Principal Message
As we enter the last fortnight of school before Easter we find ourselves past the halfway point of the Season of Lent with the Feast of the Annunciation. Lent of course is the time of preparation for the high point of the Church year, the Easter Triduum, that period that traces the final days of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection from the dead.
Each week at assembly we have been tracking the progress of Lent through prayer and discussion about Caritas since Ash Wednesday, when our SRC led each House group in its liturgy and distribution of ashes. At the same time we have been having our annual Caritas Project Compassion appeal where we have asked each student to donate $5 towards the needs of others.
Caritas is a social justice outreach of the Church, as they describe it, “Compassion in Action’, helping the poor at home and abroad, as well as educating our young people, encouraging them to serve the most vulnerable by better understanding the causes of poverty as well as its solutions. They, along with the Kildare community are growing young hearts and minds for social and ecological justice. As a Laudato Si Action Plan school within the Diocese of Wagga Wagga it is an important part of our moral purpose.
Placing others at our centre is the example we are inspired to follow by our founders, Nano Nagle and Edmund Rice. It is my hope that you will support the College by encouraging your son or daughter to give generously as they prepare themselves for Easter- almsgiving and prayer.
We invite all of our community to engage with parish services across Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. Let Easter be about Christ and less about chocolate and holiday. Please check here for when services are in your local parish.
On March 10th the College staff took part in a Deanery gathering of Catholic schools, Primary and Secondary schools. This was a particularly important day which saw the launch of three key documents which will drive our work for the foreseeable future. I invite you to open and engage with each document.
Bishop Mark Edwards launched the Charter for Education which replaces the formed Bishop’s Education Mandate. As Bishop Mark notes; “Parents and caregivers entrust our schools with their precious children to keep them safe, assist in forming them, and to provide life-giving faith opportunities, outstanding education and personal care. KIldare is committed to providing exactly that and ensuring that our planning is targeted to those aims.
Dr Andrew Watson launched our TransFORMATIVE Learning Statement. This is no typo with the capitalised FORMATIVE. It is very clearly a message that we are forming young people, that we are about continual growth for our young people. The statement also clearly talks of what we want all stakeholders to engage with - Students, Teachers, Parents, Leaders and System. Again our planning around teaching and learning will be driven by this statement.
The new Wellbeing for Learning Framework was launched and by its very name emphasises the notion that being ready to learn each day is dependent on wellbeing supported at the school. The support we provide as a College is an every student model which can only be enhanced by this framework. It also aligns school and system support which is critical for this to be a success for every student.
Our College planning for 2023 focuses on clarifying our alignment with these three documents. They are all rich documents which provide us much to work with in the years ahead.
