Dear Parents and Carers
In last Sunday's Gospel, (Matthew 16:13-19) Jesus recognizes the disciple Peter as an important leader because Peter shares his belief that Jesus is the Messiah – the Son of God. Jesus praises Peter for this and commends his faith and witness.

Sometimes our faith is tested and we doubt, but Peter's faith and trust in God in this reading were so strong it enabled Jesus to describe Peter as the "ROCK" who he can build his church. At this moment Jesus gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom of God's love. We could ask ourselves; are we living the values of the kingdom? That is forgiveness, love, justice and compassion.

Q. How would you answer Jesus' question, 'Who do you say I am?'

Being grateful for the little things in life is so very important. Sometimes we forget to appreciate the everyday pleasures and simple things we come in contact with each day. We often look to God with our problems and difficulties and forget to be grateful for all that he has already given us. 

Over the past few weeks, the staff and I have been speaking to the students about resilience. Resilience is a word that is used a lot these days, but what does being resilient mean? Resilience is the ability to cope with unexpected changes and challenges in your life. It's not always possible to prevent stressful or adverse situations, but you can strengthen your capacity to deal with these challenges. When we talk about resilience in children, we're talking about a child's ability to cope with ups and downs, and bounce back from the challenges they experience during childhood – for example moving home, changing schools, studying for an exam or dealing with the death of a loved one.
Building resilience helps children not only to deal with current difficulties that are a part of everyday life but also to develop the basic skills and habits that will help them deal with challenges later in life, during adolescence and adulthood.
School life is a challenge because learning in its essence is challenging. It wouldn't be learning if we already knew it, so by the very fact that we don't know something, we need to challenge ourselves and be resilient if we don't get it right the first time. Friendships can also be challenging because people don't always agree on everything so it is a skill to be able to learn to compromise so that everyone on the desired outcome.

Please find below an article by Michael Grose on 'Developing a Resilience Mindset.'