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LAST SCHOOL DAY 2024

Tuesday 17th December

(1pm finish)

Dear Families,

I would like to take a moment to sincerely thank you for your unwavering support and dedication. Your encouragement and faith in us as educators have made such a difference, and we are truly grateful for everything you do. Whether through your time, understanding, or thoughtful gestures, you help create a positive and nurturing environment that strengthens us all.

Your kindness and commitment are deeply appreciated, and we feel incredibly fortunate to have you by our side. Thank you once again for being such an essential part of our community and journey.

Our theme for this year has been 'GROW'.

I believe growth and success are closely related and it is impossible to grow without reflection or having thoughts about something. Reflection allows the brain to pause amidst the chaos, untangle and sort through observations and experiences and eventually create meaning.

Your ongoing growth and development will highly depend on reflection; reflection is key to learning and learning is key to growing. This means that if you are not making time for reflection then you are not making time for growth. (Edward Mungai)

Reflection has been a focus for our staff this year to grow in all areas of student learning and wellbeing. On behalf of our community I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication displayed by our staff this year. Our Staff Leadership Team have been instrumental in guiding the change process they we are going through by providing mentoring and coaching for our teachers.

2025 School Theme

The year 2025 is a Jubilee Year in our Church. A jubilee year is a time of prayer, pilgrimage and acts of mercy.

The motto given to this Holy Year 2025 by Pope Francis is 'Pilgrims of Hope'. Pope Francis is in the belief that the year can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire after years of pandemic and suffering.

To conincide with the Jubilee Year and being 'pilgrims of hope' our school will have 'HOPE' as our 2025 theme.

Community Celebrations

Our Parish and School Communities are preparing to celebrate the 2024 school year and the season of Advent/Christmas.

In the coming weeks we have many community events to look forward to.

• Thursday 5th December - Holy Family School Christmas Carols (5:30-7pm) Everyone welcome
• Monday 9th December - School Choir singing at the local Nursing Home
• Tuesday 10th December - 2024 Year 6 Graduation (Avila College)
• Friday 13th December - 2024 End of Year Mass 9:15am (handover the light of Student Leadership) Everyone welcome
• Tuesday 17th December - Holy Family School Final Assembly (11:30am-1pm)
• Tuesday 24th December - Holy Family Parish Christmas Eve Family Mass (5pm)

2024 School Advisory Council AGM Report

At our School Advisory Council AGM last week our Curriculum Leaders shared 2024 achievemnts and indicated possible direction for 2025.

Catholic Identity and Mission

2024 Achievements

• Daily prayers in classroom
• Whole school celebration of Holy Week — classes displayed a specific event the occurred during whole week and parents and parishioners were invited to attend.
• Sacrament preparation of students in Year 4 for Reconciliation and First Eucharist and Year 6 for Confirmation.
• Strong parish and school partnerships through masses, sacraments and special events
• Altar Servers from Year 5 and 6 attend class masses
• Parent information evenings for sacraments
• School prayer at assemblies.
• Paraliturgies for important events such as Remembrance Day and Anzac Day
• Classes attend parish mass on Fridays at least once a term
• Whole school masses for holy days of obligation 
• Staff professional development on teaching Religious Education.
• Social Justice — Caritas Project Compassion, Mini Vinnies
• FIRE Carrier School - Fundraising for Opening the Doors Foundation, supporting Aboriginal children in Catholic schools.
• Mini Vinnies Science Extravaganza - raising money for St Vincent de Pauls
• Religious Education posts in School Newsletters 
• Student leaders attended St Patrick's Day mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
• Student leaders, Principal and Religious Education Leader to attend mass at St Patrick's Cathedral on 24 November 2024 to launch the Year of Jubilee 2025

2025 Next Steps (Catholic Identity and Mission)

• Continue to build staff capacity in order to facilitate a contemporary approach to    learning and teaching in Religious Education including assessment and reporting.
• Continue to implement strategies to make Religious Education and Social Justice actions explicit, visible, and celebrated within our curriculum and community 
• Ensure Religious Education teaching is purposeful by continually seeking the integration of scripture in school culture
• Continue support of Mini Vinnies and FIRE Carrier programs

Learning and Teaching 

In 2024 teachers were introduced to the MACS 2030 Vision for Instruction. On a closure day early in the year we unpacked the Vision for Instruction and explored what it meant for Teachers and learners at Holy Family. 

