Wellbeing & Thrive

If you wore a singlet at yesterday's Cross Country please return it to the school office ASAP. 

Thank you.

On Sunday we came together to Synergise with our Parish, because we all know that Together is Better.

Synodal Parish Assembly - Some of our Year 6 students were there to represent our school and share their voice.

“Unity grows along the way. It never stands still. Unity happens when we walk together.” - Pope Francis

Last Sunday, a few other Senior Year 6 Leaders and I had the brilliant opportunity to attend the Synodal Parish Assembly. This assembly was an eye-opener for me and I believe I can speak for everyone when I say this experience was absolutely amazing. The theme of today was Pope Francis’ calling for us to work in a more “synodal” way; connecting with each other as a community, discerning the call of the Holy Spirit and walking together in our shared Catholic faith & beliefs. 

This assembly served two purposes for me: Firstly, to be able to know the other people of our parish better and secondly, to learn about and understand what they think about the status quo as well as their hopes for any future outcomes for our church. With the first reason, I found it was wonderful to be able to get to know some of the other parishioners! It really gave me an important sense of belonging as a Parish; because I believe that being part of our Catholic church isn’t just listening to God as an individual, it’s following in His word - as a community, as a Parish family. 

Secondly, I thought it was so incredibly interesting to hear about what other people think! Even though we were all Catholics, we all had different cultural and religious backgrounds as well as different views on specific aspects of our faith. Even so, it was all a very inclusive environment and nobody would judge anybody else even if they disagreed with their opinion, which I thought was very special. For example, we had an important and interesting discussion about the representation of sin and guilt in our religion: because sometimes, we believe so fervently about the fact that Jesus suffered and died because of us that it shadows the joy of celebration; that Jesus also ascended into heaven and was reborn, because ultimately, isn’t that the entire purpose of Easter?

There were a lot of common themes with some of the outcomes we would like to see in the future of the Parish, especially after Pope Francis’ calling for us to act in a “synodal” way. Here are the main ones:

1. Inclusivity - to be inclusive as a parish, especially to people from different perspectives (religiously) or cultural backgrounds, and to establish that no matter wherever you come from, you will be welcomed into our faith with open arms. 
2. Engaging the youth in our parish - to apply engaging materials and appeal to welcoming the youth BACK into our parish community, encouraging them to come back to Mass and other community activities; to find the balance between not being so frequent that it’s a burden, but to not be so infrequent that they forget about it - making it not an obligation but a commitment that they are passionate about by choice. 
3. Getting to know everyone, from parishioners to priests - We are after all, not just a group of random people - we are a community, connected in our faith. During the assembly, there was a discussion about possible abuse, violence or family struggles such as divorce present in people involved in our parish; and the many, many possible ways that we could support these people suffering and in need. We also had an interesting talk about how priests are human too - they can get sick and feel sad and suffer just like the rest of us, and they are also crucial parts of the community. 

And so much more! This experience was so engaging, especially for me as a young Catholic because I got to learn about so many different perspectives, from different cultures, age groups and experience levels. We are all children of God, and through Pope Francis’ calling, we should all walk together; as a community of faith, a parish of belief, a society of love. 

Thank you to these students for their contributions on the day. 

Sophia, Seoa, Scarlett, Alecia, Elizabeth, Icy, Anabella, Olivia, Riley X.

-Jaslyn 

Revitalise the Future of Digital Wellbeing

On Tuesday, Senior School had an online incursion, Revitalise the Future Challenge - Building a safer tomorrow. Representatives gave us a challenge to make different projects to inform people about the positives and negatives of digital wellbeing. Senior school students had to separate in groups of three and work on different ways to do the project. The different types of media we are able to create include - comic book, infographic & movie. We will continue to work on this over the coming weeks and look forward to sharing our creations with you.

Have a safe and happy weekend

Melissa Overton   

Wellbeing Coordinator