Dear Parents and Carers,

Today we celebrated Ash Wednesday. The journey to becoming fully alive begins with Ash Wednesday. As we journey through Lent with its forty days, we intend to become more and more awake, more and more conscious, more and more alive. Our hope is to be as fully present as we can be for the feast of Easter.

During this season of Lent new life is waking from its winter death, the sun’s strength returns, and the natural world begins to vibrate more and more. An introduction to new life emerges.

Traditionally, the time of Lent is a time for praying more and has a tone of somberness. Giving up something for Lent as a spiritual discipline has been practiced for centuries. When many of us were children, we might remember giving up lollies for Lent. And it seemed like a real sacrifice. As we grew up, it was often more difficult to decide what thing to give up, to make Lent a special season - to get our attention and to prepare ourselves for deeper sacrifices.

When I reflect on this, I wonder if the giving up became the focus rather than the intention of becoming more alive. Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and to deepen our commitment to a way of life, rooted in our baptism. In our busy world, Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our patterns, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we’ve done and failed to do, and to be generous to those in need.

And so, we are led, in Lent, to, the place of transition, of waiting, and of not knowing. To help us in our experience of space and time we must use symbol, story and metaphor, poetry, prose and song, as tools and vehicles on the journey toward a deepening relationship with God and others. We use symbols to make things more meaningful, to communicate or represent something below the surface. In other words, symbols help us to remember and understand. The word “symbol” comes from two Greek words that mean, "to throw together," thus binding together an abstraction and an illustration and directing our thinking.

On Ash Wednesday in the Christian tradition, as our foreheads are marked with ash, we hear the words spoken: Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. The symbol of the ashes reminds us of the reality of death and is intended to help us to enter a time of self-examination, confession and penitence. As we search and begin to look at who we are “warts” and all, we must enter into death. We must die to the person we think we are, that we pretend to be, that we wish we were, the masks we present to the world. Through this death we can come to new life and enter more fully into deep relationship with God and our neighbour.

Rachel Smith

Principal (Acting)

Principal’s Notes

COVID-19 Update

Thank you for continuing to monitor and test for COVID. We are continuing with our COVID safe practices within the school and have luckily had very few cases to date. Please remember to keep your child/ren home if they display any symptoms. We will continue to inform the community of cases as they arise. As announced by the ACT Government recently, the Rapid Antigen Tests will continue to be supplied to schools for distribution until the end of Week 8.

DONUT and Pick Up Arrangements

Thank you to those parents who are following our Donut and pick up procedures. Just a reminder to keep traffic flowing and to avoid the blocking of Heidelberg Street the students must be able to get themselves in the car. If your child requires help getting in or out of the car or you have child lock on your car door, please park your car in the carpark and assist your child to get in and out of the car and across the road. Thank you for your support in our endeavour to keep traffic flowing.

Who’s At The Front Door?

Most of us would expect visitors to our home to let us know they were there. It is even more important here that we know at any given time who is in the school. For that reason, ALL visitors are expected to sign in at the front office before going to the classroom and sign out again when leaving. The extra few minutes it takes you, helps us to ensure the safety of each child. Parents and Carers dropping off or picking up students after school do not need to sign in at the front office. If at this time you intend on staying on the school grounds longer than 10 minutes, you MUST sign in using the Canberra App.

I thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Sunsmart

You are no doubt aware of our “no hat, no play” policy which is in place for most of the year. We also take other measures to ensure our school is SunSmart:

• Children eat (recess and lunch) under shelter
• Outdoor assemblies are under shelter
• Children are encouraged to bring and use sunscreen (we cannot provide it for all, as some children are allergic to specific products)
• Sporting activities are moved to cooler parts of the day when extremely hot
• Children are allowed to wear sunglasses at school
• Playground equipment is covered and inside areas are provided for use during lunch time

Dates for 2022