Shining Lights - Week 5 Term 1 2022
In this week's edition:
- Shane Giles, our College Principal, writes about "College Spirit' and what makes Lumen so special.
- Adrian Wels, Assistant Principal, Pastoral Care, blogs about "Other People", including how to develop your child's sense of themselves, personal values and individual identity.
- Careers Pathways Specialist, Ingrid Thompson provides links to 3 websites to boost a post-school career!
- Justin Short, our Primary Learning Enrichment and Curriculum Coordinator, gives a run-down of the Questacon Science Circus.
One of the great aspects of Lumen Christ is our marvelous sense of spirit. The world that our students, staff and family encounter daily in the 21st century is increasingly complex. We all need to be able to face these challenges together with a sense of hope and trust if we are to thrive. We all play a part in this, from the ways that we greet each other in the college, offering each other small gestures of hospitality; the opening of a door, a smile, and encouragements for daily achievements and the like.
Visitors to our College often comment on the buoyant feeling of the place and the friendliness of our students. There is a sense of warmth here. Driving this is our sense of our shared purpose and connection. There is at Lumen a sense of belonging and connection.
Be the Light of Christ
A teacher should take care in singling out an individual for anything but praise, but a challenging student in a school can be Other People.
Other People is often discussed in the context of less than ideal behaviour, and while I know that Other People has great potential and could be a force for good (like all students), frequently Other People, by all reports, lets themselves down.
Unsurprisingly, Other People can be difficult to find. They disappear quickly, wraith like, or when you do find them they are far less at fault than the individual citing them as cause (I’m shocked!)
Other People has a number of siblings, for example Wasn’t Me, They Started It, Everyone Else, Wrong Crowd and Peer Pressure.
Probably the hardest thing for a young person to do is finding the sense of themselves and their personal values and walk away from Wrong Crowd, Everyone Else or negative Other People.
The argument has been made, that the search for individual identity is the story one’s life. Certainly it is the conscious or unconscious center of a young person’s world - Who am I? … Where am I going? … Where do I belong? … Who likes me? ….Who am I sitting next to? …. This brings us back to Other People.
Role models are tremendously important. We have all seen brilliant parents, extended family, coaches, EVEN TEACHERS. Equally, we have seen disastrous celebrity culture take this role or often Wrong Crowd or … Other People. Other People also gives me a lot of trouble when inviting a student to appreciate their own unique God given beauty and gifts – apparently Other People is frequently more desirably taller or shorter or thinner or smarter, blonder or darker or more popular ad nauseum.
I talk to students daily about how Other People and Wrong Crowd might generate a fleeting, shallow, perilous notoriety, but that all the good stuff – honest meaningful relationships, trust, respect, opportunity riding on the back of integrity, real love - comes from the individual, your own sense of worth and what is right. When you work – as often as you can - on being your own best, the negative Other People should begin to fade away.
What you do, you own. Exactly who you are is very special – keep working on it.
Being at the mercy of Other People, real or imagined, as oft cited by tweens and teens, is no way to go.
Did you know Lumen Christi has three dedicated sites for students to access and set up their own personal account for all things related to careers?
These sites offer amazing insight to self-exploration, industry research, virtual work experience, interviews with people and how they got to where they are, as well as options for resume building and job applications.
Most students have accessed Lumen Christi Careers and The Careers Department, but new to the line-up is Study Work Grow. For access codes, students need to check the poster on Mrs Thompson’s office window or come and have a chat about how to access these amazing resources.
Lumen Christi Careers
https://www.lumenchristicareers.com/
Locate University, TAFE and any other type of course across Australia, get information about the HSC, search for job vacancies and much more! |
The Careers Department
www.thecareersdepartment.com
Over 800 videos, podcasts, virtual tours, career timelines, scrapbooks, resume builders, virtual work experiences, build your portfolio, online workshops ... |
Study Work Grow
https://studyworkgrow.com.au/find-your-school/
Study Work Grow has all of the news, guides, and resources you need to help students plan an amazing careers.
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Last week, our Primary students were lucky to have a visit from The Questacon Science Circus. Topics involved looking at liquids and the different properties and types of liquids as well as sound and how to create and alter sounds using simple things that can be found around the house.
The presenters performed three shows throughout the day, specifically targeted to the students from different levels. Whilst because of current restrictions the students were unable to interact directly with the equipment, the enthusiasm of the presenters kept the students engaged and involved. Students learnt how to make predictions about the outcomes of experiments and how to repeat experiments to check your predictions.
For students interested in learning more about science at home, the Questacon website has great experiments that can be performed with items found around the house.
Noticeboard
For further information please contact Tamika Gaudie on 6495 8888 or via email at tamika.gaudie@cg.catholic.edu.au.
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