Dear Families,

Thank you for supporting our Parents and Friends Fundraising event on Saturday night. It was great to see everyone dressed up in 'Op Shop Glam' and enjoying each other's company. The funds raised from this event will go towards extending our adventure playground.

A BIG thank you to our parents who organised this fun night for everyone!

Sacrament of Confirmation

Our Year 6 students received the Sacrament of Confirmation last Friday night. Father Tony Kerin (Box Hill) confirmed each of our students. Both celebrations were prayerful and reflective with our students presenting themselves reverently.

Thank you to Vicky Pejic and our Year 5/6 staff for preparing and supporting these candidates.

2024 Classes

We are beginning to plan for next year.

Parents/carers are invited to email any class requests for 2024 by Friday 15th September to jdavid@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Please keep in mind that some requests can not be met as we have to accommodate numerous requests from parents/carers, students and teachers. When spend many weeks planning classes with the academic and wellbeing needs of each child.

100 Days at School

Last Friday our incredible Preps celebrated '100 Days at School'. These students had a fun time dressing up and having a go at different activities based on the number '100'.

Thank you to Di Dimovski and Eithne King for making this such a memorable day!

Holy Family Virtual Sleepout

Join our families for a Virtual Sleepout on Saturday 26th August. This is an initiative from our Year 4 Mini Vinnies students to raise awareness around homelessness.

You can enjoy soup and storytime with Miss Lark via Zoom.

It would be wonderful if you could take photos of your night sleeping rougher than normal and send them to Miss Lark (rlark@hfmw.catholic.edu.au) to be displayed and shared around the school.

Below are some photos of how you can sleep rough to experience a little of what it is like for people who are homeless or people who don’t have a secure roof over their head.

Don’t forget soup and story time on Zoom with Miss Lark:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81810490189?pwd=aEVydVJaU0NndlBFNUtVeHE4MzBFQT09

Passcode - sleepout (all lower case letters)

Step Into Prep @ Holy Family Program

We had our first 'Step into Prep' session last Friday. The sun was shining and it was a great opportunity for our 2024 Prep students and their families to get to meet each other.

Book Week

I look forward to enjoying Book Week with our school community next week. The theme for this year is 'Read, Grow, Inspire'. Children are almost like plants and literature is the sun, the soil, and the water. With good literature, our students can grow and flourish.

I wonder which character you are going to dress up as on Monday 21st August for our Parade?

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence

On Friday 18th August (tomorrow) our school is acknowledging the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence by inviting everyone to wear a touch of orange and eat orange jelly as a treat.

The theme for 2023 is 'growing connections'. This theme supports research findings that strong school community connections and social skills are protective factors in the prevention of bullying and help enable positive, help-seeking behaviours in students.

Community Connections

During the last two weeks I have had the privilege of visiting Kindergartens with some of our Senior students. During the visit our students have read to, painted with and played with the kindergarten students. We look forward to visiting many more Kindergartens and Childcare Centres in coming weeks.

Thank you to Becc Lark and Natalie Dib for supporting this initiative.

Below is feedback from the teacher at Pinewood Kinder which she emailed after our visit -

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank yourself and your students for your fun interactive games that you brought to the children . It was very well prepared by your students and was delivered with patience and kindness. Your students were an absolute credit to yourself and Holy Family primary school . Their confidence and leadership shone through, and it was a pleasure to have such positive role models . I would also like to say how refreshing it was to see what a beautiful connection you have built with the students , it was heartwarming to witness the mutual respect you have with each other. Please visit any time.

Sporting News

Our Senior Boys Soccer Team is playing in the Region Finals today. I would like to congratulate these boys for making it this far in the competition and wish them all the best today!

Jump Off Day

Our students are busy practising their skipping skills in preparation for 'Jump Off Day' on Friday 25th August. It is heartwarming to see our students encouraging each other out on the yard to see how many skips in a row they can do.

2024 Enrolments

We are in the fortunate position of increasing our enrolments in Prep for 2024.

Please let your family and friends know that enrolments are still being accepted with a few spaces still available.

Parents and Friends Meeting

Our Parent and Friends Committee are meeting on Tuesday 22nd August at 7pm.

Term 3 Events

August

Thursday 17th/Friday 18th - Deputy Principal Conference

Friday 18th - Bullying No Way Day (Wear a touch of orange)

Monday 21st - Book Week 'Read, Grow, Inspire'

Monday 21st - Book Week Parade

Tuesday 22nd - Parents and Friends Meeting (7pm)

Thursday 24th - Step into Prep @ Holy Family program (Storytime 9am)

Friday 25th - Jump Off Day

Saturday 26th - Holy Family Virtual Sleepout (6:30pm)

Thursday 31st - Father's Day Celebration

September

Friday 1st - Father's Day Stall

Sunday 3rd - Father's Day

Wednesday 6th - School Advisory Council Meeting (TBC) 6pm

Friday 8th - SDSSA Basketball Round Robin

Monday 11th - Year 5/6 Performing Arts Celebration (Avila College)

Tuesday 12th - Walk for Tiwi Action (wear football colours/gold coin donation) TBC

Friday 15th - Mass/Celebration of Learning

Friday 15th September - Students finish at 1pm

Wishing our families a relaxing weekend,

Julie David (Principal)