Gemma's Message

Dear families and friends,

March already. We have had a great 2 weeks of joy as a One Heart Community. 

Our children and educators showed continued flexibility by coming together for two weeks. The hubs were buzzing with activity and joy. 

To have an extra hub educator in every learning space was amazing. Small numbers joined each hub and an extra sometimes two, hub educators were gained. This enabled greater target spaces and influencing within projects and discovery. 

We were excited to share our friendship bracelets last week as a sign of connection and joy. There was certainly a lot of Taylor Swift talk over the last few weeks, we love leveraging from a hot topic within our children’s lives. 

Connection - meet and greets 

Thank you to all of our families who booked in and attended our meet and greet sessions with hub educators. We know that connecting with each other and building strong trusting relationships gives children the knowledge that we are all in this together. 

Gathering - Welcome Picnic

Take two - thank you to everyone joining in another opportunity to connect and contribute to our community. Our greatest focus is always our people. We focus on building strong relationships within our community knowing this makes a difference to all we do. 

Faith 

We have begun preparing for Holi,  Holi is a popular and significant Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love, and Spring. Whilst celebrating Holi we will focus on Holy Week, this is the week before Easter Sunday, beginning seven days before with Palm Sunday. It ends with Holy Saturday. Our children will be representing the different times during Holy week on Thursday 28th March. 

School Advisory Council 

Our first Board meeting will be March 19th at 6.00pm. The school advisory council meets termly. It is an advisory board which supports the School Principal and school community in the education and development of all. 

Membership of the Council is open to any parents interested in discussing and promoting education. Nominations and elections for the School Board take place every two-three years. School Advisory Councils do not have a legal identity and do not become involved in the day-to-day management of the school.

- If you would like to be a member of the School Advisory Council - please email our school office. 

Coming together as One Heart 

It is with great pleasure that we can announce that Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools and Archbishop Peter A Commensoli have made a decision to formally bring together the school communities of St Gabriel’s Reservoir and St Stephen’s East Reservoir.  This decision will best serve the educational needs of the students and parish community into the future and see high-quality Catholic primary school education flourish in the Reservoir community.  We are so excited to be able to officially welcome the children from St Stephen’s to St Gabriel’s. 

As the St Stephen’s children have been learning with us at St Gabriel’s for the past few weeks, they will remain here permanently.  This will ensure the best possible transition support can be offered.  There will be consistent routine and the best opportunities for small group learning, target teaching and specialist lessons for all children.  Our current staffing will remain unchanged until we settle all children into new areas and hub groups.  

If there are any changes, families will be informed in Term 2.  

Prep Hub: Natalie Bandiera, Joanna Vodola, Laura Banidera

1/2 Hub:  Angelique Barbuto, Caitlin Ryan, Lisa Thorneycroft, Teresa Vlahos

3/4 Hub: Jackie Goodyear, Caprice Critchley, Laura Del Busso

5/6 Hub: Nick George, Jo Younan, Emily Schuster