Dear Families and Friends,

I trust everyone took advantage of the long weekend to recharge the batteries as well as maybe get out of town to do some travelling.  If the freeway was anything to judge by, it seems plenty of other Victorians also had the same idea.

We had our School Photo Day today and it was terrific to see everyone looking magnificent for their photo.  Thanks to Mrs.Campbell for her time and generosity in sorting children out so they were in the correct uniform.  Just another reminder for parents to take advantage of the Uniform shop and in particular the range of school shoes.  It was quite noticeable today that we have a few students in runners instead of all-black shoes.  If you can't locate any school shoes in the shops please call by the Uniform shop as we have a good amount of new and second hand shoes available to purchase.

This week in the media we continue to see a range of stories from Meghan & Harry through to the horrific allegations around individuals in Canberra.  At Lumen Christi our students sing (loudly) the lyrics 'building the Kingdom' in our school song.  If you asked them what this means, a reasonable answer from a child would be a nice place, through to maybe using words like respectful, responsible and resilient.  Our Catholic story is headlined by Jesus telling us to 'build the Kingdom' and we do this through our informal actions with each other as well as through our curriculum delivery.

Regarding the recent media stories, we are hearing more and more about the need to educate our children about concepts such as consent.  Tricky conversations are made easier when we have a shared language and context to use.  As a staff we have two initiatives that we are pursuing this year that are timely as well as crucially important to the health and well-being of our students.  During the year we will offer parents the chance to engage with staff in information sharing about we were are doing in school that you can piggy back onto at home.  The first idea comes from a strengthening of the Sexual Education curriculum beyond the bi-annual Family Life sessions and the second is the implementation of the Western Australian Protective Behaviours program.  From the early work we have already done engaging as a staff with these two initiatives I can see how they will be tremendously important to offer to all our children.

Finally, I will commence a period of long-service leave after I attend a Catholic Principal Conference later next week.  Our son gets married during this break so I will enjoy this special time with my family ..... but hopefully I receive word that I've won a prize in the Lumen Christi Easter Raffle.  During this time I'm very confident that our school leadership team will be able to lead the school, with Mr. Camillo Redi being asked to take on the role of replacing me during my absence.

So wishing you all a lovely end to the term, have a blessed Easter.

Dave