From the APRE desk
What a wonderful week of celebrations for Catholic Education Week!
We began our week with our whole school Mass led by Xavier house. Father Michael always finds a way to make Mass engaging and meaningful. This time, we were flying paper areoplanes! How is that relevant? Well, this plane came back to you after you threw it just like Faith, Hope and Love. In our communities, when we show Faith, Hope and Love it will come back to you. That's what being in a community is all about; sharing our Faith, Hope and love. We also learnt more about Francis Xavier and the quality he showed in his words and actions. Thankyou to those members of Xavier who took on active role during Mass, Ciarah, Claire & Mia, Thomas, Hugh, Brooklyn, Ailey, Heidi, Aya, Alessandra, Kenn, Harry, Indi, Chelsea, Maddie, Charlotte, Novah, Zelie, We also began our Catholic Education week celebrations. Lots of photos are have been posted on our socials so take a look when you get a chance!
On Tuesday, we were very fortunate to have Andrew Chinn with us for the day. He is an amazing talent and he very ably presented extremely engaging songs and music for us all to enjoy. Each class spent time with him singing, laughing, listening, learning and celebrating the Spirit of Jesus through Music. Again, many videos of the day are on our socials. Definitely worth a look!
The choir worked with Andrew before they led our whole school concert. It was such a fun day and a wonderful experience for all the children! All of Andrew’s songs can be accessed via Spotify or his Youtube channel. Take a listen and you’ll have those tunes in your heads for some time!
On Friday, during the Student free day, our staff will attend the Bishop’s Inservice Day at St Mary’s College. It is an opportunity for us to meet with our colleague’s across the Toowoomba schools, meet the new Bishop of our Diocese, Ken Howell, listen to guest speaker, Associate Professor Maeve Heaney who is a senior lecturer in the faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Australian Catholic University and celebrate Mass together. It is an enriching Spiritual day which reaffirmes our passion for teaching in Catholic Education.
Lily Priest (Prep T) you are a star! We wanted to acknowledge the most heart warming gesture from one of our Prep students in Prep T, Lily Priest. Lily had been requesting for months to cut her hair but her Mum wans’t so sure! My heart broke at the idea of those long locks being gone!” Lily asked again before the holidays and informed both her parents that she wanted to cut it off and give it to kids with no hair because she had so much.
Jessica & Mitchell (Lily’s parents) set-up a fundraising page through Kids with Cancer - https://fundraise.kidswithcancer.org.au/fundraisers/lilypriest
On the 1st July, Lily donated 28cm of hair to Wigs4Kids Australia / Kids with Cancer Foundation for wigs to be made out of her hair. “We're so proud of Lily and the fact she requested to donate her hair to kids in need and has already said she wants to grow her hair long and do it again,” commented Jessica.
Wow Lily! You should be so proud of yourself! You are showing the values here at SSPS – Compasssion, Commitment and Service towards others in need. Your family should be super proud of the wonderful person you are!
Thankyou to our students for their enthusiasm this week. It is our privilege to walk alongside them at SSPS.
Have a great week and thanks for reading!
Ann-Maree
