Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week, we were excited to officially open our new Mini Woolies at Arrunga, an innovative learning space designed to bring real-world experiences into the heart of our school.

The Mini Woolies is a fully functional mini supermarket set up within Arrunga. Although you can’t technically buy anything there, It features shelves, baskets, a checkout, and a wide range of grocery items—just like a real Woolworths store. Students have the opportunity to take on roles as cashiers, shoppers and team members, practising valuable skills such as money handling, communication, and customer service. Students will engage in literacy and numeracy activities and build their confidence in working with other people, and important customer service skills.  

Our goal is to help students develop independence, confidence, and practical life skills in a fun and meaningful way. The Mini Woolies experience links directly to curriculum outcomes and supports students’ social and emotional growth.

We are grateful for the support from Woolworths, who have facilitated the implementation of this program and who joined us for the official launch. Their partnership helps us provide these enriching, hands-on opportunities for the learners at St Luke’s. While the Mini Woolies is situated in Arrunga, we will be excited to welcome students from our other high needs centres across the diocese, as well as creating the opportunity for the school to be able to deliver Retail Services to a HSC level.  In fact, some of our primary students were excited to go and visit there when they spoke to me in the marketplace this week. A whole new way to learn about money!

We look forward to seeing our students thrive as they embrace this new opportunity at school.

Kelly Bauer

Principal