Viewpoint

Over the holiday period, we will continue to monitor the situation and develop contingency plans in case the energy crisis continues to affect our community. These plans will include ensuring that educational services can still be delivered, whilst accommodating staff and students who are unable to access the College as they normally would.

We are also highly sensitive to our boarding families in regional Australia, and the impact the ongoing crisis and shortage may have on their livelihoods. If you are experiencing challenges due to the energy crisis, please contact me directly at principal@riverview.nsw.edu.au .

True to our mission, this week the Class of 2026 have engaged in a series of retreats around Sydney and NSW designed to provide opportunities for reflection and spiritual discernment. We all need an opportunity to go to ‘the other side of the mountain’ at times, and Year 12 Retreat Week is just that opportunity for these young men.

The College’s retreat program offers Senior School students opportunities to deepen their faith and respond to Saint Ignatius's call to find God in all things. We believe we can find God in church and in liturgical worship, especially in the Eucharist, the source and summit of our shared Catholic faith. Ignatius offered an incarnational spirituality, teaching that God came into the world and that, therefore, the world is good because God is pure goodness. Ignatius taught that we could find God in our worship and in each other. We can find God in our environment and in the feelings that shape our daily lives. He taught that we could find God in the good times, but especially in the bad times when we are called to follow Jesus more closely.

One of the Characteristics of Jesuit Education (1986) is that Christ is proposed as the model of human life. We are unambiguous about this at Riverview. Saint Ignatius, his spirituality, and the Jesuits offer us a deep and sacred pathway to knowing Jesus in a distinctive style of the Society of Jesus. It is a union of spiritual depth and intellectual rigour, and for nearly half a millennium, it has provided a genuinely true approach to how we might live our lives for the greater glory of God.

We live in an increasingly troubled and broken world, where we find it increasingly difficult to rely upon the institutions and powers that used to guide us in an optimistic direction. The faith that our community shares can continue to offer us a sense of meaning and purpose. A worldview that promises hope rather than the philosophical pessimism that seems to characterise much contemporary comment.

As we celebrate the Easter Triduum this coming long weekend, we would encourage all families to engage in the foreshadowing trepidation of Holy Thursday, the abject sadness of Good Friday and the impossible joy that Easter Sunday offers us as ‘Easter people’. For me, that is the essence of what it is to be a Christian – to believe that love is more powerful than hate; that good will conquer evil; and that it is in the dying that we are born to eternal life. As we face a more uncertain world, let us hold fast to what we know is good and true, and give thanks that we are part of a community that gives us hope for the future.

Our local Catholic parish is St Michael’s, Lane Cove. Information on their Easter services can be found here . Our Lady of the Way Parish in North Sydney is a Jesuit parish. Information on their Easter services across three churches can be found here .

Classes for all students finish on Wednesday, 1 April, with Thursday, 2 April, a Boarder Travel Day. Various student programs will run over the holiday break, including an AFL Tour to Adelaide. Classes recommence for all students on Tuesday, 21 April, and boarders are to return the previous evening.

We look forward to welcoming all new parents to the College on Monday, 20 April, with the New Parent Dinner in Ramsay Hall commencing at 6.30pm. We kindly request that all new parents to our community attend this event, as it is an important part of your family’s induction into the College and its mission. Please RSVP HERE by Monday, 13 April.

A reminder that all students are to return in full winter uniform in Term 2.

I wish all Riverview families a blessed Easter and a regenerative holiday break. We look forward to seeing all our boys return at the commencement of Term 2, 2026.

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Congratulations to all our rowers on their superb efforts at the National Rowing Championships in Tasmania this past week. Congratulations, especially to our 1st VIII, who won the national schoolboys championship with an outstanding time. To do so after the Head of the River was particularly meritorious!