Dear Parents and Caregivers

There is always lots happening at St Helena's Catholic Primary School! It was lovely to come together last week to celebrate Ash Wednesday and the commencement of Lent as a school community. It was also wonderful to celebrate our Neumann Liturgy yesterday, celebrating the life of Bishop John Neumann our patron for the Neumann faction. We look forward to continuing to make our patrons of all our factions prominent in our school.

Thank you to all the parents and caregivers that came to the Parent Information Sessions. It was great to see so many of you in attendance. As previously mentioned, we want to continue to develop our strong home/school partnership at St Helena's so that we can support our children together. We respect our parents and caregivers as the children's first educators, and want to ensure we work together for the best interests of all individual students. A huge thank you to our classroom teachers for preparing and presenting the Parent Information Sessions, with everything else that they do at the beginning of the year!

It was wonderful to see parents and caregivers at the first P&F Meeting last week. Looking forward to continuing to work together to build community and raise some funds along the way that will be used to purchase resources that will directly benefit all our students. Keep an eye out for the next meeting and any call outs for volunteers to up and coming events. We also held our first Catholic School Advisory Council Meeting last night. I am looking forward to working with the Advisory Council, whose role is to support me as Principal, to plan for the present and future operation of St Helena's.

We are very lucky at St Helena's to have various extra-curricular activities that our staff are happy to coordinate and facilitate. It was great to see the Choir this morning before school with Miss Panaia in the fabulous Music Room. Well done to all the students who have committed to being in the St Helena's Choir in 2023.

Keep in our prayers the Year 6 students and staff attending camp next Wednesday to Friday. I am sure that they will have an awesome experience! Again, thank you to the staff attending this extra-curricular activity so that our students can have the camp experience that we offer at St Helena's. I am sure the students, parents and caregivers are all very appreciative of Miss Healy, Mrs Viola, Mr Vine, Mrs Hesse and Mrs Zanetti's commitment to attend camp and be on duty all day and night from Wednesday through to Friday of next week.

Don't forget to save the date - Friday 17 March between 5:30pm to 7:30pm for our P&F Welcome Sundowner. More information in the P&F News section of the newsletter.

Also note that the Offical Opening of our new Administration Building and the Blessing of our new Music Room will be on Friday 28 April at 10:00am. All Welcome!

Congratulations Miss Jess Healy on your recent engagement to Ian.

Very exciting news for you both!

Throughout 2021, staff at St Helena's worked together to articulate a shared Vision for Learning for all children and adults at St Helena's Catholic Primary School. The Vision for Learning will continue to be at the forefront of what we do as a staff and school community as we share the aspirations and beliefs that it encapsulates. Our Vision for Learning is focused on the following four pillars. We look forward to sharing more about our Vision for Learning in 2023!

SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT

As a community united in faith and trust, St Helena’s Catholic Primary School seeks to provide a nurturing and diverse learning environment where all are inspired to live the ideal of doing Something Beautiful for God.

VISION FOR LEARNING

Pillar One: Christ Centred - Catholic Identity

At St Helena’s, we value the visible expression of our Catholic identity

and actively give witness to the values of the Gospel.

Pillar Two: Collaboration - Community

At St Helena’s, we value staff, students, parents, caregivers, parish and the

wider community working together to support each person

to become the person God intended them to be.

Pillar Three: Voice & Engagement - Education

At St Helena’s, we value evidence-based teaching and learning practices that are respectful and responsive to the diverse needs of all learners in an ever-changing world.

Pillar Four: Safety & Respect - Stewardship

At St Helena’s, we value each individual and act with concern for the

physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of all members of our community.

Peace & Happy Days!

Santino Giancono

Principal

Connie's Column