I’ve been doing quite a few enrolment interviews recently. Lots of students come to Shalom with no experience of a Catholic school before. I always stress with students and parents that they are asking to come to a Catholic school and we do some things differently – like everyone does RE as a subject whether Catholic, Anglican, Jedi Knight or ‘other’. I hope we encourage students to at least begin to look at life through a ‘Catholic Lens’. More importantly, we take being followers of Jesus seriously. So, the things he said were important like treating others well, forgiving those who hurt us, making a positive difference in the world, is our core business. None of those attributes are ‘owned’ by Christians. We share a lot of those commitments with folks of other religions and none but it is the compass point we use here to give us some direction. Last week’s

‘Giving Tree Assembly’ was a great example of that. This community, again, dug deep and that effort will help so many less fortunate families have a much better Christmas than may otherwise have been the case. We do that not just because it’s a nice thing to do but because it is an obligation to respond positively to those in need. We are very happy to partner with the local St Vincent de Paul society in this. Vinnies are one of the most powerful and effective outreaches of the Catholic Church world wide. They make a difference for the poorest and the most disadvantaged people across the globe. Very glad that we can play a small part in that as a vibrant and engaged Catholic school.

Next Steps Survey – for the parents of our 2024 Year 12 class, this Survey is one conducted by the State Government. They will contact families and students in 2025 seeking information about the decisions those young people make in regard to work, training or study. This is great data for the State and for schools. We love to know the general directions our students head as it helps us tailor our course offerings to be as relevant as possible. Please respond when the contact comes from the Government.

Mr Dan McMahon
Principal
mcmahond@shalomcollege.com