This morning marked the start of the journey to adulthood the start of the Rite Journey program.

The program will be over long before any of the Year 9s are adults – and each of them will mature differently and at different paces at different times. Over the next 10 years they will outgrow and be outgrown by friends and they will start to have a real sense of who they are and who they might aspire to be.

The Rite Journey program takes several key qualities and strengths: it requires a willingness to trust others; it requires the courage to tackle tasks and possibly fail; it requires the maturity to decide to do something to the best of ones ability and to care for and respect the trust of others.

Today is called the “Departure” because is a ritual marking the start of the journey. The walk up the coast is a metaphor to remind them that they are starting something, the Rite Journey.

“The Rite Journey is already one of the best initiation into successful adulthood programs for adolescents in the world . My congratulations for such a fine trail blazing initiative.” – Peter Ellyard, Author “designing 2050′