Speak for Faith Competition

A new public speaking competition was launched in Perth this week. The Catenian Association of Western Australia launched  the competition to allow senior school students to speak about their faith and the teachings of the Catholicism. Nine students from five eastern metropolitan schools took part and the evening was successful enough to prompt the organisers to continue the competition into 2017 with more schools in the metropolitan area involved. Adjudicators for the competition spoke very favourably about the calibre of speeches given by all the students. There was a four minute prepared speech and then the students had 2 minutes to prepare an impromptu response on a given topic.

Congratulations to Rebecca Hughes and Caitlyn McKenzie on their presentations. Caitlyn writes:

"The competition was an amazing opportunity for young Catholics to speak out (literally) and have the chance to express their voice and be heard. Not only was this a chance to express who we are as individuals and how we view the world around us, but it also gave us the opportunity to really discover ourselves in regards to our faith and our religious perspective of society. I feel that throughout the process of writing the speech, I was questioning my views and my beliefs, and constantly asking myself why these issues existed in our world. This was reflected in my set speech.

The night itself was an experience that most youth wouldn't normally be able to have. The impromptu section of the evening, whilst very challenging, allowed us to make decisions and express how we feel in the heat of the moment, to be able to say things how we see them, and not sugar coat or make our opinion seem more appealing. I personally struggled with the impromptu portion of the night, with a very limited time allocation to the planning of the speech. After the speeches had concluded, many of the candidates said how they wished for a longer time allocation to plan their speech (maybe 15 minutes or so) and to be in a private room, so people aren't staring at you whilst you're trying to think.

Other than the obvious pressure of the night, I honestly am grateful for having been involved in an event where I was able to speak about how I felt on contemporary issues in regards to Catholicism, and have people listen to me and make me feel like my opinion is relevant. I am looking forward to next year's competition, but in the mean time, I have walked away with a confidence that I didn't have before, and that's a very important thing for me; to know that I have a voice and I can use it."

Education edition of the Record

The Record was for very many years the Archdiocesan Newspaper for Catholics. This has reverted to being on line as the eRecord. Please find below two links to two versions of the paper.

Education edition - this edition has a number of articles in it about educating young people of the 21st Century.

This week's edition - has a number of articles about World Youth Day in Poland

Friends of Holy Cross Upcoming Events

Anyone in your family ever been part of this Parish?

ST MARY’S CHURCH, GUILDFORD

CHURCH ANNIVERSARY AND SCHOOL REUNION

Calling all former students of St Mary’s Primary School and past parishioners of St Mary’s Parish:

You are cordially invited to a School Reunion and the celebration of the

80^th Anniversary of the current Church (1936 – 2016)

When:  9.30 am, Sunday 14 August

Where: St Mary’s Church, 21 James Street, Guildford

Celebrations will begin with a Mass at 9.30 am, concelebrated with Archbishop Emeritus Barry Hickey, followed by a social gathering and Morning Tea.

Enquiries/RSVP:

Cheryl Harris (nee Morley)     93781909 or 0417923417

Jim McCarthy                          92744498 or 0400151076

Emmanuel Calleja                  93792012 or 0405974432

Rev Fr Anand Reddy

Parish Priest

Junior School Update

Year One

Last week, the Year One students were very excited for their Athletics Carnival. After many practise sessions, the students were ready to go! We took part in running races, shuttle relay, circle ball, egg and spoon race, drop and run relay, tunnel ball and the bean bag relay. We were fantastic! Everyone in the class had a go at everything, with all students earning many points for their House. The students worked well in teams, cheering on both their own and other houses. The team spirit and sportsmanship from all year levels was inspirational and made the day very enjoyable. A special congratulations to Salvado for coming first.

Miss Sibbald
Year One Teacher

Pre-Primary C

In Pre-Primary C, we decided to transform our dramatic play area into a movie theatre. The children have been engaged in intensely imaginative activities based on their own experiences gained from attending the cinema, re-enacting situations at a movie theatre, and singing and acting out scenes from familiar movies.

By including a ticket booth with tickets and play money, posters and other visible signs the children have had exposure to a wide range of language and literacy rich props along with the ability to explore Mathematics concepts.

We were fortunate to be given huge posters from a family with connections in the cinema industry. This is a beautiful indication of how the community supports the development and interests of the children and College. The children are loving the beanbags, play ice-cream,  popcorn and drinks and the 3D glasses!

To foster the development of representational skills we have included dress-ups in this area so that the children’s role-playing expands to specific characters and complex storylines that reflect their family, life, culture or community.

To raise their awareness of technology we have also included an old phone handset and computer keyboard in the area. 

       

    

Mrs Sheppard

Pre-Primary C Teacher