Principal's News

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all the special women in our community- mothers, grandmothers, aunties, friends and carers. Thank you to Connie Drossaert for organising the Mother’s Day celebration last Monday; a special assembly with a performance from our junior students and morning tea for adults. Thank you also to Serah Lemalu, Linda Rusi, Maria Tito and Kuy Hong for coordinating the Mother’s Day Stall and ensuring our students could purchase a special gift for their mums. We value parent volunteers in our school and always welcome parents to get involved in our community.

Harmony Day

Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity – a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia home. We are proud of our multicultural community with many of our students and their families born overseas representing 35 different countries. Harmony Day is celebrated in March to coincide with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Due to the busyness of term 1, we held our Harmony Day celebrations last week. Thank you to all staff for their efforts in ensuring the success of the day, particularly Connie Drossaert for coordinating the event.

Australian Indigenous Flag

We began our Harmony Day celebrations by raising the Indigenous flag and reading an Acknowledgment of Country. This is the first time we have done this at Holy Family School and like many non-Indigenous Australians we have not had the opportunity to engage with the rich cultures of First Nations people. Acknowledging First Nations people promotes awareness of their history and culture and recognises the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first custodians of this land. Increasing awareness at Holy Family is important as we all work towards creating a more united Australia.

NAPLAN

This week our year 3 and year 5 students will undertake NAPLAN assessments. NAPLAN is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3 and 5 (Primary) and 7 and 9 (Secondary). It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. The tests cover skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. The assessments are undertaken every year in the second full week in May. The NAPLAN assessment data helps drive improvements in student outcomes and provides schools with detailed information about how they are performing by identifying strengths and weaknesses which may need further attention. 

Kind regards,

Suzanne Deefholts

Learning and Teaching Leader