Welcome back to Term 3. This term is shorter but by no means quieter. We have started off strong with Year 2/4 Swimming. Thank you to all the teachers for their work over the break in preparing for the return of students

School Operations 

If you have come in via the chapel gate, you will notice that it no longer exists. We have placed a large fence along the end of the basketball court with two gates. There are two reasons for this - to give staff more parking to free up the parking for visitors, and to help fence off the dumpster area for trades. We have also had all the overgrown vegetation removed along the basketball court and behind the multipurpose room and will be looking at redoing these areas. Once we get the mulch down, it will look fantastic and open up the areas. We were excited to see the response from students and appreciate the feedback from parents.

Religious Education 

This term our teachers and students are focusing on Christian Life and Catholic Social Teachings in Religion lessons. Here, we have a central focus on the Catholic Social Teaching of Human Dignity which underpins student learning. Teachers will be using an Old Testament scripture, Genesis 1:26-27 as a basis for the units, and a theme of “We are more alike than unalike”. Our aim, as always, is to present students with a post-critical understanding, or one that accepts that there are arguments against faith in the modern world but it doesn’t prevent us from believing, through a dialogical, or lead by dialogue, recontextualisation, or bringing the scripture into the modern world. It is a mouthful, but it is very different to when you and I went to school. Students use conversation to deepen their understanding, and connect it with the modern world around them. This shifts their understanding from literal. 

Thank you to the parents who came along to our first Family Prayer Afternoon. These will be held according to the schedule that was emailed out and attached in this newsletter. All parents are welcome, whether your child is in the year level presenting or not. It’s held in the Chapel where we hold our Level Masses (at the end of the driveway) and usually begins at 2:45pm. This week, our Preps are presenting on Friday 1st August at 2:30pm. Next week, our Year 1s will be presenting on Friday 8 August at 2:45pm. We hope to see you there!