Dear St John the Apostle community,

Today we recognised Harmony Day. Thank you to Ms Collins and Ms Macdonald for organising the celebrations and encouraging everyone to participate.

The purpose of Harmony Day is to celebrate our diversity. By recognising our many and varied cultural backgrounds we build understanding and empathy among our students, contributing to a decrease in racism in our world. We have some way to go, but every celebration and conversation helps.

Thank you to those families who enabled their child to wear their cultural background with pride or acknowledged it with a piece of orange attire.

Did you know that 15% of the families in our school identify English as not the main language spoken at home, rather it is an additional language. In addition, the birth place of our students' parents are in 35 different countries. We have created a display of these in our hallway.

I didn't have the privilege of parents rich in another culture, nor grew up speaking another language. I'm certainly not wishing for a different childhood. I just look at our students fortunate to have this opportunity with great admiration and joy.

Pilgrimage

Next term I am away for the first two weeks on a pilgrimage through the Holy Land, following the footsteps of Jesus. I will visit Bethlehem, Nazareth, Amman, Northern Jordan, Egypt, the Sea of Galilee...all the places you hear in bible stories. I am very excited and plan to share my travels with students as part of their Religious Education when I return.

During my absence Rebekah Brown will be Acting Principal. Rebekah has acted as Principal previously and the school will be in very good hands!

Matthew Garton

Principal