Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,

This week our school has been focusing on Gratitude. On Sunday when I sat down to write this newsletter, a reminder popped up in my calendar that it was the Feast of Mother Teresa and that I had saved a reading to use in this week’s newsletter. It must have been some months ago because I don’t even remember putting it into my calendar!

So, why do I tell you this? Mother Teresa had a devout devotion to St Thérèse of Lisieux. St Thérèse spoke about life as being about Gratitude & Confidence. Once again, saints of old speak to us in such a contemporary way that it seems they were seeking for us to understand our lives through their words.

Extending gratitude to another person leads to happiness. I am sure you may know, or have encountered people who seem to have attitudes to life that are angry, downcast, continually worried - looking at life with a glass half full. Sometimes, I wonder if they know that attitudes can be transformed when gratitude is extended by them and to them.

Gratitude can have a lasting effect on our personal and professional lives if we work to incorporate it into our daily routines. The expression of gratitude is a self-promoting exercise, grateful people are found to be more likely to respond with gratitude to a wider range of scenarios and recognise the benefit  that it gives to others.

I am sure that you have seen some of the little pebbles or rocks that have been painted and left in parks or along walkways for others to enjoy during this pandemic. What a wonderful act of gratitude these are! Extending gratitude to someone who you don’t even know and who you’re likely not even to see receive it, is a sign of real happiness.

Emmons & Stern (2013) write that ‘this leads to a positive, self-renewing, feedback loop – the more gratitude we display, the more our subjective well-being and resistance to negativity increases, and the more grateful we are likely to be.’

My hope is that by focusing on Gratitude across our school community, involving students, families and staff will lead to the formation of young people who are outwardly focused and confident human beings.

I will leave you to reflect on a quote from Mother Theresa as we journey through the week, together, with Jesus.

“We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love.”

Mother Teresa

Toni Sillis

Principal