We continue to hold Ben, his wife Jamie and daughter Grace in our prayers and hearts.

Eternal rest grant unto Finn, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God,

Rest In Peace.

Amen.

Ben and his family are incredibly grateful for the prayers, love and support of the St Anthony’s community. How proud I am of our students who have responded with such grace and maturity during a difficult time. I thank our parents and carers for your guidance in assisting our children to navigate in partnership with the school through this time. Our year 5 and 6 students created a reverent prayer space for Mr Lowe and the memory of Finn yesterday afternoon. Together, prayers and messages of love and support were written to Mr Lowe and his family. These will be shared with him along with the messages of love and support I have received to him from our community.

As outlined in my correspondence yesterday, I very much appreciate that this news may bring unexpected memories, feelings and emotions to our staff and many of our students. Please know we are here to support you and will continue to be on hand to offer support to our students.

Please reach out to me if you need some guidance and support. I know that as a staff, we will continue to check in with our students, particularly in the days and weeks ahead. 

Below, I have included some helpful information on grief and loss from our school counsellor, Patience Way, for parents and carers to perhaps reflect upon when having discussions with their children.

Change, grief and loss

Everyone is affected by change and loss at some time in their lives.

Grief is the natural emotional response to the loss of someone close, such as a family member or friend. Grief is usually described in relation to the death of a loved one, but other types of major loss can also lead to feelings of grief. The more significant a loss, the more intense the grief may be.

People may feel grief over:

• the death of a loved one
• divorce or separation
• the loss of a beloved pet
• giving up something that mattered
• work or school changes — for example, retirement or retrenchment, or moving schools
• the diagnosis of a terminal illness
• the loss of good health because of an illness, accident or disability
• moving away or separation from family or friends
• having an ‘empty nest’ when children leave home

Grief is a process or journey that affects everyone differently and has no set pattern. It is expressed differently across different cultures. It can be exhausting and emotionally draining. For some people, it can make it hard to do simple things or even leave the house, while other people cope by becoming more active. Some people like to be expressive and public with their emotions, while others like to keep their feelings private.

Grief often involves intense sadness, and sometimes feelings of shock and numbness, or even denial and anger. For most people, the intensity of grief eases over time and the episodes of grief become less frequent.

But remember that everyone’s grief journey is different. So please be kind to yourself in whatever state you are in. Give yourself permission to grieve in your own way. There’s no timeline or “right” set of emotions.

Let yourself feel what you feel: sadness, anger, numbness, or relief.

Reach out to people around you or a professional if you need to.

Kinder Health checks

The ACT Kindergarten Health Check will take place this week on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th of August. This free health check helps to ensure children are developing well and may include vision, hearing, height, weight, and general development checks. If you would like more information about what the health check involves, please visit the Canberra Health Services website. If your child is new to our school partway through the year and you would like them to participate, please speak to your classroom teacher for a form, or you can also access the form online.

Book Week

My sincere thanks to Danielle Smith and our superb staff for their coordination of book week and costumes. My appreciation to our wonderful families for preparing magnificent costumes for your children and making our Book week such a success.

Last week I attended the National Catholic Education Commission in partnership with Catholic Education Cairns Diocese conference. 

With the theme ‘hope, anchored in faith’, the conference focused on the strategic vision and mission of Catholic education across three key areas – Faith, Excellence and Access. The following is a brief snapshot of some of the points that resonated with our key focuses at St Anthony’s:

The opening Keynote by Sr Nathalie Becquart described a synodal vision for Catholic education. One of her key takeaways was on building relationships and being a listening Church. 

Sr Nathalie used the example of the Gospel; John 21, and the transition from “I” to “We”. In listening to the Gospel, Sr Nathalie aligned the reading with us all, sometimes feeling like we can’t catch a break, or in Peter’s case, a fish. However, when we begin to talk with one another and communicate, like in the Gospel when Simon and Peter threw the net on the other side of the boat and began fishing together, change can happen. When we let the spirit through Jesus guide our actions, good things can clean. This is the synodal church in action. 

In our educational context at St Anthony’s, Sr Nathalie emphasised that the only way to educate in Catholic education is together. The partnership we have between home and school is crucial. In order to provide the best possible educational experience for our children, we need to do this in support of each other and lead the mission of Jesus in co-responsibility.

Pope Leo said everything starts with listening, and we have to keep this in mind when it comes to education. 

From listening comes wisdom. Pope Leo is a pilgrim, always on the move. Synodality is likened to being on the way together. In our school community, we are blessed to see this in action on a daily basis. The meaning of hope comes to life in our classrooms. 

When people come together and walk together in hope, it becomes a force of good. A place where everyone’s voice is valued and heard. This is something I very much align to the values and mission of our St Anthony’s community. Catholic education is not about transmission; it’s about transformation.

In a time of such sadness for our school community with the passing of one of our own school family members, I am comforted by the strength, connection and hope that our St Anthony’s community provide for each other.

Term 3 dates and events

Erin