K-10 assembly 22 June

On Wednesday this week, we held our Kindergarten–Year 10 Assembly for the term. The assembly saw us change our configuration of seating and we were all pleased to see our patron saint banners, gifts of the Class of 2015, hanging for the first time.

Highlights of the assembly included our College Captains’ speeches on grit and goal achievement. Meg Parkinson and Jacob Davidson spoke eloquently about the importance of goal setting and learning from failure and perseverance.

Another highlight was the wonderful performance by our very talented combined choir of a haunting piece called Schackleton by Paul Jarman.

The song is a tribute to Sir Ernest Shackleton’s endurance mission in 1914-16 and is one of the greatest stories of polar survival in the history of exploration.

On eventually returning home, Shackleton and his crew found Europe engulfed in WWI. Many of the survivors quickly enlisted to serve on the Western Front, only to lose their lives on Flanders Fields. Our choir will perform this in the Festival of Voices. I commend Miss Katherine Hewitt on her excellent direction of our students.

Congratulations Fr Bob Curmi SDB

One of the very special parts of our assembly was having Fr Bob Curmi SDB present with us. Fr Curmi is a long serving member of our Salasian community, living on site at Dominic and who is now retired.

Fr Curmi was ordained a Salesian priest sixty years ago on 1 July 1956 in Turin, Italy – the centre of our founder, St John Bosco’s original work with boys. We took the opportunity of our school gathering to hear something of Fr Curmi’s life and to congratulate him on this wonderful achievement of six decades in the service of God.

For more than half of those 60 years, Fr Curmi has lived and worked here at Dominic College. Even before he was a priest, Brother Bob as he was known then, was on the staff in the Boys’ Town years 1950-1952. He knew our early pioneer Salesians.

In 1985, Fr Curmi returned to Glenorchy and joined the Dominic College staff. Over the years, he served the College with loyalty and faithfulness through teaching, assisting in the workshop and chaplaincy. As he neared retirement, Fr Curmi generously and lovingly undertook the role of crossing guard where he offered the first and last smile of the day to hundreds of students.

Fr Curmi continues to be a highly respected Salesian in our community. He continues to preside at Mass every month at Risdon Gaol and continues to assist at St John’s Parish Glenorchy every week.

After an interview with Fr Peter Rankin SDB, our student leaders presented Fr Curmi with a magnificent magnolia tree. The magnolia will be planted alongside the College drive and will have a plaque that signifies Fr Curmi’s faithful and devoted service as a priest.

Fr Curmi is an avid gardener and a devout man of prayer. As we watch his tree thrive, I hope that we will be reminded of a humble life lived with loving service to the students of Dominic College in the name and tradition of St John Bosco and give thanks for his dedication and example.

Ms Beth Gilligan - Dominic College Principal