Firstly, I would like to extend to everyone a warm welcome back after what I hope was a happy and restful time with family and friends. For families who are new to the school this year I wish for you and your family a smooth transition into our school community and hope that while it can be a time of nervousness, it is also one of excitement and welcome. I am excited to be back in 2019 and stepping into the position as Acting APRIM for Semester 1. For those of you who I have not yet met, I came to St Catherine’s School at the start of 2018 to teach Year 5 and have been fortunate to have worked with Tanya Stott closely last year to see the joy she felt being APRIM in such a warm community. I look forward to also experiencing this as I follow in her footsteps. I look forward to meeting and working with families this year from throughout the school and encourage you to introduce yourself when you see me around.
Our staff have been busy preparing for the start of year and it has been an exciting start to the year with a different format to usual. On January 23rd all staff members within Catholic Education South Australia came together to share in a staff formation day named ‘Live Learn Lead – Together’, facilitated by the director of Catholic Education South Australia, Dr Neil McGoran. We started with a thoroughly cultural experience in the acknowledgement of country and as a system took part in a powerful prayer session. The day was a very unique opportunity to unpack the rich history of Catholic Education and its relevance in today’s context. It was a privileged to hear from Fr Philip Marshall and Dr Kent Hoffman in examining the Gospel from very different but complimentary perspectives. Robyn Moore finished off the day speaking about her experiences in education with a focus on the power of a single word or action, encouraging us all to reflect upon what we bring to each situation. The day was enriching on both a personal and professional level and as a system our story will be stronger because of it. This fit nicely with the staff prayer that we undertook as staff at St Catherine’s School to start off our school year together. We reflected upon our own stories and what we bring in the way of gifts, values and experiences and how everyone who enters our setting has an impact upon it. We identified how our experience here is part of a bigger story, beyond that of just our school, and in the same way people impact our school, we want St Catherine’s to also make a life long difference in return. This will continue to be a point of reflection for staff throughout the remainder of the year.
This year we will continue to celebrate school Masses with Fr Fred on Tuesday mornings, however these will now be starting at 9am. I encourage you to refer to the Calendar Dates to see which class is leading each of these. On Tuesday February 5th we will share our first Mass as a whole school. We would love to have you there if you can make it. In addition to these school Masses we will be celebrating a Parish Mass and picnic on February 24th at 10.30am at Oakbank. This is a family friendly event and proves to be a great celebration each year. It is a great way to get to know, not only families within our school community, but also those within our Parish so I would like to extend a warm invite to everyone to come along.
Finally, a reminder that the sacramental program also kicks off again with Workshop 3 on February 12th at 6pm. I was pleased to be able to join in these workshops last year and look forward to again working with the children and their families as they participate in the sacrament preparations.
Many blessings for the year ahead,
Krystina Dawe
Acting Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission
