ST PETER S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOL

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1 ST PETER S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOL Thursday 20th April 2017 Week 1 To the St Peter s community, this Sunday s gospel, John 20:19-31, describes the disciples hiding behind closed doors in fear and grief. Mary Magdalene had told the disciples that Jesus tomb was empty, she had seen Jesus and he had spoken to her. The disciples didn t understand how such a thing could be true. If we had been there we too probably would have been thinking "I'll believe it when I see it." Jesus suddenly appeared among them in the room, offering a greeting of peace, and told them As the Father has sent me, so I send you. This is both a warning of their own suffering as witnesses and a promise of their own resurrection. Of course these challenges won t be carried out alone, Jesus invitation is given with the very breath of God. The disciples receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and the very commissioning Jesus has lived before them: to forgive sins. Jesus will send them to bring peace and to mediate the forgiveness of God through the power of the Spirit. Thomas has an interesting role in the unfolding of this story. His absence during the appearance of Jesus resulted in a confrontation with the other disciples. They offered their testimony only to encounter his doubt and cynicism. However, Thomas doesn t really ask for anything all that different from that which the other disciples have already experienced. Sure he claims to need to touch his wounds before he will believe, but his need to see is exactly the experience that has convinced the rest of the disciples of Jesus resurrection when He showed them his hands and his side. Upon seeing Jesus, Thomas immediately declares Jesus to be who he really is: My Lord and my God! As with many other responses to Jesus in the gospels, Thomas response is an example to would-be disciples; it is the response of faith. Jesus blessing of those who have not seen and yet believe is a reminder to us that many have believed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus without the privilege of seeing first hand evidence. The point of John s account is that people may come to believe; John is openly seeking to inspire the trust that leads to life in Christ. The story invites us to place ourselves in the shoes of the earliest disciples, to be open to receive the gift of the Spirit, to emerge from behind the doors that close us in on ourselves and that prevent us from growing in faith. We Pray: Lord, rekindle our faith this Easter time. Assure us, through experiencing again the presence of the risen Christ in our hearts, that with you nothing is too good to be true, for you are able to do more than anyone could imagine. We want to feel your presence in our lives, we want to be helped to do what is right; we know that we can t do it on our own. Amen. This time last year, I had the privilege of being a pilgrim following in the footsteps of St Paul through Greece and Turkey; an experience that has had a deep and lasting impact on me. Our pilgrimage took us to ancient sacred places where we explored scripture and prayed together; growing in understanding and appreciation of the life and times of the early Church. During this experience we were also fortunate to be able to travel to Gallipoli where we remembered and prayed for those who lost their lives there, trying to protect and defend what they believed in. Next Tuesday is Anzac Day which is the day on which we remember all Australians who served and died in war and on operational service. The spirit of Anzac, with its qualities of courage, endurance, initiative, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity and interestingly reflects the qualities of the disciples as they ventured out to take the Good News to all the corners of the world. We are reminded that strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. Without struggle there can be no progress. Have a wonderful weekend, Kerry Miller Principal

2 DATES TO REMEMBER Thursday 20th April - Prep 2018 Enrolment Information Evening 6.30pm Tuesday 25th April - ANZAC Day 26th, 27th, 28th April - Senior School Camp Friday 28th April - Prep Assembly Monday 1st May - Prep Excursion to Legoland Tuesday 2nd May - Junior Excursion to Legoland Friday 5th May - Senior School Shark Tank Wednesday 10th May - Mothers Day Stall Friday 12th May - Junior Assembly Friday 26th May - Senior Assembly Friday 9th June - Middle Assembly Friday 23rd June - Prep Assembly Current families of St Peter s School with siblings starting Prep in 2018 please contact Deborah in the office EDUCATION IN FAITH We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace. Pope Francis Middle School News This week the Middle school learnt about Easter Sunday. We read the Resurrection story from the Bible and also watched a video about the events of the day. Then each student created a speech bubble about what people would have said and thought when they heard that the tomb was empty and Jesus had risen. Here are some examples of some speech bubbles: Jesus has risen from the dead This can t be true. By Harrison Middle Joy & Charlotte Middle Peace Easter Easter is a time for hope, renewal and celebration. Father Bob Maguire was on the Project on Good Friday talking Holy Week and Easter and summed up the risen Lord in a mere sentence that really resonated with me, Jesus expired so we were inspired. It got me wondering about what are we inspired to do? Inspired to Be Jesus-type people - forgive - be grateful - be optimistic - give of yourself to others - be open minded - Have a growth mindset - taking action - be supportive of others Click on the following link to watch Father Bob in action! Emily de Kort. Director of Faith and Mission ebaker@stprepp.catholic.edu.au LEARNING & TEACHING Visible Learning Assessment Report Early in March our school was visited by teachers from St John s Mitcham as part of our Visible Learning Project. They visited learning spaces and interviewed students to complete an observational assessment on how we are travelling with the project and to suggest future directions. The focus areas of Visible Learning are The Visible Learner, Know Thy Impact, Inspired and Passionate Teachers and Feedback. The Capability Assessment report was very detailed and included some of the following comments and addressed each of the focus areas: It is clearly evident that students understanding of learning intentions and success criteria develops as the students get older. Learning intentions and success criteria were evident in most learning spaces and students referred to this when discussing what they were learning. When interviewed by the visiting team, students were very positive about the teaching staff and described teachers at the school as funny, kind, nice, caring, gentle, straightforward they teach us how to do stuff and they teach us about the learning pit. They thought the following attributes made good teachers: they teach you at your level they make us happy and comfortable in the learning space, they make mistakes, they share their passion so you can connect with them and they do brain break. Students felt teachers had high expectations of them and gave them challenging work.

