The College forms its vision and mission statements around the four Pillars of Dominican life Prayer, Study, Community, Service.
The College aims to educate the whole person: intellectually, physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. Within this context the school community strives to promote and uphold Christian values and to foster and applaud the talents and potential of each student.
The Mission Statement takes into account the Brisbane Archdiocesan Vision which challenges Catholics to:
- embrace the person and vision of Jesus
- build Communion with God and others
- engage in Christ's Mission in our world
It is also consistent with the Brisbane Catholic Education's Vision which calls us to Teach, Challenge and Transform. In defining the features of Catholic Schools into the 21st Century, Brisbane Catholic Education has identified that the Catholic School of the future would:
- promote the dynamic vision of God’s love manifest in the life and mission of Jesus Christ
- recognise and nurture the spirituality of each person
- be a place of quality learning and teaching
- continue to act in partnership with families
- provide an authentic experience of Catholic Christian community
- be open to those who support its values
- be experienced as a community of care
The foundational feature of Catholic education is “to create for the school community an atmosphere enlivened by the gospel spirit of freedom and charity” (CCE, 1982, n. 38). Every Catholic educational community is a vibrant community of learning, faith and life, dedicated to academic excellence, fostering quality interpersonal relationships, and with a strong sense of belonging. Catholic education contributes to the Church’s educational mission, promoting a view of the individual and community centred on the human person and the Gospel vision of Jesus Christ.
While the expression of Catholic identity is contextual and unique to each community, there is a distinctiveness in Catholic education that is found in the distinctiveness of Catholicism itself, and which is always accessible and faithful (Groome, 1996).
Five key characteristics describe this distinctiveness:
- a positive anthropology
- a sense of sacramentality
- a commitment to community
- a commitment to tradition as a source of story and vision, and
- an appreciation of rationality and learning (Groome, 1996)
Religious Education seeks to develop the religious literacy of students in light of the Catholic Christian tradition, so that they might participate critically and authentically in contemporary culture. Students become religiously literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use language confidently in and for faith contexts and the wider society.