how they learn in ways that changed them as a person. For me, that special teacher was my Year 12 Maths teacher here at SAC, Sr Bernadette Marks RSM. Her quiet and gentle words of encouragement helped me to think of myself as a capable mathematician, and led me towards a Maths Degree at Uni. And her joyful presence and commitment to justice made her a powerful influence in my life, and one for whom I am deeply grateful to this day.

At a University graduation ceremony a few years ago, Tim Minchin said, “Be a teacher! Please! Please! Please be a teacher! Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. Even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas. Don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn and spray it!” This is not career advice; rather, it expresses the hope that each graduate here today recognises that their education is a gift and uses that gift to contribute to a better world. Can we take a moment to show our appreciation to the teachers of SAC!

Today, we are also joined by the first teachers of our students, their families. I’m sure that you share our pride in the young people who are graduating today. Your unconditional love is the foundation on which they have built their lives. Whether you have been part of SAC for 13 years or just this one, we have worked together to provide the best possible environment for our young people to grow and learn, and today we celebrate their flourishing. Thank you to all our SAC families.

At a gathering for Mercy ministries last week, Sr Sheila Curran RSM, an Irish Sister of Mercy, reminded us of what it means to be Mercy people. She said we need to be risk-takers, horizon-watchers and creators of hope. The world is facing so many challenges, and it will take new ways of thinking to navigate them. Class of 2024, we have great faith in you to create the change that’s needed. Thank you for all you have given to SAC over the years. The world will be a better place for the gifts you bring, and we wish you well.

Ms Paddy McEvoy
Principal

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