Last week of term and who would have thought we would be heading into the holidays so quickly again. This week we would like to say a huge ‘THANK YOU’ to everyone who was involved with Under 8’s day last Friday. The day was a tremendous success and it was wonderful spending time with all of the educators, families and associated community groups in our town. We had over 400 people attend and the response from a variety of families have been very positive and they were glad they were able to come along to celebrate.

This week we also saw us hold our End of term mass to celebrate our upcoming rest and leisure break as well as to farewell two more families leaving our school community and have our Executive Director, Mr Bill Dixon present our annual St Joseph Spirit Awards. It is with sadness that we will be losing two families due to relocation. We would like to wish them a safe and wonderful new chapter in their family lives and thank them for choosing and being a part of our St Joseph’s community.

I would also like to let you all know that I will be heading overseas on Long service leave for a month so will not be back until Week 4 of Term 3. In my absence Mrs Turner will fill the role of APRE. I wish you all a well-deserved break and see you next term.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION REPORTS: 

Religious Education is the first subject that appears when you open your child’s report card. In perusing your child’s results, it is important that you understand what these results and comments are saying about your child, and what they’re not saying.

What information does a child’s R.E. report give?

The R.E. report will give you an indication of your child’s achievement in an academic study of Christianity in the Catholic Tradition. It also gives an indication of the effort that your child is putting into the participation in, and completion of, tasks set for this subject. Tasks set for R.E. may involve a range of activities including analyses of biblical texts, research of various religious organisations, planning and engaging in religious rituals, etc.

So what is your child’s teacher telling you?

Your child’s teacher is not making any statement about your child’s faith. Faith is a relationship between your child and God. While it is possible to evaluate relationships, one must be careful when making such assessments based only on one context, in this case, the school context. It would be a mistake to read that a child is not achieving at the expected standard in Religious Education and assume that this equated to an under-par faith life. Such an assumption would be going beyond the teacher’s intention in providing the report. It would also be a mistake to assume that very high achievement in Religious Education was equated to a deep faith. People of deep faith range from those who struggled academically in all areas, including R.E. to those who are quite adept academically. This is also true of people who do not value faith. So, a reading of a child’s Religious Education report should be done with a similar understanding to a reading of reports in other subjects: it is an indication of your child’s academic achievement in this subject and an indication of the effort that they have put into their achievement.

On some R.E. reports there may be a comment about a child’s participation in prayer: isn’t this a comment about the faith life of the child?

In a word: ‘No’.

It is true that faith is an interior attitude that may have some visible signs including participation in prayers and liturgies and other aspects of the religious life of the school. It would, however, be unwise to suggest that one indicates the other. In the Cathedral is a sign that reminds visitors that the building is a place of prayer. It clearly suggested that respectful quiet was the appropriate attitude here, regardless of whether a visitor was a practising Catholic, or a person of another religious tradition, or a person who held no religious affiliation and simply wanted to view the stained-glass windows. All visitors were welcome, but there was a ‘level of participation’ that was expected regardless of the faith position of the visitor. Similarly, should I visit the place of worship of another religious tradition, regardless of my own faith position, it would be most appropriate for me to have an attitude of respect towards their sacred space.

St Joseph’s Parish school has been established as a school in the Catholic Tradition, and a normal part of its functioning is the celebration of religious rituals. The participation in these rituals is an expectation of all students who wish to share in the life of the school. Those who have taken steps to more fully enter into the life of the Church participate differently at times; for example, our First Eucharist candidates will now receive Communion. All students learn about the practice and history of Catholic rituals in their R.E. classes. Their participation in religious rituals can be an indication of many things. It may indeed indicate a level of faith. It may also indicate a level of learning. It may be an indication of a child’s confidence; or perhaps an indication of wisdom in a child, who recognises that even though they haven’t fully bought into the faith position of the community, it is important to participate respectfully.

A teacher’s comment about the participation of a child in various Catholic rituals is intended to be taken at face value: it is about the participation and not intended as a commentary on a child’s faith.

Blessings for a wonderful break, stay safe and God bless,

Amanda