From the APRIM
Dear Families
Welcome to our new families and welcome back to the ‘old’ ones! I hope you have had a restful break. We are gearing up for another busy year with our staff and students involved in new initiatives not only within our own school but across Campus as well.
Crossways
Our Religious Education program is based on the Catholic Education of South Australia designed program, Crossways. This has been re-designed in light of the changing contexts of schools and their families. It is our intention to nurture and create “leaders for the world God desires.” Through our students’ involvement in the Religious Education program, they will have the opportunity to:
• Become more deeply connected with their Christian faith
• Discover or rediscover their place in the Christian community
• Become more authentically connected with their own beliefs and tradition
• Become aware of a different life perspective other than their own
Through the ‘Wisdom’ strand, students will explore themes around:
• God, us and our connectedness in our world
• God in our everyday lives
• The purpose of prayer
• The principles of Catholic Social Teaching
• Integral ecology
• The Bible and other Church writings
• Rituals and traditions of the Catholic Church and other faith traditions
Staff have been and will continue to be involved in implementation workshops at a school and diocesan level.
Altar Servers
Thanks to Alannah and Maddie who have volunteered to join the altar servers’ team. If there are any other students who have received the Sacrament of Holy Communion and would like to come and learn, please let me know.
Be the Difference
I watched with shock and horror as the devastation of the bushfires around Australia unfolded. Even though it happened right here in South Australia, it still seemed unbelievable. One Friday in the holidays, I had been having a lovely day out with my daughter doing wedding shopping when we arrived home to a smoke-filled sky and my husband enacting our bushfire plan. There was a fire just 4 km away at Clarendon. Fortunately for us, the fire was controlled. Many other families have not been as lucky.
Although our school has donated money to School Aid, we will still continue as a school to help those affected by the bushfires. Stay tuned for more information!
Be the Difference
A few weeks ago in the midst of the bushfire crisis, Fr Rob Egar spoke about how we approach change. We need to acknowledge that climate change is real and what we can do about it. He said that there are 4 approaches:
• We can ignore and pretend nothing is happening.
• We can deplore, be total pessimists that nothing can change.
• We can restore and wish that we could go back to a world that once was.
or
• We can explore, seek new ways of dealing with situations.
Our school is choosing to explore, to find ways that 5, 6, 10, or 13 years old, teachers and families can be the difference in our world. We need to be the change in our words, actions and how we care for the world that God has given us. This is our focus for this year.
Be the difference!
Blessings
Sharyn Black
Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission
