7 June 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them. The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose.

1 Corinthians 12:3 - 7

Pentecost

Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on. The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now.

Henri Nouwen

Dear Parents and Guardians

This weekend we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, where the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell within us, marking the beginning of the Catholic Church. On Sunday, we heard a lovely reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians that always reminds me of a beautiful hymn by Marty Haugen entitled, “We are Many Parts.”

The opening lines from the refrain of this hymn, “We are many parts, we are all one body.

And the gifts we have we are given to share,” in many ways is a metaphor for who we are as a Catholic Community. It demonstrates how we have all been uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit to continue to be a witness to Christ in our world.

Pentecost also serves to remind us that we are not alone in our search for meaning. At St Cuthbert’s our students participate in a program called the “Spirit of Jesus.” The “Spirit of Jesus” program is based around the premise that the Spirit of Christ is ever present in our lives. We just need to be switched on and receptive. In a recent reflection on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis puts it more succinctly:

This is why we must ask the Lord to gift us the Holy Spirit and the gift of wisdom that teaches us to see with God's eyes, to feel with God's heart to speak with God's words!

Quiz Night

A big thank you to our Parents and Friends Association for organizing a fantastic Quiz Night last Saturday. It was wonderful to see so many members of our community in attendance. On behalf of the school community I would particularly like to thank Rebecca Balzer and her executive for their hard work ensuring that we all had such an enjoyable evening. We would especially like to thank Mr. Chris Topham for doing such great job as emcee and Mr. Oliver Balzer for being our quiz master on the evening.

Southern Cross Country

A reminder to parents that our Cross Country Team will be competing in the Southern Tasmanian Catholic Primary School’s Cross Country Carnival on Friday, June 9 at the Rokeby Police Academy. Races commence at 10.40am. Parents and Guardians are most welcome to attend.

Races are as follows:

Federal Funding Update

I have included for your information an update on the Federal Funding situation from the Director of Catholic Education, Mr. John Mula.

Earlier this week the Federal Government’s school funding plan passed the Lower House. It now heads to the Senate where an inquiry will be held into the changes before a vote in the Senate is expected late next month. The National Catholic Education Commission has made a submission to the Senate inquiry and the Tasmanian Catholic Education Commission is also considering making a submission that is focused purely on Tasmanian issues.

Our issues continue to be:

Our ability to operate, to be funded, and to distribute schools funding on the basis of need as proposed by the Gonski Review and our Catholic principles of co-responsibility and the common good.

To challenge the view that a 10-year funding deal being promoted as providing funding ‘certainty’ is far from certainty. The reality is they are assuming that the costs associated with education will not change over the ten year period and in fact that the very nature of schooling won’t change over the next ten years. Reflections on how education has changed in the last ten years would suggest that this is an ill-informed assumption.

The proposal to change the way in which Students with a Disability are assessed and therefore receive additional funding. If the Government’s change was applied to this year’s funding of Students with a Disability, it would mean in 2018 a $1.8million decrease across our 38 schools for support of students requiring additional support.

Despite these concerns we will continue to be operate as a ‘system’ that is welcoming and accessible to all families seeking a Catholic education. We remain committed to ensuring that our schools remain a low fee, inclusive option for parents.

Marcus Donnelly
Principal
St Cuthbert’s Catholic School

Uniform Shop

Please note the Uniform Shop hours for Term Two are Tuesdays from 8.45am-9.30am. If you are unable to come at this time, you can leave orders at the Office and they will be filled when the shop is open, and sent home that afternoon. Any exchanges/refunds will also be processed during shop hours.

Please note that the new sports leggings are only to be worn with the sports uniform.

Please find attached updated price list.

Scholastic Book Club

LOOP SYSTEM TO ORDER AND PAY

Orders due Wednesday 21st June 2017

Please note - NO CASH. You order and pay using the scholastic on-line system 'LOOP". It is easy to use. When you go to 'parent payments' at the scholastic website and choose 'St. Cuthberts', you will be directed into the LOOP system where you complete your order and payment via credit card on-line. There is no need to send any paper work to school. Your child will receive their order at school as usual.

Important Dates

National Consistent Collection of Data Information – School Students with Disability

Information for parents and carers