On my return from my renewal leave I wish to thank Des as Acting Principal, James Lloyd, Vanessa Dibbens and Kylie McMillan for taking on extra leadership roles. Thanks also to Susan Trimboli, Julie Parsons and the whole staff for their support of school and community in my absence. So I’m guessing you might ask... ‘What is renewal leave and what did you do?'

Over a 10 year tenure of leadership in a Catholic school, Deputies and Principals are offered opportunities to take on learning experiences to nourish faith, spirit, mind and body to enable them to build their faith communities. This experience can be shaped by the leader but of course must meet strict criteria. Last year I developed a plan for my renewal leave (as this was my first as a leader in schools for 16 years) and this was a focus on the spiritual and physical with opportunities for theological study into the life of our Parish founder, St Eugene de Mazenod.   My plan was to bring all of these together as I wanted to learn more about our Oblate origins as a school whose founder, St Eugene de Mazenod shaped entire faith communities across the continents.

Physical and Spiritual - I had the great pleasure (and challenge) to walk the Portuguese Camino (Way of St James) for 170 kilometres from the North of Portugal to Northern Spain (Santiago de Compostela). This is a pilgrimage that follows the route of St James as an early Christian as he walked and spoke about Jesus of Nazareth and gained thousands of followers as one of the first Christian communities in Europe.  During this walk I followed his path, visited many sacred sites, ancient churches, chapels on pathways and routes well worn by millions of pilgrims before me. All on their way to Santiago.

On a personal note, I had the great pleasure of joining with my son, Oliver, on this part of the journey. It is an incredible privilege to be with a 28 year old for an extended time, with little technology, walking 25 kms per day. Then sharing the stories of the pain in our legs and feet each night!

I now look forward to a busy and exciting Term 4!