Term 3 Week 4 2024
St. Clare Prayer Feast Day: August 11
Good and gracious God,
throughout history you gave us holy men and
women who by their ministry calls your
followers to a more virtuous way of life.
Today we thank you for St. Clare of Assisi,
and for her life of service to all of creation.
May we be inspired by her example of simplicity, humility,
and love as we live out our lives in both word and deed.
May we like, Clare, entrust ourselves to the Lord,
and to the care of the poor, sick, and dying.
May we always reveal your healing presence to those we are privileged to serve.
And when our earthly pilgrimage is complete,
may we join you and all your saints in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Amen
St. Clare, Pray for us!
From the Principal
Dear families and friends of St Anthony’s,
This week is Catholic Education Week where we celebrate all of the great aspects of Catholic education in Tasmania, from its past through to the present day. We acknowledge those amazing people that have come before us to not only establish our schools but the wonderful spirituality that imbues our schools through each one’s unique charism. At St Anthony’s over the last week, we have celebrated a key contributor to our charism - St Clare of Assisi. Officially her feast day is 11th August each year but we celebrated with a liturgy last Wednesday led by our Grade 3/4 team. We heard how Clare had heard the call of God through St Francis. Both Francis and Clare kept their eyes focused on God and discerned how to live the Gospel. Together with her sisters, she wrote the first Rule written for religious women by a woman; she modelled the ability for the authority or power of a group to be held by the entire group (collegiality). She also served the sick and washed the feet of the begging nuns and withdrew herself from the world to give herself wholly to the Lord.
On Thursday last week we also recognised Australia’s first saint - St Mary of the Cross MacKillop on her feast day and her story is widely known and celebrated across Australia.
This week we have celebrated the Assumption of Mary with a whole school prayer service this morning and our Grade 6’s attended Mass with other students from Launceston Catholic Schools yesterday. We were also blessed to have a visit from His Grace, Archbishop Julian Porteous who spoke to our Grade 6 students and visited some of our Sacramental students in Grade 3/4 M.
Somehow, amongst all of that we have also participated in Science Week activities including excursions and a whole day of activities at school. And, of course, there has been lots of learning happening alongside all of those activities. If you haven’t had a chance to see the report and photos on FaceBook from yesterday's activities, I would encourage you to do so. Thank you to Ms Goldie Byrne for that post and for all of the other ones throughout the year! Thank you also to our staff and to Mrs Emma Marshall in particular for the preparation and delivery of all of these wonderful activities.
Sincerely,
Jason Perry
Principal
Tree Planting 2024
St Anthony’s were lucky enough to team up with Sustainable Timber Tasmania and plant a variety of new trees in our bush play area. Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s foresters helped our students plant their seedlings and encouraged them to learn about Tasmanian forests by sharing their knowledge and stories. Thank you so much to Mitch, Lachlan, Daniel and Hannah for visiting our school and contributing to our Franscican way. Also thank you to our superstar Nicko Roberts for preparing the space and helping us plant our new trees.
Grade 1 & 2 Z00 excursion
On Monday the 12th of August, Grade 1 and 2 went to the Tasmania Zoo as part of Science Week. We arrived at the zoo at 10 am. We saw monkeys, meerkats and a lot of colourful and interesting birds. The common wombats were walking around their pen.
We then went and ate our recess while watching the meerkats wrestle and play. There was one guarding the mob of meerkats. Brendan fed the meerkats mealworms and told us all about them.
We went for a walk to see the cheetahs but they were sleeping. Near them were emus and llamas.
We watched the Tasmanian Devils being fed and learned about them and watched them fight over the food.
The lions were sleeping but we learned that they were brothers and they were 17 years old!
The giraffes were next, Hunter was the largest and greediest, JoJo was younger and smaller and finally Tallbert was the tallest but shy. The Keeper showed us how long the giraffe's tongue was. It was slobbery and LONG!
The fairy penguins jumped out of the bush and then they were diving into the water. They looked like they were showing off.
It was a brilliant excursion and we had heaps of fun!
National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence
Friday 16 August is National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative for schools. This day encourages whole-school communities to work together to prevent and address bullying. In order to do this, it is important to understand:
- what bullying is,
- how to talk to children about bullying,
- how to prevent bullying
This website includes some helpful information and resources
https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/resources
Understanding the definition of bullying is the first step in preventing and responding to bullying. 'Bullying' is a word that is used for behaviours that are not actually bullying. These other behaviours can be just as serious but may require different responses. The national definition of bullying for Australian schools is
“Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening. Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records). Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.”
Behaviours that do not constitute bullying include:
- mutual arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
- not liking someone or a single act of social rejection
- one-off acts of meanness or spite
- isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.
However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved.
Open communication with children to gain their trust is important and it is advisable to avoid using the words "bully" and "victim" as it can be harmful. An important point is that bullying can happen to anyone and it is never okay and that they can seek assistance from a trusted adult.
Acknowledgement of Country poster competition 2024
Congratulations to Addison, Stella, Maddison and Miette who have created and entered their own Acknowledgement of Country poster for the 2024 ABC Education competition. The girls researched and created their own design. Stay tuned for any updates later in the year.
The task: Create a poster featuring an Acknowledgement of Country written in the Indigenous language of your local area!
Thank you to Bianca Templar for translating into palawa kani.
St Anthony's Catholic School krakani-ta milythina-ta tayarinutipana, panina, litarimirina luna waypa Stoney Creek Nation. Nina ngamala luwa minaya kanamaluka, plipatumili, laykila. Waranta kanaplila palawa nara-mapali-tu milythina muka. Waranata kanaplila ningimpi nungampi.
