Virtual Assembly - June 25 2020 | Shalom College

good morning Shalom staff and students welcome to the second and hopefully last virtual assembly broadcast of 2020 I'm your host Harry Packard and I'll pass over to Macaulay House for the acknowledgement of country and Prayer have a good one we acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land where we gather today we pay our respects to all elders past present and future and give thanks for the cultures and traditions with which they have gifted this country we pray that the dignity and rights of all people will be honored and the wounds of the past may be healed we commit ourselves to working together in a spirit of forgiveness reconciliation and justice holidays are not only moments to remember and reflect on what we are grateful for but to also give thanks to our precious Lord for all he has given us any season and any holiday is a time not only to remind ourselves but others to give gratitude where it is you so what are you planning for your holidays school holidays are on again and there are the usual problems it's a bad time for adult theatergoers trying time for motorists here for most parents but it's a beaut time for the kids or is it what do they do these days were there two weeks holidays what are you what are you doing and your holidays coming car painting fences fading fences saw your aunt it yeah nope you're getting paid for it are you doing it for afternoon snow find a church fence a bit of a waste of time not exactly why not what do you do here that you can't do at school anyway play with nice cards what do you think of that school holiday oh it's alright sometimes because yeah things do make aware of holidays would you like them longer or shorter shorter shorter while you get bored at the end of them day yep and you want to go back to school they think they're a waste of time yeah I want to go back to school yeah do you think a holiday is a waste of time well what are you doing here just relaxing yeah not getting bored yeah what are your holidays mean to you you don't think that they're a bit of a waste of time if you're not doing anything all right you know what you're doing first what are you doing yes sleeping and that's the best way for anyone to spend holidays is it yeah but if you have a bet yeah would you like a bit yeah what else would you like to do in your holidays if you had the money say the bird is that all you do what have you had - all the money you wanted and no one to tell him what to do what would you do a hot blood bit young for our trad there aren't you I don't care no matter what you are getting up to remember to always give thanks for the little things we have and do dear God I pray for people that do not have a home and to live on these streets will you bless them with a place to live amen for each new morning with its light for rest and shelter of the night for health and food for love and Friends for everything thy goodness sends my angels fly with you wherever you roam and guide you back safely to family and home no matter what we are doing remember to do as we and Macaulay do shine have a good holiday run good morning everybody and thank you Macaulay for prayer we're all looking forward to holidays next week big thank you to all the students who completed surveys that we've nagged you about over the last few weeks we'll publish all that data next term when the final reports came in but I had a look at the student data particularly the other day that came in and all the comments that people made and there's lots there and it's been it's and its really useful now just going through the data they asked you about and all the questions to strongly agree or agree I just pulled out some of those probably the top ones that people from a student body agreed or strongly agreed on we've got 80% which is really good so these are all over 80% strongly agreed I'm proud to be a student at Shalom College 84% great technology and resources 86% good sports facilities 83% said I'm encouraged to be the best that I can to do the best that I can at school 84% said I feel safe at school 85% said I know what is expected of me an 84 percent of students said my house coordinator does a great job now I think just on those stats I was really pleased with that but I think that says something about this is a good community I'm not saying for a moment we're perfect but that data from you says something really positive about the culture in this school and those are the things probably that I'm most proud of at Shalom so thank you for that for the for the feedback you gave and so much of it was positive not all of it and certainly there are lots of suggestions big one that I need to improve the quality of toilet paper that came through strongly surprise surprise quite a number of people don't love families own will work on that had quite a few comments about uniform and and I gather that most people would refer us to change to board shorts and singlet as a uniform that's not going to happen but certainly conscious of those comments and there are lots of other suggestions that were perhaps a little bit more serious than some of those can I really encourage you to use our Student Representative Council that's the venue that I I need to get your feedback that we have student reps in each of the year levels in each of the houses if you want to put something to me and the administration of the college that's the venue for you to do it so if you've got issues that you'd like to to bring to my attention I try and get to those SRC meetings every time or if I don't mrs. Austin Campbell does and regardless those those are fed back to me so I'd really like to like to hear what people want to say doesn't mean I'm always going to agree with it doesn't mean that you'll make change every time but the SRC has already kicked some goals with that because of their suggestions we've had a number of things change at Shalom since last year so I'd really encourage you to use that venue and I know Harry and Erin are going to talk about that later on there was one comment over the hundreds of comments and I just pick one I probably shouldn't pick one but there was one comment that that got my attention one student said something about religion in the school that we that I don't believe in God therefore I shouldn't have to have anything shoved down my throat about religion we are proudly a Catholic school and everyone who comes here knows that from the day they enter this place I hope in this Catholic school no one will ever try and shove a faith belief down your throat but we will proudly say what we believe and everyone who comes here knows that's who we are I'm really comfortable with people telling me mr. McMahon I don't believe in God that's fine if you do that though I'd really like you to be able to tell me why I don't not just cuz I just couldn't be bothered but what is it that you choose not to believe in and why I want people to be able to think that through that's why we Tec make religion compulsory as a subject I hope in that subject that you get exposed to a body of knowledge about what people believe why they believe how they go about that what we don't believe and there's a there's a whole useful work of knowledge in that that I'd really like you all to consider make your own decisions faith is an individual activity I'm not going to change anyone's faith but I am going to be very open about exposing people to this is what Christianity is about this is what Christianity