School Chaplaincy

The day-to-day role of the School Chaplain is to provide pastoral care to students, staff, and the wider School community.

St Ambrose is fortunate to have a School Chaplain. Our school chaplain is Jeffery Bottle.

Chaplaincy is providing social, emotional, and spiritual support to students to students, staff, and the wider School community. Pastoral care can best be described as being present for others during their life experiences, especially difficult times. Pastoral care includes a wide variety of areas including physical and mental health, social and values education, behaviour management, and emotional support.

At St Ambrose, the School Chaplain is a person who has time to sit and listen to people. This could just be a general chat or by appointment for a range of reasons including, but not limited to:

  • Experiencing difficulties at home.
  • Social and relational issues at school or in general.
  • Developing resilience and other social and emotional skills.
  • Exploring self-identity and self-development issues.
  • Talking about general worries and concerns.
  • Responding to critical incidents as part of the School’s support team.

Chaplaincy is a unique service that is proving to be of great value to students, staff, parents, and their schools. It is proving effective in offering care, building the social skills of students, and encouraging responsible behaviour. It is of great long-term value to the wellbeing of Australian communities.

Our School Chaplain assists students to address difficult social issues by:

    • Building relationships with students, families and staff.
    • Offering pastoral care.
    • Being a mentor.
    • Providing additional practical help to teaching and administrative staff.
    • Offering input into spiritual and “meaning of life” questions.
    • Being a positive role model.
    • Providing a link between the School and professional services and local community.

This is a Federally Funded program. For more information on the National School Chaplaincy & Student Welfare Program, contact the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.