Staff Development Days 

A friendly final reminder to advise the following dates that have been set aside as Staff Professional Learning Days. Thank you for making alternative arrangements for your child/ren on these days.

Term Three

• Monday 26 August 2024 
• Friday 13th September - Staff Spirituality Day. 

Term Four

• Monday 14th October (revised date). 
• Thursday 19th December and Friday 20th December 2024.

Fathers Day Stalls

Next week, on Tuesday and Friday our students will have the opportunity to take home gifts for the special men in their lives. Stalls are generously provided by the Parents & Friends Association.

We are extremely grateful to the P & F who continue to support community building initiatives such as this that provide our students with the opportunity to remember and celebrate these special men, fathers, grandfathers, uncles and stepfathers.

This celebration gives us reason to pause, to pray for, and to reflect on the Fathers’ we honour. On this Fathers' Day, we celebrate, congratulate, and pray for the men who continue to reflect the Divine qualities of fatherhood as they lovingly establish, nourish, and maintain their families. Fathers are a blessing, and we thank them for blessing us with lives of dedication, endurance, and love.

Every father is a work in progress and each father is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all pattern for fatherhood. Fathers-to-be, have often developed a clear sense of the kind of parent they intend to become. They know, at least, what kind of parent they don’t want to be. But the first days after a child’s birth, these thoughts are challenged by the realisation that fatherhood is a real-life role that is influenced daily by the unexpected.  A new father, in a sense, embarks on a pilgrimage of sorts. As the child grows older, a father is repeatedly challenged to understand, support and always love his child, who, it turns out, is nothing less than the complex web of humanity that all of us are.

The pilgrimage into fatherhood has one big starting point followed by a thousand new starting points along the way. The journey is long. Over time a father finds himself tugged at and urged along both in welcome and unwelcome ways. The journey into fatherhood challenges a man to grow and change in ways he could not imagine on the day of his first child’s birth. Slowly, life transforms for parents ~ fathers and mothers.

A father’s pilgrimage is a vocation, calling him to discover each child as a unique individual and to nurture that. But he discovers something else too. Little by little, astonishingly, he discovers himself along the way ~ someone whose hidden gifts have been unearthed by his children.

We remember and gratefully keep in our prayers all the Our Lady Help of Christians fathers and father figures as they continue their daily pilgrimage. We also remember those fathers who are now enjoying their eternal reward in heaven. May they rest in peace.

The following reflection, inspired by Kirk Loadman captures the many and varied men who may carry the title of father, all of whom we celebrate and give thanks for this next Sunday.

"Let us praise those fathers who strive to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice.

Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, worked hard to become a good father figure for their own children.

Let us praise those fathers who by their own account were not always there for their children, but who continue to offer those children, now grown, their love and support.

Let us pray for those fathers who have been wounded by the neglect and hostility of their children.

Let us praise those fathers who, despite broken relationships, have remained in their children's lives.

Let us praise those fathers whose children are adopted, and whose love and support has offered healing.

Let us praise those fathers who, as stepfathers, freely choose the obligation of fatherhood and have earned their stepchildren's love and respect.

Let us praise those fathers who have lost a child to death and continue to hold the child in their heart.

Let us praise those men who have no children but who cherish the next generation as if they were their own.

Let us praise those men who have 'fathered' us in their role as mentors and guides.

Let us praise those men who are about to become fathers; may they openly delight in their children.

And let us praise those fathers who have died but live on in our memory and whose love continues to nurture us."

Let us use Fathers' Day to let the special men in our lives know the unique place they have in our lives and the valuable influence they have on us.

Enjoy the week ahead and most especially to all those in our community who hold the title ‘Father’ - Wishing all our fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and special male role models a Happy Fathers' Day for next weekend!

Jane Webb 

PRINCIPAL