Dear Parents,

Normally in the last newsletter of the term I wish everyone a happy Easter or holiday break and safe travels. This term my simple wish is for everyone to stay healthy.

I also thank the staff for their tremendous efforts of the last three weeks. A massive job! Thank you parents for your support and adaptability. I am sure the experience of educating your children at home has had mixed blessings.

Term 2

Today I had a video conference with Catholic Education. Term two will continue with current arrangements subject to further government decisions or directions. That means that parents who are classified as essential workers can continue to send their children to school. Vulnerable children are also encouraged to come to school.

While at school the students will engage in remote learning in line with the rest of the students in the school. We will have the appropriate staffing levels to ensure student safety and supervision. This means that not every student who comes to school will be supervised by, or working with, their normal classroom teacher.

It is the intention of Catholic Education to establish how many students will return to each school at the beginning of Term Two to assist with future planning. Parents can expect correspondence from Catholic Education at some time next week.

As parents are aware staff are undertaking training next week which will give us a good understanding of how the new platform works with See-Saw and Google Classroom. The intention is to send information on how the new system will work for each year level to parents next Thursday.

PM Readers

The introduction of PM Readers online has been delayed.  Unfortunately, the PM Reader platform itself is not coping with the number of students from many schools trying to access the readers. Mrs Williams is in daily contact with Cengage, who supply the platform, and they have assured us that the readers will be able to be accessed in a week or so.

Collection of Student Books

We still have a lot of families that have not collected their child’s resources from school. Families need to come in and collect these items at the start of next week while we have office staff in attendance.

God Bless

Peter Hughes

WHOLE SCHOOL FOCUS

The Whole school focus theme for this year is:

Be Just Like Jesus

Family Prayer

Lenten Steps

‘Follow the way of love, the example of Christ who loved you.’ Ephesians 5:2

Theme

Lent is a time for doing special things to show

our love for God and each other. During Lent

we open our hearts to God, we say sorry for our

sins, and we prepare to celebrate the greatest

Christian feast of all: Easter.

Prayer

Make the sign of the cross and pray:

Dear God,

Thank you for giving us your Son, Jesus,

who showed us how to love each other.

We are sorry for the times we have not been kind to others.

Help us to love like Jesus did, especially during Lent

as we prepare to celebrate Easter.

Amen.

Message from Fr Mark

Dear Parishioners

We invite you to get dressed in your Sunday best and join us for a special Palm Sunday Mass via Zoom on Sunday 5 April 2020 at 9:30am.  If you missed out last week, be assured that we can accommodate many more participants this weekend! Please sign in to the Mass at 9.15am using Meeting ID 824-036-573 or click https://zoom.us/j/824036573  Click on the COVID-19
update on the parish app or website for more information.  See you at Mass! Fr Mark.

We had a special visit from Fr Mark on Thursday and he spoke to some of the students who were at school. Please follow the link to the short
video of Fr Mark talking.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0l_kvdvXKflIEcvhkk5BhFJlw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-39h0xYqdE

Dear Parents,

The workings of nature as exposed to us in the Australian environment are truly remarkable. In the south-east we witnessed with heavy hearts the devastation the bushfires had their way with bush land and fauna. However, after refreshing rains, we watch in awe as nature responds and in time shows strong signs of recovery.

Meanwhile, in the north-west the dry season, with its temperatures constantly in the 40’s, has parched the earth and denied it of much of its ground cover. Then come the rains and when the waters of the imposing Fitzroy River, the major artery of the Kimberly, spread themselves well beyond their river banks, the wet season has truly arrived and soon the countryside sparkles afresh with hurried growth.

In both these instances, an essential ecological cycle of life is at work as it has been for thousands of years. Likewise, in the Church's Liturgical cycle, Easter is a time of revival of faith in the Risen Christ, a time to revive your personal friendship with Him.

Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth puts it this way:

"Christ stands at the door of your heart laden with gifts, just waiting for you to let Him in. The gifts He is offering include His personal involvement in your life and the wonderful insights into human nature that are contained in His teachings. The teachings are not impositions on us, but revelations about who we are, how we function and where we are going."

In as much as the trees, shrubs, grasses and animals, fish and bird populations are sustained in their natural environment by annual rainfalls, so too does our human spirit need to be nourished, refreshed and sustained in our effort to grow and reach our fulfillment.

The celebration of Easter, which firstly saw Jesus voluntarily accept Calvary and then rise gloriously from the dead, is a wonderful time for a family to revive and revitalize its friendship with Jesus.

Through this friendship God's love can flow through our family into the world. If we parents can hold faithfully to something stronger and greater than ourselves, then we can provide the stability and inspiration for our children in their attempts to rise to the challenge of goodness. Easter is definitely a time to renew our friendship with Jesus and receive the food of his life in the Sacraments.

Peace and best wishes
Anne Leet REC