From Mrs David's Desk

TERM 2 FINISHES (Friday 28th June at 1pm)

TERM 3 RESUMES (Monday 15th July)

Dear Families,

It appears that winter has definitely set in!

Please ensure that you send your children to school dressed warmly. There are many viruses around at the moment and staff and students will become unwell if there are 'sick' students at school. As you are aware there is a teacher shortage so we would love to be able to keep our staff healthy so that they can continue to provide your children with an engaging education.

Long Service Leave

In the first week of Term 3 Miss King will be Acting Principal as I will be on Long Service Leave for a week. Please direct all correspondence to Miss King until Monday 22nd July when I return.

Staff News

Welcome - Mr Wilson

We warmly welcome Mr Andrew Wilson to our teaching team. Mr Wilson is teching Year 1/2F for the remainder of 2024.

Mr Wilson has been a staff member at Holy Family for the last few years in the position of Learning Support Officer while he completed his teaching degree. He has been involved in our staff Professional Learning and will be supported by Jennifer Young (Learning and Teaching and Mathematics Leader) and Natalie Dib (Literacy Leader).

You can contact Mr Wilson via email awilson@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Welcome - Miss Vezzu

Miss Vezzu will be joining our staff in Term 3. She will be replacing Mrs Santamaria while she is on leave.

Miss Vezzu completed her teaching degree with Honours at Monash University. She is very excited about joining Holy Family.

Welcome - Mrs Kemp

Christine Kemp will join our magnificent Learning Support Team.

She has had previous expereince as a Learning Support Officer in other schools.

Farewell - Mrs Santamaria

Mrs Santamaria will commence her leave on Thursday 27th June. We wish Mrs Santamaria and her family all the best as they prepare for the birth of their beautiful baby boy and look forward to her visiting us soon.

Farewell - Miss Owen and Mrs Randall (Learning Support Officers)

We are saying thank you and farewell to Miss Owen and Mrs Randall at the end of this term.

Both of these staff members have been an amazing support for our staff, students and families.

Miss Owen will continue her travels and Mrs Randall is joining the staff at a Secondary School.

Our Holy Family community will miss each of you!

School Drop Off

Just a reminder that staff are not on duty until 8:30am so any students that are dropped off at school before this time may be sent to Before School Care. It is very cold outside so I would prefer not to have 20 students (like Wednesday this week) waiting for the gates to open in very cold weather.

If you have already spoken with me about your circumstances then we have already agreed on a time that you can leave your children in the morning.

Spelling Learning Walks

Thank you to our Staff Leadership Team for welcoming and guiding our parents on the 'Spelling Learning Walks' on Tuesday. This session was provided to build on the information provided to parents at our Curriculum Evening on Explicit Direct Instruction, Daily Review and Systematic Synthetic Phonics earlier this term.

We hope the parents who attended now have a little bit more knowledge about our approach to teaching spelling at Holy Family. There will be another session in Term 3 for you to come along to.

Some of our parents sent feedback after the session via email or social media.

Parent/Carer Open Morning

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Term 2 'Open Morning'. We hope you had a wonderful time visiting you child's classroom.

Staff Professional Learning

Our staff are continuing their learning in the areas of -

Explicit Direct Instruction
Daily Reviews (Mathematics and Literacy)
Teaching for Impact in Mathematics
Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Writing
Knowledge Rich Curriculum
Routines

The focus for the second half of this year will be on Writing, Daily Reviews and the Knowledge Rich Curriculum.

A knowledge-rich curriculum aligns with the science on how students learn

Cognitive science explains that students learn best when they are supported to acquire, retain and apply knowledge. In line with the science of learning, a knowledge-rich curriculum progressively builds students’ subject knowledge, with plenty of opportunities for practise, review and retrieval to support long-term retention of learning. As students acquire more knowledge, it becomes easier for them to comprehend text, understand new concepts and acquire related skills.

(Australian Education Research Organisation, March 2024)

Don't forget that you can email members of our Staff Leadership Team with your questions. The responses to some of these questions could lead to future newsletter item for all families.

Jennifer Young (Learning and Teaching, Mathematics, Digital Technologies Leader)

jyoung@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Natalie Dib (Literacy Leader)

ndib@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Vicky Pejic (Religious Education Leader)

vpejic@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Eithne King (Wellbeing Leader)

eking@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Jacqui Prosser (Learning Diversity Leader)

jprosser@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Prep Fire Education

Our Prep students started their Fire Educaton sessions this week. It looks like they had heaps of fun while learning important information.

Family Testimonials

I am currently updating our website and would like some new testimonials to add to content on the site.

If possible, I would also like to interview some parents/carers to use on our website and/or social media.

Please click on the QR Code to respond.

Important Information

Please remember not to do a right hand turn into our school after 8am or make a right hand turn onto Stephensons Road when exiting our school carpark.

Parents and Friends Reminder

Don't forget that our Parents and Friends are gathering at the Notting Hill Hotel at 7pm on Monday 24th June to plan our next 2024 social event (Trivia Night) and a casual dinner.

Thank you for your support.

2025/2026 Enrolments Open

A reminder to our existing families that enrolments are now open for the 2025/2026 school year.

Please come into the office to receive an enrolment form from Tracey or Rana.

Open Days

Our Open Days are continuing throughout this term. Please let your friends and family know.

To book a tour all you need to do is phone our office and choose a date and time that suits your family.

Soft Plastics Recycling

Thank you to those families who have volunteered to pick up our soft plastics and drop them to Monash Waste Transfer Station. Please find the roster for next term below.

10c container recycling scheme

From the beginning of this term we have started collecting containers for the deposit recycling scheme. Each classroom has a black bucket where these containers are collected, tallied and then sent off to the recycling depot.

So far this term, we have collected over 400 containers, and our student leaders have been gathering ideas from the classes as to what the money will be spent on to improve our environment.

Thank you to a very special donation from one of our Prep families! If any family would like to donate any containers to our school, we would welcome them with open arms.