As you would be aware, each year, Year 4 students in all Wollongong Diocesan schools take part in a Religious Literacy Assessment (RLA). The Year 4 RLA will be held on Monday, 4 August this year.  

In addition, our Year 5 students at St Paul’s have been invited to take part in a trial of the 2025 RLA so that it can be fine-tuned  for the actual Year 4 assessment in August. The process of having a pilot group complete the test allows the CEO to check for the validity and reliability of the test items. 

The trial RLA assessment will consist of 70 multiple choice questions and covers content from K­ to Year 4 and is drawn from the Religious Education Curriculum. The assessment  will take a maximum of 80 minutes to complete (including instruction and set up time) and will be online using Google Form. 

We plan to have the trial assessment administered early in Term 2 on Tuesday, 13 May 2025. 

We would request that all Year 5 students complete the test and we would aim to ensure that this process is of minimum disruption to your students and the school community. 

Lent

During Lent, the church encourages everyone to take steps to grow in their own journey of faith towards being a disciple of Jesus. These steps include daily spiritual practices of prayer, Bible reading and meaningful relationships with others both within the church community and outside of it.
Lent is a period of time like no other in the year. It is a time when we get the chance to make real change in our life. It’s a time we can dive deeper into biblical teachings, ideas, concepts, and doctrines, and we reflect on these so that they become real in our life and help us grow more deeply in our relationship with God and become the people we want to be and are meant to be.

Make Lent 2025 a time that transforms your life like no other as we prepare for the death and the resurrection of Jesus in our life.

I invite you to click on the link below to the ‘Catholic Diocese of Wollongong’ site which has a section on Media and resources available to us for nourishing our faith.
https://www.dow.org.au/media-resources/nourishing-our-faith/

A couple of examples from this site are:
1. Daily reflections:
https://daily.formed.org/_gl=1*6gipa7*_gcl_au*MTE4ODYzODA5NS4xNzQyNzcyMDYz*_ga*MTE5NzIyMDk4Ni4xNzQyNzcyMDYx*_ga_XM88LLMZ0S*MTc0Mjc3MjA2MS4xLjEuMTc0Mjc3MjA2NC41Ny4wLjE2NzM5NDYyOTE.

2. Online Biblical Commentaries:
www.mbfallon.com 
Australia’s own Fr Michael Fallon msc has made available online his extensive range
of online Biblical commentaries including audio.

Project Compassion

This Lent, we are invited to Unite Against Poverty with Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion. This year is especially significant as we celebrate the Jubilee Year - a time of renewal and solidarity.
Watch our Introduction to Project Compassion film HERE - be inspired by 3 powerful stories of resilience and strength, and learn the impact that your support can have on vulnerable communities around the world.

Coins collected on St Patrick’s Day will be donated to Caritas together with any donations placed in the class Project Compassion boxes. We extend a big thank you to our school community who supported our St Patrick's Day fundraiser. The total amount raised was $700

You can support Project Compassion 2025 through the donation boxes, Or online at: caritas.org.au/project-compassion Or by calling: 1800 024 413

Thank you for standing with us, as we Unite Against Poverty this Lent.