Issue 5 - 28 March 2017

Newsletter Articles

MISSION STATEMENT

St Rita’s School mission is to create a community which inspires a love of holistic, life-long learning grounded in the Catholic Christian faith. Childhood is celebrated and nurtured by caring adults. A student’s capacity for their best future is realised in the context of our small rural community. We provide a safe and supportive environment, characterised by strong, life-giving and respectful relationships with students, staff, families, parish and the wider community. The school strives to ensure we are living out the Mercy values.

PRINCIPAL’S PEN

Dear Parents and Carers,

One of the highlights of this week was our senior students participating in the Term 1 Gala Sports Day at Babinda State School. Mrs Masina reported that the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning the new game, European Handball, which was played on the day. In P.E. lessons, all children have been training for the Cross Country sporting event which will be held in Term 2. Seniors (9 -12 years) are eligible to compete at the Combined Schools competition on Monday 25th April.

Once again, all other St Rita’s children will showcase their running skills at a non-competitive Junior Fun Run held in our school grounds. Our youngest children, the five year olds, will run 500m and the oldest age group will attempt 1.5kms. The children thoroughly enjoy this sporting event and the nine year olds are looking forward to their first year of being eligible to participate in the Combined Schools event. Parents and families are most welcome to come along to support our runners.

During this period of Lent, you would have heard your children talking about Project Compassion, its significance at St Rita’s, and the specific activities that we have completed in the past weeks. Project Compassion is the primary fundraising drive of Caritas that links the personal prayer and discipline that we undertake during Lent with a vision of providing service to others across the world. Last Tuesday, Mrs Gaul and Mrs Stone successfully organised our annual fund-raiser, the Caritas Café. I sincerely thank these wonderful ladies and the St Rita’s families who contributed to this event.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in the Prep/Year 1 and Year 2/3/4 Liturgy. What a wonderful celebration it was! The children read prayers and sang hymns centred around the theme of ‘The Water of Life’. The readings reminded us that the message of Jesus is like water which is life giving. If we live by this, we will never be thirsty again. Lent is a time to reflect on how well we are doing at that. The event was made more special by having so many mums, dads, grandparents and younger siblings coming along. I would like to thank Mrs Masina, Mrs Jago and Mrs Carrigan for preparing this liturgical event for their classes.

As the term draws to a close, I am reminded of the many successful events we have had at our school. I sincerely thank St Rita’s families for supporting the staff in ensuring the success of Term 1 2017. Our new staff members this year, Mrs Maureen Gaul, Mrs Marissa Savaglio, Mr Bohdan Cormick and Mrs Nicole Wannenburg have been made especially welcome. I know that all members of the St Rita’s staff team feel supported in their endeavours to provide the best teaching and learning experiences for all students.

I wish all St Rita’s families a happy and blessed Easter celebration. I hope you have a safe and relaxing holiday together, and I look forward to seeing bright, enthusiastic students returning to school on Tuesday, 18th April.

God’s blessings for Easter!

Judy Billiau

APRE THOUGHTS…..

The Light in Our Lives

Do you recall times in your life when the lights have gone out and you have been faced with momentary or even complete darkness? There can be times when a sense of darkness prevails, even if the electricity is on! We need someone to give us light, to illuminate the beauty and goodness before us in God’s Creation. In both Paul’s reading and John’s Gospel from the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Jesus is proclaimed as ‘the Light’.

Through a wondrous miracle of healing, Jesus gives the gift of sight to a man who had been blind since birth in the Gospel reading. This man not only gains vision of his physical world, but opens his heart in faith to Jesus. He acknowledges Jesus as the Son of Man sent by God, and becomes a disciple; he is moved from darkness into light literally through his gift of sight, and at a deeper level, spiritual insight in seeing Jesus as the ‘Light of the World’.

Through God’s immense love for us, God gave Jesus to us so that we might see, hear, touch and believe. We live in the light of Christ through our faith and can come to experience the fullness of God’s love and saving Grace. It is through our faith, that we are renewed with new birth in the Holy Spirit, and the new ‘eternal’ life is offered to us through believing in the Risen Lord, God’s only Son. During this season of Lent, as we make our way through repentance and renewal, may we be whole-heartedly invigorated and renewed in our baptismal promises.

Jesus, you are the Light of the World.
You came as a gift from your Father to help us see and believe.
Help us to receive your light and to become a light to others.
Amen.

Outside Learning Day and Free Dress Friday

In an act of solidarity with children from around the globe, who have no access to classrooms with luxuries such as technology and air-conditioning, St Rita’s Community Carers would like to invite fellow students to experience an hour-long session of outside learning this Friday 31st March. For this privilege, students may wear free dress (sun-safe, of course!) and are encouraged to bring along a gold coin donation. This will be the final fundraiser for Caritas’ Project compassion for 2017, and as we approach the end point of our fundraising period for Caritas, it is timely to acknowledge the generosity demonstrated by the St Rita’s school community. Thank you for your efforts towards making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Holy Week Liturgy

Praying the Stations of the Cross is a Lenten Tradition. Parents and friends of St Rita’s School and Parish family are warmly invited to walk the ‘Way of the Cross’ together with students at our Holy Week Liturgy. This will take place at the Church on Friday 31st March at 12:30pm. For each Station of the Cross, there will be a prayer, reading, reflection and tableau presented.

Celebrating Together

Within the previous week, St Rita’s hosted a number of prayer events to share with family and friends of our school community. The Year 5/6 class celebrated Mass with Father Kerry and the Preps to Year 4s joined together for their liturgy. What joyous occasions to celebrate our faith! A hearty ‘thank you’ to all who were able to attend either event, and also to the teachers for their preparations in making these celebrations a special community affair!

Blessings to our families and friends as we move into the Easter holiday break. May I extend wishes for many happy family moments together, safe travel and personal rejuvenation in preparation for Term 2.

Maureen Gaul
Assistant Principal (Religious Education)

CASTING THE NET

Rising with Christ

School closes this week for the first holidays of the year and when it reopens, Easter will have been and, one could be tempted to think, gone without making a difference. We easily get into a rut with our faith, not realising just how deeply the presence of Jesus Christ has gone down into our being and transformed us to a new way of engaging with other people and our world. ‘Me, changed?’ I can hear you asking. Yes, let us look at the ways.

As Christians we believe:

That good can come out of bad. The power Jesus gave in defeating death is given to us. We are not defined or confined by the bad things that happen to us. We can turn them to good.

That prayer really makes a difference. The good desires I have for others can be offered to God and sent to surround and care for them – even if they are on the other side of the world.

That forgiveness is not only possible but desirable. When we hear stories of people who have forgiven those who have wronged them, we understand, we get it – even if we feel it might be beyond us.

That virtue is something for which we should work and strive. Yes, we want to be better because we believe we have been made for that.

These are the subtle ways Jesus Christ is alive in you. Let yourself be surprised this Easter by recognising and appreciating the new divine life that is rising in your hearts.

Loving God, my faith can seem so ordinary at times that I think it has little effect on me. Let me realise how the Holy Spirit is alive within me allowing the life of Jesus to rise in my heart and in my life. I ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear me.

Sr Kym Harris osb

DATE CLAIMERS

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

St Rita’s School congratulates those students who were awarded ‘Student of the Week’ at Assembly on Friday 24th March 2017.

BIRTHDAY CONGRATULATIONS

St Rita’s wishes Katara Ambrum all the very best for her recent birthday. We hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration. Congratulations Katara!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

COMMUNITY NEWS