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Staff Professional Learning Update
Yesterday the entire St Thomas staff engaged in some excellent professional learning about positive behaviour support. The training was provided by Team Teach and focussed on understanding the range of interventions and interactions that can support students and staff in instances of more challenging behaviour.
The day commenced with a chance to think about our own families and friends, why they are special to us, how they love and support us and how we would wish for them to be treated by others. Multiple discussions around things that influence behaviour were also held.
Staff worked through multiple scenarios and activities and had time to reflect on their own experiences, values and strategies they will engage in.
A delicious shared lunch of wraps kept the team sustained and the final activity of sharing their learning delivered some excellent hidden acting talents on our team.
One particularly powerful image that was presented regarded what a student may be carrying in their invisible backpack on any given day and how we discover how they are travelling.
Wishing you and your family a Happy and Holy Easter break.
Kind Regards
Sarah Chappell
Professional Learning Leader
Happy Easter to all of our families. We hope you enjoy some quality family time and experience the immense gift that Easter brings.
Holy Week at St Thomas the Apostle Church
For those that wish to explore the various events of Holy Week at the St Thomas the Apostle Church, here is a link to the parish website. The special events such as Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday (The Lord’s Supper), Good Friday (Way of the Cross, Passion of the Lord), Easter Saturday (Easter Vigil Mass) and Easter Sunday Masses are all there to see the times of.
Reconciliation
02 May - Reconciliation - Celebration of Reconciliation 5pm & 7pm
03 May - Reconciliation - Celebration of Reconciliation 5pm & 7pm
Confirmation
09 May - Confirmation - Parent Formation Night 6.45pm
16 May - Confirmation - Parent Formation Night 6.45pm
30 May - Confirmation - Parent/Child Workshop 6.45pm
31 May - Confirmation - Parent/Child Workshop 6.45pm
14 July - Confirmation - Retreat 11am - 3.15pm
19 July - Confirmation - Reconciliation (for STAPS) After Mass
Communion
19 July First Communion - Parent Formation Night 6.45pm
26 July First Communion - Parent Formation Night 6.45pm
26 July Confirmation – Reconciliation (for STAPS After Mass)
29 July Confirmation – Confirmation Ceremony 11am & 2pm
08 August First Communion - Parent/Child Workshop 6.45pm
09 August First Communion - Parent/Child Workshop 6.45pm
06 September First Communion – Reconciliation (for STAPS) After Weekday Mass
07 September First Communion - Retreat 11am-3.15pm (all candidates)
09 September First Communion - Mass
10 September First Communion - Mass
16 September First Communion - Mass
17 September First Communion - Mass
Be A Voice for Generations
“You are part of Australia and Australia is part of you. And the Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.” St Pope John Paul II
The above quote was Pope John Paul II’s address to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people back in the 1980’s on a visit to Australia. It’s a call to Catholics but it’s also a call to all Australians. Recognising that we have more work in the space of First Nations people achieving fuller learning potential and ability to shape their own futures. More work to embrace culture and identity.
Have you heard of the ‘Uluru Statement From the Heart’? It’s an amazing piece that captures a compelling need for change. Read below and have a think about your response when it comes time to vote for change.
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.
How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
STUDENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Hello, my name is Rebecca. I have 2 sons at St Thomas’s. Henry is in grade 1 and Kieran in Foundation. I currently sit on the School Advisory Committee. We are a group of parents who meet with the Principal once a term and give the ‘parents voice’ concerning issues and decisions made within the school. However, we would love to hear more from other parents so we can truly be your voice.