Dear Parents and Carers,

The year has begun and we are already 3 weeks in. Our new Kindergarten class has begun with enthusiasm and are settling in nicely. They have met their buddies and are having a great time learning about how school works. It is wonderful seeing their bright faces every morning. Congratulations to all our Kinder families who have dealt with the wet weather mornings, not an easy change to adjust to so quickly.

Thank you for assisting your children to transition back into school life after the Christmas break. All students have returned to school enthused about learning, working with their new teachers and beginning a new chapter of their St Michael’s journey. I look forward to what the year ahead brings.

Today we acknowledge the anniversary of National Apology day. I would like to share an excerpt from an article that reflects on National Apology day 12 years on and the value of saying sorry.

Apologies are encouraging because they embody a decency that we long for. We try to build it into the lives of our children, but often fear that it is being lost in society. Apologies affirm a shared sense of right and wrong by which we can judge our lives and which we are called to pass on to our descendants.

When we are teaching children a right way to live, we want them to learn three magic words: please, thank you, and sorry. If they make these words central in their lives and mean them, they will treat everything in their lives as a gift not as an entitlement, and they will be well equipped to form and heal relationships. If their lives are lacking in the reality of the three words they will be lacking in humanity.

Of the three words sorry is the lubricant. It acknowledges the shared inevitability of failure to act well, and enables fresh beginnings.

Eureka Street – Volume 29 Number 3

Creator God, Creator Spirit, God of the Dreaming, empower us to

honour the history of this Great South Land.

Help us to remember the story of those who have gone before us and to

ensure the future is one of peace, reconciliation and harmony for all who

walk this land.

Amen