College Captains

At the start of the year we stepped into our roles with nervous anticipation, hoping to uphold the great legacy left by our previous leaders. We began our journey by going on Enthuse, a leadership camp that connected us with other Lutheran school leaders. We left the camp feeling inspired, with plenty of ideas to bring into our captaincy journey!

When reflecting on our ‘why’, we decided on our theme: ‘Culture through Connection’. In conjunction with our school’s theme of ‘Living Hope’, we aimed to grow in community, by making valuable connections within the wider school environment. Even then, we knew that we would not see this goal reach its full potential in just one year. However, it is our hope that the Redeemer community will continue to come together, especially in these times of disconnection and unpredictability. Our belief in unity’s strength has only been reinforced throughout a year of many different circumstances and adventures.

Throughout our limited time at Redeemer, we strived to create a legacy, not promoting our names, but rather a culture of positivity and a willingness to engage in student life. By establishing personal relationships, we gave our best efforts towards fostering a safe and welcoming environment and to form genuine, caring friendships. We wanted our actions to speak louder than our words, as we strived to achieve these goals.

Through Enthuse, we learnt that to create engaging Assemblies and devotions, it was important to pair messages and advice with fun activities, while still being real. So, we took a bit of a risk and experimented with some new ideas - we introduced games to Assembly, playing Guess Who (with the help of baby photos from the teachers and student leaders), Family Feud and Scissors Paper Rock with the whole Senior School. We also took a leap in vulnerability, introducing the ‘Captain’s Corner’ series, where each week one of us would deliver a message that personally resonated with us. This risk proved to be a great success that we hope continues to get passed on.

We wanted to talk to people in the everyday moments and make lasting relationships, across both Junior and Senior Schools and across all year levels. Whether it was in the form of musical or sporting events, or even just chance interactions around the campus, the experiences we have had throughout the Redeemer community created a lasting glow in our lives. In the Senior School, we spread random acts of kindness and in the Junior School, we continued the long-held tradition of visiting the Junior students during break

times. It’s safe to say that the Senior students loved it just as much as the Junior students did!

We were also given the opportunity to tour Parliament House where we connected with other school leaders and had the pleasure of meeting and talking to parliamentary leaders, Minister Mick de Brenni, Deputy Premier Dr Steven Miles, Minister Grace Grace and Minister Meaghan Scanlon.

Through our captaincy, we don’t think any of us could have anticipated all that lay ahead of us. But now, looking back through the hard times and the good times, we wouldn’t trade any of them for a different journey. Even though our jokes haven’t always landed, and we have had a few stresses, the past year has been one to remember. We started the year afraid to be ourselves, hiding behind appearances, but throughout the year we have grown individually, and as a team. We’d like to thank you for your support, encouragement, engagement in Assemblies and willingness to grow in community. After the uncertainties of last year, it’s been great to bounce back and grow together. We know our actions are only the very beginning of a legacy - we’ve already been talking to next year’s Captains and we know that you are in such great hands.