MACS Vision for Instruction has two goals: 

Excellence - Teaching excellence where all teacher are empowered to implement evidence-based practices and deliver the knowledge that students need to become intellectual and moral citizens of the world

Equity: Every student, regardless of background, achieves literacy and numeracy proficiency

Our staff have participated in onsite and external professional development focussed on pedagogical approaches needed to effectively teach literacy and numeracy. 

Teachers across the school have participated in coaching cycles where they have reviewed their teaching in a specific area and gained feedback and insights from internal and external knowledgeable others. 

Teachers are developing their evidence based practice through the use of Daily Review, full participation engagement norms and explicit teaching of concepts.

Classrooms are set up to ensure students are placed to receive immediate and timely feedback from teachers throughout the lesson. 

Foundation to Year Two implemented the OCHRE Mathematics resources from the beginning of the year and Years 3 -6 used a mixture of Australian Curriculum and OCHRE mathematics resources. These resources scaffold the science of learning pedagogy with Daily Reviews, Scope and sequences that implement Interleaved practice and explicit lessons. 

Year 5-6 participated in a trial for OCHRE implementing a 3 week Science knowledge rich unit.

All year levels implemented a Read to Learn Unit of work based on the curriculum disciplines that were being taught. The units are created to deepen the students' knowledge across the curriculum and incorporate science of learning approaches. 

Holy Family is well placed in the 2030 Vision for Instruction. Our teachers are lifelong learners who are committed to providing excellence in education for all students. 

In 2025 we will continue to expand and embed evidence based practices across the curriculum. Teachers will focus on refining their teaching practice. We will be diving deeper into evidence based practices, refining our planning and teaching to continue to meet the learning needs of the students at our school. 

Literacy at Holy Family has been on a change journey since mid 2023. Last year marked the introduction of systematic synthetic phonics in Years 1 & 2 and professional learning around the reading brain. The changes to how we teach literacy at Holy Family are in line with the large body of evidence referred to as the Science of Reading, which also draws upon how we learn (the Science of Learning).  

2024 Achievements

• Staff received professional development in late 2023 in readiness for the changes in literacy assessments.
• A move away from Fountas and Pinnell (BAS running records) and towards evidence informed assessments such as the DIBELS screener, diagnostic assessments in reading (LeSt, Distn, LLARS) alongside many others that serve varying purposes
• Implementation of DIBELS three times a year as a screener to identify the sub skills for efficient decoding
• Identifying student for intervention via DIBELS and diagnostic reading and spelling assessments
• Professional development in explicit direct instruction in literacy and daily reviews, organised with 8 other Catholic schools from the eastern region. 
• Observations of classroom practice with Brooke Wardana, an expert in the field of explicit instruction and literacy
• Groups of teachers sent to Docklands Primary School to observe Daily Reviews and explicit instruction lessons in both literary and numeracy. 
• Introduction of Knowledge Rich units in Term 3 across Years 1-6  to link to Olympics (Ancient Greece/Ancient Rome) in preparation for 2026 roll out of the Knowledge Rich units
• Fluency pairs and T2 vocab professional learning for staff, followed by classroom modelling of instruction.

