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200 Years of Catholic Education in Australia

Catholic Education is celebrating 200 years in Australia, marking the bicentenary of the first Catholic school established in Parramatta in October 1820.

Over 200 years, Catholic schools have grown to become the largest provider of schooling in Australia (outside government) with one in five school age students attending a Catholic school.

Nearly 40 per cent of Catholic schools are located outside of metropolitan cities in regional, rural and remote communities.

A National Mass was celebrated in states and dioceses throughout Australia yesterday on the Feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, the Patroness of our great nation of Australia.  We pray that our Blessed Mother continue to inspire the hearts and minds of our Catholic Education system both educators, staff and most of all students. Some of the Year 6 school leaders travelled to Cairns with Ms Harney and Mrs Andrews to celebrate this momentous occasion with Bishop James who is the longest serving Bishop in Australia. A wonderful celebration bringing together the 30 Catholic Schools in the Diocese along with staff and students.

Confirmation and First Holy Communion

Congratulations to the children who received the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and First Holy Communion on Sunday. It was a wonderful celebration and children were excited to be able to celebrate the sacraments along with their family and friends. The mass was co-celebrated by Fr Joby and Fr Peter Miller.

Thank you to Father Joby, Tania Gilbert and for all those involved in the ministries to make the celebrations so special and memorable.

Pentecost Mass

Today we celebrated Pentecost with a school Mass with Father Joby.  Each class focused on a gift of the Holy Spirit and gave examples of how we can live our lives like Jesus would like us to do using each gift.  Each class decorated a gift box with symbols to represent each gift.  Their creations are amazing. Thank you to Mrs Wall for her artistic Spirit design that is the focal point for our display on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The students sung their hearts out with our final song, Holy Spirit Rock.  It was a wonderful community celebration bringing the St Clare’s charism of Welcome Community and Hospitality together.

Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)

As we celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia, we are reminded of the call to action in our communities to heal the hurts of our shared history. In May 2020 the Executive Director of Catholic Education, Bill Dixon, introduced Cairns Catholic Education Community’s inaugural Reconciliation Action Plan.

As part of this plan, some Year 6 students participated in a workshop with Antoinette Cole, who is Leader Formation – First Nations from Catholic Education. Together, the group of students designed a reconciliation icon to represent our school community. It is linked to the mission statement and values of St Clare’s.

Here is a little bit more about it: You can see the people around the icon, representing the St Clare’s community. Although every one person in the community is unique and different, we are all encircled by love and joined together by our faith. In the middle, the sun, mountain and stream of water symbolize the world God has created. It acknowledges the respect that we must have for the land on which we live and the trust we must have in it (and each other) to provide for our needs. The mountain was designed to reflect Mt Tyson, the base of which St Clare’s is situated. The cross on the mountain represents our faith and is in the centre to remind us that this should always be our guiding light.

We are excited to showcase our St Clare’s RAP icon! This is the shared vision for reconciliation developed by Hannah, Makayla, Kaitlin, Corrinne, Aiden and Marty.

With God’s blessings,

Helen Andrews