The COVID pandemic has tested the resilience of the global community. The disruption to schooling, the loss of peer networks, the cancellation of many rituals and celebratory milestones were among the extraordinary circumstances that young people had to deal with during 2020/2021. At St Vincent’s College students earnt the admiration of their teachers and parents by showing the most amazing resilience. Through application of the strategies they have been taught in the cura personalis program, they were able to prioritise positive thinking, focus on their strengths, use creativity, practise gratitude, discern, be hopeful and find God in the ordinary moments of life. It is through the implementation of such purposeful behaviour that our students found the resilience to get through the long periods of isolation associated with the pandemic. The College also, of course, had and used reactive interventions through knowing our students, noticing changes and providing support and encouragement when students’ natural reserves of resilience were at their lowest. Building resilience has always been part of our Pastoral and Academic Care program but the challenges of 2020/2021
highlighted just how critical the capacity is to respond and recover after an unexpected trauma or disruption.
The College is committed to preparing students through our holistic care to be “courageous women of action”. Courage to do, to dare and to dream of being agents for good is nurtured through academic rigour, extensive cocurricular activities, social justice initiatives, student leadership formation and being immersed in a positive and supportive environment. The College Boarding program allows for the particular resilience growth and independence created by living away from home. Even our day students who daily navigate their way to school on Sydney’s vast public transport system develop a higher sense of resilience than those students who stay in local neighbourhood schools. Pushing through that initial nervousness pays great dividends as our
students graduate with a real sense of having gone to school in the centre of one of the world’s great super cities. We promote resilience not recklessness as there are always well-thought through safety nets underneath all our challenges.