offers the world and I really hope every one of you will think about that seriously over your years at Shalom more importantly I hope we live out that faith every day in the things that we say here are important and it's why I say to you if we if we if we're a Catholic school we take Jesus seriously if we take Jesus seriously we're serious about the things that he said were important justice compassion respect forgiveness those things I hope are embedded in the DNA of what we do here that's why I say to you like in a big school like us 1,400 students 1,500 next year there'll be lots of there'll be kids that you don't particularly like and that's fine and that's life but I'm going to expect everyone to treat people respectfully every day 24/7 365 days a year it is not okay to treat anyone in this community with a lack of respect because we're a Catholic school couple of only very brief plays of the week that I that I got in we haven't done a lot of these this year at all obviously I got a nice comment from a teacher in in art and the art department about hailey Kendall in year 8 who is going out of her way in one class just to help another student get through a project really work well well done hailey similarly Amelia Chu going above and beyond in maths to assist other students with revision can I put out a big shout out to our i breast brigade led by our year 12s who have been standing up at lunch times and manning bins to just help us do recycling and that those year twelve students giving their time to change the world one plastic bottle at a time so please support them as we go through that process it's really good that they've stood up when we've needed people to do that the other thing can I just get a play of the week too I've had it happen a few times recently where kids have emailed me or mrs. Austin Campbell about something they've seen in the school that they think is not a kind it's usually around kids being badly treated whether it's a bit of bullying or a lack of respect but they've done something about that instead of sitting back and watching it instead of being observers they've just taken the effort to write an email and let us know that's something that they think is not okay and it's given us the opportunity to step in and do something about it can I just thank sincerely those kids for a bit of ticker and not just being bystanders in the world but actually doing something so well done thank you very much for a very difficult term it's been there's been a pretty tough year I know we're all looking forward to things getting closer to being back to normal next term will be able to do sport which is fantastic if quite a few things are opening up so hopefully we're all getting a bit closer back to being a normal lifestyle at school but thank you very much for the cooperation you're given your staff as the kids said in the prayer hope you have a wonderful holiday thanks so much this is just a bad game on so just quick thank you to everyone who's participated in game on over the last term it's been such a success the game 1 will be held every second term from now on before we announce the winning house you might be interested to know that a total of fourteen thousand eight hundred and eighty three eighty three questions were answered over the term and the winning house has been in the lead the entire nine weeks let's for the last time jump straight to the scoreboard [Music] we'd now like we'd now like to invite the Macauley house captains as well as mr. McMahon to present the trophy congratulations guys see you next time on game on hey guys you may know me as Michael from Vinny's youth last year I hosted the Shalom School sleep out in in Sports Center but this year due to covert 19 restrictions Vinny's is going virtual with their sleep out to raise awareness for homelessness a recent report in the news male-identified Bundaberg off the back of covert 19 as one of the most vulnerable regions in the state due to the industry that people work in and the present percentage of income that goes to rent and mortgage we will start to see the full effect on how this affects our region and homelessness when the job seeker allowance returns to pre covent amounts in late September this year the sleepout will be held on the twenty fourth of July which is Friday of week two next term starting at 5:30 the sleepout will be hosted on the Vinny's youth Queensland Facebook live feed you'll have opportunities to participate and interact in activities throughout the night so invite your friends over and camp out in the backyard and raise awareness for homelessness at the start of next term I will have a sign-in page ready and a link to the feed for you guys to join in please notice these posters around the school up until when it happens and I look forward to your involvement on the night thank you good morning everyone as with everything else this year we do not know whether shalom day will go ahead or if it does what it will look like however in the spirit of positivity we're going to plan as if it's still on so that means houses start thinking about possible dance music and moves house pride is on the line we love to see singing and dancing but this year we want to encourage all sorts of talents to be presented in our Shalom's Got Talent so we're going to make it a little bit different it's going to be a showcase not a competition so we're prepared to present things virtually as well as live so if your group of friends has really nailed that tick-tock dance film it send it in and it can be put up in between acts Shalom's Got Talent if you like to create short films we'd love to see those maybe a time-lapse video of a painting or a craft activity you've done or a trick you can do on your scooter or your bike maybe you have a comedy routine that you could share so on the day we'll have a mixture of live performances and videos keep looking into the notices to get the details for these things always it's more fun if you do this with your friends so over the holidays get creative and keep watching the notices for more details good morning everyone just on behalf of the SRC I just like to fill you in on some of our highlights we have successfully petitioned for the pathways to be wide widened there's senior girls now have the option of trousers for their uniforms we've got mirrors in the bathrooms and we were successful in launching our solidarity March moving forward the SRC hopes to achieve many goals in many different areas one of search is to look into recycling we have created the Ibis brigade but we're looking for more feedback and ways to improve this moving forward additionally we will be conducting a review into the broadened variety of the tuckshop as well as the efficiency of the current systems in place we hope that we can grab wins for everybody in this area for this regards additionally we are looking into headphones for all students during class of course this has not been approved yet but we are looking forward to what might come additionally as many of our members are in year 12 and some of them and most of them will be all of them will be graduating themselves we will be looking for new membership for all the houses so if you're interested in becoming part of the Student Representative Council I would strongly advise you to go see your house coordinator or your house captains and I can discuss with you ways to move forward this concludes the first virtual assembly for Shalom College I'm Harry packwood say class II Shalom