It has been a year since I joined the family of St Luke’s. As I reflect on the uniqueness of our College, I just can’t resist sharing some of the amazing opportunities the teachers and students are exposed to during their journey here. 

We, both students and teachers, are able to capitalise on the obstacles of the present time to create opportunities which can have a lasting impact on teaching and learning. Our new ‘Daily/Weekly Flow’ is an example of how we’ve transformed our COVID-19 ‘Connected learning’ experience into a renewed ‘Blended learning’ pathway. 

At St Luke’s, we have the autonomy to take risks and question what we do while developing the capability to take ownership. Students are constantly equipped with the skills to become creative contributors and innovative problem solvers for a changing world. Through the inquiry-based learning, especially through the new draft Religious Education curriculum, they are getting transformed into curious faith-filled children.

The ‘Life Design’ course is unique to our College and its purpose is to use students’ values, strengths, interests and motivation to add meaning to their personal lives and community. They are able to identify challenges in their circle of influence and also find suitable solutions.

Generally, people relate the word ‘creativity’ to the contemporary world. In the scripture, before two thousand years, we find Jesus using his ‘creativity’ to heal sick people and preach the Good News. Mike Romero urged Christians in one of his articles to embrace their creativity. He said that we were designed by God to create. 

“Here’s the truth: It’s impossible to lack creativity while standing in the presence of the creator. The Lord has graced us with an intrinsic ability to create. To design beauty from nothing. To write, to draw, to build, to sing and to dance for something and someone bigger than ourselves…”

As educators at St Luke’s, we are very privileged to have the support of our Principal, Mr Miller to extend our horizon to guide students to move from:

-> ‘Complacence’ to ‘Competence’

-> ‘Dead-end thinking’ to ‘Creative thinking‘

-> ‘Something’ to ‘More than Something’

-> ‘Can I?’ to ‘I can’

-> ‘Limit’ to ‘Limitlessness’ 

-> ‘Scarcity’ to ‘Abundance’ and

-> ‘Compliance’’ to ‘Transformational Compliance’

Here are some examples of student samples that demonstrate their ability to raise their own bars to produce something meaningful and thought-provoking.

Before a few weeks, Year 9 students, in their Religious Education classes, looked at Religion and the characteristics of being religious. They examined different ways to find if religion has been used for good or evil. Finally, as part of the learning cycle, they evaluated if Religion was essential to fulfil their potential.

There were many activities that helped them dive deeper in this concept. In one of the activities, students worked in groups to research the following themes:

-> Social networks can be powerful, pervasive and productive tools, if used wisely.

-> Religion is not a problem but a solution to global issues. 

-> Religion is a tool for self-improvement if one one wishes to accept its teaching with an open mind. 

-> Globalisation and consumerism are driving the modern world and the flourishing it is aiming to create is short-lived. If you are aspiring for true flourishing, live the beatitudes.

-> Religious Education can be used to make students a better version of themselves if it is more interesting, purposeful, inquiry based and authentic.

Students researched the themes in specific groups, shared their findings, filtered their responses and recorded their views as audio clips. Through the awesome ‘Life Design’ course, they were able to recognise the passion of one of their peers; Krish’s editing skills. 

Krish’s interest in editing was used by the class to produce a short video clip which had important findings from their activity. The editor used his knowledge and skills to use students’ original audio clips to produce this video clip.

This term, Year 9 students have been exploring Indigenous Spirituality. In one of the recent lessons, they read through St. John Paul II’s message to our Indigenous brothers and sisters in Alice Springs in 1986 to identify the four key themes he addressed. The themes are:

-> Preservation of indigenous culture in a multicultural country

-> The alignment of indigenous spirituality to Catholic teachings

-> The preservation of the environment &

-> Reconciliation

It is a gratifying experience to know through work samples (sample), students’ ability to move from ‘something’ to ‘more than something’ in their RE journey. 

Stage 4 students have been exploring opportunities for upholding human dignity in the contemporary world through the learning cycle, ‘Human Dignity’. They used Genesis 1:26-27 to understand the concept of human dignity from a spiritual perspective. Students created a concept map to unpack the verse, ‘We are made in the image and likeness of God’. Students summarised their understanding by submitting their first benchmark (sample) half way through the learning cycle. 

We read in 1 Chronicles 22: 15-16, “You have an abundance of workers: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of artisans without numbers, skilled in working  gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you.”

At St Luke’s, our purpose is to help students identify their talents, hone their skills, strengthen their faith and begin their work in the school environment so that they excel in their real life world.

Yes, with God’s grace, the work has begun to support students move from ‘complacence’ to ‘competence’; the best is yet to come.