Earlier this year, a Year 12 student asked me if he could tag along for one of our weekly Breakfast Patrols in the city so that he could put together a portfolio of photographs of homeless people living on the streets. I’m not a fan of ‘poverty tourism’ but on this occasion, the request was accepted because I think he will have a story to tell.

I have come to know many of these people on a first-name basis and they know all the team leaders and volunteers who have been serving them breakfast every weekend since mid-2020. As expected, there was no shortage of smiling faces for the portfolio and along with that came the usual banter and stories that make these patrols so worthwhile. I have often asked myself "What could we do to give these people back their livelihoods?", "Why don’t they just sign up to get a job at Centrelink?", "Aren’t they sick and tired of sleeping on pavements and eating the same food that is given to them day in and day out?", "Aren’t they tired of starvation, the cold, the heat, the physical and verbal abuse and the hard floors?"

The solution is not as simple as one would think. It never is. On one morning a young patrol officer took an interest in what we were doing. He too, asked the same question "There are so many jobs, why can’t they apply for them?"

The people I see have fallen through the cracks because they have been abandoned. There is no cure for abandonment except belonging. Everything else is just a band-aid to help them get through another day. But band-aids are important!

Getting them to a point of even wanting to work, after possibly years of rejection, depression, anxiety or low self-esteem is simply not possible. When you add the comfort they find in alcohol and drugs (not always), they often wake up to days that are just a blur and it gets worse after that. Then, in a moment of sobriety when they do feel like taking control of their lives, they find they have no paper-work, no resumes, no clean clothes to wear to an interview, no transport and no-one to remind them about appointments. Adding to that, a possible criminal record (30% of people leaving prisons are frictionally homeless for months) or a mental illness, makes some people practically unemployable. And finally, in 2022, we are seeing more people who cannot afford to put food on the table for themselves and their children or pay their rent. They take to the streets because they have no choice. They may be waiting for their first Centrelink payment or their next pay cheque. For the many I speak to, it’s the waiting that’s killing them!

Many people will rely on the charity of others this winter and beyond.

Our Aquinas College community has been incredibly generous with its Winter and Advent appeals. Even during the lockdowns, people brought their donations via the drive-thru program. I want you to know that your donations make a difference! There are so many ways to help and so many ways we can help others feel like they belong somewhere.

John Richards
Director of Christian Service-Learning

This week, Aquinas College will be acknowledging Anzac Day through a variety of smaller ceremonies which are appropriate given our Term 2 COVID-19 protocols. These ceremonies will honour the lives of all who served during war, as well as the remembrance of all Australians killed in military operations; including those who have served through recent conflicts and on peacekeeping missions. To commence these ceremonies, College Captain Ashton Teixeira and Year 6 student Lachlan Harney joined Mr Brendan Chapman in laying the wreath.

On Friday the 18^th of March, 90+ students from both Middle School and Senior School donned hats, gloves and masks to help clean-up Australia.

After a delicious cinnamon scroll and a fruit drink, the students were keen to make a difference in their own back yard. They set off in small groups, led by either a staff member or a senior student group. Fourteen different groups cleaned up the river foreshore, basketball courts, the College entrance, the ovals and around school buildings.

The great news is that not a lot of rubbish was collected as the College was already quite clean! We usually fill a school ute at least twice and this time we only filled barely half a ute.

The sustainability group did an amazing job collecting the 10c containers that had been thrown away in a variety of bins. They managed to collect far for recyclable material than everyone else did actual rubbish. This is a great sign that the sustainability group is really getting their message across and students are using the bins provided for recycling.

A big thank you must go to Mrs Monks, Mr Speechley and the entire Design and Technology Department for volunteering to help out on the day. Mr Speechley was especially welcomed, as his presence meant the senior students could utilise the school dinghy’s to get access to the area under the Mt Henry Bridge. This area is notorious for collecting rubbish both from the river and the freeway.

The Senior School Service committee also did a great job organising and assisting on the day.

We hope everyone is enjoying the cleaner College grounds!

The Aquinas College Schola Cantorum was established as a means of providing boys from the age of eight a rigorous choral education. It is inspired by the great choir school of Europe and North America and is the first of its kind here in Perth. View the Schola Cantorum Newsletter via this link- https://issuu.com/aquinas67/do...