2025 Next Steps (Learning and Teaching)

• Focus on developing knowledge rich units of work with 9 other schools from the eastern region collective and under the guidance of Dr Nathaniel Swain (university lecturer, researcher and science of reading and learning expert)
• Professional learning for staff in the area of writing
• Unpacking assessment data to better understand next steps
• Revisit fluency, Tier 2 vocabulary and spelling generalisations

Wellbeing

2024 Achievements

• Weekly ‘Wellbeing Hour’ sessions 
• Whole school use of the CASEL Framework to provide a consistent and whole school focussed approach for implementing the Resilience Project & Respectful Relationships program as a school community
• Implementation of Resilient Youth Survey and ACER Social/emotional Wellbeing survey
• Whole school mixed age ‘Wellbeing Hour’ in term 2 focusing on social skills (games hour)
• Termly Bullying surveys and interviews
• Whole school Bully No Way Day
• Harmony Day
• Implementation of whole school behaviour curriculum
• Continued our relationship with Victoria Police and Inform and Empower to support cybersafety education
• Weekly class meetings led by student leaders
• Student led ‘Kid’s News’ online presentation once a week
• Lunchtime clubs led by students
• Cooking Club, focusing on social and communication skills 
• Introduction of ‘Community Village Managers’- supervising play in cubbies

2025 Next Steps (Wellbeing)

• Continued implementation of CASEL framework with focus on RP and RR programs
• Extension of whole school mixed age ‘Wellbeing Hour’ to one a term
• Extension of ACER Social/emotional Wellbeing survey to include all year levels
• Continue to explore varied ways of including student voice to enhance student wellbeing

2025 School Fees

Please refer to the attached letter outlining our School Fees for 2025.

CDF News (Important)

Holy Family will be using Flexischools for parents in 2025.  Australia's #1 school ordering solution, Flexischools, operates in more than 1700 schools across Australia, enabling parents and students to order and pay for school uniform shop items and school community events online or via the Flexischools app.

Flexischools App 

Parents simply download the Flexischools app from the Apple or Google store and follow the prompts to create an account. You can download the App and find registration and online ordering instructions here.

Parents can set daily spend limits and keep an eye on what they’re buying via your Flexischools app. Additionally, you can also add access for your child to use the App, enabling them to place online orders themselves - great for growing independence.

If you already have a Flexischools account for another family member then just select the Profile icon on the app and +Add New Student. 

Prep-4 Swimming Program

This week our Prep to Year 4 students commenced their annual swimming program. They boarded the bus on Monday with great excitement and will continue to refine their swimming skills over the next two weeks.

Community Christmas Carols

Tonight we will gather in the Quadrangle from 5pm to celebrate the Christmas Season as a community. Our students have been busy rehearsing for this special event so come along dressed in your best 'Christmas' attire ready to sing along. 

Families are invited to bring a picnic rug and food to this event.

Melbourne Zoo Excursion

Last Thursday our school ventured to the Melbourne Zoo for a whole school 'Wellbeing Excursion'. We were blessed with gorgeous weather and fantastic parent helpers which made the day a HUGE success.

Thank you to Miss King for her thorough preparation and organisation to enable the day to run smoothly. I hope this day is one that our students will remember for years to come.

Staffing News

Tina Edmanson (Learning Support Officer) will be leaving Holy Family at the end of this year. Tina has been a valuable member of our staff and Learning Support Team.

On behalf of our community I wish Tina all the best at her new school which is much closer to her home.

Thank you for being an integral member of the Holy Family School community Tina.

School reports

REMINDER: Reports are now digital!

December school reports are going home via the Nforma Parent portal. The instructions on how to download and set up the portal is in the original Operoo notice that was sent home and this newsletter.

If you need to update your email address please inform the office as soon as possible as it can take up to 3 days to update. 

You can add the app to your phone or view the reports on a  web browser.

Digital reports are easily accessible at any time and save a significant amount of paper. If you require a printed report please email-

jyoung@hfmw.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 11th of December. 

Please read the attached guide for more information-

School Choir

Our school choir is very busy at the moment.

• Singing at the Holy Family Parishioners Lunch
• Busking outside St Vincent de Paul, Mt Waverley
• Entertaining residents at the Scotchman's Creek Nursing Home
• Performing at our Christmas Carols event
• Sininging at our End of Year Mass

Student Leadership

A 'special' edition of our newsletter will be published next week.