3 Students in senior and middle classes were able to confidently talk about feedback and how they might receive feedback. The students described this as constructive feedback and talked about how this feedback actually helped them know what they needed to do and enabled them to then go and think more about things. The team from St John s final comments included Once again thank you so much for the wonderful opportunity to see your school in action. We felt privileged to spend the time with your leadership team, staff and students. The Report was both affirming of our achievements to date but also provided us with some challenges and future directions as we move forward with our VL project. We will share it with the staff early in the term and use it to set our next cycle of professional learning goals and action based learning. We appreciated the time and thought the St John s team put into the Report and thank them for visiting our school. Interschool Sports Interschool sport for term 2 is soccer, volleyball, netball and football. The first match commences this week and is a home game against St Catherine s. Those students playing football are strongly advised to have a mouth guard. Football is played at Epping Reserve. No soccer this first week as St Catherine s does not have a soccer team. Parents are very welcome to come and cheer each week. No sport next week due to camp but week 3 sport is again a home game against Thomastown West. Julie Percy - Director of Learning & Teaching juliep@stprepp.catholic.edu.au SCHOOL COMMUNITY Parent Engagement - From Michael Grose: Moving beyond asking, What did you do at school? Ever found yourself asking your child the same bland question about school? So, how was your day? What did you do at school today? What did you learn? If these are your default questions the chances are that you ll get a one or two word reply along the lines, Fine! Good! Okay Nothing much. These answers don t really tell you a lot. On the other hand, these types of questions don t ask a great deal. So how can you move beyond the mundane when you talk with kids about their school days? It helps to take conversations and your questions in different directions to get a multi-faceted window into your child s school life but also an indication of your child s interests, social skills and welfare. Here are some examples of question starters that may prompt different responses from kids about their time at school: Tell me what made you laugh today? Did you do anything that was brave? If I spoke to your teacher, what would they tell me about you? What did your teacher talk about today? Tell me one good thing that happened to you today? Who were you nice/kind/friendly to today? What did you do that you were proud of/happy with today? What s something you learned with a friend today? If today was a musical instrument what would it be? Why? If you were a teacher tomorrow, what would you teach the class? (Full article ) Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden This term Middle Joy & Middle Kindness will participate in the SAKG program (cooking & gardening) on Mondays and Middle Peace & Middle Love on Fridays. If you are able to assist on either of these days please speak to one of the Middle school teachers. ANZAC Day Badges and Services The Active Citizens leaders will be selling ANZAC Day badges tomorrow and Monday. Badges are $1, $2 or $5 and bag tags are $4. Please support this worthy appeal. Each level will commemorate ANZAC Day with a service at school on Monday and there will be a Dawn Service at the Epping RSL on Tuesday 25th April. The Epping RSL will also host their annual Memorial March on Sunday 23rd April commencing at 10.30am in the Epping Hotel carpark and proceeding to the Memorial Hall. You are warmly invited to participate in these community events. Emma Canning - Director of School Community ecanning@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

4 STUDENT WELLBEING Senior School Camp Our senior students are very excited in their preparations for camp next week. A reminder letter and a consent form went home yesterday. It is imperative that those forms are returned by Monday so that we can alert the camp staff or any conditions or dietary requirements. STAR ACRONYM Just a reminder of our school acronym around behaviour expectations. S how Respect T hink Positively A ct Responsibly R emember to persist and Bounceback This acronym is the cornerstone of how we work with our students. All learning spaces know the acronym and work with the acronym to build relationships and develop expectations. At the start of each term it is a priority for all learning spaces to go over the acronym and reinforce the importance of it and what it looks like in our own learning spaces. Jackie Fleischmann - Director of Student Wellbeing jfleischmann@stprepp.catholic.edu.au ST PETER S PARENTS & FRIENDS Save The Date! Mothers Day Stall- Wednesday 10 th May Ladies Brunch- Friday 12 th May Note these in your calendars, more information to follow next week.

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