Dear Parents,

Welcome back to term 3! I hope you had an enjoyable holiday period with your families.

Next Monday and Tuesday are parent/teacher interviews, a vital time where you can talk further about your child’s report and support the teacher in their work. We ask that all students attend with their parent(s) and that each interview will begin with students sharing reflections on their learning and their goals for Mathematics and English.  In addition to the general discussions about your child’s learning and social interactions at school, teachers will share and discuss assessment results from key curriculum areas and parents will have the opportunity to discuss and clarify information from the report. Once students have finished presenting, they will make their way down to the multi-purpose room where they will be supervised by school staff. 

A reminder that Ms Rachel Braun is currently on leave and interviews for the Homegroup B families will be held on 14th & 15th August.

If you haven’t done so already bookings can be made through your PAM account.

Lunch Orders | Alimentos

Our school lunch order provider Alimentos has advised that they will not be able to offer school lunch orders on a Monday due to the limited number of orders received each week. Lunch orders will continue on Friday’s.

There will be no lunch orders on Friday the 1st & 8th September due to changes in timetables for our school swimming program. 

Stage 2 Building Works

Stage 2 building works are progressing well and we are hopeful of being able to move into the new building at some stage throughout term 3. Internal works are in the final stages of completion and external landscaping has begun. When these works are complete we will move students into the new buildings ASAP. Our junior grades from F-2 will move into the new buildings and our senior grades will move from the portables into our upstairs classrooms. Please see progress photos of works below. 

Pies will be available and must be collected from Administration this FRIDAY 14th July between 2.30pm and 3.30pm.

Please register your interest should you be available to assist with packing of orders. 

Thank you to all that placed orders and to our Parents & Friends Committee for your efforts, "keeping your eyes on the pies" with yet another successful fundraiser for our School. 

On Thursday 27th July our whole school will be going on an excursion to SCIENCEWORKS in Melbourne. We will be asking families to drop students at school at 8.15am on this day for an 8:30am departure. Students will be required to wear their full sports uniform and bring fruit, snack and lunch in a lunchbox labelled with their name and a labelled drink bottle. School bags will not be required for this excursion. More details can be found on your PAM Excursion form.

As a Catholic School, we commit to those in need by making a positive difference in the world. Today, Francis from St Vincent de Paul’s visited our school to collect our donations of non-perishable food items and hygiene products for the Baw Baw Food Bank. As a school, we have collected and donated ten washing baskets worth of items, an achievement!

We appreciate the generosity of our school community and thank our School Leaders for their work in promoting and leading this social justice initiative. 

No Yoke

The Statue of Liberty’s famous welcome, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore” has inspired millions. Even our own national anthem welcomes “those who’ve come across the seas” to our “boundless plains to share.”

Some of us have experienced and all can imagine the joyous relief of gaining earthly freedom, peace and rest from the onerous burden of poverty and violence. Many parish families remember too the struggles and requirements, forms and bureaucracy of being “welcomed” to a new life. We still offer harsh “welcome’ to many who cross the seas yearning for freedom. 

What then of Jesus’ welcome in this gospel from Matthew? (Matt 11:25-30) How do we qualify for the rest and relief offered by the Son of God? What tests, qualifications or points do we need? Who do we need to know? What do we need to do? 

Well, there are no tests, no hurdles, qualifications or bureaucracy to overcome! No amount of learning or money or adult sophistication is going to assist us. 

Scholarship, wealth, athletic or artistic or commercial achievements mean nothing to God. Our connections, influence, experience are irrelevant. Instead of haughty self-sufficiency, we need to rediscover dependence. We need simply to trust him, to lift our minds up to him, to begin to think and see as he does, to give him our hearts, and to allow him to take charge of our lives. Which is all very well, but how do I do that? 

What does it mean to rediscover our childlike trust? We know what we know. We can’t go back to childhood but our mature faith and grown-up experience teaches us of God who loves us despite our failings. And so, trustingly, we place our hand in that of the Son, our brother, who invites us. 

Deacon Mark Kelly