Dear St Francis Xavier Families,

Recently, Steve, Laura, Lisa and I had the privilege of attending a wonderful Religious Education Symposium alongside about 1000 Catholic educators from across Melbourne and some from interstate. The keynote presentations were engaging, thought-provoking and covered a broad range of topics that encouraged us to reflect on our personal faith, and the 

changing needs of our students in relation to religion in contemporary society.  Participants were also able to choose from a diverse selection of workshops, including the latest neuroscience research exploring the brain and body benefits of spiritual practice, quality teaching and learning of Religious Education across different year levels, effective approaches to assessing Religious Education learning, opportunities to view and provide feedback on draft sections of the forthcoming new Melbourne Religious Education Curriculum, and sessions exploring the rich connections between First Nations and Catholic spirituality. The symposium provided valuable ideas and practical strategies that will help further enrich the Religious Education experiences we offer our students and strengthen our shared faith journey as a school community.

Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop

On 8 August, we celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Australia's first saint. Mary MacKillop devoted her life to helping children and families, especially those experiencing hardship. Guided by her deep faith and her belief to "Never see a need without doing something about it," she showed kindness, courage and trust in God throughout her life. As a school community, we give thanks for her inspiring example and pray that we, too, will show compassion, serve others with generosity and live out the Gospel in our everyday words and actions.

Term 3 Class Masses

CLASS MASSES TERM 3

This term's class masses are on the following dates at 9:15am in St Francis Xavier Church:

Year 3/4 Friday 21st August

Year P + 1/2 Thursday 3rd September

Whole School Prayer

Our next Whole School Prayer will be on Friday August 14th at 8:45am in the classrooms. 

Prayers in Pyjamas 2026

Tonight we look forward to Prayers in Pyjamas an annual Junior School event. The evening gives our families an opportunity to come together in a spirit of faith and camaraderie to experience some of the varied ways in which we support the children to understand and learn about prayer.

We look forward to welcoming everyone at 6pm.

Warmest wishes and God's blessings.

Marion O'Brien

Religious Education Leader