Faith & Mission

MISSION STATEMENT

Burdekin Catholic High School exists for its students and we aim to assist them to discover their intellectual, spiritual and social gifts and to provide them with quality services to develop those gifts

OUR MOTTO  -  ONE IN CHRIST

In the context of St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, our motto stands as a rich expression of our philosophy as a school.

“Then we shall not be children any longer, or tossed one way or another and carried along by every wind of doctrine, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their cleverness in practising deceit.  If we live by the truth and love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function.  So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." (Ephesians 4: 14 – 16)

The Marist school has the gospel of Jesus Christ at its heart.  Its members seek to live out their response to the gospel with the same faith, hope and love that Mary did.  Like Mary, they seek to bring Christ-life to birth, in ordinary ways and in even the most unlikely of people and places.  Their Marian approach is to nurture, to teach, to gather, to reconcile, and to stand with young people, so as to give each and all of them reason and means to believe, to hope and to love.

St Marcellin Champagnat wished for Marist schools to have a family spirit, where all would relate and belong to each other as members of a loving family would intuitively do.  He believed that the key means of education was the personal relationship between teacher and student and so he encouraged maximum presence of teachers in the lives of the young.  He insisted on a prevailing simplicity that would ensure transparency, integrity and lack of pretence in relationships, method and style.  He encouraged zeal and a love of work.

These defining elements of the Marist school family spirit, presence, simplicity, love of work, and the way of Mary give Burdekin Catholic High School its distinctive values and culture.

SOCIAL OUTREACH

To encourage students to develop a ‘service mentality’, BCHS introduced the concept of service awards.  Students voluntarily undertake service outside of school hours to merit awards at different levels:  Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.  These awards are presented each year at the school Awards Night.

Each week a small group of students visits the Ayr Aged Care Facility, engaging with the residents in games, chatter and sharing morning tea.

The school has an active Vinnies group that works closely with the Parish St Vincent de Paul Society.

Each Lent period, leading up to Easter, is a time when students are challenged to contribute towards the Australian Caritas Appeal for overseas aid to developing countries.

The school has a biennial program of taking students to Vietnam for an immersion experience and personalising the ongoing relationship the school has with a Vietnamese orphanage.

LITURGIES

Students regularly involve in school liturgies.  Once a month, there is a Youth Mass in the Sacred Heart Parish when our students participate as ministers and school groups sing.