Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,

Term 4 is well underway. Last week we celebrated Book Week and, albeit a little bit different to our regular celebrations, it was a terrific day with lots to celebrate. Thank you for the effort that was made in the costumes that the children wore. We saw everything from Audrey Hepburn and Jesus’ mother Mary to the wonderful Green Sheep! The children (and staff) had great fun celebrating all things books!

Dressing up in childhood is a wonderful thing to do as it takes children to places of imagination and play that soon become lost as they grow and change into young men and women. Dressing up and playing someone else helps us to come to know ourselves a little better. It helps us to develop our own personalities and to come to know our own true values - those thoughts and feelings upon which we base our lives.

As a child, I recall dressing up to be just like one of my favourite aunts - I even rolled up a bit of paper to look like I had a cigarette just like her! I developed a love of crochet and knitting from her as I would sit next to her and try to work my needles as fast as she did hers. As an adult (and non-smoker) I think it is through these experiences that we come to know our true selves. 

Contemplation, in a spiritual sense, is the ability to create an inner dialogue with God. I watch our children develop their relationship with God in our classrooms, through our RE lessons, prayers and in liturgies. This is the foundation of the ability to be a contemplative person. At Good Samaritan we further encourage this through our mindfulness opportunities and meditations that take a Christian focus.

Contemplation shouldn’t be used to spiritually bypass what is real, harmful, or unjust in our lives or the world around us. However, with steady practice it will eventually give us the ability to stay present to what is, and meet it with wisdom, compassion, and courage. All the major world religions at their more mature stages recognise the necessity of contemplative practice in some form and under different names. 

Our children need to have these opportunities to be able to come to know who they are - they have to discover their inner selves so that when they experience chaos in their lives they are able to dig deep into their soul and reemerge with the values they have learnt to hold as true to themselves. Most often, our children’s values will reflect those of ourselves so that is why our own contemplative practice becomes so important.

Dressing up for occasions such as Book Week become so much more important when we think of how these experiences from our children into the adults of the future.

Enjoy the week ahead,

Toni Sillis

Principal