Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 4!

This term is certainly going to be a very busy one, jam packed with many events! We are looking forward to welcoming our new Preps for 2025, level excursions, Junior school camp days, 2025 student leadership preparations just to name a few.

Please keep up to date by regularly checking in with our school calendar, level newsletters and notifications via Operoo and Audiri.

I have also included a page specific for 2025 transition. This already has links to ordering Year 6 special jumpers and 2025 booklists for Year 5 and 6 that can be ordered through Campion books. All other booklist items are bulk ordered from school. Please check in regularly with this page as more will be added in coming weeks.

Sunsmart routines

A reminder that school hats are to be worn in term 4. Students who do not wear a hat will be sent to the undercover area outside the office for playtimes.

Entering/exiting carpark

Thank you to those parents who are following the road rules when entering and exiting the school car park during school hours. These rules are for the safety of all road users. The police do patrol on a regular basis, and I'm sure you would prefer not to receive a hefty fine!

I also encourage any adults parking in the council car park across the road to please use the traffic lights when crossing the road.

Thank you too, for not parking in the church/staff carpark during drop off and pick up times. Your support ensures the safety of our staff and students.

Prep 2025 Information Night

Next Wednesday night we welcome the families of our 2025 Preps to speak about the transition program and how we can best support their child as a team for a smooth transition to school. Thank you to our school captains who have been also preparing for this evening.

We will be meeting in The Gathering Space at 7pm.

NAPLAN

CELEBRATING OUR NAPLAN RESULTS

Whilst individual NAPLAN results were released earlier in the year, more recently we were able to make comparisons between our school results and state and national averages. I am pleased to report that our school was above state and national average results in every learning area.

NAPLAN individual results are reported in 4 bands:

Needs Assistance

Developing

Strong

Exceeding

We are pleased to report the following results for students receiving results in the Strong and Exceeding bands

Grammar and Punctuation

Year 3 80% Year 5 80%

Reading

Year 3 84% Year 5 81%

Spelling

Year 3 84% Year 5 70%

Writing

Year 3 95% Year 5 78%

Numeracy

Year 3 87% Year 5 81%

Our Teachers and Leadership team have been focussing on implementing evidence based pedagogy across learning and teaching in literacy and numeracy. These results can be attributed to a combination of many changes that have been implemented over the past two years, including but not limited to:

The introduction of explicit instruction
Tier 2 Intervention in Mathematics and Reading
Classroom initiatives including UFLI, PhORMES to improve spelling
Teacher professional development in Mathematics and Literacy focussed on evidence based pedagogy

Division Athletics

Congratulations to our athletes who competed yesterday at the Division athletics carnival.

A special mention to the following students who placed first or second in their event and will progress through to the Regional Championships on October 24th at Doncaster.

Emily Pejic 1st 80m hurdles

Ben Harris 1st 80m hurdles

Jacob Chila, Ben Harris, Lucas Scardamaglia, Noah Wong Boys-2nd- 4x100m relay

A very special mention too to Austin Miller who jumped a personal best of 142cm in the long jump multiclass event.

Congratulations to all students for representing Holy Family so well, and to parents for transporting your child/ren to and from the event.

Running Club tomorrow

As Mrs Michelsson is away there will be no running club tomorrow morning.

Our Community Village

We have some new 'managers' in our playground, honing their leadership skills to help students engage in play around our shops and cubbies. I tasted some very 'delicious' chips from the Fish and Chip shop on Tuesday!! There was also a very busy postie with all of the letters posted in the post box.

Soft Plastics recycling

Term 4 Dates

October

Wednesday 16th - Division Basketball

Wednesday 16th - Prep 2025 Information Evening

Friday 18th October- Year 5/6 excursion to Scienceworks

Tuesday 22nd - Prep 2025 (Transition 1)

Thursday 24th - EMR Track and Field

Friday 25th - Year 1/2 Camp Day (Arrabri Lodge)

Friday 25th- Year 3/4 excursion to IMAX & Melbourne Museum

Tuesday 29th - Prep 2025 (Transition 2)

November

Friday 1st- Prep Camp Day

Friday 1st- Year 1/2 excursion MCG

Monday 4th - School Closure (Time in Lieu Day for staff)

Tuesday 5th - School Closure (Melbourne Cup Day)

Monday 11th - Remembrance Day

Tuesday 12th - Prep 2025 (Transition 3)

Wednesday 13th - P&F, SAC AGMs

Tuesday 19th - Prep 2025 (Transition 4)

Tuesday 26th - Prep 2025 (Transition 5)

Thursday 28th- Whole school excursion- Melbourne Zoo

Friday 29th - School Closure Day (2025 Planning)

December

Monday 2 - Swimming Program (Prep-Year 4)

Thursday 5th - Community Christmas Carols

Tuesday 10th- Year 6 Graduation

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)

Eithne King

Acting Principal

Local Secondary Schools