I had one of the most amazing weeks.

This week in my role of being a Chaplain I was so blessed to be a judge in the interschool public speaking competition. I am so amazed by the confidence of students who are able to stand up in front of an audience to deliver a poem or to speak about a topic that they have researched. The competition was difficult to judge as the standard was so high. I wanted to give two first place prizes, but as a team of 3 judges we had to agree on one junior winner and a senior winner.

I think about myself in primary school and there would be no way at all that I would put myself up for a public speaking competition.

Another event that I attend was the interschool swimming event. I loved the students who went there and did their best to represent their school. There were nerves before and excitement. They supported each other, they cheered on each other on, they cheered for the other schools and their behaviour in the bay was so lovely.  They all represented their school with pride.

The school I was at won the interschool swimming competition. I saw such great sportsmanship, so much encouragement for each other and support for each other. They also cheered on the other schools and supported them

Yes, it made me a bit teary (lucky I had my sunglasses on). They inspire me, I was so proud of them.

On Friday, I went to the Convention Centre to attend a Leadership Conference with one of my other schools. We took 15 students and it was such an amazing day. There was so much to learn, we learnt about being a leader and what does that look like. We learnt about sharing our ideas and how to take action with them.

This was my fourth time attending a GRIP leadership conference and I love being able to see the students grow in their leadership.

There were some beautiful ideas that they wanted to do. Some ideas were about helping the homeless, helping to raise funds to help students who didn’t have a school uniform, another idea was for students who didn’t have a hat for play to set up some games in the undercover area. There were also ideas for the kitchen garden at school to sell the vegetables to help raise funds for the community. I loved how they brainstormed ideas and thought of others.

So, this is what I am passionate about people making a difference. About people standing up and using their gifts to help others.

I am so grateful.