Third Week of Lent 

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Oliva, a 22-year-old woman from Tanzania. She did not have the opportunity to go to school and was embarrassed that she was unable to read, write or count. As an adult, her business was losing money because she couldn’t add up her money and give the right change to customers.

Then Oliva enrolled in Caritas Australia’s literacy and numeracy classes. She also set up a home classroom to teach her neighbours, for free, because they were too shy to attend larger classes.

Oliva has now graduated, attendance at her classes are growing, her kiosk is thriving and she is helping her children with their homework. She aims to become a pastor and run for leadership in the next local election - to help her community to ‘Be More.’

Approximately 260 million children don’t have the chance to go to school (un.org)

“Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

St Monica’s Fundraising Tally so far…

Last Friday the Social Justice Team collected and tallied donations from each class and we have raised $308.85. In total we have raised $341.05!!  

The class that has raised the most so far is…. 6J!

This year, there is going to be a class prize at the end of Lent for the class that raises the most money for Project Compassion. Maybe during Lent you could do some extra jobs around the house to earn some extra pocket money. Every little bit helps!

We wanted to say THANK YOU! To all our families who have donated so far! We have exceeded our goal of $200 and our new goal is $500!

The Social Justice Team

Contemporary Religious Education at St Monica’s

As a Catholic school our purpose is ‘to be a faith filled Catholic learning community of hope, joy and wonder where all are welcome and inspired to grow to their full potential’ (CE, Canberra/Goulburn).

Contemporary Religious Education aims to develop:

• a Catholic culture deeply characterised by its tradition, values and beliefs
• a contemporary, engaging and experimental curriculum
• pedagogy that enthuses, empowers and enables the learner
• dispositions and skills for the ‘theological inquirer’
• invitational and engaging learning environments
• connected learning communities

To do this at St Monica’s we plan rich, engaging learning experiences using a Conceptual Inquiry approach. A concept acts as the ‘umbrella’ that links all the parts that make up that concept across learning areas. Inquiry provides a way for students to make meaning from their learning by exploring their own connections to it.

At St Monica’s, our Conceptual Inquiry programs draw on content from The Brisbane Curriculum (Religious Education) and the three-dimensional Australian Curriculum. This term, some of the concepts that our students are inquiring about are:

Kinder – Identity

Year 1 – Stewardship

Year 2 – Relationships

Year 3 – Making Decisions

Year 4 – Respect

Year 5 – Development

Year 6 – Community

This week ask your child/ren what they are learning about in Conceptual Inquiry. You might also like to share what you know about these concepts as a family.

Have a great week!