Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi. This translates literally to ‘the Body of Christ’ and is one of the feasts that helps us to recognise the physical presence of God in our world and His connection to each of us through the church. This celebration recognises specifically a belief that is central to Catholic teaching. The idea that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist and gives Himself fully to us. This is called the ‘Real Presence’ where we believe that during the Consecration at Mass, the bread and wine is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ which we receive in Holy Communion. This gift enables us to receive Jesus physically and spiritually into our lives and is one of the greatest gifts that can be shared with us. In only the past few decades, this celebration, even in Australia, was often accompanied by a procession through the streets where Catholics publicly gathered and voiced their belief and celebration. Whilst this has become less explicit (and practically impossible during COVID-19), we might ask ourselves how we publicly acknowledge our belief in Jesus Christ and how we live it in our day to day lives. This gift is one that is available to all but often not accepted. With the feast of Corpus Christi, let us live this gift by sharing it with others.

Our teachers are currently completing academic reports on each of our students in Years 7 – 10. The reports that you will receive for the end of Semester 1 will look very different from those up until now. These reports contain the same information as previously however will contain far more detail on how your child is performing in their Contribution to Learning, Interpersonal Skills and Organisation and Assessment. Each subject report will also list some things that your child has done well and an area in which they might improve. These reports will enable you to have far more specific discussions with your child to assist them with improvement. For the first time, these reports will be released electronically so that you are able to download and keep them or access them in the future via the Compass portal. As this is the first release of these reports, we will review them toward the start of Term 3 to fine tune them for the end of the year. I am happy to accept any feedback on these you may wish to offer.

In terms of these reports, I ask parents and students to understand that the information and interaction that teachers are using to decide their grades, outcomes and statements has been impacted by the remote learning period. If your child has not fully engaged in lessons whilst they were at home, or their submission of work since then has been limited, this will make the detailed evaluation by teachers difficult. Our teachers have been working very hard to help students catch up work and ascertain what the students have learned, however, six weeks away from face to face teaching will limit these judgements. Please use the data from these reports as a point of discussion rather than an end in themselves. Once again I would like to publicly thank the staff for all their hard work and professionalism over the past few months.

Following the release of the reports, we have decided to continue with our scheduled Year 7 – 10  Parent / Teacher / Student meetings at the end of this term. These meetings will occur via Zoom or phone call. We ran this format for the recent Year 11 PTS meetings and the feedback was very positive. Whilst face to face meetings are certainly the preference, I look forward to parents having the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress in some format. More details on this process and booking meetings will be delivered over the next few days.

Next week our Year 12 leaders will be meeting with Bishop Brian Mascord. In the past, the Bishop has met with all Year 12 students, however, this has had to be reduced this year. The students will be given an opportunity to discuss important issues with him around their schooling and their broader interests. We hope to have a report on this in the next newsletter.

Whilst public masses have been resumed over the last few weeks, they have restricted numbers. Bishop Brian Mascord has continued the YouTube channel where the faithful can watch him celebrate mass with us, and on our behalf. The link to this mass is here. Please log into this site each weekend and join Bishop Brian online for the celebration of the Eucharist.

Mr Steve Lo Cascio