Dear Parents and Caregivers 

On Wednesday morning, our students and staff attended Mass with the Parish to mark the beginning of Lent, observing Ash Wednesday. Lent, the 40-day period leading up to Easter, is a time for reflection and self-examination, reminding us of the importance of Christ in our lives.  During Mass, we received a reminder of this reflection as a cross was placed on our foreheads.  The cross serves as a powerful symbol, reminding us of our commitment to live out our faith more deeply.  Our Assistant Principals went down to the ELC area after Mass for the students and staff to receive the cross in their classrooms.   

Lent calls us to grow closer to Jesus through three key practices: prayer, fasting and almsgiving, or works of charity.  Fr Elver spoke to the children about some of the things they could give up during Lent.  He also encouraged us all to replace theses sacrifices with acts of kindness and compassion.  

Although we have been extremely busy all round, the highlights of Week 4 & 5 have been our Family Mass on Sunday 23 February when we had a wonderful representation of our Liwara families. On Tuesday 25, we were thrilled to have Clare Gibellini, the new Chair of the National Disability Research Partnership (NDRP) Board spend the afternoon with us.  She met with parents during the day and then spent time with the staff after school.  Clare is a woman with multiple disabilities, including Autism who is a passionate advocate for the inclusion of people with disability in all areas of the community and we are incredibly lucky to have Clare work with our school community.   

We also held our first P&F Meeting for the year and the group that gathered are keen to get many more families involved and have started planning events for the year ahead, beginning with the Easter Raffle.  We hosted our first School Tour of the year with 17 new families coming along to take a look at the school with the possibility of future enrolments and on Friday we celebrated Clean Up Australia Day and also held our first Certificate Assembly of the year.   Congratulations to all recipients. 

Our Visible Wellbeing Team highlighted the importance of looking after our health and wellbeing not just in our VWB Week each term but all year round.  The canteen produced some wonderful treats for Shrove Tuesday and our Year 6 students accompanied by their teachers and Assistant Principals, took part in the Dream & Lead Conference at the PCEC on Thursday 6 March.  It was a highly engaging event designed to support primary school students in discovering their leadership potential, whilst providing them with strong foundations to succeed.  Throughout the day, students participated in purposeful activities developing their problem-solving skills, and increasing confidence and independence facilitated by international-trained young leaders.  

Please take the time to read the second letter from the Executive Director Catholic Education WA.  A copy was also sent to families via Seesaw earlier this week.   

Please CLICK HERE to view a copy of the letter.

A STORY ABOUT POPE FRANCIS - In a celebration of life, peace, joy and harmony, thousands of children representing young people on every continent greeted Pope Francis during an afternoon event in the Vatican's Paul VI hall. 

Dedicated to the importance of peace, fraternity and respect for others and creation, the event was titled, "Let Us Learn from Boys and Girls," to focus attention on children's simple and sincere desires for peace and harmony in the world. 

"There is much to learn from you," the pope said. "I am always happy when I meet you because you teach me something new every time. For example, you remind me how beautiful life is in its simplicity and how beautiful it is to be together!" 

"Two big gifts God has given us," he said, are life and being together with simplicity. 

The pope encouraged the kids to embrace their adolescence, which is "a wonderful age" and to make their thoughts, feelings and experiences heard by adults. 

The pope cut short his prepared speech in order to dedicate more time to questions from the children, who asked him questions about climate change, wars, his friends, his work habits and what he dreams about at night. 

"I don't know what I dream because I am asleep!" he joked as the kids laughed. Sometimes, he said, he dreams about things he remembers when he was a child. "Dreaming is beautiful," he said, because it shows something alive is stirring inside. 

With each question, the pope had a tidbit of wisdom for the kids to remember, making them repeat each phrase a number of times.

His words of advice included: "Whoever destroys the earth, destroys us." "Take care of nature because nature takes care of us." "Work gives us dignity." "Do not waste food." "Let's work for peace." "Peace is made with the heart and an outstretched hand." "Children's voices are needed" because "kids are messengers of peace." "When you are angry, drink a glass of water before you respond." 

When a 9-year-old boy from Syria asked the pope, "Why do they kill kids during a war and no one defends them?" the pope said, "This shows the wickedness of war." 

That innocent civilians and children are killed in wartime, he said, "is cruelty," and he led the children in praying the Our Father for all children killed in wars. 

He urged all the children to work for peace after a 12-year-old girl from Palestine asked whether there would be no more peace if World War III broke out. 

"We have to work for peace," the pope said, asking everyone wave to the girl so she could let the people back in Palestine know that everyone there said "Hello." 

"Peace is beautiful!" the pope said, as the children repeated it loudly. 

Liwara CPS Code of Conduct 

As we continue to maintain healthy relationships and a positive school community at Liwara we invite all members of our community to take the time to look through our new Code of Conduct flyer.  Same information just in a friendlier format - CLICK HERE: Code of Conduct