News from our Parish schools Apr 19, 2024

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Siena Catholic Primary School

This year Siena Primary is partnering with The Resilience Project to support student wellbeing and mental health.
The Resilience Project delivers emotionally engaging programs to schools, sports clubs and businesses, providing practical, evidence-based mental health strategies to build resilience and happiness. Through presentations, school curriculum and proven strategies the project will instil the qualities of Gratitude,
Empathy and Mindfulness, and easy ways to practise these in everyday life. also incorporate Emotional Literacy to support children to know and use language to support their well-being.
We call it our GEMs – and try to be Grateful, show Empathy and practice Mindfulness.
Some of the practices include the children sharing at the end of the day one thing they are grateful for. Practicing being grateful each day forms a habit to look for the positiveness in life and be thankful for those gifts. In the picture below, is the Year 3P Gratitude tree. On the leaves are things, people, and experiences that they are grateful to have in their lives. The title for the tree is: Within the feeling of GRATITUDE is the seed of kindness!

Stella Maris Primary School

Our school community finished Term 1 with a special liturgical service to reflect and pray on the events and lessons of Holy Week. Every year level took on a particular part of the story to lead and did so through drama, music and dance. Our Preps started us off, waving palm branches and singing ‘Hosanna!’ before listening to the story of Palm Sunday. Year 3 helped us to reflect on the Last Supper before Year 2 modelled the ‘Washing of the Feet’ as we sang a song about Jesus calling us to service. Year 4 used liturgical dance to assist us to focus on how Jesus must have been feeling on Holy Thursday evening in the Garden of Gethsemane, while Year 5 took us through the sombre events of Good Friday with a dramatic procession of the cross. How lucky are we that we know the story doesn’t end there! Year 1 and Year 6 helped us to focus on the gift of hope that comes from Jesus’ Resurrection.

We continued the story this week, reflecting on the Emmaus story from the Gospel of Luke. As we journey together through this term, we pray that we may all see the risen Christ in the people and moments of each day.

Siena Catholic College

This week we welcomed our community back from their Easter break. Many thanks to the staff and students who assisted with Easter liturgies throughout the Parish. Special thanks to those who assisted with the Good Friday Stations of the Cross at St Catherine’s and to the students who attended the Alpha Spheres Retreat with our NET team.

Despite being just a four-day week this week, we have managed to fit in a wide variety of events. On Tuesday, our Year 11 students completed a Worthy Siena Men and Women session, while our Division 1 Netball team retained the J.U.S.T Cup, remaining undefeated this round-robin challenge against the other Sunshine Coast Catholic Schools. On Wednesday, the Year 10 students listened to a valuable presentation from Real Talk, which explored topics of personal identity and relationships, while the evening saw the start of what we hope will be a very successful Rugby season. On Thursday, members of the College Leadership Team and our College Captains attended Fr Marty’s funeral in Brisbane, while the afternoon was given to the annual Cross Country carnival. Finally, Friday, saw us participating in an early ANZAC day commemoration. Our Year 12 students will be on their Retreat next week – please keep them in your prayers.

If this week is a guide, it looks like it’s going to be a busy Term Two!