From the Principal 

Dr Nicole Archard

A Time for Reflection

This week we began the period of Lent and our journey into Easter. We commenced with a celebration of pancakes for breakfast on Shrove Tuesday and then followed the next day with a Junior School and Senior School Ash Wednesday Liturgy in our beautiful gardens. During this important time in the Christian calendar, we are asked to reflect on God’s unconditional love for us, and our love for each other as well as the earth on which we walk. During Lent, it is often tradition to go without something as a way of remembering the meaning of this love. Often people decide to go without things like chocolate or cake (or alcohol for the adult audience), however, we should also consider giving up other things which can perhaps have a greater impact, things such as refraining from the use of unkind words or refraining from any thoughts or actions that might show prejudice or intolerance of others. Giving up chocolate is probably easier than giving up behaviours or ways of thinking but if we give it a try, we might just help to make the world a better place, which after all, is the meaning of Lent and Easter.  

Gratitude

It is a good time of year to remind everyone of our gratitude email address: gratitude@loreto.sa.edu.au Expressing gratitude is an important aspect of wellbeing for adults and children. So, if you would like to send an expression of gratitude to a staff member at Loreto, please do so and I will personally forward this onto them, it also brings me a lot of joy to be able to share your email with the relevant staff member. Try to also encourage this behaviour with your girls at home. Each day, ask your daughters what they are grateful for and what went well that day. If you practise this every day, over time you will be teaching the brain to think positively, rather than ruminate on negative thoughts. As part of our SEAD program, our girls also send expressions of gratitude to each other and staff, last year they sent over 5,000 expressions of gratitude, how amazing is that! 

Dr Nicole Archard

Principal