Our School - Mission and Faith

Our mission is to share in the evangelizing ministry of the Church, giving witness to and living out the mission of Jesus. We hand on Catholic teaching, traditions and values in the spirit of our founders – St Francis de Sales, Marcellin Champagnat, and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. We provide an environment for students to express their potential for personal, academic, social and spiritual growth. We work to ensure that each student has a sense of belonging to the School Community and work co-operatively with parents in the education of their children. We base relationships within the College on dignity, respect and the potential for goodness of all people, made as they are in the image of God.

Vision

We are people of simplicity and hospitality, seeking to share the boundless love of Christ with all

Mission

With Courage and Perseverance we strive to live this vision through:

• Faith  Affirming the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ who is the foundation of our school community
• Learning  Educating the whole person with a commitment to excellence in Catholic education
• Care  Building a just community of compassion, inclusion and forgiveness
• Service  Serving the people of the Riverina in regional and rural New South Wales
• Stewardship  Fostering the transformation of society by valuing and respecting all of God’s creation

Growth in faith is a life journey which engages the whole person.  Adolescence is a crucial time in that journey for asking questions and searching for truth.  Our young people need to be nurtured in developing a sense of self-worth, understanding they are created and loved by God, whose dream for them contains a path and a future. St Francis de Sales is an inclusive community where we are committed to Christ and the Gospel values and where the Catholic faith is lived and celebrated.  There are many opportunities for students to engage in activities of witness, formation and service.

Students participate in liturgical celebrations which reflect the life of the community, those of the life journey of the individual (by responding to events, developments and crises which touch the human community) and the rhythmic cycle of the Church’s seasons. Prayer is always an integral part of our day and, as well as this, students are also involved in the Liturgy Roster for Leeton, Narrandera, Lockhart, Hay and other parishes.

Within our ‘Faith Formation’ programs such as Retreats, there is a strong emphasis on ‘spirituality’, the importance of ‘service’ and working for the ‘coming of the Kingdom’.  This allows students to recognise their role in realising the Gospel values of helping the poor and marginalised, along with realising the importance of Jesus as the role model for Christian living.

At St Francis, as in all Catholic Schools, we are required to be ‘faith sense makers’, to reinterpret that mission within the ‘signs of the times’. As there is a percentage of non-Catholic students entering St Francis each year it is vital that these students are made to feel included and a part of the Vision and Mission of our school.

All we do for our students in regard to Mission and Faith Formation at St Francis de Sales is also vital for staff so that they, too, feel included in our Vision and Mission regardless of where they are on their faith journey.  This occurs in many ways such as attendance at, and involvement in, Staff Spirituality Days, Retreats, Staff Prayer and liturgical celebrations.

At St Francis de Sales we acknowledge that the young people in our school are the church of today and tomorrow, and so we hold the image Jesus gave for his life’s work as a guide for our mission.