This week the College had a visit from the rector, Vince Skelly, of St Leo’s Residential at the University of Queensland. Every year he makes the journey to far North Queensland to interview possible candidates for St. Leo’s.

This year 8 young men from our College are boarders there. That is a significant number and Vince commented that he is constantly impressed by the style of the young men that come from here. He went on to say that they are conscientious in their studies and prepared to be part of the community. I have known Vince for quite a while and his compliments are very genuine and would have been from the heart.

Part of the mission of Good Counsel College is to develop young men and women to live as free and moral people in a complex world. On our recent assembly we had representatives from St. Vincent de Paul of which our College has its own chapter. This is significant as it shows that we care about the less fortunate in our society and indicates the importance that our students place on acting morally in what they do.

That we have “Good Counsel” in our name says we seek to understand how Mary spoke, was truly important to Jesus and to those who followed him. The message is that when we consider others and speak, that we should do so with respect.

At the Dawn Service and the Anzac Day march the College had an excellent representation. The day before a letter writing centre was set up in Mary’s place for students to send messages to service personnel overseas and over 140 participated.

These actions are about being part of the community. Once you are part of the community then the culture of that community develops the future young man or woman. I have had discussions with parents who are new to the school about what we do to create a culture.

My first response is that it takes time and expectations. In enrolment interviews I talk of what we are; and that is firstly, a Catholic College. Our faith is the first point of the journey. This can be challenging to students, however, once they understand where we come from and become part of our community, the journey opens up to many experiences. Do all students make that change? Unfortunately not all the time and in some cases it can take quite a while. That is the challenge to all of us in our community.

Youth Mass—this Sunday night
This Sunday night at 5pm in our church there will a Youth Mass involving the NET team and the Emmaus Group. A warm invitation is extended to our community to attend on the night.

Building Programme
Students have begun accessing the Industrial Arts part of the Trade Training Centre. It has been a lengthy process given the complex regulations attached to such buildings. Our position must be that safety is paramount. The next step is for staff to be in-serviced next week on the machinery so they are familiar with what we have.

I thank the students and parents for their patience. We are ensuring that the facility is safe and meets all the stringent rules for its operation. This has been difficult with constant changes in legislation as it was being built.

We will be working on options with students to ensure that we catch up with any missed work before the end of the year. The same has impacted on the Hospitality section. However, we can see an end.

The new library, IT and classroom complex, although delayed by rain, is taking shape. Once it is completed the library will move into it and the present library will be converted teaching spaces and a Co-ordinator’s office for our Year 7 intake in 2015.

Enrolments for Year 8 2014 Enrolment packages are available at all Southern Deanery Catholic schools for Year 8 next year. We have received approximately 70 applications from our local Catholic schools at this stage. I encourage parents to ensure that their applications are in prior to the interview night as once that process is finalised offers of positions are forwarded in the following couple of week.

Staffing
The College has advertised and received a number of applications for the Counsellor and Science Teacher positions. We are required to follow a process where the positions are advertised and a time allocated for applications to be submitted. That has been met and we will be conducting interviews during this and next week.

We believe the positions will be filled very soon. The College thanks our community for your understanding in the process.

Paul Keenan
PRINCIPAL