St Anne's Catholic College - Temora eNewsletter

Dear Community,

We are now into our 3rd week back with face-to-face teaching and we are very pleased with how the students are settling back into the normal routine. Assemblies have been held across the school via Microsoft Teams and it is nice to still be able to address the student group as a whole.

Thank you for your support with the new hygiene processes. You are welcome to enter school grounds for student pickup of an afternoon, however, please follow social distancing guidelines. We have new hand sanitiser stations around the school. One is at the front door to the office and the other is on the wall of the hall. Please utilise these when entering school grounds.

I am pleased to announce that Mr Rod Lang has been appointed as our new Wood/Metal Industrial Technology teacher. Mr Lang is moving here from Albury and he comes with many years of experience and a great range of qualifications across multiple teaching areas. I look forward to introducing him to our community. I am still waiting to confirm his start date. Currently, Mr Hogan, Miss Jamieson and I have been covering Wood/Metal classes as an interim measure. We welcomed back Nicole Miller today and we look forward to doing the same with Georgia Hughes in Week 7.

Uniform- We kindly ask for your support with ensuring that students are in the correct uniform on the correct day and wearing all the right pieces of uniform. I believe that a uniform is an important aspect for a school, as it builds a sense of belonging and pride. This pride can then carry over into school work. Lieutenant General David Morrison once said, "The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept". This is something that I often think about and hope to instil in students.

Please see our building works and maintence section for an update on renovations. I would like to thank the School Community Council for their generous donation of $10,000 towards the cost of purchasing new classroom furniture for our renovated classrooms. This will greatly assist us with the total cost of the furniture costing $30,000 plus.

Take care,

Grant Haigh

This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost is one of the great feasts. This holy celebration holds great significance among the different Christian denominations.

Pentecost celebrates the fullness of the Spirit and the great gathering of nations. It brings the Easter season to its conclusion. We commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).

In John's account of the first Pentecost the primary gift Jesus' Spirit bestows on the disciples is peace. Christ’s gift of peace is more robust than just peace and quiet. Peace is like all the best things in life: an attitude of mind and a habit born of consistently making good choices. Pentecost celebrates the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples and energising them to set about their mission of continuing the ministry of Jesus. The gospel reading is one of the post-resurrection appearances by Jesus when he breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

Jesus had already imbued the disciples with the Spirit but, as so often throughout his ministry, they were a bit slow to catch on to the significance of what he had done. It seems that they needed a more tangible experience to jolt them into action and Acts records the very physical experience of the Spirit entering their midst as a roaring wind before settling upon them as tongues of flame. Jesus had breathed the Spirit upon them but it took the roaring wind to make a real impression on the disciples. There are frequent references in the gospels to Jesus being ‘filled with the Spirit’. It is this Spirit with which he was filled that he breathed upon his disciples; it is that same Spirit that we receive sacramentally in Confirmation.

In the Gospel for this Pentecost, forgiveness is the second gift Jesus bequeaths the disciples. If we really want to cultivate peace and quiet in our lives we have to confront the things we are trying to avoid or deny. Often these things hinge on painful memories or events where we were destructive toward others or they were toward us. Unless we forgive ourselves or forgive them, our busyness will ensure that we have enough clamour and activity to stay away from ugly memories. Unfortunately it usually follows that when we are so busy not dealing with the sins of our past, peace and quiet stay well away from us as well.

Let us pray that we choose Jesus as our first option this Pentecost and forgive as generously as we can those who have tried to crucify us. We might have to forgive ourselves as well. And then, like Jesus, with old wounds exposed, we can rejoice that the Spirit has breathed into us the greatest gift of all: the peace and quiet we most crave and need.

Adapted from Fr Richard Leonard SJ

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Renovations

You may have noticed that there is a lot of new scaffolding that has gone up this week. We are excited to let you know that the roof tiles will be replaced in the coming weeks. This is due to a number of leaks that could not be found. The section that is being replaced is above the library and the renovated classrooms. The rest of the renovations are progressing well and we have been told that we may have the top floor handed back to us ready for Term 3 and the overall project finished by August 17th. Hopefully, we are not far off with these dates. The discussions about the Science, Food Tech and Wood/Metal renovations are starting to ramp up and we hope to have this project piggy back the current one.

Playground Improvements

Last week, Mr Haigh met with a representative from a company called Kangaroo Courts. They resurface playground spaces to allow for multi purpose activities to take place. We will wait for the quote to be returned with a number of overlay examples and then there will be student and teacher consultation. Hopefully, we can fit some of these works into next years budget. Example below:

It’s been a while since you have heard from Year 1 so let's go back a bit…On ANZAC Day unfortunately we were unable to celebrate and remember the ones who served and died for us as a school and wider community. But Year 1 tried their best to do what they could. Here are a few photos that show just how grateful and proud we are.

During the first week back at school we enjoyed continuing play based learning. This meant designing a protective layer to keep an egg safe as it was about to be thrown from a building. We made a mess, made some mistakes, learnt from these, smashed a few eggs but also protected a few.

Last week we used our creative skills to paint sunsets. Using water paint and horizontal lines to represent the beautiful colours and patterns that we have been lucky enough to witness at sunset.

Congratulations last week's award winners Molly, Tom and Joey!

Lastly Year 1 is taking part in The May 50K. We have been walking, running, swimming or riding 50km (we so far have done 116km and counting) throughout May to raise funds for life-changing research into multiple sclerosis! There are over 25,600 Australians living with MS and research is the key to changing the future of MS and we are hoping to help. So far we have raised almost $700 which is amazing!! Big Shout out to Adele! Who has raised $300!

Year 8 has been learning about the concepts of Human Dignity, Ecumenism, Christian unity, free will, salvation and justice. They have also explored the mission of Jesus and Catholic Social Teaching principles to consider the way that each of these concepts come together in our calling to each continue the mission of Jesus. Year 8 has been extremely impressive with the depth of understanding that they have shown and the amazing compassion which they have. By far the greatest impact on the students has been the overwhelming sense of responsibility to help the poor. Below are just a few of the student’s statements when asked something that they have learnt so far.

“Human Dignity is putting aside your differences to help and support everyone in your community and even in the whole world. It means to respect and consider everyone's beliefs and opinions. To come together as one, wanting to do the same thing - complete the mission of Jesus.” by Clara Vasilescu

“Help Anyone who needs help.” by Joshua Daly

"Christian unity is being called together as though we are one person and acting as though we are all equal. people can still act as one even if we have different beliefs and faith. We need to complete Jesus' mission and help those in need.“ by Myra West

“Christian unity is where we are all called together as one to carry on the mission of Jesus and help others.” by Annabelle Wiencke

“You have the decision to have a relationship with God.” by Bella Nguyen

“The Call of Christian Unity - We are called together to unite as a religion and continue and contribute to Jesus' mission. God has gifted us with the gift of being able to choose to be in a relationship with him. We have free will to make our own decisions and choose our own path.” by Poppy Minchin

“Help the poor, show your human dignity.” by Campbell Palmer

“That all the churches should come together to push the mission of Jesus.” by Lily Reinhold