Principals News

We certainly have had a lot going on at our school Holy Family. 

It must have looked a bit unusual, even concerning, when 13 fully uniformed Police Officers arrived at school Monday week ago. I had our new priest concerned, coming over to check if everything was ok! Thanks Father Joby. 

The Police were here to work as Literacy Buddies with Mrs Drury’s Year 4 / 5 class. These police officers do this project as volunteer work, to build strong relationships within the community. The police showed the students the Van, the things they carry and were all tested on how fast they could run using the radar gun.

The following day our students visited the state library to meet Andy Griffths. This was all organised by Ardoch, who we partner with to provide our students opportunities they wouldn’t normally get access to. 

We have a number of other partnerships now including: 

Monash Health: connecting us with services

Woolworths: providing fruit for breakfast club

Possum Plate: providing sandwiches for breakfast and lunch

St John’s: allowing our students access to specialised equipment and opportunities 

St Vinnies: supporting breakfast club 

Doveton Library: access to library visits

Good Start Childcare: maintaining their garden and peer mentors

Foundation House and CMY: Refugee Education Support Program

We thank these organisations for their support. 

Book Week this week has created lots of opportunities to celebrate the magical world of reading. Fostering a love of reading is more important than ever. The challenge is with the ease of devices, it is easy to pick short clips that loop, which feeds a short attention span. Books allow us to go deeper, to get lost in another world, or learn more deeply about a particular topic. These books not only build vocabulary, educate, but they also allow our students to experience a sense of perseverance and delayed gratification

Bread Of Life: Last week the Gospel Reading reflection on Jesus being the Bread of Life. This challenge to us is to continue the work of Jesus in our everyday interactions and how we greet people. One constant focus I have is to make generous assumptions, think of what could be happening for the person to ensure that I greet the person free of judgement. We all have bad days, we all can have big emotions, how we treat others when they experience these emotions says a lot about how we show up to continue Jesus’ work.

I choose to show up and say ‘Here I am Lord’, in good times and more importantly, in difficult times. 

How do we show up for our children in these difficult times?