Principal News
We officially launched our Cookbook yesterday. Through the work of all our families contributions and some great community partners, Glenis has compiled them into a book that will be a legacy piece for our school. We thank Glenis for her work on the cookbook, along with Abbey and Mel, who have given up their time to support this project.
Through this celebration, we were able to thank Glenis for her service at Holy Family, and wish her all the best as she transitions to her new full time role at Ramlegh Primary School.
The Garden will continue to be a focus for our school moving forward, with Mrs Drossaert continuing her work in guiding the kitchen garden academy, and Mrs Pearl Perera who will help to maintain the garden and keep students actively involved in planting and harvesting projects.
I wish to take this opportunity to offer our condolences to the Doveton College community on the loss of their student and his mother this week. This is an absolute tragedy. I have reached out to Doveton College to offer our sympathy, prayers and support from the whole community.
This highlights the importance of water safety, which our students will focus on in a few weeks. It is important that all children understand the changes in water conditions and how dangerous it can be. These lessons will touch on this, but are not sufficient to create lasting learning, which we call on all families to support.
This week we made a major change. We stopped the Operoo platform and are moving to the NFORMA platform. This requires all families to create a login for the NFORMA parent portal. The app is available on the App Store, and Mrs Linda Rusi, who will now lead our parent support, will be available over coming weeks to assist families to set it up. We are still finalising the data transfer, but once complete, and some final testing done on NFORMA, we will be ready to launch.
This is critical for ALL families to have an account, as it is how you will receive all information from the school, including reports. It will provide you with access to your child’s data and allow you to submit absences.
Regarding absences, we are calling each day to confirm if your child is absent. This is how we ensure our responsibility to child safety. All families have a responsibility to report absences under the policies put out through Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, and the Education Department, which is the same throughout the state. I thank the many families who do call in each day to inform us of absences.
Some reflections from Pope Leo:
Education as a shared mission
Pope Leo XIV underlines that education is always a collective effort in which teachers, students, families, administrators, pastors, and civil society all participate. He recalls the thought of Saint John Henry Newman—now named co-patron of the educational world alongside Saint Thomas Aquinas—as a model of intellectual rigour united with deep humanity.
The Pope encourages renewal in educational environments through empathy and openness, insisting that education must form the whole person, integrating knowledge with the heart and the capacity for discernment. Catholic schools and universities are to be places where inquiry is guided and supported, not suppressed. Teaching, he adds, is to be understood as a vocation of service that offers time, trust, competence, and compassion, joining justice with mercy
A couple of Dates to know:
27th November : Christmas Celebration and Concert
15th December: Year 6 Graduation
16th December: Final day at school finish at normal time.