Dear Parents and Carers,

Looking for something worthwhile to do for yourself during this season of Lent? How about having a look at how you participate as a member of our single human family that is equally marvellous, fascinating and perhaps threatening in its diversity. Lent is often a time given over to “holy” words of repentance and promises of self-reform but: “However many words you speak, what good will they do if you do not act on them?” Buddha.

The challenges of our times are not only political and social, they are spiritual: “The modern world is ‘desacralised’, that is why it is in crisis. The modern person must rediscover a deeper source of personal spiritual life.” Carl Jung. It is difficult to grow spiritually, morally or ethically, if we fail to give due recognition that all people are equally valuable and important. We can’t grow spiritually, morally or ethically if we belittle people different to us in their appearance, manner and customs in order to make us feel more important as human beings. We will begin to grow spiritually, morally and ethically, when we are ready to sincerely embrace the truth and fascination of our differences and welcome the common yearnings we have about life.

Stephanie Dowrick expresses this sentiment beautifully when she writes: “Seeing life itself as sacred - yours, mine, all of life - makes our differences far less frightening. More importantly, it makes sense of how like one another we are in our simplest and most profound longings.

Whatever our culture, religion or language, we want food, shelter and good health. We want to be able to get up in the morning, enthusiastically, and sleep safely at night. We want health, safety and happiness for our loved ones. We want to know that our lives are purposeful and sometimes gracious. We want to feel part of something greater than ourselves. We want and need inspiration and meaning.” Extract. Seeking the Sacred.

St Paul in his inspiring letter to the people of Philippi encouraged them to, “Show an agreeable attitude to everyone”. He suggested how they might be able to do this: “All that is true, all that is worthy of reverence, all that is holy and good, all that is lovely to look at and beautiful to hear, all that has virtue and all that deserves praise, let that be the content of your thinking.” Phil. 4: 5,8,9.

Our spirituality is as personal as our breath or our fingerprint, but, as we move through the forty days of Lent, we might on occasion, surrender freely to the quiet within us, to rediscover the resources and strengths that are there. We might begin to see better and appreciate more, the value of our existence, to see ourselves with more gratitude and respect and to see others in a like manner.

If we are not careful, Lent can be so dreadfully boring if it focuses only on the negative, for who wants to mourn their sins and shortcomings for forty days! Father James Martin S.J., author of My Life with the Saints,

PROUILLE NEWSletter

Prouille Catholic School 5 Water Street Wahroonga NSW 2076

Phone: 02 9489 3233 prouille@dbb.catholic.edu.au www.prouilledbb.catholic.edu.au

21st February 2018 Week 4 Term 1

has some good advice to offer: “When it comes to religion, joy has a lousy reputation. When you hear of someone described as “religious” what usually comes to mind is someone who is terrified that somewhere in the world somebody might be having a good time. St Teresa of Avila even prayed, ‘From sombre and solemn people, deliver us, O Lord.’ So on Ash Wednesday, instead of going around with a sad look on your face, have a laugh, for God’s sake!” Adapted.

Mourning our sins is about calling attention to them so that we can discard them; it is about improving our spiritual lives and seeking a closer relationship with God. We should observe Lent, because we want to accentuate the positive influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and to eliminate the negative influence of sin. So, we have to “Accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch onto the affirmative ….” and be happy about it!

God, our Father, we ask that You accept us as we are, vulnerable, flawed and in need of Your love. May Your Spirit be powerful within us so that joy, love and peace may be expressed through the actions of our lives. Amen.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL Swimming Carnival Thank You Thank you to the many parents who were so generous with their time and efforts to assist us with the running of our Swimming Carnival on Monday. It was a perfect day and it was mainly due to the assistance we received from parents. Thank you also to Miss Townsend and Mrs Lees for organising our Carnival which was a great success. Thank you also to the teachers for their valued assistance. Congratulations and thank you to all of the Prouille students for their great sportsmanship and achieving their personal best.

Congratulations to the Crawford Team on winning the Carnival and to the O’Brien Team for being awarded the spirit trophy and the Jennings and Rawlings teams for the fantastic competition. Congratulations to our wonderful Colour House Captains who did a fantastic job organising, leading and motivating their colour houses! Congratulations to:

O’Brien House Captains: Oliver Mezgec, Hanah Bayldon

Jennings House Captain: Rosemary Willett

Crawford House Captains: Tadhg McGrath, Ines Teixeira Pinto

Rawlings House Captains: Jordan Feurtado, Isaac Wright

Champions and Cluster squad to be announced at assembly on Monday 26th February at 2.40pm. Congratulations to our Kindergarten students who had a fun water activity day with their teachers!

WELCOME EVENT I look forward to meeting everybody at the welcome event on Saturday 24th February at Magpies. It commences at 7.00pm. Angela Chappel, Laura Munce and their fantastic volunteers are doing an amazing job in preparation for this event. P&F General Meeting Everybody is welcome to join us for the P&F General Meeting to be held in the library on Wednesday 21st February at 7.30pm. ROAD SAFETY Parents please ensure you cross Water St. using the designated school crossing. Last Friday a frustrated driver driving in a school zone broke the road rules by speeding up overtaking other drivers and almost ran into a Prouille family crossing Water St. outside of the school crossing. Your safety is our priority so please adhere to the school’s safety rules. Congratulations to all the children who received awards last week

CLASS

KR Mia Hill, Luke Ringrose

KB Atticus Quoyle, Jocelyn Gibbs

1H Emma Murray, Will Gunning

1E Raphael Sahni, Olivia Davie

2C Hugo Groom, Cooper Hill, Darcie O’Leary

3C White Harry Chappel, Metta Brynildsen

3C Black Billie-May McGrath, Harrison Luca

4OP Rosie Cannon, William Webster

5F Jonah Lee, Eliza Waugh

6TN Joshua Moait, Hannah Cook, Tadhg McGrath

STAR OF THE WEEK Congratulations to Thea Georgiades in who is our Star of the Week. Please visit the school walkway to see Thea’s fabulous work!

