Principal's Welcome
Carmela D'Amato (Principal)
Dear Families, ,
We hope you have all had a great week!
Thank you to all of our families for coming to share in our ‘ARTS CELEBRATION’. It was such a wonderful evening where our students proudly shared their learning with their families and friends. There was such a buzz in the air and I know that the students all enjoyed themselves as did our families. Thank you to the emails and messages that came through, letting us know that you all had a wonderful time also. These events don’t just happen on their own, so a very big thank you to Gianinna Garro, Teresa Zaffina, Paige LaPenta, Steven Avis and Frank Piccione for the enormous amount of extra time that went into setting up the spaces, and for encouraging creativity in our students when they are creating these works of art during their specialists time.
During my time as a Religious Education Leader in various schools, we were exposed to a sculpture called “Homeless Jesus”. This sculpture was created by artist Timothy Schmaltz after he was driving through the streets in Toronto and he saw a homeless man lying on a park bench. This vision moved him so much that he thought he had seen Jesus. He wanted to create the ‘homeless Jesus’ sculpture to bring Jesus to life and that by bringing Jesus down off the cross and into a relatable human context, it would allow people to feel a greater closeness with and accessibility to Christ. This sculpture and its origin has remained with me always, so I was in absolute awe when I stumbled across one of these 100 sculptures around the world, while walking home one night from dinner in Rome! I was then fortunate enough to find another while in Florence. Each time I look at photos of this sculpture I am challenged into thinking about how I help those in need, not just those who are physically in need, but also those that are spiritually in need. Do I just walk past and not notice? Do I do something about it? Am I inclusive in my practice? Am I a team player? Do I use kind words? These questions are always a part of me and how I hope to be when I am interacting with all people. Does anyone else have questions they ask themselves to help them be a ‘Jesus’ person to those around you?
Yesterday our Yr 5 and 6 STEM MAD team went to the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Leadership centre to take part in the national finals. They were given the opportunity to talk about their creation once again putting them in the running to receive another award. Whether they receive the award or not, we are so incredibly proud of how they have presented themselves, their project and their passion during this time. Thank you to Mrs Symeoy, Miss LaPenta and Mrs Peel for supporting them through this learning journey. Good luck team!!
Our next whole event is our Christmas Carols in the Church on Wednesday 6th December. Please be mindful to ONLY park in the allocated car spaces. From an emergency point of view, if we block up any areas that are not marked, then ambulances or other emergency services will not be able to get through. There is ample parking in the street for cars that do not fit in the car park. We are fortunate to be able to use the church car park for our events, please let's use it responsibly.
Lastly, we would like to ask for some feedback around our NEWSLETTER. Thank you to those families that have taken the time to do this already. At the moment we can track how many times our newsletter is being read and we would like to see what is working well but would also like to hear how it could be even better. We would truly appreciate it if you could fill in this anonymous survey regarding our newsletter so that we can make some informed decisions about the frequency of the newsletter, the timing, what sections we should continue to include, what could be removed etc. We will keep the survey open for two weeks and will send reminders during this time. Thanking you in advance for your assistance!