Term 3 Week 3 Bulletin
Dear Parents & Guardians
Last term, it was really wonderful to see lots of our parents and guardians come along to our assemblies to see the children in each of our Learning Communities celebrate their learning. Likewise, we often get a really positive turn-out to our Learning Community Expo’s.
This is something we need to celebrate and further develop as we work hard to create embed a school culture that communicates effectively and works in an active partnership with parents and guardians. That said, it is critical to recognise that we are first and foremost a Catholic school; this must be at the heart of what we do – indeed this is in fact the reason we exist in the first place.
There are many aspects to the Catholic Identity of our school, some of them clearly visible, some more about the way we behave and engage with others. To be a truly Catholic school, I passionately believe this should be modelled in the way in which we interact with our students and our community; always seeking to act with gentleness, kindness, and compassion, as these values underpin our faith. We celebrate that each of our children is a unique individual, blessed by God and created the way in which He intended.
The tangible aspects of our Catholic Identity are witnessed in actions like the teaching of Religious Education, the preparation for the celebration of the sacraments and the celebration of masses and liturgies. We recognise not all our children and families are Catholic, we respect their beliefs and values and welcome them as valued members of our community, while paying attention to the fact our school must be intentionally Catholic in practice. This is why, in all Catholic schools, the celebration of liturgy and the teaching of Religious Education are non-negotiable. We seek not to impose a faith perspective, rather propose a faith perspective; one clearly Catholic in intent.
Last year during the period of COVID restrictions, it was disappointing that we could not celebrate masses and liturgies with more of our community. This did not give us the best foundation on which to embed these events as a critical part of the culture of our school. The celebration of mass is central to the life of a Catholic school, and I will be honest, I was hoping that we would get more parents and guardians at our mass for our St Lawrence of Brindisi feast day last Friday, a very important day in our school year. I am always looking for ways in which we can improve, and I hope that we are able to actively encourage more parents and guardians to make time to come along and celebrate masses and liturgies with us. It would mean a lot to our children to see parents and guardians also value these as important events in the life of our school.
With this in mind, can I encourage all our parents, guardians, grandparents, and special friends to come along to school for our Grandparents Liturgy tomorrow at 2.20pm for a very special liturgy we have created to celebrate these important people in the lives of our children. The children would love to celebrate with you.
BOOK WEEK
I am going to keep reminding you that our amazing, wonderful celebration of Book Week is in Week 7 of this term from Monday 21 August. Our children love Book Week, and I am sure the Book Fair we have organised will prove to be really popular. Reading is not only a wonderful past time but a critical skill for our children to develop and Book Week is a really positive way in which we can promote and celebrate the love of reading. Let’s make it an amazing week!
A reminder that Friday August 25 is a student-free day for all students as our staff will be working with an external curriculum consultant to further review and develop our implementation of the bump it up wall.
Lots of exciting things happening at St Lawrence of Brindisi!! I hope that lots of our parents and guardians can participate in these events – this is something we have worked hard to build our school around and we value your place and role in the life of our school.
FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION
The Feast of the Assumption is a holy day of obligation in the Church year and consequently, we will be celebrating mass with Fr. Wilford, (our new Assistant Parish Priest) on Tuesday, August 15. I would really love to see lots of parents and guardians come to celebrate mass with us.
FEAST OF ST MARY MACKILLOP
August 15 is another very important day in the Australian Catholic Church calendar when we celebrate St Mary Mackillop, currently Australia’s only recognised saint. We have organised a liturgy for this day at 9.15am and again, I hope you come along and celebrate with us.
FATHER’S DAY
Please note in your calendar’s, Father’s Day on Friday, September 1. We will be organising something special for our dads, so I hope you all leave time in your busy schedules. More information to follow soon!!
ReLATE WELLBEING FRAMEWORK AND STUDENT-FREE DAY
As mentioned last week there is no school on Thursday, August 10 as our staff group engage in a professional learning session for our ReLATE Wellbeing Framework. KellyClub is available for those parents who require this service. Please contact the administration office if you need their contact details.
SCHOOL EXITS AND ENTRIES
With the completion of our Stage Two project, we now have two staff carparks (very necessary, given the number of staff members we now have!!). We have noticed that there are some parents and guardians who entering school via the second staff carpark on Eumerella Boulevard (at the back of the school site).
We would respectfully ask parents and guardians not to do this. This area is not supervised and is not a safe entry point. A couple of our staff members have recently had narrow misses with parents and children entering school this way when they were not expecting to see them and we want to keep everyone in our school safe, especially our children. Please use the appropriate entrances that are supervised by staff to enter the school grounds.
God bless,
Bill Hill.
PRINCIPAL