St Jude’s Catholic Primary School

The Making Jesus Real (MJR) program consists of a set of values that is deeply embedded in the culture of St Jude’s.  These values link faith and spirituality with the practicality of everyday life. The (MJR) program is aligned to Religious Education and Values Education programs throughout Australia. There are more than fifty attitudes and values in the ‘MJR’ program and teachers can choose topics that the class will benefit from exploring. Some of the topics include self-discipline, good decision-making, friendship, positive behaviour management, having a sense of humour, handling problems, resilience, being a giver rather than a taker, and being a team player at home and school. At St Jude’s, our students strive to live like Jesus and ‘Make Jesus Real’ everyday through their thoughts, actions and in their interactions with each other.

Every Monday, students and staff gather for a special assembly. One of the main focuses of this assembly is to listen to a Gospel Reading from the weekend’s reading or linked to one of our ‘Making Jesus Real’ values for the week. At the conclusion of the Gospel, there is a brief explanation as to how students can apply the message of the Gospel in their daily lives as they endeavour to ‘Make Jesus Real’ in the school.

The Mercy tradition is based on the values of compassion, respect, justice, hospitality and excellence as inspired by Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. This tradition remains strong in the culture of St Jude’s. Integrated with our ‘Making Jesus Real’ programme, students are awarded special ‘Mercy Awards’ at our Monday Assemblies to recognise students in our school who are demonstrating Mercy Values throughout the school.

Linked with our ‘Making Jesus Real’ programme, Gotcha awards are presented at our Monday assemblies to students who have been nominated by our Year 6 leaders during break times for ‘Making Jesus Real’ in our school eg, Helping a teacher with a job, looking after younger students, including others in their game etc.

All staff are required to complete a ‘Faith Story and Witness’ module upon joining our St Jude’s school community. This module assists the school in welcoming new staff members and highlights:

• The Faith story (History) of our school
• The role that ALL staff play in being witnesses of evangelisation
• The vocation to work in Catholic Education and
• The Catholic Nature of the Curriculum

As a Catholic Faith Community, the celebration of Easter is often referred to as the Mother of all Feasts as it forms the foundation of our Christian beliefs. As such, students from across the school were involved in a special dramatization retelling the final days in Jesus’ journey to the Cross. In a St Jude’s first, over 80 students from across the school were involved in this special presentation. It was wonderful to be able to conclude Term One in prayer and reflection!

Our Pastoral Committee is made up of a number of our Year 6 students who meet regularly to plan events throughout the year with the aim of helping those in need. In doing so, students learn about our Catholic Social Teachings, especially the preferential option for the poor as they work together to organise creative ways of raising awareness of our Catholic Social Teachings throughout the school. Some of these events are listed below!

Our Whole School Rosary takes place in the months of May and October and are run by our Pastoral Committee who lead the rosary over our PA System each morning. All classes have their own set of class rosary beads and follow along using the PowerPoint provided. During these months that are dedicated to ‘Mary the Mother of Jesus’, the whole school rosary not only fosters a culture of prayer across the school but also teaches students about the rosary through the explanations given at the start of each day.

Offered to our whole school community, students have the opportunity to take part in our Breakfast Club that is run twice a week. We understand the needs of our community and how busy families can be in the morning as they prepare for the day. Our breakfast club offers nutritious food to our students that help sustain them through the day. A good breakfast in the morning is essential for concentration and helps students to do their best work!

Caring for those who are poor or not as well off is everyone’s responsibility. Preferential care should be shown to vulnerable and marginalised people whose needs and rights are given special attention in God’s eyes.

Sometimes our world is not that fair as those with money get a lot more than those who don’t. God doesn’t want it this way. God wants us to work together to make things fair. At St Jude’s, we hold special events throughout the year to help those in need in our local and wider communities.

Walkathon

Established in 2020, our Charity Walk for Caritas has become an annual event. Students work towards raising money for those less fortunate by bringing in a donation of varying amounts and this is deposited into our class Project Compassion boxes. Students begin the walk with a brief explanation of Caritas, Project Compassion, the Preferential Option for the Poor and how their money is helping to make the world a better and fairer place. Students from Years Kindy to Pre-Primary then take part in completing a number of laps around the school oval while students in Years 1 – 6 complete a 4km walk around the school and Church compounds.

Rice Day and PJ day

Established in 2019, this event is now run annually to raise awareness for those around the world who are living off only $1 a day. In addition, links are made to our LifeLink agencies who work tirelessly to help those in our local community who are homeless or in need. This event coincides with our LifeLink Day launch and money raised go towards helping our Archdiocese LifeLink appeal.

Catholic Missions

One of the major events in our school calendar is our St Jude’s Feast Day. More information on this day is found in our ‘Celebrations’ section of our website. The day begins with a whole school Mass which then leads into our annual Mission Markets where all proceeds go towards helping ‘Catholic Missions’ and those in need around the World. Part of the proceeds also go towards helping the Mercy Sisters in their special work and projects in the community.

St Vinnies Food Drive

Our St Vinnies Food Drive is held in Term 4 of each year and is a way for the school to give back to our local community. At the conclusion of the term, hampers are presented to our Parish for distribution to parishioners who are in need or experiencing hardship while a portion is presented to our local St Vincent de Paul Conference to assist those in surrounding suburbs who are without food or experiencing hardship during the Christmas Season.