On the last Tuesday of Term 1, the Middle School Pastoral Care Team hosted a Mother and Son Evening. The night began in the College Chapel with a reflection on the heavenly mother and son, Mary and Jesus. The focus was on two prominent artworks at the College; the Teenage Christ statue, which sits in the heart of the Year 7 quad and the magnificent mosaic icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which overlooks the Year 7 quad. We take comfort from knowing that the Holy Family experienced the same sorts of worries and joys as the rest of us. We then heard from two very brave Aquinas mums, one of a Year 10-day boy and the other a boarding mother of two sons, one in Year 10 and the other in Year 8. Both shared some of their experiences, particularly around “letting go”, allowing their sons to make mistakes and loving them unconditionally even when they’ve let themselves down.

Time was then spent in group discussions chaired by Year 10 mentors before one-to-one time with mothers and sons. The evening concluded with a prayer of thanksgiving and the distribution of Easter eggs. We were thoroughly delighted with the format of the evening and the large turnout given the busyness of our modern lives. A special thanks to Fiona McAlister and Michael Dempsey for their assistance and to the Year 10 mentors whose maturity and wisdom was a big factor in the success of the evening.

Thank you to all who offered feedback, some of which is highlighted below:

• I was wishing to express my thanks for a truly endearing and heartfelt evening of shared experiences for the mother’s and sons of the 2021 Year 7 cohort. The Year 10 mentor we had leading our group showed respect and strong leadership qualities and, spoke succinctly about his Veritas experiences. Thank you also, for providing the mothers with time to be ‘truly present in the moment’ when reflecting on precious memories with our boys.
• I am writing just to say thank you all for this wonderful event - Mother and Son Evening! I was in MG3 with Ethan Dixon for the discussion. Firstly I would like to acknowledge Ethan, I think Aquinas has taught him so well, he has such good leadership skills, we had a very active discussion among mums and sons under his leadership tonight, we had 6 mums in total in the classroom, and 5 x Year 7 kids, all the mums strongly agree that this is such a wonderful event to give us opportunity to know what’s on the kids mind, although not directly hearing from our own, but this is good thing. I think they may feel shy if they had to talk in front of us.
  
• My opinion is that this opportunity is very good to build the relationship between mum and son, asking them all the questions what your mum did for you, it makes them think about what their mum has done for them and opens their eyes to appreciate her for this!