Yesterday morning the Year 4 class led us through a very prayerful and reverent liturgy celebrating the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, the patroness of Australia. They did a wonderful job in helping us to reflect on this important day and the special part Mary plays in our lives.

This afternoon, our students from Year 1 to 5 formed groups to participate in the Peer Support program. Led by our wonderful Year 6 students, the children began getting to know each other and learn about how to develop friendships and how be a good friend. Peer Support sessions will run each fortnight after lunch on a Thursday.

The Kindy students treated their mothers and grandmothers to a lovely Morning Tea yesterday morning. The Kindy students performed two songs and handed out their cards and cupcakes that were made. What a lovely way to start the morning!

I do wish all mothers, grandmothers and significant women in the lives of our children a wonderful day on Sunday – I hope your children spoil you and you get time to yourselves, special treats and do not have to do any chores! Thank you for all that you do!

The children have settled well into their first full week of school. It has been great to see the way they are engaging with their learning and collaborating so positively with one another. Later next week, the Year 6 students will begin their Peer Support training. This program allows our Year 6 students to not only develop leadership skills but also run sessions with the Year 1 to 5 students about how to build and maintain healthy friendships, to be inclusive and explore the skills and attitudes necessary to maintain friendships and positively interact with others.

Welcome back to Term Two! I hope all families had a wonderful Easter period and were able to spend some time together and reflect on the true meaning of Easter and then enjoying the holidays also. It was really wonderful to see the children arrive at school yesterday morning with smiles on their faces and lots of stories to share. We welcome a new family to our school – the Mercer family (Aylah in Year 4 and Zai in Year 2). I am sure our Tommy More community will make them feel very welcome.

This morning, the Year 5 students led us through a very reverent Mass celebrating the Last Supper and when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Fr Mat re-enacted this by washing 12 of the student’s feet. The children were asked to remember the importance of the upcoming Easter celebrations and the sacrifice Jesus made for us.

What a fantastic day we had on Tuesday at our Faction Athletics Carnival. The sportsmanship, friendly competition and determination demonstrated by the students was something I was very proud of. I would like to offer a HUGE thank you to all the parents, grandparents and family members who came along and helped with the judging, marshalling, scoring, cooking sausages, selling of cakes, baking of cakes/slices and just cheering on the students. I think that without the help and support of our parents, days like this couldn’t happen. Please however, be mindful of posting other students on social media from this day. I encourage parents to only post photos of their own child.

Congratulations to the students from Year 3 who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Tuesday night. It was wonderful to see the way the students turned back to God and thought about the times they hadn’t made good choices and how they could change their lives. Thank you to Mrs Rowe for her work in the careful preparation of the students and assistance in organising the Sacrament. Also, a big thank you to Father Mat for his work in organising the celebration.

Clubs kicked off today with our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students participating in a range of different activities, including Surfing, Skateboarding, Gardening, Cooking, Dancing, Mountain Biking, Knitting and Bushwalking. Unfortunately many of the programs couldn’t run as planned due to the rain, but the students still had a wonderful time learning about the different clubs they had chosen and are looking forward to the next three weeks where they get to continue with these activities.

I hope all families had a wonderful Long Weekend and were able to enjoy some time together as a family. On Tuesday, the staff gathered together to participate in some Wellness activities, which allowed time for meditation, self-reflection, connection with nature and taking time to come together as a staff. We believe providing time for staff to develop their own well-being assists them in becoming even better educators for your children.