Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history and the sufferings of Our peoples, and we ask your forgiveness. We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures.

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus to reconcile the world to you. We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better future for our Nation. Teach us to respect all cultures. Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).

Week 5

Support Our Local School

I urge our parents to continue to support our local school when considering enrolment, especially for the very important formation years from Years 7 to 10. Our statistics prove time and again that students who stay at Sacred Heart to Year 10 usually outperform in the HSC and ATAR compared to students who move away to boarding school prior to finishing Year 10 at Sacred Heart.

We feel confident that we are providing quality education for all students and opportunities for academic, social and spiritual growth and the ability to work closely, encourage and support students who wish to excel in their chosen pursuits.

Our senior students often go on to Leadership roles in their chosen schools for Years 11 or 12 which is an outstanding recognition of the quality not only of academic learning, but also social justice, inclusion, leadership skills, resilience and the ability to problem solve and make new friends and connections quickly and easily.

Having worked in both large and small schools, I can assure you that in our school, we know our students, dedicate more time and energy to catering for individual student needs, have higher participation rates for extracurricular activities and greater encouragement and support from peers to do so and academic rigour and challenge for our students is met in a diverse variety of ways. Our students also develop a stronger sense of belonging, community and caring for others.

“Smaller schools operate more like a community than a corporation. They frequently have a greater sense of unity, especially if they are built around a particular belief system (religious, educational, cultural, philosophical, etc.) shared by the parents and faculty alike. Another reason for this close-knit feel is that there are often more opportunities for kids to participate. Take, for example, a typical high school sports team. In a big school, competition is fierce for a coveted few spots; those students who make the team gain a personal investment in the school, while those who don’t make the roster—and their families, by extension—may walk away feeling marginalized. In smaller schools the chance for student participation is recurrently higher because students are required rather than redundant; as a result, children in smaller schools and their families have more of a stake in their school.” (www.education.com)

Please join us for Mass on Saturday evening from 5pm. Our Stage 3 students will be performing the ministries and we would love to have as many families from our community join us as possible.

Welcome to Mathias La Pira! We have a student starting next Monday in Year 10 from Paris! We are greatly looking forward to welcoming him to our school community and know that all will make him feel very welcome. It will be quite a change for Mathias, coming to a rural school, a new country and making new friends and experiencing new opportunities. Mathias will be joining us for approximately 10 weeks as he stays with a local family.

We have experienced several very busy weeks with our students proudly representing the school in a range of sporting events including our School Athletics Carnival. Thank you to Mrs Patrece Maxwell for organising another terrific carnival and to our students for their enthusiasm and participation. Congratulations to Mercy House who were the House Champions for the carnival. Congratulations also to O’Shaughnessy for their teamwork and organization to take out the House March past.

Congratulations to Sasha Louttit who has been selected in the MacKillop Girls Touch Team after trials this week! From all accounts all played very well and we are very proud of Sasha for making the team.

Don’t forget our family fun night on Tuesday 5 June! We look forward to seeing many of our families from 5.30pm to enjoy all the fun we have planned. Please RSVP via the note sent home last week so that we can ensure we are set up and ready for everyone.

Thanks to our Wellbeing Team and Student Leadership Team for another community breakfast on Wednesday. Despite the cold and rain, it was lovely to see many of our families come along to enjoy the sausages and crumpets on offer! It’s always great to catch up at these events and we encourage as many of our families to make the most of these special occasions.

Message from our Archdiocese

Dear Staff and Parents,

If you have been married for 10 years or more and would like to discuss and hear about how we can better support marriages in our Archdiocese you are warmly invited to join other married couples at our first Archdiocesan Marriage as Mission Afternoon Tea to be held at Haydon Hall behind St Christopher’s Cathedral in Manuka from 2-4pm on Sat 2nd June.

At the Marriage as Mission Afternoon Tea you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn about Pope Francis’ vision for the accompaniment of married couples
• Contribute your ideas about how we as a Church can better promote and support marriage
• Hear about ways to get involved in ministries already supporting marriages in this Archdiocese
• Network with and feel supported by other Catholic couples from across the Archdiocese

It is fine if only one member of a couple can attend.  There is no charge for the event but a donation of $10 per couple on the day would be appreciated to help with catering. Register at http://bit.ly/marriageasmission or click the graphic below. Enquiries contact Lara Kirk on 0429 192 869 or at lara.kirk@cg.org.au

With blessings,

Mrs Janet Cartwright

Principal

janet.cartwright@cg.catholic.edu.au

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1 Miima Reflection Day

1 Miima, Mrs Maher and Mrs Maxwell had a very prayerful and reflective day down at Dickson Hall on Wednesday. The students spent the day exploring a wide range of ways we can prayer. They were very creative and very reverent in all experiences. The closing liturgy, using the labyrinth, truly allowed the students to engage fully in prayer.

Stage 3 M Class Mass

On Wednesday Stage 3 M celebrated their class mass. It was wonderful to see so many family members join us in the celebration of how the Holy spirit works through us. I have received many comments about how wonderfully the students sung and truly engaged in the Eucharist.

Saturday Night Mass

This weekend our Stage 3 students will be leading the ministries of the Mass. We would like to invite all community member to join us this Saturday night 5:00pm.

CatholicLife Talks

Next week all secondary students will be receiving a letter and payment envelop in regards to the Y7 -10 Catholic Life talks that will be taking place in Week 8. Choices Decision Outcomes, (CDO) is an innovative value based education program encouraging adolescents to make healthy lifestyle choices regarding sexuality. Please read the attached information and return the permission slip and payment envelop to school by the due date.

Yours in Faith

• Small Schools Rugby League.pdf
• Stage 3 Mass.pdf
• Literacy Family Fun Night.pdf
• Canberra Goulburn Soccer carnival.pdf
• Sacred Heart Community Snow Trip.pdf - Payment due 29th June
• Year 10 Wagga Wagga Mental Health Forum.pdf
• Year 10 School Jumper and Info.pdf

Also a reminder to parents when sending in payments for excursions etc please do not pay by cheque. Payments can be made by direct debit, eftpos or cash.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Well done to everyone who competed in the Athletics Carnival Last Friday. It was a beautiful day out in the sun.

Champion House:  Mercy   1 761

                              De La sale 1 728

                              O’Shaunghessy   1 306

Age Champion

Congratulations to Mattese Clark on setting a new record in the 400 m: 1:09.86 

Congratulations to the following students who have now qualified to compete at the CCC Cross Country in Sydney later in the term.

Will English

Victoria Clancy

Claudia McLeod

Well done to the Mortimer Shield League team and the Tag League team Red. Both these teams have qualified for the next level of Mortimer Shield to be held in Wagga Wagga next term.

Wonderful and exciting news of Sasha Louttit in being selected for the MacKillop Girls Touch team to compete at the State Titles. Wonderful work Sasha.

All the best to the secondary girls tag league team heading to Wagga tomorrow to compete in the finals of this competition. Also good luck to the secondary 13s and 16 Small school Rugby League teams who are heading to Tumut next Tuesday.

Primary Dates:

TERM 2

Young Soccer Carnival 15^th June- Young NEW DATE

Secondary Dates:

TERM 2

Final of Girls Tag League 1^st June - Wagga Wagga

Small Schools Rugby League 5^th June - Tumut

Secondary Soccer Carnival 8^th June - Dickson ACT

CCC Touch Championships 20^th June - Penrith