What are Students Learning About?

Year 5 are learning about Aboriginal Spirituality.  Here are some of their ideas.

What is Aboriginal spirituality?    

Aboriginal spirituality to us is all different so we wrote our own versions of what we think.

Michaela - to me it is the respect we should give to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to keep the community thriving with culture and caring people who don't discriminate against people for the way they look or act.

Jasmine - I think Aboriginal spirituality is that we need to respect them more and respect that they were here first and we don't need to treat them differently because their culture is different from ours. 

Emma - My thoughts of their spirituality is that we need to help sustain it and provide more care and help for them to thrive and survive and we should close the gap between us and them and respect that they were here first.   Most of all I respect their connection to the land because they respect it so much they use it for everything: sleeping, food, water etc. 

I can see deep and reflective thinking happening in Year 5. I wonder what they will think at the end of the unit?

What are staff learning about?

Each week I take part in a group zoom meeting with other REC’s across the archdiocese. This week our focus was assessment. It is an interesting topic because it can be so subjective. We were discussing different ways to assess the same task, giving students opportunities to express themselves differently.

The conceptual inquiry process we use asks students to think and present their work in a variety of ways. Our challenge is to develop assessment in Religious Education and other learning areas to truly capture our students understanding, not just their knowledge. If I a find a magic bullet, I will let you know! With all aspects of teaching, we are on a learning journey too. 

Catholic Life

Things are trying at the moment for so many of us. When I am struggling to manage I listen to this song, a lot. “It is well with my soul” my favourite version is sung by Mandy Harvey a deaf singer.  You can listen to it here.

It is comforting to remember that everything is, or will be alright because we have faith. Year 6 have had their class masses in the last fortnight and their gospel was John 14:1-7, it contains our I am statement, I am the way the truth and the life. The first line is “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” How fitting. 

God bless you all and may you find some peace and rest this weekend.

Stephanie Stewart
Religious Education Coordinator