“My friends, Jesus is the Lord of risk, he is the Lord of the eternal “more”. Jesus is not the Lord of comfort, security and ease. Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and to set out on new and uncharted paths. To blaze trails that open up new horizons capable of spreading joy, born of God’s love and wells up in your hearts with every act of mercy. To take the path of the “craziness” of our God, who teaches us to encounter him in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the friend in trouble, the prisoner, the refugee and the migrant, and in our neighbours who feel abandoned.”

Pope Francis at World Youth Day Vigil Mass Krakow 2016.

The theme for Catholic Education Week this year ‘Discovering New Horizons’, epitomises the St Benedict’s community given that we have all set out on a new and somewhat uncharted path (that may be a little dramatic) with our new school but one where we are eager to embrace the ‘other’, a path where we build a community ready to spread joy and engage in acts of mercy. At St Benedict’s we are certainly looking to discover new horizons in the way we engage our students in meaningful learning experiences, especially those that connect them with God’s love. We have thoroughly enjoyed the numerous activities planned this week to celebrate Catholic Education Week including multiple excursions, dress ups and crafts.

The week kicked off with the particularly special occasion of our Inaugural St Benedict’s Feast Day where we had a whole school mass, participated in activities that helped us learn more about St Benedict and concluded with a showcase of Benny’s talent. Thank you to everyone who assisted in planning and/or participating in the day.

Coming up we have our Athletics Carnival where the students will participate in an enjoyable day of official and unofficial athletic pursuits. Our nominations for the Redtrack team have already gone in so our Athletics Carnival, while competitive is not a battle for ‘sheep stations’ so let’s set a great example for good sportsmanship with some great encouragement on the sidelines and aim for an enjoyable day for all. We look forward to seeing you on the day. Please feel free to get into the spirit of the day by dressing up in your family’s house colours but try to be as sun-safe as you can.

I hope you all have a fabulous week.

Cheers

Penny

Wow! As we reach the end of another busy week at St Benedict’s and take another breath, I reflect on what a magnificent year of 'firsts’ that we are having! This week saw the celebration of our first St Benedict's Feast Day!

The official feast day is actually July 11, but due to a full calendar, we decided to hold our celebrations this week to mark the start of Catholic Education week. It was wonderful to start the day with another first, our first school mass. Unfortunately, Fr Dave is away on a well earnt holiday, but we were fortunate to have Fr Terry Lyons celebrate mass with us in our eucharistic celebration of St Benedict. It was wonderful to have our friends from the Kindy come over and celebrate mass with us as well, and may I add how beautifully behaved they were!

During the middle session the students got to participate in a range of activities which helped them to learn more about St Benedict, contemplative practices and our Benedictine charism. A big thanks must go to Mary McCaulife from the St Vincent de Paul Society who came in and shared with the students a little about what the society does, particularly in the area of youth homelessness.  This enabled students to see how people in our community show a love of Christ and neighbour, and maybe inspire them to help where they can!

On Tuesday I was able to take a group of students to the statewide launch of Catholic Education Week held at St Anthony’s, Deeragun. Our students had the opportunity to be a part of the opening and closing procession of the mass. I received many comments from other attendees about what a wonderful job they did, and we can all be very proud of them. It was wonderful to be a part of an event that truly celebrates the spirit of Catholic Education and to hear of all the wonderful things that are happening in Catholic schools both in our diocese and around the state! Bishop Tim allowed himself to show some  bias and spoke of the great things happening in the Catholic schools within the Townsville Diocese. I will also speak with some bias and say what a wonderful job our little school is already doing, and also how lucky we are to be a part of the 'Catholic school difference’.

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick

Today we were apart of a Eco Warriors awareness day. We met lots of other students from our Catholic schools and listened to many outside organisations who are working towards combating our many enviromental issues. Together Kookaburras worked on sustainable goals for our school and we can't wait to share these with you all!

Dear Parents/Carers

This will be our first Book Week as a school.   During this week the children will be engaging in various activities; these include 2 author visits covering all grades, craft, special lunchtime activities, gameshows for the older students and of course the famous Book Week Parade.

The mention of a parade can immediately cause headaches for some of our parents.  We would like the parade to be as stress free as possible for all. If your child has spiderman pjs - wear them.  If your child has dress ups at home - use them. If you would like to get crafty and ‘build’ a costume - keep it simple.  I myself will be borrowing clothes and using electrical tape for my costume!

Leading up to this week the students and I have been looking at the shortlisted books that are in the competition for this year.  

Our parade will be held on Thursday 23rd August at 2pm in the hall.   

Students are welcome to wear costumes to school for the day so long as they can function- ie. sunsafe, easy to move around in etc, there is also ample time at second break for the children to get changed if needed. If parents of our lower primary classes could come in and help with this process, that would be wonderful.  Please let your class teacher know closer to the date if you can help out.

Any enquiries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards

Jacki Whalley
Library Technician

There have been a few reports from concerned parents that some of our students are not being safe when crossing the road. Could all parents please have a chat with their children about the importance of road safety and how they should keep themselves safe when crossing the road.