On a picturesque Sunday evening, 8 keen birdwatchers assisted with the Rainbow Lorikeet Roost count. They were very successful observing over 50 birds, with a large number of those, roosting on Campus.

The Lorikeets are quite tricky to spot when roosting. As a defence mechanism, they fly around making a lot of noise just before dusk. They then fly into a tree near where they roost and stay quiet until they think it is safe for them to fly into their own roost for the night.

The students watched them and to tried to count how many flew into the roost. Not an easy task as they are small birds that can fly very fast. The students did an excellent job spotting 18 roosting!

Thank you to Sue Harper, a parent volunteer and long time environmentalist/photographer, for sharing these great images with us! The organisers of the Australia wide event loved the pictorial evidence of Lorikeets roosting at Aquinas.

In the coming weeks, we will be counting the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo’s. Please contact paul.rich@aquinas.wa.edu.au if you would like to come along as a parent helper.

Last week, education ministers from around the country unanimously agreed to implement an holistic and age-appropriate consent curriculum that will be mandatory across Australia. This is a huge sign that what our boys learn through their Veritas classes, the Character Education Program of the College, is a curriculum well and truly leading the way in educating about respectful relations and consent. We are always on the look out for new ways to engage our young men in meaningful discussions and discernment around these interrelated matters, news of this Australia wide approach will further fuel our commitment in this regard. In recognition of this, we provide a throwback photo of the delegation of students from Aquinas who represented the College at the WA Department of Communities launch of the ‘Stand Up for White Ribbon Campaign’ in 2019 alongside the Hon Simone McGurk MLA, Minister for Child Protection; Women's Interests; Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence; Community Services. We were invited because they had heard about our efforts in educating boys around gender-based violence and going way beyond teaching about consent, to exploring and promoting respectful relationships in our Veritas Program.

Farewell to the Old Aquinians and Friends Reunion Tour Group

After 15 tours to iconic WA locations between 2006 and 2022 (missing 2020 only due to Covid), the end of the line has come for the Old Aquinians and Friends Reunion Tour Group. The original group of travellers was comprised of Aquinas graduates from the 1950’s, with ‘friends’ added along the way as numbers dwindled. Fast forward to 2022 and many of the original group have passed away or now find touring too difficult due to illness or incapacity.

As reported in the December 2021 issue of Fish Magazine, the 15^th tour to Margaret River in November last year was the group’s swansong tour. Since their first tour to New Norcia and Wongan Hills in 2006 - the brainchild of Bill Boekeman (’54) - the group has covered key locations between Kalbarri in the north, Albany in the south and Kalgoorlie to the east, savouring the local attractions at every stop while raising more than $60,000 for Aquinas College Bursaries along the way.

Each tour was arranged and conducted with military precision, thanks mostly to the organisational efforts of Jack (’54) and Ronda Bana. Each year a tour booklet was produced, incorporating the full tour itinerary – dates and times - the names and contact details of all the tour participants, details of all previous tours, details of all previous Foundation contributions and Helpful hints for a happy trip.

Each tour included a special dinner with a live auction of various goods donated by members of the tour group, with the proceeds of the auction - and any leftover tour fees or donations - forming the basis of the annual contribution to the Foundation.

On Thursday 20 January 2022, the College and the Foundation welcomed more than 40 past members of the group for a final, annual Foundation thank you luncheon. The event afforded the group an opportunity to come together for a formal windup that included presentations to key tour group players, speeches and the handing over of their final Foundation cheque for $4,915.

On accepting the cheque - along with a special commemorative plaque - Principal David McFadden thanked the group for their tremendous contributions to Aquinas College Bursaries over many years, contributions that have directly supported the mission of the College to educate boys who would otherwise not be able to attend Aquinas.

Although there was a feeling of great sadness at the closing of an era, there was an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the fun and the camaraderie shared by all who took part in the tours over 15 years, as well as a great sense of pride in helping many young boys to receive an Aquinas education.

From the College, a big thank you to everyone involved. Your generosity has provided many bright and deserving boys with the opportunity to realise their dreams and change their lives for the better. We wish you all good health and look forward to other opportunities to welcome you back to the College.

Louise Symonds
Executive Officer | Aquinas College Foundation