Over the past fortnight we continued to witness the gifts and talents of many of our students and staff. Last week, our Performing Arts students showcased their skills in performance – acting, song and dance. The Addams Family was testament of our young people’s ability to work collaboratively and to work towards a final product. The performances of the cast were exemplary, students were able to bring life to characters, interpreting the written scripts and bring their own personal interpretation the character and performance. Congratulations to each of the students who performed with enthusiasm, authenticity and pride.
The production would not have been possible without the tireless effort, co-ordination and passion of our staff. We are indebted to the work and leadership of Maria Russell, Andrew Seeary, Marcus Ryan, Alex Crowe and Nicole Burness. These staff have worked with our students for the past six months to create a spectacular show. It would be amiss not acknowledge that this show was running parallel to the rehearsals of The Final Hours. The teaching staff managed, directed and led two artistic pieces simultaneously. I also would like to congratulate the cast and crew, who too, were also balancing the two pieces. Importantly this demonstrated our students’ abilities to employ their social and emotional skills; resilience, perseverance and confidence. I would like to reiterate that students who are fully engaged in the life of the College are able to achieve excellent outcomes and deeply connect to their school, peers and staff. I encourage each parent to support their student to find their passion, to take informed risks and to participate in activities that give them energy and joy.
As a piece the Addams Family highlighted that each family has its own values, beliefs and behaviours. One can learn so much from this piece where one observes the challenges of living in family and community. Through the characters in the Addams Family we learn more about unconditional positive regard, clear communication and challenging one another to be our best.
As we enter the second semester of learning, l encourage all our students to challenge themselves to be their best and to enable others to be their best. As a community of learners we have a responsibility to contribute to a positive learning environment whereby learning is purposeful and life giving. I thank the many families who have attended the Teacher Advisor and Subject Interviews this week. Our staff have worked hard to provide feedback and direction to our learners. Each one of us learns each and everyday, however we need to reflect on our performance and challenge ourselves to be even better. We are privileged to be able to send our young people to such a well resourced, professional learning community; this needs to be respected and valued.
Our Annual Careers and Subject Expo was held last week. I thank Ash Pillai (Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning), Caroline Nolan (VCE Leader) and Belinda Dwyer (VM Leader) who led workshops on the Senior Pathways Program at Damascus. The sessions were informative and educative and the team highlighted the many pathways available to our students. I also thank our Learning Leaders and Subject Teachers who chose to come to our College in the evening to educate our community about the value of their subject and its relevance to future pathways, this not only happened in the evening, but the Damascus Events Centre was open each lunchtime last week enabling our students to have deeper conversations with their teachers.
Learning provides many challenges and opportunities to explore the world in which we live. The changing nature of work and rapidly changing technology we will see our students explore and participate in at least six career choices in their lifetime. As adults and educators we need to support our students to develop a broad set of transferable skills – we need to challenge our thinking about work and recognise that the there is not one set pathway that they will need to follow.
Students will need to be agile, flexible and open to new experiences. Whilst our focus over the past few weeks has been on Senior Pathways we need to remember that the learning dispositions and skills are forming in years 7–10 and began at home as toddlers. Therefore a deep respect for learning should be a goal each day. We need to promote an openness to learning and to try new things, even when we are uncomfortable or apathetic. Our students have many learning opportunities that need to be embraced, valued and celebrated. It is crucial that our students do not box themselves into a particular pathway or trajectory – learning should stretch us.
With every blessing