​ILLISTRATIONS from 21 students appear in a new book that retells Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, Darra's story in a child friendly way.

Assistant Principal for Religious Education Kate Carmichael, who wrote the book, said it would help the school community see the school in a new light.  

“As one of the school's goals we wanted to retell our story in a child friendly way and the result is a beautiful glossy book illustrated by students from the school.

“Our students are being encouraged to think about their story at the school and how they are part of the larger school story and to make connections as to how they are part of the Jesus story."

Kate said part of the school Charism was the motto: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved".

“I felt writing this book was a way of helping this to happen within our school.

“In relation to the RE curriculum, these books could be used for the topic of “parish" for our Year 1, 2 and 3 students and also “how faith is shared" for our Year 5s.

“Additionally, even though it's not early pioneering Catholic, it also shoes how communities worked to keep the faith alive when communities were developing.

Kate said she also envisaged the books being read at the beginning of each school year and on the school feast day.

She said there also was the opportunity for some questions to be made up to accompany the book to break it open a bit for teachers.

Year 6 student Nick Le Nguyen said he was so excited to see his drawing in the book.

“We were given a picture of a garden and we had to put our own interpretation of how it related to our school," he said.

 “It was fun coming up with ideas."

Fellow Year 6 student Emily Pham said she too was delighted that her illustration was chosen for the book.

“I was very proud to see it there when I opened the book for the first time."

Kate said each class was presented with a copy of the book.

The idea was that at the beginning of each year the school story was unpacked with the students and revisited often during the year as the students added to the story with their own stories," she said.