At De La Salle College, Junior School, the Animal Awareness Animation Team has come up with a way to encourage students to show they care for animals through the Lasallian Animal Friends Sponsorship Scheme.
The aim is to raise money for local sanctuaries to ensure that they can care for stray dogs and cats on the island.
It is an initiative that they hope others schools will take on board, and is explained in full by Abigail Azzopardi below.
Ella Butterworth, a student at De La Salle School, St Helens, who was inspired by the Lasallian Principles, has written a very impressive letter to explain the school’s role in promoting that ethos.
As part of Mrs Warren’s class on Lasallian Identity, students were encouraged to take on a task and Ella chose to write a letter to someone who doesn’t go to school in order to explain its importance.
See the letter below
The Covid-19 pandemic affected many normal school activities but far from feeling sorry for themselves, the students of De La Salle Malta Senior School turned it into a positive by using it as an opportunity to help the less fortunate.
Last year many events had to be cancelled due to the pandemic and unfortunately the Form 5 students could not have their graduation and social party to celebrate the end of their time in the senior school.
However, they decided to turn their cancelled event into something good and donated the funds that had already been collected for their events. The sum of €720 was donated to the Lasallian schools in Beirut that suffered greatly after the explosion.
As we live through the
challenges posed by the new, more infectious strain of Covid-19, my mind returns
to those reassuring words from the 14th Century mystic, Julian of
Norwich, who in the context of another pandemic – “The Black Plague” - wrote,
“All will be well, and all manner of things shall be well”. Those words of hope
are filled with expectation and confidence in God that indeed, all will be
fine.
As documented already, we at
Benildus enjoyed a very busy first term, where our new home of Hazelwood House
came into its own and additionally, where we as a team were invited out to facilitate
in-school retreats at various Dublin schools. All of the work culminated in
that inspiring final week before Christmas at Holy Child Girls School in
Killiney, rolling out Advent programmes for 2nd and 5th
year students. Subsequently, as a team
we left 2020 on a spiritual high.
Focussed on 2021
therefore, albeit with a sense of caution, we were looking forward with hopeful
expectation to continue to roll out meaningful retreats to all our students;
living as they are through this unique and unsettling time in history.
Heartbreakingly, our children and young people are losing time at a crucial stage
in their lives.
Unfortunately, as news continues to emerge of
the Irish Government (and the rest of the world) extending restrictions further
down the line and further into the New Year, the practical realities and curtailments of Covid-19
in all its guises has impacted us greatly. Our activities are now confined to
home, creating
new resources, brainstorming new programmes, creating new contacts and liaising
with teachers in rescheduling dates for later in the year.
It has been a huge comfort
and encouragement for us to witness the commitment of schools to the well-being
and spiritual life of their students and their efforts in the face of all the
new logistics to serve that aspect of their development, growth and awareness;
inviting us at Kilmacud to spearhead those initiatives.
Naturally, we are looking
forward to schools re-opening and to resuming our work in all its fullness.
Thankfully, when schools do re-open, we as a team are prepared and wholly
equipped to hit the ground running. We continue to improve the space, safety
and resources at Hazelwood House. We are committed to our mission with young
people who never before have needed a space such as ours so much. We are ready
to receive, ready to listen and ready to offer each and every one of our young
people, the comfort that God loves them deeply and cares about them infinitely.
Therefore, I return to the
words of Julian of Norwich, “All will be well, and all manner of things shall
be well”.
- Eugene, Yvonne and Conor
The Online Lasallian Induction Programme continued in January and once again, despite the disruptions being faced by teachers, the sessions were very well attended.
Session 2, The Lasallian Story, was hosted by Joanne Millea and Emma Biggins on Wednesday January 13th.
The programme will continue next week with Session 3 ‘Lasallian Core Principles’ hosted by Edel Nolan and Brian Halpin. The sessions are on Monday February 8th at 11am and again on Thursday February 11th at 4pm.
The induction programme is a time of welcome and invitation. As with other programmes of Lasallian Formation, the Induction Programme is an invitation to a journey of understanding and discovery of who we are as Lasallian educators, what it means to teach and work in a Lasallian school, and our interconnectedness to our global Lasallian Family.
Br John Connaughton of St John’s, Ballyfermot, has written a poem about a memorable time from his childhood.
As a brief introduction, Tessie and Joe were brother and sister who lived in a house that was a storey-and-a-half high, and was built down in a hollow after the “big wind” of the late 19th Century that knocked many houses. Brendan was a brother and Minnie, his wife.
