Jesus said to his disciples:

"Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God still, and trust in me.

There are many rooms in my Father's house;

if there were not, I should have told you.

I am now going to prepare a place for you,

and after I have gone and prepared you a place,

I shall return to take you with me;

so that where I am, you may be too.

You know the way to the place where I am going."

Thomas said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

Jesus said, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

(John 14:1-6)

Welcome to Week 3! Last week, I had a few days for Principals with CEWA so it was great to get back to school and among our community again at the end of the week! The first couple of weeks of Term 2 have seen lots of great activities and learning going on around the school. Be sure to check out the recap video available at the end of this newsletter to see some of the things that our students have been involved in.

It was fantastic to see so many of our community come together for our Parish School Mass on Sunday and join us for morning tea back at the Barbier Hall. A huge thank you to all of our generous parents from Pre-Primary, Year 1 and Year 2 who put on the morning tea. The excerpt above from the Gospel according to John is from the Mass and provides some good comfort and direction. This serves as a good reminder not to let our hearts be troubled and to trust in Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Father Mariusz highlighted in his homily that as Catholics, we know and experience God through Jesus, so the more we know Jesus, the more we know the Father.

We are looking forward to celebrating all of the mums in our community at our annual Mother's Day Breakfast on Friday. Please come along if you are able to!

Lately, there have been several members of our school community who have either lost someone close to them or have someone struggling with their health. I ask you to please keep these people in your prayers.

The St Paul’s Learning Support Team have been actively involved in all classrooms across our school, providing tailored support for our students. They have been working with individuals as well as with small and large groups. Our team focuses on building relationships with all students in each class to help them reach their full potential. We are blessed at St Paul's to have an exceptionally skilled group of staff working in this area.

Our Run Club has begun this term as we prepare for the St Paul's Cross Country and then the Interschool Cross Country. Thanks to Mrs Wise for organising the club and cross country, as well as Mrs Speake for helping with the club.

The St Paul's Cross Country is on Friday 19 May so please feel free to come down and be a part of it!

We are making progress with our plans to replace the playground in our Early Childhood area. We are hoping to have the first stage of the playground installed during the next school holidays. Replacing a playground is a very expensive exercise, so the plan is to do it in stages. The first stage should see the installation of a new bike path around the area and a new central piece of equipment to replace the old one. We will then need to look to the support of our community and P&F to help raise funds to install a new cubby and other smaller pieces of equipment in different stages. Thank you for your patience as we have been undertaking this significant project and we look forward to your support with the stages to follow.

Last term, I noted some work that our School Advisory Council has been supporting us with around student retention. Recently, I sought some feedback from our Year 2 and 3 parents and I want to thank those who provided this valuable feedback. My intention is to run a parent information session for any interested parents across the school on Wednesday 31 May at 6:00pm to discuss some of the feedback and present some of the opportunities that we provide in our upper school experience here at St Paul's. I will send more information closer to the time, however, please note this date on your calendar as it would be great to see you there!

Have a great week!

Regards,

Mr Pete Merry

Principal

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