Following the trials, there is an inevitable temptation for Year 12 students to relax — especially if they are receiving early offers for university placements. However, we strongly encourage each graduating student to maintain his commitment until his final HSC examination. The period between the Trials and the HSC is particularly important as it relates to academic performance. There is much that can be achieved if commitment remains.

Our Year 12s are also playing their last home winter sporting fixture this weekend. We thank and congratulate each member of the Class of 2025 for their long-term commitment to their school through the valuable enterprise of sport. We will recognise their participation and achievement in the coming weeks. Congratulations once again to 1st XI Captain, Cooper Sintras , who has been selected to represent NSW in the Schoolboys Football team at the SSA 18 Years & Under Championships in Queensland. We are proud of his commitment to maximising his athletic gifts.

Today, the Senior School held its Leadership Assembly in Ramsay Hall and our leaders for 2025/2026 were announced in front of their peers and their parents. Congratulations to all of the Year 11s who have been chosen as leaders by the College including College Captain Lachlan Wappett , College Vice Captain (Boarders) Miller Siasat , and College Vice Captain (Day Boys) George Wormwell . A list of all our new leaders can be found HERE .

I gave the following address at the Leadership Assembly:

Good Morning Father Rector, Staff and Students

Congratulations to all Year 11 students who have been selected by their peers and their teachers as our leaders for the coming twelve months. For those of you who are disappointed because your name was not called today – have heart. Your time will come.

You have heard the word leadership used many times today. Over time leadership has had different meanings. Language is ever-changing. Language is fluid. Words and their meaning change over the centuries. Leadership is one of those words.

For our Christian community at Riverview, we believe that true leaders are servants of those whom they lead. We challenge our leaders to be selfless. To lead for others. To be men and women for and with others.

In the ancient world, there was no concept of servant leadership. As Tom Holland sets out in his influential book ‘Dominion’, antiquity was defined by the belief in power over weakness. Those who led, did so with force and subjugated their followers. The ancient Romans would have laughed at the concept of leader as servant. For them, the servant was a slave. And the slave was sub-human.

Jesus transformed our understanding of the leader. When he washed his disciples’ feet on Holy Thursday, he utterly inverted the human understanding of what it is to lead. In Matthew’s Gospel, Christ went further when he told his followers that “the last shall be first, and the first, last.”

As a Jesuit school, we encourage our leaders to serve others by emptying yourself of your own will and filing yourself with the Father’s will; that we build the kingdom here on earth through our sacrifice. In this, we endeavour to emulate Jesus’ sacrificial witness. Theologians name what Jesus did, Kenosis.

To be a Jesuit-educated leader is to avoid the ideological, those who engage in group-think. To have the courage to be of the world and for it. That means recognising the positive changes that are needed and championing these, whilst using your conscience to evaluate whether these changes are for the common good. Whether they are oriented towards God.

To be a Jesuit-educated leader means being an agent for justice and peace in a world that is broken, but good. It means holding fast to those things that you believe to be good and true, whilst recognising that you are not always right, and to possess a humility that owns your imperfection. It means being able to use your mind, but also, to listen with your heart. To think and to feel.

A Jesuit-educated leader will use his faith and his conscience to determine what is true. Because of this, the outraged orthodox will call you a radical. Because of this, the outraged progressive will call you a reactionary. That’s ok.

Dangerous is another word that can have different meanings.

I came across a poem recently by a young Irish poet by the name of Daragh Fleming. Whilst it’s not explicitly Jesuit nor Catholic, it speaks to our worldview and our hopes for you as leaders both now and into the future. Fleming is a young man with no children and he writes of the sons he hopes that he will father one day:

If I ever have boys, they’ll be dangerous men.

They’ll smile at dogs and children and be a tonic to friends.

They’ll send flowers to their mothers just because,

And they’ll be a shoulder for many when the world is too much.

My boys will know that vulnerability is strength.

They won’t bottle anger, they’ll learn how to express.

They won’t let pride be the reason they hide,

Wearing masks while they’re hurting inside.

No, my boys will be dangerous men.

They won’t stay silent even when it’s uncomfortable for them.

They’ll learn that their actions are more effective than words,

But they’ll use their voices to amplify the unheard.

They’ll know that love isn’t something to perform,

They’ll see beauty in all of its forms.

My boys won’t grow learning to emotionally hide,

They’ll reshape masculinity into something they like.

Make it softer to touch,

They’ll know that who they are is more than enough.

They’ll know that being a man doesn’t mean carrying the burden alone,

They’ll learn that an emotional man is a man fully grown.

They won’t settle everything with violent swings,

They’ll live in truth even when that truth stings.

So, yeah, if I ever have boys,

They’ll be dangerous men.

But the danger they’ll be, won’t be the one society meant.

It’s a good poem.

Congratulations to all of you named today as leaders. My prayer is that you embrace the faith that this school and your parents have offered you to engage with a world that needs your compassion and your conscience. My prayer is that you lead as a servant.

Now, go and be dangerous men.