This weekend will see a significant milestone for the musicians and singers of Ambrose Treacy College at the Queensland Catholic Colleges Musical Festival at Villanova College. Our music program is massive, not just in size and sound but also in the complexity of bringing together over 300 boys and dozens of staff who share a common love for and talent in music. American musician, conductor, author and composer Leonard Slatkin tells us that” The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn’t just playing, it’s about developing future audiences and performers”. As a late in life convert to music appreciation, I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes we might be tempted to think that we are educating our boys in music, yet the lessons that they provide us are arguably as significant as the mastery of instruments that our boys will demonstrate this weekend. As one of the ATC Co-curricular music programs biggest fans, I would suggest that the following life lessons are on show every day.

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Tomorrow at assembly, we will be acknowledging a number of ATC boys who have or will represent Queensland in their chosen sports. Throughout the course of the year, as boys reach significant levels in representative sport we like to take a brief moment to publicly acknowledge them.

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Recently, I have written about the measure of success and the ways in which we can value the experiences that we have and to constantly seek to find the positive or the win in each situation. In a similar vein, the concept of failure has played on my mind of late.

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Prior to the holidays, I wrote about the different ways we can measure success. The crux of the article was the process, the outcome and the after-effect of any event all contribute to the way in which we talk about success.
This week we have had athletes at the West Taylor Bridge Track and Field Trials, running, jumping and throwing amongst the best athletes in our district to gain representative selection. In terms of success, we have had many boys win events including Peter Ullman, Luke Rivalland and Cooper Beachy-Head and not surprisingly, we have had over half of our squad selected into the district side to compete at regional trials next month. The vast majority of our athletes achieved personal bests in their chosen events.

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Off the back of one of the greatest series come backs in the history of State of Origin, there has been much talk about the difference that strength in character makes in key sporting moments. Back when I first started following Rugby League and Rugby Union it was people like Mal Meninga and John Eales, Tim Horan and Jason Little who stood out as men of substance, ethic and talent.

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