From next Monday all students will be back at the College. We look forward to this and hope the girls enjoy their return to onsite learning. As we return to a normal program at the College, the Inside Out will resume to fortnightly editions.

You will have heard in the media that a few schools have closed recently as a result of a positive diagnosis of someone in their community. All the safety measures in place in a school will not be able to negate all risk of this happening. At St Patrick's we have a number of safety measures in place as outlined in previous correspondence that align with the recommendations of AHPPC. Should we find ourselves in such a situation, we will communicate with you immediately. You will have the option of collecting your daughter from the College or use the transport that we are able to organise to get your daughter home safely. We will inform you of what the College is doing to clean the site and when it is safe for the girls to return. In conjunction with the Department of Health, we will contact trace those people who may have been exposed and will need to self-isolate. For those girls who need to self-isolate, work will be in their Course Canvas pages, so they can continue with their study. More detailed protocols will be on the Remote Learning site by the end of next week. My preference is not to outline these procedures to you at this point, however, it is our belief that it is best that you have some insight of what will be done should we be in that situation. You can be reassured that all will be done to maintain the safety of the girls and keep you informed.

We have a number of whole school events coming up that will test our capacity to be creative and innovative. We consider these events very important and worthwhile which is why we have refashioned them to fit in and meet our current regulations. I hope you will be able to join us for the Restart 2020 Liturgy, parent/teacher/student day or the Year 11 2021 subject preferences evening.

Tuesday 26 May was Sorry Day. The following day begins the nationally recognised Reconciliation Week finishing on 3 June, which is the day of the Mabo High Court decision.  The theme for the week this year is  ‘In this Together’. It really resonates now as our country faces the biggest crisis since it was in war. Twenty years ago, over 20,000 people marched across the Harbour Bridge in support of reconciliation. On that day, Mrs Louise Ibbett lead a group of girls from the College walking behind the College banner. I am not sure there has been as much achieved since then, as was hoped on that day. When we hear that vulnerable people in our community are those aged 70 years old and over, except for Aboriginal people aged 50 years old and over, it is a strong argument that the inequities and disadvantage continue to prevail for Aboriginal people. It is my hope that we, as a College and a nation, continue to work for reconciliation to eradicate disadvantage. I will leave you with a prayer from the Wontulp B-Buya Indigenous Theology Group on Reconciliation.

Blessings

Sue Lennox - Principal 

Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history and the sufferings of Our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.
We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus to reconcile the world to you.
We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better future for our Nation.
Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to
improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities,
especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families,
our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).