Term 2 - Week 3

With the beginning of this new term we have already enjoyed a number of wonderful community events. It was fabulous for us all to come together during the first week for an Easter Mass celebration and then last week we enjoyed a whole school assembly led by Year 1 classes with a special focus on Mother’s day. It was lovely to see so many Mums join us on Friday for morning tea and I hope that you all were treated to a special day on Mother's Day. Our children certainly enjoyed shopping at the Mother's Day stall and we extend our gratitude to the P&F who coordinated and supported this valuable experience for our community. Last week also saw our Year 5 students attend an excursion to Mercedes college following an invitation to join their whole school community for a Mass celebrating their Mercy tradition. Following Mass, our students joined together with their Year 5 classes for a small craft activity before returning back to school. What a wonderful experience for our Year 5's to visit one of our neighbouring Catholic Schools and share some strength of spirit in Mercy tradition with them.

Last week we also celebrated with the joyous news of the election of Pope Leo XIV.

We remember his Holiness Pope Leo XIV in our prayers as he begins this new ministry of communion, with a special intention to bring peace and unity to our world as leader of the Universal Church. Catholic Education Week begins this week with a theme of ‘Shine With Open Hearts’ where all Catholic schools this week will be highlighting in a variety of ways how we ‘shine brilliantly’. At St Thomas we are inviting all our family members to join us for morning prayer in classrooms this Friday. So please come along if you can, begin your day with coffee in the Workshop, followed by prayer in your child’s classroom at 9am.

Following on from our very successful Gala in March, we gathered our Gala Committee and Stall Holders late last term for a ‘Thank You’ event. We were delighted to share with them the wonderful news that our Gala brought in just over $31,000! Of course, we have expenses to take into account, but with these funds we will be able to purchase new replacement Ipads for our Junior Primary classrooms. These will be very well received by both students and teachers.

Last week we welcomed two new staff members to our team: Ms Loretta Gagliardi, our new Marketing and Communications Coordinator, replacing Mrs Liz Wright who finished at the end of last term. We also welcomed Mrs Marie Smith, our new Canteen Coordinator. Marie has been working tirelessly to get our new canteen up and running, with many of our students already sampling the delicious pasta lunch last week. We will be very excited to launch the new canteen this week, with a start-up menu while we are in the midst of our community consultation process. It has had a sparkling new renovation and is looking very fresh!

We wish our Year 5 Classes a very successful Camp at Mylor over the next two days. I am sure they will have a fantastic time, experience some new activities and hopefully learn more about themselves and each other in doing so.

For the last part of this term I will be on Leave, with Paul Mensforth filling the Acting Principal role, and Mrs Melissa Canil as Acting Deputy Principal. I congratulate them both and wish them well for this time. During my time away I feel very fortunate to be travelling to Europe to visit family, then participating in an educational tour and spiritual pilgrimage coordinated by Catholic Education South Australia. I look forward to attending a Leadership Conference in London on Catholic Identity and Mission, visiting some London schools and visiting some Religious Congregations in Ireland. A visit to Catherine House and the Mercy Congregation in Dublin is sure to be a highlight! I look forward to sharing more with you upon my return.

Wishing you all a great term ahead!

Belinda Burford

Principal

THE IMPORTANCE OF RECONCILIATION AND REPAIRING ‘FRACTURES IN OUR FRIENDSHIPS’

Last week, a group of our amazing St Thomas students celebrated the sacrament of First Reconciliation. This is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Sacraments are moments on the spiritual journey in the Catholic faith. They require rich preparation, designed to help us grow to become the best version of ourselves. The seven sacraments include:

• The Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist
• The Sacraments of Healing: Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick
• The Sacraments of Service: Marriage and Holy Orders

These children have learnt the importance of being in right relationship with God and with others. They learnt about how humans are imperfect and make mistakes; and they learnt about their conscience and the ways it guides and supports us to make right choices and actions. But perhaps most importantly, they learnt that God loves them unconditionally and we are called to love others in this powerful way. They learnt that this love can be expressed in times of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Our Catholic belief is that God is the source of all things and all love. So moments where we experience love are moments we experience God. God’s gentle Spirit is constantly guiding us, through our conscience, to be in right relationship with others.

As we approach National Reconciliation Week, our focus becomes the reconciliation needed in our wider Australian community. But fundamentally, this national movement is grounded in the same call to live in right relationship, to say sorry and make things right. Healing can take time, but it is always grounded in understanding; and words and actions of love. And, in the midst of current attacks on the significant reconciliation actions in our communities, including welcome and/or acknowledgement to traditional lands, there is even more importance in maintaining our focus!

But what does reconciliation look like in our everyday lives?

Part of my role involves facilitating regular restorative conversations for groups of students who have experienced some degree of disharmony in their friendships and connections. This disharmony always grows out of unresolved past issues or fractures in their friendship which have been allowed to grow over time.

Supporting students through the process of restoring relationships is key to Catholic Education and can, not surprisingly, be extremely positive and rewarding for all involved. Our Catholic belief is that God created all things out of love; to exist in an interconnected web. The power of this love can be experienced within our human relationships and connections. It is for this reason, we yearn to exist in right relationship with others and experience true happiness when all is well.

The truth is, the more we can ensure small fractures in our relationships are repaired quickly, the less we will need to worry and stress over them becoming big fractures, which can sometimes seem irreparable!

These fractures can be caused by small moments of disagreement or miscommunication and they can grow to become enormous voids which can be impossible to mend in the future. So much of the disharmony in our lives comes from these ‘fractures’ in our relationships which are left to grow- without being addressed as soon as possible. The key to this repair is students taking responsibility for their words and actions – it certainly requires a great deal of self-reflection.

Our Fractured Friendships Check is one way to support our learners in considering their role in getting along with others. We want our learners to be thriving people- and part of being a thriving person is our ability to take responsibility for the health of our own relationships. You may like to continue these conversations at home with our Fractured Friendships Check.

Fractured Friendships Check…

Fractured Friendships Poster.pdf

Part of this learning is also the skill of saying sorry.

Sorry has three important parts:

1. We need to feel sorry (by considering the other’s perspective)
2. We need to say sorry (and be specific)
3. We need to make a change (so we learn from mistakes)

If we leave out one of these important parts of saying sorry, it doesn’t have any meaning.

The need to apologise is an integral part of becoming fully human and the best version of ourselves. To grow strong relationships, we need to be really good at it and we need to do it authentically. Therefore, this is one of the most important things for our young people to learn. This learning is core to the success of restorative conversations.

Go gently,

Paul Mensforth

Deputy Principal