Yours sincerely Ms. Sue Bevan PRINCIPAL

UPCOMING DIARY DATES

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Winter Sports (Polding)

Broken Bay Sports Council will conduct trials to select students to be invited to attend the NSWCPS Polding winter sports trials in the following sports: AFL, rugby league, netball, football (soccer), hockey and touch footy. Rugby union will be held in term 2, details will be distributed in term 2. The purpose of the Polding trials is to select an open age (up to 12 years) team to compete at the NSW PSSA State Carnival for the particular sport. For information re PSSA events go to: https://app.education.nsw.gov.au/sport/NSWPSSA

It is important to note that these trials are for children who display a 'representative level ability' in the particular sport.

Important dates: 27th May - Girls and Boy Soccer trials 14thMarch - AFL 19th March - Netball

13th March - 11’s and Open Rugby League 20th March - Hockey 27th March - Touch Girls 26th March - Touch Boys If your child is playing at a representative level and would like to go to any of the above polding tri-outs. Please see Karen Townsend God Bless

Karen Townsend

Special Dates for your Diary

Wednesday 21st February

P&F AGM at 7.30pm in library. Thursday 22nd - Friday 23rd February

Year 6 Leadership Camp at Collaroy Friday 23rd February

Assembly at 2.40pm

Saturday 24th February

Welcome Cocktail Party 7.00pm at Magpies Monday 26th February

Extraordinary assembly to announce champions from Swimming Carnival and cluster squad at 2.40pm

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND PASTORAL CARE NEWS Dear Parents and Friends, OPENING SCHOOL MASS Friday 9th February at 11am (Holy Name Church) THANK YOU to all the children, staff and families who were able to join us for our Opening School Mass on Friday 9th February. It was a beautiful celebration of our community and marked our journey towards a bright 2018!

SRC REPRESENTATIVES Assembly on Friday 23rd February at 2:40pm (Veritas Hall) At our Assembly in Week 4, we will be presenting the chosen Term 1 SRC Class Representatives with their badges. Our first meeting will be held on Thursday 1st March, 2018.

We wish to congratulate our Term 1 SRC Class Representatives;

CLASS FIRST AND LAST NAME OF SRC REP

CLASS FIRST AND LAST NAME OF SRC REP

KB Hannah O’Leary 3C White Phoebe Taylor

KR Laura Wood 3C Black Kayla Artindale

1H Gabriel Edmunds 4O Michael Littleton

1E Kate Chappel 5F Jack Lloyd

2C Harrison Nash 6TN Siena May

ASH WEDNESDAY – LAST WEDNESDAY 14TH FEBRUARY Last Wednesday marked the beginning of our Lenten Season as well as our Project Compassion mission.

Thank you to all those who were able to join us for either the Mass at Holy Name or our beautiful K-2 Liturgy in the Chapel. Thank you to Mrs Robyn Clyant, Mrs Belinda Nisbett and our Year 2 cohort for your organisation and leadership on the day! PROJECT COMPASSION This year, our focus is ‘A Just Future’ – something that we strive to achieve for all citizens of our world.

Caritas Australia is working together with vulnerable people, helping them to develop their strengths and create change in their own communities.

Caritas Australia share stories on their website which demonstrate the impact that Project Compassion can have on various communities. These stories inspire and humble us and display how these people are able to build better lives for themselves, families and communities. This year they look at stories in Nepal, Cambodia, Jordan, Australia, Mozambique and the Philippines. Your child has brought home a note with ideas on how the children might like to bring in their donations for this incredibly worthwhile cause.

Walking the Way Continuing to cultivate a culture of ‘Accompaniment’ Stay tuned for our next Parent Reflection Morning to be held in our school Chapel this Term. We are aiming to have one reflection morning per Term, due to the success of our first morning session in Term 4 of 2017!

(LENT) PRE-RECONCILIATION LITURGY Stage 3 (Years 5 and 6) on Tuesday 27

th February, 2018 @ 2pm in our school Chapel

We are extremely blessed to be able to have Fr David join us for these beautiful sessions for our children. Coming up in Week 5, Years 5 and 6 will participate in a Pre-Reconciliation Liturgy in the lead up to an invitation for Reconciliation in Weeks 6 and 7. We hope the children find the experience purposeful and reflective.

Quote of the Week

This week, we focus on our call to demonstrate accompaniment (a central theme in our Walking the Way program) in our words and actions;

Warm regards,

Jessica Russell

Religious Education Coordinator

P& F

2018 Prouille P&F Welcome Cocktail Party

We are very much looking forward to seeing all parents and carers at the annual

welcome cocktail party (adults only event)!

Don’t forget to book your tickets via the QKR! App once you have received

your invite!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday 24th February!

COMMUNITY NEWS

COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGER For a confidential discussion about this opportunity please contact Anthony Spata at REACH Human Resources on 0402 210 055 or at anthony@reachhr.com.au

for additional information for the job role go to: http://catholicjobsonline.com.au/jobs/communications-and-development-manager-ccsp-sydney/