Dear Parents, Friends, Students and Staff

The staff are looking forward to the return of all Matthew Gibney Catholic Primary School students on Monday 18th May.  It has been a long three weeks with varied numbers across each class as teachers have been engaging with the students, both in the classroom and at home.  Schools thrive with all students present.  Students thrive when they have opportunities to engage with their peers and their teachers in a face to face environment. School is so much more than academic learning.  School is where our children learn best how to interact with others, how to have strong and productive relationships and how to be good and responsible citizens with the moral values they learn at a Catholic school.

Please note that from next week it is an expectation that all students will return to school.  Parents who are keeping their children at home will be marked as absent and will need to notify the school with the reason they are at home.

We look forward to welcoming the Pre-Kindy students back to school next Tuesday 19th May.  Our youngest students are valued as members of our community and their absence has been missed.  Mrs Powell and Mrs Donaldson are very excited about the return of the Pre-Kindy children.

It has been disappointing that we cannot gather as a community to celebrate the Eucharist.  The Blessed Eucharist is the essence of our faith and we value the times we can share in this most sacred of celebrations.  We hope that in the not too distant future we will be able to gather and celebrate once again.  In the meantime, the prayer experiences that the students and staff can share together at school are valued opportunities to strengthen our relationship with God.

This week we are focusing on the Making Jesus Real virtue of ‘forgiveness.”  We encourage the children to show forgiveness to each other in order to restore and strengthen relationships.  It is normal human behaviour for us all to have disagreements from time to time.  Relationships become fractured for a variety of reasons.  However, Jesus witnesses to us the powerful redeeming love of forgiveness and we encourage our students to be forgiving people with their friends, classmates and families.

“Be kind to one another,

Tender-hearted, forgiving one another,

As God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4: 32)

Next week we will celebrate our coming together as a united school with a Pyjama Day on Thursday 21st May.  We encourage all children, from Kindy to Year Six to come to school wearing their favourite and most comfortable pyjamas. I am sure the staff will join in with the fun – so please forgive us if we look a little sleepy next Thursday! 

Warm regards

Therese Hussey
Principal