What a wonderful start to the 2020 school year we have all had at St Monica’s. Our school theme of ‘Growing Together’ is really setting the scene for a school year where we are going to enliven our school vision even further.

St Monica is always by our side, guiding us all through her example of Prayer, Perseverance, Patience and Praise. This term, we are ‘Growing Together’ through ‘Prayer’. All classes are busy investigating our focus of ‘Respect’. Respect for ourselves, respect for others, respect for our learning and being respectful when we pray as a class, as a school and as a school parish. Last Friday we celebrated our Opening School Mass, and WOW! everyone was respectful, celebrating the beginning of the school year. 

Being guided by God’s word is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. This year we are exploring God’s message for us in the Parable of the Sower in the Gospel of Matthew. Over the coming weeks, I will be breaking open this parable. I will end with a question…

What kind of soil are you?

"Let us ask ourselves if our heart is open to welcome with faith the seed of the Word of God.”

Pope Francis, 2016

Religious Education Curriculum

All schools in the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese are working through a process of Curriculum renewal in Religious Education. As a school community, we are accessing the resources of the Brisbane Archdiocese’ Curriculum. A key element of their approach is seeing Religious Education as two overlapping circles encompassing Religious Curriculum and the Religious Life of the School. 

A teaching strategy 

World of the Text

Our teachers use a wide variety of current best practices in teaching and learning. One core focus is using ‘3 Worlds of the Text’. Essentially 3 Worlds of the Text is a way to ‘unpack’ any piece of writing but in Religious Education we focus on using it for Scripture. The 3 ‘Worlds’ we explore are: The World Behind the Text, The World of the Text and the World in Front of the Text.

World Behind the Text - is the environment in which the piece of writing was written. We learn about the context of the community, who they were and why they wrote it.

World of the Text – we examine the literary style of the text. What are its key features and how is an understanding of this text influenced by its type and structure?

World in Front of the Text – how should we read this text today? Are there any challenges or nuances that we bring to this text because of our own cultural context?