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Wednesday of the
Fourth Week of Lent
March 25: Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
Readings: Luke 1:26-38
Reflection: To say that Mary holds a special place in the heart of God and the Church would be an understatement. She is given the title Mother of God and Mother of the Church. There are over 400+ Marian Feast Days celebrated in different regions all over the world, with 18 celebrated on the Universal Calendar. The Church has taught since its foundation that Marian devotion is essential to the Catholic Faith.
What is it that makes Mary so essential? In the Gospel of Luke 11:27-28 a woman from the crowd of followers shouts out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” There can be no question of whom the woman in the crowd is referring to, the mother of Jesus himself. At first glance Jesus’ response can seem counter intuitive to Marian devotion, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and Keep it!”, but if we take into consideration what He is really saying we find that it not only affirms Marian devotion, but raises it even higher. Jesus points out that the ones who hear the word of God and do it are the ones who are truly blessed, when the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, he presents her with a proposal from God: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Mary had the option then and there on how to respond, she was free to choose to say “Yes” to God’s will, reversing Eve’s “No”. Mary said in reply, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.” We see in this Gospel passage the fulfillment of Jesus’ words; for while she is indeed blessed for bearing God within her womb and nursing him, she is even more blessed for her “Yes” to God’s will that brought Jesus to us in the first place.
Jesus’ words were not only in context to Mary, however. Each of us is called to model ourselves after Mary’s “Yes” to God’s will. Let us all look to the example of our Blessed Mother on this special feast of the Annunciation, that we may say “Yes” to God as she did, for only then will we be truly blessed.
Prayer: Lord, help us to say yes to your will for us with our entire lives, just as your Blessed Mother did.
COVID-19
At this stage, teachers are continuing to provide learning opportunities online for students in their class. The past week has been a monumental learning curve for most teachers who previously had no reason to learn Google Classroom. In a week, they have learnt the technical side of the platform as well as locating suitable resources to upload. Over the next two weeks, teacher knowledge and skills will continue to be developed to improve how they present the material and providing feedback to students. As mentioned previously, this is a work in progress and the expectation is that the next few weeks will be trialling and refining the activities. Once again, I ask that parents please be patient as we develop more tools and protocols around this new way of learning.
For all information and updates from the diocese, please go to: www.dow.catholic.edu.au/covid19
Physical & Hands-On Activities
I have asked teachers to include in their weekly timetables, opportunities for physical and hands-on activities. Children cannot, and should not, be sitting in front of a screen for long periods of time. Regular breaks are essential as well as non-screen time. This types of activities may include helping with cooking, cleaning, science experiments, measurement, outdoor PE skills, percussion skills, etc. While we cannot strictly enforce these types of activities, we include them to try to support parents and ask students to provide feedback on what they have achieved.
Online Teacher Communication
Part of the developing role for online teaching is provision for students to ask their teachers questions if they are unsure about what they need to do. In some instances, parents / carers may be able to assist with this but the invitation is there for sending emails to ask questions. While teachers may not get to answer the inevitable questions like “How are you”, they will follow up with support where needed. This will also be addressed in the online protocols being developed.
Thank You!
On behalf of all the staff, I wish to thank parents for the many positive comments, emails, phone calls, (and some special treats). It’s always nice in any position to have your work and commitment acknowledged and appreciated. While this situation is definitely not what we want as teachers, we just have to make the most of it as best we can.
Kinder - SeeSaw
Cyber Safety
This week I just wish to highlight the importance of knowing what your children are accessing while completing online learning. Teachers are encouraging students to use safe sites such as World Book Online when researching (Username & Password are both: st2500) but parents need to be aware of their filters and regularly check the browser history.
Principal’s Awards
Alyssa Semaan – 5B
Congratulations!
Birthdays
25 March to 1 April
Happy Birthday to:
To all those children celebrating their birthday this week. Unfortunately, we were unable to extract the students individually. These will be put into next week’s newsletter.
St Therese School Facebook Page
www.facebook.com/westwollongong.sttherese
School Vision Statement
“St Therese Primary School – a dynamic, Catholic community
educating and empowering learners for life’s journey.”
PARISH
St Therese, West Wollongong
Weekend Mass Times:
No parish Masses until further notice
WORLDS GREATEST SHAVE
Hi, my name is Marcus Henriques-Thakur, I am an ex student of St Therese now attending Edmund Rice College. My sisiter Sara is a current student at St Therese and in Year 5.
I'm taking part in World's Greatest Shave! Please give what you can to support me and help beat blood cancer. Please donate to the attached link below.
PB4L
Dismissal from School Procedure
PB4L
Dismissal from School Procedure
- Walk in an orderly fashion, directly to the designated area they will leave the school from.
- Follow all instructions given by the teacher.
- All toys, bottles and food to be kept in school bags.
Hello to all the St Therese West Wollongong family and community,
As the world around us continues to change the educators of ST Therese OOSH wanted to help support the children in understanding the importance of hand washing in a fun and interesting way by doing a little science experiment called pepper germs. This is a great way for children to visualise the benefits of your hands washing hands with Soap. If you would like to try the experiment as a family at home just click the link here. We had a great time doing this experiment I know you will too.
If you would Like to enrol your child/ren into OOSH for Before school and after school, please click the link below to start the process.
If you have any questions, please drop in our Coordinator Nicole is here till 9:30am and from 2:30pm to answer any questions.
And don't forget, if you see any of our team around give us a wave and come say hello.
Thank you from all of us at St Therese OOSH.
Dear Families,
Calendar Dates 2020
April 2020
2 - Responsible Pet Education Program K - 2
5 - Day light Savings Ends
8 - 9.30am Holy Week Liturgy - CANCELLED
9 - 11.30am End of Term 1 Assembly - CANCELLED
End of Term 1
Holy Thursday
10 - Good Friday
11 - Easter Saturday
12 - Easter Sunday
13 - Easter Monday
25 - ANZAC Day
27 - Term 2 Commences
Students return
Anzac Day Prayer - in classrooms
May 2020
2 - Bunnings BBQ - CANCELLED
6 - Da Vinci Decatholon - CANCELLED
Year 6 Camp - CANCELLED
8 - 9.30am Mass
21 - School Photos - WINTER UNIFORM
26 - National Sorry Day