Week 8, Term 3 2023

Prayer for Creation 

God, thank You for this day! Thank You for the birds and the animals, the flowers and the trees, the lakes and the streams, and the sun that rises and sets over them each day. Thank You for creating everything we see! Thank You for the life we live, and for making each person different. 

Season of Creation

Currently we are celebrating the Liturgical Season of Creation, which runs from September 1 until October 4. The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together.

During the Season of Creation, we join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home, our planet. To become aware of the amount of waste we produce in our school, students are encouraged to bring nude food lunchboxes to school.

Mary Poppins has so many things I love; arriving by umbrella, a magical carpet bag you can fit anything into, a talking umbrella-bird, paintings you can jump into, floating tea parties, sliding up bannisters, having unlikeable people being blown away, talking to birds, a mirror with its own personality, dancing on rooftops, and so much more. I adore all the concepts of and around Mary Poppins, but admittedly she equally creeps me out, being so "practically perfect".  

Do her attempts to be “practically perfect” make her seem a bit alien to you? Does it make her seem cold and emotionless? Is being perfect the ideal we need to strive for or does it make us spiritually poor?  

“He who never made mistakes never made anything” is an often-expressed proverb. Clearly making mistakes is part of the learning and growth process. The value of failing is priceless. Yet, why do we feel so useless or scared to make a mistake? Shouldn’t it be a nice thing that, as humans, we get to fail a lot? Failing teaches us respect for others and for ourselves. Watching clowns perform is only so enjoyable because we recognise in them the parts of ourselves we try so hard to hide. Yet we take ourselves so seriously. 

Never be afraid to admit that you “don’t know” or “can’t find” or “couldn’t do” something.  

Imperfections are the gifts from God that connect us directly to other people. The gift of knowing what we lack in our own abilities is the gift we must give to the abilities of others. It's the cold perfection of Mary Poppins that I find completely inhuman and ultimately dangerous.  

This is the very perfection of a person, to find out our own imperfections. 
Saint Augustine 

Indeed, nothing is perfect. This is our first newsletter through the new website. It took a long time to be realised. Unfortunately, things did not always move as quick as anticipated, yet we got there in the end.

Welcome Mr John Neate

During Week 5 we welcomed Mrs Nichii Mardon, Diocesan Director Catholic Education, Diocese of Port Pirie, and Mr John Neate, the newly appointed Chair of SACCS.

It was terrific to welcome Mr Neate to the Riverland for the first time, where he spent the week visiting all the Riverland Catholic Schools.

The South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools (SACCS) has oversight of education in all Catholic schools and sets directions, allocates resources, and develops policies for Catholic schools in South Australia.

The Commission and its four Standing Committees are supported by a number of permanent committees and working parties. Catholic Education SA through its schools, colleges, and centres, implements SACCS’ decisions and policies.

Mr Neate has a long association with Catholic education in the State, having commenced his teaching at Thomas More College and worked in Catholic schools over the past three decades, which includes serving as the principal of Kildare College and Cabra Dominican College and other senior roles within Catholic Education SA. For 5 years John worked in Prague in various leadership roles at Riverside International School.

He has served as a SACCS member since 2016 and was chair of the Commission’s Learning Wellbeing and Inclusion Standing Committee prior to his appointment as Chair of the Commission. John is also on the Board of Trustees of Dominican Education Australia.

ReLAT

Each year, the year 4 students from Catholic schools all over South Australia participate in the Religious Education Literacy Assessment Tool.

Religious Education (RE) is a core Learning Area in all Catholic schools. It is a foundation for all learning and is integrated into the life of the school through prayer, liturgy and social justice programs.

ReLAT focuses on knowledge content, which is core to the Year 3/ 4 Crossways Religious Education curriculum.

The data from the ReLAT assessment will be collated and used by the school to inform whole-of-school professional learning needs and the continuous improvement of teaching in Religious Education.

Year 4 students have practised navigating the test and answering questions. The formal assessment will take place on Monday, September 11.

National Child Protection Week

The theme for this year continues to promote a safe and supported life for every child, now and into the future, being “Where we start matters”. Of course, where we start isn’t where we finish.

Protecting children is the responsibility of every adult.

There are many things that all adults can do to play our part in valuing and caring for children to help them reach their full potential.

As a school we are committed to protecting children by:

1. Caring for children in our community according to their needs. We do not discriminate due to culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or disability.
2. Respecting that there are many different positive ways to raise children
3. Seeking to keep children connected to family, community, language, and culture
4. Never knowingly harming a child or allow them to be harmed
5. Speaking up and seeking advice about the safety and wellbeing of children
6. Providing an environment for children where they feel safe, thrive, and can develop positive relationships with adults and peers
7. Being good role models for children
8. Listening to, and valuing, what children have to say, and including their voices in decision making
9. Standing up for the rights of children, advocating for their best interests, and constructively challenges practices
10. Supporting families and encouraging them to ask for help, rather than judging

Nanda de Winter

Principal