Over the four years at St Albans, students are involved in a wide variety of social justice opportunities. This could be in the form of liturgy, as was demonstrated with Year 10 Mackillop and Year 10 McAuley mass on the cause of social justice.  Opportunities to participate in  extra-curricular activities like Social Justice Group or in the CRC St Albans community garden give students an opportunity to turn prayer into action. It is our hope that students at the end of their time at Catholic Regional College St Albans see their belief in God and their call to action as the foundations of their Catholic Identity.  The social justice program evolves as the students’ progress to the senior levels. The Year 7’s theme this term is Growing In Our Community. They do this by responding to needs at home and in their classroom. In the RE program the students document their thoughtful acts and reflect on the impact this has had on their families and their classrooms. In term 4 the Year 7 theme is Giving.  In this term they will be preparing for Christmas by donating toys and food to St Vinnies so they can create hampers for those in need at Christmas.In year 8 the students are currently studying The Kingdom of God. After looking at how the first and second testament explore the Kingdom of God students develop their own vision of the Kingdom of God and how we can go about creating the Kingdom of God, here on Earth.  They actively do this by assisting in both community garden and on Fridays at the Holy Eucharist Food Bank.In Year 9 next term in RE students will be examining Catholic Social Teaching principles. Two Principles Subsidiarity and Stewardship are demonstrated through the Trinity program students in their classes support local disability services, and assist with local environmental projects.The Year 10 students are completing A Call to Justice unit where they are examining key Church Documents such as LauDato Si, and explore how the Catholic Church should respond to environmental issues around the world.  Next week the Year 10 students will hear from a panel of speakers on issues on the environment where they learn about the various opportunities available to respond in action to climate change.  Key to our learning is the words of Pope Francis, `We are not faced with 2 separate crisis, environmental and the other social but rather one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.

Jacinta Dykes - Faith Leader