In this newsletter the 2025 Student Leaders and 2025 Class Teachers will be announced.

The handing over of the 'Light of Leadership' will occur at our End of Year Mass on Friday 13th December at 9:15am. 

An Evening with Maria Ruberto (Save the Date)

Our school has engaged Maria Ruberto as a speaker for parents/carers in 2025. 

Please mark Tuesday 25th March 2025 in your calendars. This is an event not to be missed.

Maria Ruberto is the founder and director of Salutegenics Psychology, a strengths-based practice that moves people in personal and professional spaces toward mental fitness and life-health. Maria’s work is based on the theory of Salutogenesis where wellbeing is built from the development of positive human assets, including affective functioning and strengths-based skills.

She is a psychologist and certified neuropsychotherapist with over 30 years experience in education, clinical and industry platforms. Her implementation of research encourages the increase in capacity and performance of individuals and teams who rely on highly tuned relationships, emotional intelligence and resilience to achieve professional, corporate, organisational and client growth.

Her work is dynamic, interactive and spirited, anchored by research in neuroscience and brain function, and framed by the science of wellbeing.

Maria is currently a consultant to Hello Driven in the co-construction of Resilience First Aid certification program. Her work has included consulting to Beyond Blue as Instructional Director of SenseAbility; ReachOut.com as a Development Practitioner of online mental health training; Travancore School of Mental Health which is a partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital; Orygen Youth Mental Health and education; and Swinburne University as a conduit for schools within Emotional Intelligence training. She is currently partnering with Kieser Australia to align mental fitness with functional form and body strength.

Maria delivers workshops and professional learning to organisations focused on teaching people to open their lives, apply optimistic tools and activate positive affectivity within a meaningful and fulfilling context. The core mission of her work is moving young people and adults from languishing to flourishing, with respect, resilience and resolve.

Coffee Roster

Soft plastics recycling

2025 Dates

In the next week you will receive a copy of our 2025 School Calendar. This calendar will have dates already set for 2025 but you will have to keep an eye on our google calendar as dates may change or be added.

December

Monday 2nd - 13th Swimming Program (Prep-Year 4)

Thursday 5th - Community Christmas Carols

Thursday 5th - Last day for donations (Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal)

Friday 6th - P&F Special Lunch

Friday 6th - Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal Pick Up Day

Tuesday 10th- Year 6 Graduation

Thursday 12th - Transition Speeches from previous Holy Family students to our current Year 6 students

Friday 13th - End of Year Mass (9:15am)

Monday 16th - Year 6 Big Day Out

Tuesday 17th - Final Assembly (11:30am-1pm)

Tuesday 17th - Last day for students (1pm finish)

2025

Term 1 Dates

January

Tuesday 28th - Staff return

Wednesday 29th - Student Assessments

Thursday 30th - Student Assessments

Friday 31st - First Day of School (All students)

February

Sunday 2nd - Prep 2025 Playdate

Wednesday 5th - Prep Rest Day

Tuesday 11th - Meet the Teacher (Parents/Carers)

Wednesday 12th - Meet the Teacher (Parents/Carers)

Wednesday 12th - Prep Rest Day

Wednesday 19th - Prep Rest Day

Wednesday 26th - Prep Rest Day

Thursday 27th - Welcome Dinner (New families)

Friday 28th - School Closure Day

March

Monday 3rd - Halogen Young Leaders Day

Wednesday 5th - Prep-Year 2 Parent Evening (Literacy)

Wednesday 5th - Prep Rest Day

Monday 10th - Public Holiday (Labor Day)

Thursday 13th - Twilight Sports

Friday 21st - Harmony Day, World Syndrome Day, Earth Hour

Tuesday 25th - Parent Evening (Maria Ruberto)

Once again, thank you for a wonderful 2024,

Julie David (Principal)