A Prayer for NAIDOC Week

Lord Jesus,
You walked the earth with humility and justice.
Help us walk gently on this land,
listening deeply, speaking truthfully,
and working boldly for reconciliation.

Holy Spirit,
ignite in us the fire of your love—
that we may celebrate culture,
defend dignity,
and work together in unity
toward the healing of this land and all its people.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

As we quickly approach the end of Semester One, there is much to celebrate.

Last week, I had the honour of representing our College at the Refugee Week Celebration, "Thank You CommuniTEA," at City Hall. Our College was recognised for its contribution to the empowerment of refugees in Newcastle. It was a delight to witness John Sandy, our Beyond the Gates worker, receive an award for his outstanding contributions in this space.

NAIDOC Week, celebrated from July 6th to 13th, coincides with our holidays. This year marks a significant milestone—50 years of NAIDOC Week. On Wednesday, we held our NAIDOC assembly, embracing the 2025 theme, “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.”

This theme invites us to reflect on the past, celebrate the present, and look forward with hope and purpose to the future. At San Clemente, we are proud to support the next generation of changemakers. Our students engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives across the curriculum, participate in cultural learning, and build meaningful relationships with local communities. We welcomed students from our Pathways schools to participate in a Dance workshop, which was a truly special experience for all involved.

Thank you to all of the parents who attended our first Parent Forum for 2025, held on Monday 23rd June. It was a wonderful session, with lots of collaborative discussion and is a wonderful "first" for these events. We look forward to sharing opportunities just like this one each term. 

Parent_Forum_Minutes_Term_2_2025.pdf

Today, our students are competing at the Hunter Sports Centre for individual honours and house pride at our Athletics Carnival. It was inspiring to see everyone represent the College with pride and give their all in each event.  We will announce the winners as soon as our points tallies are completed. 

Next Thursday, we will celebrate our Semester One Academic Awards. We will recognise students in three categories: Diligence, Academic Achievement, and Principal’s Awards. The Diligence award is nominated by the teacher of each class to a student who has consistently applied themselves to all coursework. The Academic Excellence award goes to the top 5% of students in each course. The Principal’s Awards recognise consistent effort and approach to learning across all subjects, based on a thorough analysis of the Personal Profile results on our Semester Reports. Parents and carers of award recipients will have received invitations to the ceremonies this week. We hope to see many of our families join us for this event.

What a wonderful way to wind up the semester, celebrating our beautiful and diverse community, our sporting achievements, and our academic successes!

Thank you to everyone in our community for your ongoing support of the College. Together, we are helping our young people grow into strong, bright, and engaged adults.