Greetings from St Bede’s College.

Athletic Sports featured on Tuesday and Thursday this week, which broke the week up for the boys. One of our teachers from Great Britain commented to me as we surveyed the whole school participating, that an event like this would not happen at all in his homeland.

It made me think about one of the purposes of our College which is to provide an holistic education for all students, and boys of all athletic ability participate in a number of events; sometimes for the first time ever.

Mr Gamblin is the co-ordinator of the two days and with staff and senior boys orchestrated a well organised event for 800 boys.

Apart from giving boys other opportunities, it is a great way for the staff and boys to interact out of the classroom and on the whole, the atmosphere was great.

At assembly, Mrs Tonia Fasi (mother of Lorenzo Fasi in Year 10), promoted the Polyfest that takes place in five weeks, and introduced the College to the beginning of one of their perfomances. She emphasised that those involved do not have to be Polynesian and welcomed boys from all cultures to be involved. 

Amy from the Air Training Corps (ATC) gave a presentation inviting boys to be involved and there was quite a bit of interest from the boys.

Benediction
We have streamlined Benediction, which has occurred every Friday at morning break since 1911. This is where we expose the Blessed Sacrament, and offer up prayers for the community. It is one of the regular practices which remind us that we are a Catholic school. 

The boys pray at the beginning of each lesson. We aim that as a part of their RE programme, they visit the chapel every week, where we teach them various forms of self-reflection or prayer, which we believe helps share the boys' character and indeed shapes their conscience. It's an important ingredient to developing the boys to be good men. 

Encourage your boys to participate, even though there may be some resistance to these practices.

Until next week,

J.G. Boyle