Dear Families,

It was wonderful to see so many families at the Family Mass on Sunday. The children read and sang beautifully. Thank you also to those families who helped with the BBQ after mass. The weather was perfect and provided a wonderful opportunity for so many of us to come together again. We had hoped to be able to show students the new model for Children’s Liturgy on Sunday, but unfortunately we were not able to run this as a result of the break in to the Presbytery and Parish Centre on Saturday evening.

Many of you have asked after the parishioner who found the intruders and was struck by one of them. You will be pleased to hear that he is recovering well and is at home. Thank you for your offers for help and your prayers, they are all very much appreciated.

Update on Oval
We have had a visit from the facilities team at Catholic Education, Paul Barnett, the designer of the oval and Lentro, who built it. They assessed the grass and have said that at this stage, the soil underneath is too wet for us to be able to go on it. We are looking at giving the grass a good dose of fertiliser over the break and hope that the warmer weather and sunshine will allow it to dry out enough so that the children will be able to play on it. We have also ordered goal posts for our four new ovals which will help to define each oval space. Some children were worried that the grass had died. We planted a grass variety that browns off over winter so it is protected from frost. It is the same grass variety at Bruce Stadium, but I am told that the grass there is painted so it looks good for TV. By October, we should see a beautiful flush of green once again.

Visit to Tasmania
Tomorrow I will travel to Tasmania to attend the Catholic Education Tasmania Principal’s Conference. I will travel with Patrick Ellis, Education Leader, Trazel Scott, Senior Officer for Teaching and Learning and Michele Bezuidenhout, Program Manager - Performance and Improvement and together we will present a day on Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn’s journey with Catalyst. It is very exciting that the work teachers and support staff are doing here at St Thomas Aquinas is being noticed by other school systems.

Take care and God bless

Yours in Faith