Principal's Update 

Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians,

We have been involved in and have been planning many extra special events over the past fortnight which are a lovely reminder of how our community celebrate so well together. Several of our leaders represented our school at the Remembrance Day Service on Thursday 11th November, our new Preps visited again, our new Prep parents and families joined us for a warm welcome morning tea and informal information session in the hall, our level 5 leaders again welcomed and joined the Preps in their new learning space, our level 4 and 5 students celebrated their very first Eucharist in our Church with Fr John Paul and their families, the Fatima basketball teams continued training sessions after school breathing life back into the playground and we opened the gates to our families who we have missed coming onsite for so long.  

In every way we are beginning to "let our lights shine" again and it feels so good!

All of these events are still many ‘firsts’ for me  as Principal of OLOF and every time I am overwhelmed with the generosity of spirit and the giving nature of our staff and families. Staff go out of their way to engage and inspire and there is a sense of fun and relationship with each new celebration. We are very blessed that every staff member embraces celebrations and opportunities for our students and families. 

Over the coming weeks we see the planning and hard work come to fruition as our Preps step onto the bus to visit the Big Goose farm, our level 1/2's bravely travel to Melbourne to visit the Zoo, our Level 3/4's venture out on their first camp at The Briars, our level 5/6's head out on their first beach day in a couple of years and all while we prepare to say goodbye to our level 6's who will celebrate with a big night of pizza, ice cream, shared activities and a big, long day out and, of course the Dromana Drive-In to view Graduation and awards with their families.

We are now well and truly within the busy time of the school year where the end is in sight. There are still many more celebrations and opportunities to come including our own end of year Liturgy and farewells to many loved staff members including Darren Perry, Dimity Hemingway and Gail Morris. Please stay tuned so that you can be part of the journey to Christmas and join in the celebrations remotely. 

Please also remember that we are all still transitioning back after so long away from school routines, social norms, daily interactions with friends and even from fights and squabbles and so many are out of practice! Hang in there. We are all working together to get back to understanding what our right to respect, safety and learning looks and feels like in a very busy lead up to Christmas. How we guide and model for our children through this time is how we enable them to "shine their light" brightly, mistakes and all! We must all act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God through good times and hard times.

I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we have appointed a new Deputy Principal, Leader of Learning and Teaching and Innovation (including Numeracy and digital and data). We welcome Mrs. Gill Carr to the Fatima Crew. Gill comes to Fatima from St Anne's Seaford where she has had an instrumental role in lifting learning and shifting data through working collaboratively with staff, students and families. We are very lucky to have Gill's postgraduate expertise in Educational Leadership, Gifted Education, Religious Education and Music. Gill is an expert educator and leader and we look forward to all that she will bring to our next phase of school improvement and building community connections. We welcome Jeanine Sutherland to the OLOF teaching team in 2022. Jeanine will be in our Prep space on Thursdays with Sally and on Fridays with Gabi. Jeanine makes up the third teacher in the space until Aley Allen returns in Term 3. Jeanine comes to us with many years of teaching experience especially in Prep.

Our 2022 team is slowly coming together. The staff meet tomorrow all day to start working on 2022 and planning for a wonderful year of learning. We anticipate that tutor funding will be officially announced tomorrow and that will enable us to have another level of support for intervention and extension.

As always go gently and look after your families with the greatest of care. 

God Bless,

Patrika Rowley

PRINCIPAL