Dear Parents and Caregivers

In the last newsletter I talked about the overall behaviour of our students, which is mostly very good. Like all schools, we do have a few issues with poor choices being made by the students from time to time. Please remember that when your child comes home with a report of an incident which happened at school, the first thing to do is to contact your child’s teacher. You must never confront the other student as no parent in our community would appreciate their child being approached by another parent. If the teacher can’t resolve the issue, then either myself or one of the Assistant Principals will step in. Having dealt with many issues in schools over the past 35 years, I have noticed a common theme, which is there are always three versions to every story. That is, Child A’s version, Child B’s version and somewhere in the middle are the facts. It is extremely important that the staff resolve any playground issues as we have a lot of experience in this area and we are not as emotionally invested as a parent would be, which means we can remain neutral and deal with the facts to resolve the issue in a restorative way.

Awareness/Compassion Reflection The only way out of a labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. 

Lenten Reflection During Lent and Easter, we often focus on the suffering and death of Jesus as this leads to his resurrection, which is very important as it tells us that when we die, we too will also be resurrected. However, we tend to overlook the teachings of Jesus when he was alive. I believe that these are just as important as they guide us in living good lives. If you summarised his teachings, two big themes emerge. They are those of healing and forgiveness. Too often we focus on other things, however, I think that if we could practice forgiveness in our lives, this would lead to more healing, especially emotional and spiritual healing. As we move closer towards Easter, please ask yourselves how can we be more forgiving towards those we love and even those we don’t love?

Edudance Over the past two years, our EduDance concerts have certainly become a highlight. I’m sure that the concert next Monday 3 April will be no exception. The parents of the Blue classes from Pre Primary to Year 6 are invited to come into the hall after 5.45pm, once you have taken your children to their classrooms first. It will be a great opportunity to watch their dance routines and see their talents on display.

School Photos The annual photo shoot takes place on Monday 3 April and Wednesday 5 April so please make sure your children are looking their best with shoes polished, hair brushed and uniforms looking neat and tidy.

Term Dates The last day of school for the students will be Wednesday 5 April. We will be holding a special student friendly version of the Stations of the Cross in the Church at 8.45am. All parents and grandparents are invited to come along and join us as we reflect upon the passion of Jesus. The staff will be having a professional development day on Thursday 6 April which means it is a student free day. We will be focusing on the teaching of Spelling across all year levels. Next term, the students will return on Wednesday 26 April as 25 April is ANZAC Day and the staff will be involved in more professional learning on 24 April. I take this opportunity to wish you a safe and holy Easter and I look forward to seeing everyone again next term.

Yours sincerely
Laurie Bechelli