There is a strong community between the school and the Parish of St Anne’s. With the church just next door, the students look forward to sharing mass on occasions such as First Friday Masses, Healing Masses, the feast day of St Anne and St Joachim on the 26th July - also known as Grandparents’ Day, and Hospitality Masses. All of these and more, are celebrated with fellow parishioners. This also offers the opportunity for the students to join parishioners and family to share in prayer together and enjoy morning tea and a chat.
St Anne’s joins in the celebrations of masses in at the cathedral such as the Catholic Education Week mass held each year on the feast of St Patrick, and at the Mission mass held to celebrate the immense work that Caritas and all catholic schools work so hard to support.
St Anne’s students are involved in understanding of, and action for social justice. They have had a strong association with helping the plight of the Refugees in Eltham, Vinnies, Mini Vinnies and a very strong connection with some of the schools and teachers of the Philippines.
Together with guidance from their teachers, they have helped to set up the toy and book libraries in the Philippines. They have also had fundraising to help them purchase goods for the school vegetable patches in the Philippines. Seeing the photos has given them a real sense of pride and satisfaction that their hard work has been helpful to someone less fortunate than themselves.
Our foundation to year 2 classes and our Glee Club have on many occasions visited Eva Tilley, a local nursing home. The students sang, read stories to and mingled with the residents.
After the children have celebrated their First Eucharist, they are encouraged to be altar servers at Saturday, Sunday and school masses. We have very strong support from the children of this parish vocation.
