News

Dear Families,

After a whirlwind week and a half we will have an abridged version of the newsletter this week, with a Principal’s and APRIM update.

Reflection on the Past Week

While there are many things I could write about the past week, the most pertinent is to offer a quick reflection about the partnership between a Catholic School and a family.

As we moved through the week of Remote Learning, each family's circumstance was different. Some families were working or working from home. Some had siblings in secondary school attached to different programs. Many had students in various year levels at our school.

What we already knew but became clear through Remote Learning was that the partnership between our school and families is vitally important.

 At a Catholic School, we believe parents to the first educators of their children. Parents and carers know their children better than anyone – they can help the teacher to understand their children better, which can assist the teacher in enhancing their children’s learning outcomes. We appreciate all you did over the past week to support your child’s learning, as well as the constant communication with us. It’s greatly appreciated.

Our role in the process when the students are at home is to provide experiences and learning, while touching base with children and families to ensure they feel supported. It was so comforting to hear some very positive feedback from parents, but equally important, were the challenges that families faced and how we as a school can support families.

That partnership between home and school is so vital.

We hope we don’t enter the space of Remote Learning again however, we understand the challenges that are being faced interstate currently, and that we may need to again enter a lockdown space.

Over the next two weeks as a staff we will review our procedures regarding home learning. This will involve some feedback from our parent community who assisted in delivering the learning to their children at home. There will be a link to a short survey that I’d like as many of our parents to complete as possible which will assist in us refining our approach.

Fee Remissions

From talking to many parents, we are aware of the challenges that the most recent lockdown has placed on families, through loss of business and loss of shifts. We also understand even the current restrictions will lead to a downturn in some local businesses.

The school can offer fee remissions to families if they have been impacted by the recent COVID lockdowns. Please book a time to see Margaret and we can work with each family on a case by case basis.

Upcoming Events

As we move forward with caution given the daily changes to restrictions, I’ll provide an update on some events over the next few weeks:

SAPSASA Basketball Carnival – This event was postponed from last Friday. Currently SAPSASA sports are unable to be played, however we are working with SAPSASA and the other schools in our area to reschedule. This is likely to occur in Week 5

School Mass – School Mass will proceed next Thursday but there will be restrictions on who can attend. Currently, it is likely that only one class (5/6/7’s) will be able to attend the Mass due to density restrictions in the church.

Mrs Wilkey Assembly – We are aiming for a 3^rd time lucky approach with this celebration. I will speak to Mrs Wilkey over the next few weeks and find a time as a school where we can gather with our whole community. That is likely to be later in the term.

Camps – Our camps scheduled for Term 4 we are still pushing ahead with. Our philosophy as a school over the past 18 months is always to plan for the best, knowing that restrictions may force us to be flexible later. A detailed Year 6/7 note has gone home this afternoon about our planned camp to Kangaroo Island.

Prayer

Through the challenges of the past week one thing I have leant on most is my faith. I thought I would share one of my favourite prayers this afternoon, which is commonly known as the Prayer of St Francis. Although it’s unlikely that St Francis of Assisi authored the prayer, it has long been attributed to him and been widely used as a prayer for peace over the past century.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

God bless,

Scott