Filter Content
Forgiveness
I don’t like the phrase: ‘Forgive and forget’. Remembering can be an important part of healing. Forgiving is about giving up the desire ‘to get even’, making sure that the ‘punishment fits the crime’. It is that sort of forgiveness which we dare to ask of God for ourselves. But here's the catch: it is that sort of forgiveness which we must practise towards others.
When we don’t, we are like the principal debtor in Jesus’ story. In harshly dealing with a minor debtor, he refused to share his king’s quality of forgiveness. If we don’t pass on this aspect of God’s life to others, then we are warned that we will end up in a hellish situation unable to share in the fullness of Divine life.
It is easy to talk ‘Big Picture’ forgiveness. It is much harder within the family or circle of acquaintances. It seems impossible to simply will it. But we have to ask for the grace to do it.
We could pause for a moment to pray:
‘Our Father who art in Heaven . . . forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’
© Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com
Dear Families,
Our students have had another busy week, starting last Friday evening with our Strings Soiree. I was amazed with the skill level of our students; it was an enjoyable evening.
Monday started with our Conservation Club being awarded a cheque for $800 by Chris from Keep Australia Beautiful, Tasmania, to make every child in our school a reusable beeswax wrap. Beeswax wraps are a great alternative to plastic wrapping. What a great initiative our Conservation Club, with Mrs Kidd have come up with to reduce the amount of rubbish we create. On Monday we also welcomed our new 2021 Kinder families for a modified orientation day. It was great to meet our new students, for some of them it was their first visit to St Thomas More’s Catholic School.
We also had Mrs Wood organise the Launceston City Council Dog Safety program for our Kinders to Grade 2. This is a great program to help teach our children how to act safely around unknown dogs. Later in the week our G3/4 went on their local history excursion around Launceston and our Band enjoyed their first combined schools’ workshop for the year on Thursday. Today we have Mitch, the creator of MJR working with our G3/4s and Mrs Edwards was out and about filming our 2020 Wakakirri Dance entry.
Often, we are teaching our students to help others, or in Mary MacKillop’s words, “Never see a need without doing something about it.” I am pleased to say that a group of staff have volunteered to regularly assist with the Vinnies Soup Van that is out in our community most evenings. If any families do need some assistance, we can put you in contact with Vinnies who are more than happy to provide a helping hand. There is no shame in asking for help if needed; I’ve been in a situation where Vinnies have provided me a personal helping hand.
A reminder that all students must wear hats from Monday when on the playground.
We are currently in the middle of planning our Athletics Carnival for week 10 and navigating the Covid- 19 restrictions, which as you may be aware, are numerous for the event, however we want to ensure we provide this for our children. Firstly, I need to inform you that we are unable to have spectators for the carnival; the only people who are to attend the event are students, staff and invited parent helpers. Other changes will be the constant washing of hands and sanitising of equipment, all invited adults and staff must keep a 1.5 metre distance between them and others and we must keep a register of every person at the event. Unfortunately, we will be unable to hold high jump.
I feel like I am constantly talking about Cybersafety and today some of our G3/4 participated in a Webinar hosted by the esafety Commisioner. I would also like to share that during the week our systems picked up on the horrible video being shared across the internet, sent us messages to let people know and immediately shut down access within our school of any known sources of that video. Although all these systems are great, and we can enact them at school, once the children are off the school’s wifi and on their own personal devices the best protection for your children is to ensure they are always being monitored.
Have a great week.
God Bless,
Shayne Kidd
On Wednesday, our Grade 3 and 4 students had a wonderful time on their History excursion. Please enjoy the following photo's and snippets of writing about the day.
A visit from our farmyard friends!
We were lucky enough to have a visit from some farmyard friends this week. Mrs Chugg brought in some lambs from her farm for the students to meet - they were very cute :)
Congratulations to Millie Farrell who has received 25 stickers in her sticker booklet. These stickers are given to students displaying positive and respectful behaviour in the playground. They are a great role model for others. Well done!
Congratulations to the following students for receiving awards last week:
Strings Workshop - Thursday 17th September
All Primary Strings members will have recently received a notice regarding the Strings Workshop, to be held next Thursday, 17th Sept at St Albie's Hall. Details for the day are outlined in the attached copy for your convenience.
If you have any queries, please contact the Office.
Wellways Community Dog Walk - supporting Mental Health Week
This Mental Health Week, Wellways will be celebrating our four legged friends and the support and unconditional love they bestow on us every day. Join us for a community dog walk on Tuesday of 6th October, followed by a barbeque in beautiful Royal Park.
This is a free family friendly event on the school holidays. There will be a free BBQ on the day, and the walk is all ability accessible. Please see details attached.