Education in Faith

Project Compassion - Class Challenge

Project Compassion is Caritas Australia's annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal. Millions of Australians come together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. The theme for this year’s appeal is For all Future Generations.

This year, the RE School Leaders have set a challenge for each class. The challenge is to show some initiative and organise a fundraiser to raise as much money as you can for Project Compassion. You can do this by yourself, with your family or a group of friends. It might be as simple as asking family and friends for donations because you are committing to giving up something for Lent or a much bigger idea - whatever you like.

This year we have gone hi-tech and created a different website for each class (links below), where your family and friends can go to and donate. If you raise some cash, your parents might be able to take the cash and make the online donation for that amount.

The fundraising target for each class is $20 times the number of students in your class. If you reach the target by Friday 19th April (which is the first Friday of Term 2) your class will get to see your teachers drenched with ice cold water. If you want to see what that feels like - here are the videos from last year.

On the website for each class (links below), you can also see how much money your class has raised so far and how close your class is to the target. There are also posters with a qr code link up on the door to each classroom.

A snapshot of RE Learning in 5/6MB

In 5/6MB we have been learning about Mark’s Gospel. We have learnt about who Mark was and his intended audience when writing the Gospel stories. Some of us the ways Mark describes Jesus is as a healer, teacher, saviour, sufferer and crucially an important figure.

As we have traced the events of Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion in Mark’s Gospel, we have made connections to our learning in Literacy, where we have been learning about scripts and scriptwriting. In groups, we have written our own scripts, according to how a script should be written, of one of the scenes of Jesus’ final days. In doing this we have considered props and stage directions necessary to portray our scene. Each group then worked hard to learn their lines and the staging of their scene.

We hope everybody enjoyed watching the Passion Plays yesterday. The final scene - The Resurrection, will be presented to the whole school at 3.00pm in the Hall on the first day of Term 2 (Monday 15th April) - everybody is most welcome. 

Sunday Gospel

The liturgy of the Catholic Church provides a framework for reflection which is used by Catholics throughout the world. Each week in the Newsletter, you will find the Sunday Gospel as well as some discussion questions to have with your child/ren.

The reading from the holy Gospel according to John

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Discussion Questions

1. What do you have that is new?

2. How do you feel when you have something new?

3. Easter Sunday, is exciting because we celebrate Jesus’ rising and living among us. How can we show that Jesus lives within us in a new way?