From the Principal
A New Year, a New Start
... to respond to the call of justice, to be the voice of provocation in their community, and to serve those who find themselves on the margins.
Schools, by their very nature, are places of new beginnings. Each year approximately 250 boys walk through the gate to begin their Riverview journey, and what a portent that is for the future. For the boys who are currently making the transition in preparation for 2018, the majority of whom will be in Year 5 and Year 7, they will become the graduation classes of 2025 and 2023, respectively. In the interim, the formation of these young men will be distinctively guided, and at times challenged by, the principles of a holistic Jesuit education. It will ask the boys to take up the cause of the magis; that is to strive and deepen their experience of school life intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And, in the best of the Jesuit tradition, it will ask them to respond to the call of justice, to be the voice of provocation in their community, and to serve those who find themselves on the margins.
As much as new cohorts of students represent new beginnings, much of College life – as indeed the institution of education – is predicated upon adaptation and renewal. The Ignis Project is a cogent reminder of the need for innovation and change in context of the demands of the contemporary world. Agile, interactive and collaborative learning environments that will embrace multimodal learning across transdisciplinary subject domains signal a new era for the College. Asymmetries that are consonant with a changing world will be part of the educational platform moving forward in IT-rich and virtual environments.
Curriculum design and delivery is under renewal also through Project Based Learning( PBL)- that is, student-centred inquiry involving the fusion of traditional fields of learning to find solutions to new problems. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics( STEM) is one such face to learning that currently combines coding, robotics, animatics and a variety of new and expanding opportunities for heuristic learning. And, more beckons over the years ahead.
Stage 1 of the Ignis Project, which is due for completion in early April, is the harbinger of what is to follow over the coming decades. It, along with the other stages of the Project, is designed to prepare young men for the new beginnings that they will experience in the post-school world, one where the twin turbines of obsolescence and innovation will produce its own challenges and rewards for those who are prepared for them.
There is much to look forward to. For the graces to meet these challenges I offer a profound statement of thanks to all who contribute so much to make the beginnings at Riverview so rich and stimulating.
DR PAUL A HINE, PRINCIPAL
6 | IGNATIAN | DECEMBER 2017