Faith and Mission

Social Outreach

Caritas (Project compassion Lenten Appeal) - THANK YOU to all families for your contributions to our Caritas lenten appeal. The money will go a long way to helping those less fortunate around the world. This year we raised $721.00.  St. Luke’s have now partnered with Caritas and this will be a yearly initiative, so if you didn’t get a chance this year, you will have many in the years to come! 

Vinnies - Our Vinnies groups are slowly growing across the school and looking forward to our next meeting at the end of this week. We are excited to see what our students identify as needs in our school community and what solutions we can create. We are strong believers in beginning with charitable acts at home before we reach out further to our local community. Our Vinnies groups will have many opportunities to ‘reach out’ this year, so if your child is interested in being part of this initiative, please encourage them to speak to their classroom teacher who can direct them further. 

Later this term we hope to have a Vinnies Winter Sleepout for our students.  Our senior students will be invited to sleep overnight and we are thinking of having a junior version (where students leave at approximately 8.30/9 pm) also.  Please keep an eye out for information regarding these initiatives in the coming weeks. 

Calling all knitters and crocheters!!

We have a group of senior students who have started up a knitting and crochet club to make blankets etc.  Prior to COVID we had a number of families contribute wool, knitted squares and crochet squares for this cause - from that we have been able to make approximately 12 blankets that we will donate to JRS this year.  If you would once again like to participate please feel welcome to contribute.

If we have anyone out there that may be able to assemble squares into blankets your involvement would be greatly appreciated (this was very time consuming last time).

YCS 2022

Over the last term, YCS have been meeting regularly to explore the social issue of Gender Equity. The students began by identifying the problem they saw in society, particularly focusing on the differences in gender norms and opportunities between the sexes. Continuing into this term the group will explore avenues to raise awareness on this social issue and make a difference in this area. 

Also during this term, there will be an exciting change coming to the works! There is more chance for students to be involved and focus on a wider range of social issues that they are interested in. Keep an eye out for this!

Liturgy

Around the Classrooms

Faith bags

This term students in the School of Foundations will get the opportunity to take home faith bags. The faith bags contain a stimulus which might be a book or a topic and a scrap book. Each week one student from each class will get the opportunity to take these bags home.This is a great opportunity for parents to get involved to assist their children in writing prayers, drawing pictures or writing reflections. The prayers written will then be used in class during meditation or prayers for the beginning and end of the day. 

ES1

Early Stage One students are exploring ways they can appreciate others. To understand this better they explored the scripture passage the Good Samaritan. First they unpacked the literal meaning of the scripture passage through a sequencing activity. They then thought of some ways they can help people that are not their friends. 

Stage 1

In Stage One, students are looking at who Jesus is. They first explored what a miracle is through the Bible passage ‘Jesus heals two blind men’. They explored who performs miracles and discussed why humans cannot perform miracles. They explored ways that humans can be involved in miracles through prayer and faith. They then explored pictures of how Jesus is depicted at different times, these were to encourage students to think about Jesus’ divinity. 

Stage 2

In Stage 2 students have been trying to answer the driving question : How can my free will contribute to human flourishing in our faith community?. Students explored what free will means and how our choices have consequences. Students explored different situations that they come across in their daily lives and how their choices lead to different consequences. They explored positive and negative choices and the consequences of these.  

Stage 3

In Term 2, Stage 3 students will understand the importance of establishing positive relationships with all people by responding to the driving question, “How can we respond to God’s call to love by developing positive relationships with all people?” Students will start by firstly understanding the similarities and differences between people of different faiths; they will use class activities to appreciate the importance of having dialogue with people from other faith backgrounds. Students will explore areas of diversity and respond appropriately to enhance positive relationships.

Year 7:

This term in Year 7, students are exploring how moral reasoning and decision making are reliant upon an informed conscience using the driving question, “To what extent does the understanding of truth help to guide our decision making?”  Students will investigate aspects of moral reasoning in relation to the truth and falsehood as well as apply various ethical principles to moral decision making. Students start by creating a Concept map in relation to a chosen scenario to show their understanding of different ways of knowing. Students will map their thoughts and ideas about the issue giving consideration to 4 or more of the following factors: values, morals, ethics, faith, family, culture, and legal. Students will reflect on their learning, research and discernment around the church’s teaching on sin and sources of truth to create a personal Belief Statement. 

Year 8:

In Term 2, Year 8 students will apply the concept of synodality from last term to find ways to journey together to overcome barriers to human liberation. They will deepen their understanding of the concept by exploring social and spiritual responses to actions linked to human liberation. In order to do this effectively, students will find out about the contributions of different agencies and also generate strategies in class to foster human liberation.

Year 9

Term 2 has our Year 9 students looking at Indigenous Spirituality so as they can develop a deeper understanding to see the need and action toward reconciliation.  Students will be attempting to respond to the driving question:How can immersing in Indigenous Spirituaslity help us to understand the importance of reconciliation?  We look forward to people from our Indigenous unit - Jarara coming out to speak with our students.

Year 10

Term 2 sees our Year 10 students having a deeper look at the concepts of dignity, sexuality, love and human flourishing and how having an informed conscience helps us to make clear decisions.  This learning cycle is really important for students to actually think and understand concepts properly, not just what they find in the media, to ensure that they have an informed conscience.  We will look at the mixed messages modern media send and break them down looking through the Catholic lens.

Stage 6

Our Year 11 students continue with Studies of Religion. 

Our Studies of Religion 1 unit class have started the HSC component of their studies, over terms 2 and 3 they will continue and complete their studies of religion course ready to sit the HSC in October.  We wish them well!!

Our Studies of Religion 2 class continue working through the Year 11 Prelim course.  Currently they have working on their study of Judaism where they are addressing the driving question:  What does the world look like from the standpoint of Judaism?