Dear Parents and Carers,

How wonderful that in recent days and weeks we have some new students at St Patrick’s. It is always great to ask our current students to talk about what it means to be a St Pat’s kid. They offer lots of words of wisdom around the expectations they have of themselves and others, and also the daily application of the school rules and our lived approach to Making Jesus Real through “Gotcha!” moments. This has brought me to some thinking about belonging.

The need to belong is a very strong human force that finds form firstly in the space of family, then in personal relationships, as well as in school and work relationships, community involvement and other ways including national pride and religious affiliation. We all know that belonging has positive effects on our personal wellbeing, our mental and physical health.

Each of us is born in a particular place. This place always has a special presence and meaning for us. One of the first things we learnt as children was our name and then where we lived. Often in life we have to answer the question, “And where were you born?”, as if in the mind of the questioner, there is an importance attached to where we began our life, where we entered belonging. 

“Something in each of us cries out for belonging. We can have all the world has to offer in terms of status, achievement, possessions, yet without a sense of belonging our lives feel empty and powerless.” –John O’Donohue. Eternal Echoes. 

We parents, like our parents before us, have such incredible power to influence the inner-life of our children, the “place” where their identity is fashioned. Our children’s senses are like sponges, they absorb everything; our voice is like a running tap, giving life to their life. Just like our work in the home, the staff at St Patrick’s work hard to make our school a place of belonging for each of the children in their class, and we also try to touch in with the children in other classes across the school so that we grow the sense that our school community is a family.

If you see some new faces waiting at the gate for their children will you please join me in making our new parents feel welcome and feel that they belong at St Pat’s.

My last message today is a BIG THANKYOU to Antoinette Woods and the support team of parents for the fabulous TRIVIA night last Saturday. SO MUCH FUN. And some recognition of not being very good at trivia – for me! Thanks to all who came, and especially all the local businesses that supported our fundraising for the night.

Blessings for the weekend. See you at the Athletics Carnival on Monday.

Jo