When you start a new school there are so many decisions to make. What will we name the school? What will its values be? What will we have as the uniform? I know because I was the founding Head of a school in the ACT before coming to St Paul’s School.
One of the big decisions to make is the design of the school crest or badge. The purpose of a crest is to identify the community, to tell a story of who we are in pictorial form.
When we wear the crest, we show that we belong to that community, and we do so with a certain sense of pride, not unlike you do if you were a member of the Australian Defence Force, the Queensland Police, or an elite sporting team.
St Paul’s was actually named after the original St Paul’s School in London, which is over 500 years old. The then Archbishop of Brisbane, Reginald Halse, who was instrumental in the establishment of our School, was a past student of St Paul’s School in London.
While the foundation stone for St Paul’s School Brisbane was laid in 1960, it wasn’t until 1965 that the School crest was launched to the community. A designer was engaged to capture the essence of this new northside School in a badge. They presented four options (which are on display in the School’s Accounts area in the Tooth Admin Building). The winning option is quite fitting.
The design consists of a gold Bishop’s mitre (hat) over a red shield (the colour red chosen to represent action). The mitre emphasises that this is a church School, an Anglican School.
The shield contains a gold martyr’s crown, symbolising self-sacrifice, or heart for servant leadership. In the early years following the resurrection of Jesus, many of his disciples experienced incredible persecution for their faith; many were put to death.
In the centre of the shield are the crossed swords of St Paul, for whom our School, and the school in London, is named. St Paul was also a martyr for his faith. He was a well-educated man, a pharisee. Following his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Christ commissioned him to take the Good News to the “Gentile” world. Paul was eventually put to death by the Romans.
Paul was an incredibly brave and courageous man with an extraordinary faith. If you are interested, some of his story is recorded in the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible. In that book you can read about Paul’s encounters with the authorities, about the years he spent in prison, when he survived a snake bite, and the time he was shipwrecked.
There is almost no better person than St Paul to look to for inspiration. A man of incredible resilience, a Roman citizen who travelled extensively making him one of the first global citizens.
Finally, below the shield is the motto, “Fide et Literis”, “By Faith and by Learning”; the same motto as St Paul’s School in London.
Our School values are Faith, Learning and Community. These values, and the essence of who we are and what our purpose is as a school, is captured beautifully in the School crest.
I am incredibly proud to belong to this community.
Dr Paul Browning
Headmaster
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Mr Nigel Grant
The BBQ will caver a number of elements. Our visiting Korean students from Seongbok School, the first tour group of the year, will be farewelled; so our visitors and their buddies are invited to attend, their lunch being a complementary one. All students from throughout the entire school are also invited to join our Korean visitors on the day, however, they will be asked to support the initiative by purchasing a sausage and drink. All funds raised through these sales will go toward supporting the Bushfire Appeal, targeting Wildlife Wellfare. There will also be sign on sheets for the three Service organisations hosting the event, plus specific sign ons for ongoing programs such as the Koala Corridor, Bald Hills State School Reading Mentors, the Eat Up program and, the first major project of the year, Clean Up Australia Day, which is happening on the 1st of March.
This week we were pleased to welcome Nico, Francisco and Alejandro from Colegio Bilingue Neuqen School in Argentina. The boys will be here for four weeks attending Year 11 classes, and will participate in various excursions throughout their stay.
We are also pleased to have students from Seongbok High School in South Korea here for the second week of their Study Tour program. The Seongbok students, their Principal Mr Jaehong Lee and Teachers Ms Sunyoung Moon and Ms Hye Jun Yun will be here until this Sunday. The students have so far enjoyed spending time with their buddies in classes, an excursion to the Gold Coast, an Aboriginal Cultural Presentation, a two day Leadership program, and a one day Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program in the CIE.
