From the Acting Teacher-Librarian

Last Friday, we celebrated Year 12 study period students’ final library session.  It’s simultaneously poignant and joyous watching this next crop of fine young people poised to take their places in a bigger world beyond school.  It was also disconcerting to realise that their playlist was the music of my adolescence, rendering me unofficially vintage… My own kids have asked me if it really was like that in the eighties – so much brighter, better music, more fun.  I’ve told them my recollection is one of: really bad pastel fashion, floppy fringes that impeded vision, shoulder pads and terrible hair.  But yeah, there were no mobile phones to catch embarrassing moments and the synthesised music was pretty catchy.

So what goes around comes around and, shared music aside, what a privilege it is to accompany younger generations for part of their path.  More than one person has pointed out: it’s not a human race, it’s a journey: one in which we reach out our hands to help others forward, and to be helped along as well.  In my relatively brief time with this cohort of Year 12 students, it has been a privilege to witness so much camaraderie, humour, and a fundamental decency and kindness which makes me hopeful for how our young people might steer the future.

We’ve had another finishing up here too, with our SJC Student2Student mentoring students sharing their final sessions with their buddies yesterday.  We can be justly proud of our students for sticking with a two-term distance, sharing a weekly call in their own time to support their less privileged buddies.  Participating in a school-based program is one thing, but having students ranging from Year 7-11 volunteering on a weekly basis in personal time is impressive and inspiring and my hope is that we can resume with the program next year and have more SJC students come on board!

Ms Melaina Faranda
Acting Teacher-Librarian