Principal’s Blog – 24 June 2020

Dear Parents, Students and Staff,

The winter solstice (21 June) has just passed signalling the daylight hours will start to lengthen albeit slowly. Of course, we are only a month into winter and there is still more of winter to enjoy! The homeless won’t be enjoying it though.

The normal struggle for some may see others added to the homeless ranks following Covid aftermaths such as loss of jobs, defaulting on loans, evictions from homes, rise in mental health issues and relationship pressures. Our social service agencies are working harder than ever to keep up.

SFX was represented in the annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout event and the student’s Senior leadership Team conducted their own campout last Friday evening. Their tally is passing the $6600 mark which is a phenomenal effort under the circumstances for the students. Congratulations to them in positively engaging in community and Christian service of this kind. Congratulations and thank you to the generosity of the donors too in supporting the students but more importantly supporting those who will benefit from the financial injection they will receive.

I am sure each of us can appreciate that sleeping on cardboard is not very ergonomically sound nor restful and being cold is not what one would normally choose.

The awareness-raising aspect for me this time was experiencing the vulnerability. I slept in the Year 10 locker bay and I was amazed by the fact that the school in the dead of night is a noisy place. The sounds were unfamiliar, and I am sure I heard footsteps in my broken consciousness! I will admit I was a little anxious on a few occasions.

I was thinking the emotional toll on the regular homeless must be enormous in this aspect of their predicament. At any stage, one could get mugged, bitten by a dog or have stuff stolen. One can understand why the homeless congregate.

Let’s pray that there will be continued Government social services and NGOs that can provide suitable access to accommodation for the homeless. The support of the SFX team will go some way in supporting that initiative.

Best wishes

Paul Carroll
Principal