Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the start of the season of Lent – a time of prayer, almsgiving and fasting in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the forehead. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made us. We began our school day today with a prayer assembly, led by 5/6GZ, and students have received ashes on their foreheads as a symbol of humility and penance.

Considering our school theme of Stewardship of Creation, many are familiar with the phrase, Think Globally, Act Locally, as a mindset for the small things an individual can do to demonstrate care for the Earth. At this morning’s prayer assembly, in the context of self-reflection for the season of Lent, I asked our students to consider applying the same phrase to our hopes for humanity, inspired by Christ’s message of love. For example, If I think that, globally, the world would be a better place if there were no wars, although there is not much I can do to personally affect the outcomes of peace talks in the Middle East, I can act locally to make my own relationships more respectful, compassionate, loving and just. Many are familiar with the idea of giving up something for Lent; however, this is also a time of reflection of where we are called to listen to Christ and follow his call through our loving actions. Lent is the perfect time to commit ourselves to taking up a positive action for the good of others, to mindfully and intentionally bring something of the love of God to every person we meet.

In line with the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays during Lent, our canteen will be serving fish cocktails and fish burgers on Fridays for the rest of this term. Pies, sausage rolls and ham sandwiches, wraps and rolls will still be available on Thursdays.

Another Lenten tradition that Mt Carmel School supports is Project Compassion, Caritas Australia's annual fundraising and awareness-raising appeal. Millions of Australians come together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. Students will be bringing home a Project Compassion Box as usual and there will be a donation box in every classroom, but this year we also have the option of digital donations so we can all track our fundraising efforts. The link for our fundraising page is https://lent.caritas.org.au/mtcarmelschoolyass.

Shrove Tuesday
Thank you to the teachers, parents and student leaders who came to school early yesterday to help prepare, serve and join in our annual pancake breakfast; it was a lovely morning! The Pancake Race was proudly run by our Student Representative Council with the winners being McAuley House – Congratulations to Rachael, Lily, Cooper and Sam!


Open Classrooms
Thank you to all who were able to attend our Welcome BBQ and Open Classrooms last week; I hope that the evening was enjoyable and valuable to all. Special thanks to our Community Council – Amber Maher, Brad Kelk and Trent Brassil – who helped to cook, serve and clean up the BBQ. For any parents who were unable to come on Wednesday, please know that you are always welcome in our school and our classrooms and that you can make an appointment to meet with your child’s classroom teacher whenever the need arises.


Parent Reading Information Sessions
Tomorrow Trish O’Dell, our Classroom Support Teacher, will be hosting two information sessions for parents to find out how to best help your child with reading at home. We also encourage attendance at one of these sessions for parents wishing to volunteer as a reading helper in the classroom. The sessions will be held at 9:15am and 7pm in our Professional Learning Room, upstairs in the office building.

Trinity Catholic College Information
This evening, from 6:00pm to 6:45pm in the Yass Soldiers Club Auditorium, Mrs Gaye McManus, principal of Trinity Catholic College Goulburn, will be hosting an information evening for families who are interested in finding out about this educational pathway. More information can be found in the flier later in this newsletter.


Book fair and Grandparents’ Morning Tea
Thank you to families who have already had a browse in our Book Fair. On Friday the Book Fair will be open for browsing and orders from 9:00am to 3:45pm and the Morning Tea will be held in the Convent courtyard from 10:00am to 11:30am. Thank you, in anticipation, to Mrs Turner and Mrs Patmore for the tremendous amount of work that goes into preparing for this wonderful day.


Assembly
Our first K-6 Assembly will be next Friday following morning lines in the Performing Arts Centre. This has been kindly prepared by 2SS and 4KF and we look forward to seeing your classes perform their items. Principal Awards will be presented during this Assembly.

e-Safety Toolkit
The Australian Government Office of the eSafety Commissioner has launched an e-Safety Toolkit for schools that includes valuable resources for parents.
Go to https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents to find out more.


Kinder Rest Days
The first few weeks of school have flown! A reminder that next Wednesday is the last of our Kinder Rest Days and Kindergarten students will commence full weeks from 9 March, Week 7.

Archdiocesan Catholic Leaders’ Retreat
Next week I will be away the the Archdiocesan Director's Day and Catholic Leaders’ Retreat. Mrs Jan Harvey will be Acting Principal in my absence.

May God’s peace be in your families, 

Michael Green
Principal