Principal’s Message

by Principal, Mr Steven O’Connor

A Community in Mourning

Earlier this week, we received the sad news of the death of Rohan Cosgriff, one of our Year 11 students. As a community, we join Rohan’s family as they grieve the loss of their much beloved son, brother, grandson and cousin.

During lunch on Thursday, a large number of students and staff gathered in the College Chapel for a reflection and prayer service for Rohan and his family. This was a magnificent expression of support, sympathy and community guided by prayer and reflection. We continue to hold Rohan and the Cosgriff family in our prayers and thoughts during this difficult and sad time.

The College continues to closely support all students and staff, as they grieve the loss of an admired and dear friend and member of the College community.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Rohan’s parents Rebecca, Anthony, his brother Darcy, sisters Grace and Freya and the extended Cosgriff family, including Rohan’s Grandparents Jan and John Cosgriff; of course, John is well known to the SPC community as he taught Mathematics at the College from 1981 until 2013.

Last Sunday morning, we received the sad news that Mr Mike Brady passed away surrounded in the care and comfort of his wife, Robyn and his three daughters, Yemimah, Emily and Zarah and their families. Mike was a much-loved member of the St Patrick’s community; a former student, a former Christian Brother and then as a long-serving member of staff for nearly 40 years.

Through his work as a teacher and the Year 7 Coordinator over many years, Mike got to know so many students and their families and the tributes which have poured in since the weekend are a clear indication of how much people loved Mr Brady as a teacher, year coordinator, colleague and importantly, as a friend.

Mike had a tremendous sense of humour and gentle nature; he remained entirely optimistic about the work that he did as a teacher as he guided, encouraged, challenged and supported so many students across so many years. Thank you, Mike!

The College joins with the Brady family in mourning the loss of their beloved husband, father and grandfather. The funeral for Mike will occur at the College Chapel next Thursday, 4 August. We extend our deepest and heartfelt sympathies to Robyn, Yemimah, Emily and Zarah at this time.

I am both grateful and encouraged by the tremendous level of support the College has received this week as we mourn the loss of Rohan Cosgriff and Mike Brady as a community.

Father of all, we pray to you for Rohan and MIke, and for all those whom we love but see no longer. Grant to them eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen

 

Academic Assembly

This week the College community gathered to acknowledge and celebrate the academic efforts and achievements of students from Years 7-12 from Semester 1. The majority of the awards presented were our Chris Nolan Awards, which acknowledge those students who finish in the top 10% of their respective year levels based on the aggregation of all relevant assessments and exams across all subjects from the semester.

The Chris Nolan Award is named after an Old Collegian, Chris Nolan. During his time at St Patrick’s College, Chris exemplified the pursuit of excellence, across a range of our important academic programs and College activities. Since the introduction of the Chris Nolan Awards in 2008, students have aspired towards achieving at least one of these awards during their time at the College.

I was thrilled to present these awards and I congratulate all those who received a Chris Nolan Award this week.

Congratulations to those students who also received VCE Unit 3 Principal’s Excellence Awards for finishing first in at least one Unit 3 course last semester. These senior students continue to work conscientiously towards achieving some pleasing outcomes in their VCE subject(s)!

As a school, our core business is teaching and learning and therefore, to acknowledge and celebrate academic endeavour and achievement is an important thing to do and speaks clearly about how we value excellence as a school.

As a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice tradition, we strive to educate our students towards wisdom; we strive to provide a liberating education based on and influenced by quality teaching and learning, critical reflection and engagement, where students work towards achieving to their best academically, where a world view developed in our young men is informed and shaped by compassion and commitment to justice and solidarity, where the wisdom liberates them and equips them with the skills and disposition to challenge and question what needs to be and to live hope-filled, meaningful and successful professional and personal lives.

Congratulations to all students who received awards at this week’s important assembly.

 

 

Parent-Teacher Interviews

It was terrific to see lots of parents with their son(s) at this week’s parent-teacher-student interviews. I trust that these conversations were constructive and assisted with your son’s learning journey at the College. Meetings such as these are incredibly valuable and I thank the staff for preparing for these and the parents for making the time to meet with staff. The partnership between home and school is vital in a school being effective and successful; it was great to see this partnership in action this week!

Mr Steven O’Connor

Principal