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- Tas Bike Week - 1st - 8th March 2020
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Reflection
This week we commence Lent with Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, which included the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us, as well as grief, the grief that we have sinned and caused division from God.
The distribution of ashes comes from a ceremony of ages past. Christians who had committed grave faults performed public penance. On Ash Wednesday, the Bishop blessed the hair shirts which they were to wear during the forty days of penance and sprinkled over them ashes made from the palms from the previous year. Then, while the faithful recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, the penitents were turned out of the church because of their sins. The penitents did not enter the church again until Maundy Thursday after having won reconciliation by the toil of forty days' penance and sacramental absolution. Later, all Christians, whether public or secret penitents, came to receive ashes out of devotion. In earlier times, the distribution of ashes was followed by a penitential procession.
Today the ashes are still made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. While the ashes symbolize penance and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His Divine mercy is of utmost importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls on us to seek that mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.
As we prepare for this Lenten Season let us review our lives and identify what we can do to change for the better so that we are able to be closer to God.
Adapted from an article on catholic.org.
Dear Families,
What a great day we had yesterday at our G3-G6 Swimming Carnival. The weather was perfect, and the attitude and participation of our children was excellent. I would like to thank all our wonderful volunteers who supported our staff in the smooth running of the day. Congratulations to More House, who won the trophy his year, and to every student who had a go. Finally, a big thanks to Mr Stacey for coordinating the day.
Unfortunately, I was surprised last Wednesday afternoon when I witnessed one of our students run straight past me onto the Abbott St crossing without looking! Thankfully, Robyn was on the crossing; however, this behaviour from our student was dangerous. We need your support to ensure all our children are safe when crossing roads. As parents we must model safe practices for our children, teaching them to stop and look before crossing roads and to always use a pedestrian crossing if there is one nearby. Taking that few extra steps to use a crossing teaches your child safe behaviours and minimises the risk of any child being hurt on our roads.
This morning I read an article in the ABC News on children being overwhelmed about everything they have to fit into their lives which can lead to tantrums or meltdowns. We all have stressors, and these can be from a combination of many things; our children are no different. Some of these can include school, afterschool activities including childcare, sport and emotional stress either through parental relationship challenges or friendship challenges and that their bodies are constantly growing and changing. The article states that it is normal for children to respond in this way if they have too many stressors, however we can help our children manage these stresses through some basic practices and good routines. Dr Shanker suggests:
- Good sleeping habits - regular bedtime and about 10 hours sleep
- No media at least 1 hour before bed – read a book or listen to relaxing music instead
- Parents connecting with their children – take time to talk with them
- Nutritious meals – high sugar foods and fruit juice can be hidden stressors
- Exercise – unstructured play outside is great exercise
- Declutter – our children don’t need lots of toys or gadgets
To read the full article click here.
God Bless,
Shayne Kidd
GRIP Student Leadership Conference
On Monday the School and House Captains arrived at school and went to the Tailrace Centre for a leadership conference with GRIP Leadership. The first activity was ‘Leading the Way’ which involved interactions with people from other schools. We also learnt about generosity and how to make sacrifices for your peers, as well as watching some Disney clips on leadership. GRIP leadership taught us to show and lead the way and not tell people what to do. In order to show the way we also have to know the way and go the way, and then people will follow.
We had a booklet full of activities and after we wrote in it we shared it with the other schools sharing leadership skills, ways to lead and ideas from other activities we did. Each of us came up with three really good ideas for our school and shared them with others. We also learnt how to bring our ideas to life. We also had to partner up with someone next to us to draw a picture and one person guided us to draw the picture whilst the other person's eyes were closed and it was incredibly hard. It taught us to be able to give instructions.
We had an incredible day meeting new people from different schools and learning lots of new leadership skills. We came back to school with lots of new ideas and lots of ways to lead St Thomas More’s.
Written by Georgia, Ryan and Lachlan.
Ticket to Play – sports voucher program
Ticket to Play provides vouchers up to $100 in value towards club membership for children aged 5-17 years and listed on a Centrelink Health Care or Pensioner Concession Card or in Out of Home Care.