Welcome back to another term and the second half of the year. The second part of that sentence sounds quite scary! I hope that everyone had the chance to have some time with their children over the holiday break. A warm welcome also to the students and families who are new to our community.

A special welcome to Mrs Elissa Wenzel, who has been appointed as full time classroom teacher in Year 3 Brolgas. Elissa is a very welcome addition to our teaching staff. The Year 3 Brolgas students have been very welcoming to their new teacher.

On Friday, we celebrated the Feast Day of St. Benedict’s, a revered figure in the history of Christianity. St. Benedict, known as the founder of Western monasticism, was born in Nursia, Italy in the 6 th Century. His set of guidelines that he established for communal living and prayer, has had a lasting impact on the religious communities around the world.

St. Benedict’s feast day is an opportunity for us to reflect on his teachings and virtues. St. Benedict sought to create a harmonious and disciplined way of life for his followers, based around prayer and service to others.

As a school community, a set of four values embedded in Benedictine spirituality have been designed to guide all our relationships, policies, learning and activities that take place at St Benedict’s. These values are:

 Love
 Community
 Learning
 Stewardship

In the spirit of St Benedict and Benedictine spirituality, each member of our community takes responsibility for seeing ‘God in all of life’ in our school. St Benedict’s will continue to make these values the principles of our foundation. This will ensure that St Benedict’s is a vibrant and welcoming place of learning.

Feast Day Fun

Friday was a day that had all the elements which makes St. Benedict’s a great school. In the morning the school came together to celebrate our Feast Day Mass. Thank you to Father Joe for his role as celebrant. The students then came together in their buddy classes to participate in various learning activities. ‘St. Benedict’s has talent’ was the culmination of our day. Congratulations to our students who were selected to present their talents, whether it
be through dance, singing, instrumental or variety acts.

Townsville Catholic Education/St. Benedict’s Survey

Townsville Catholic Education is working with all schools within the Diocese to improve the education experience provided to our students. In the coming days, TCE will send a survey to all staff and families within our school communities. The collated responses will assist our schools in shaping their future directions and school improvement strategies.

Your responses are very important in this process as we continue to strive to provide our children with the best educational, social, spiritual and emotional resources and environment. 

Parents, carers and staff will receive the surveys via email on Friday, 19 July, and we would like to ask that they be completed by Friday, 2 August. If you have children who attend more than one Catholic school, you will receive a survey for each school. Similarly, for staff, if you work at more than one school, you will receive a survey for each school. Thank you in advance for providing feedback and assisting us to improve our school.

Patrick Dempsey
pdempsey2@stbenedicts.catholic.edu.au