From Mrs David's Desk
Public Holiday (School Closure)
Monday 11th March
Dear Families,
I hope you have an opportunity to relax and enjoy the four day break this weekend.
Staff Professional Learning
Our staff will continue to embark on their professional learning tomorrow to enhance the learning opportunities for each stduent at our school.
We will learn with staff from ten other Catholic Primary Schools who are involved in our Science of Learning and Reading Collective. I would like to acknowledge and thank Natalie Dib (Literacy Leader/Coach) at Holy Family for being a key leader in this collective.
Brooke Wardana (Shaping Minds - the science of learning meets the art of teaching) will lead the learning on this day. Shaping Minds provides evidence based support for teachers and leaders to maximise outcomes for all students. Shaping Minds works shoulder-to-shoulder with a range of schools and educational organisations including Fogarty EDvance, the Kimberley Schools Project, Department of Justice, Learning Difficulties Australia, Teach for Australia, the Knowledge Society, Catholic Education, and were the original Master Teachers for the philanthropist-backed Teach-Well Masterclass initiative.
Catholic Education Week 2024
Catholic Education Week will be celebrated in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne from 10–17 March 2024.
This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day.
The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘In the Light of Christ’.
You may want to watch the story'When God Made Light' as a family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Cvgm9CrAk
Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and walk the way of the gospel to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
There are 331 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne that educate around 114,000 students and employ more than 16,000 teachers and staff, and most will celebrate Catholic Education Week in some way.
Our school is planning several activities during the week including student leaders attending St Patrick's Day Mass at the Cathedral, sharing ways we can be the light to others, creating lanterns to symbolise leading the way and other activities within classrooms.
Prep 2024 Welcome Mass
Our Holy Family Parish community welcomed our 204 Prep stduents and their families at Mass on Sunday. I was pleased to see many Prep and other families from our school attending this Mass.
We were all able to enjoy each other's company and a sausage sizzle after Mass.
Thank you to our incredible parishioners for organising and cooking the barbecue.
Prep and New Families Welcome Dinner
There was a great atmosphere in our Gathering Space last Thursday night when parents gathered for a meal. It was wonderful to see more than 60 adults enjoying each others company.
I would like to express a BIG thank you to Eithne King, Dianne Dimovski and Stephanie Italiano for preparing, serving and cleaning up on the night.
School Advisory Council Report
Our School Advisory Council met a couple of weeks ago. Please take time to read the minutes of this meeting below.
Survey Feedback
Our Staff Leadership Team and School Advisory Council want to find out responses to the following questions from our current families. Some of our responses have been -
Why choose Holy Family?
- Liked the environment during the tour
- Close by, education
- The environment felt perfect for our children.
- Older daughter at Avila
- Julie and other teachers was amazing during the information night.
- Family already attends so joined off great reputation from them
- We like it when we first came to visit good staff
- Local catholic, smaller community, family connection
- For your support with special needs
- We were impressed at the school tour. We are parishioners at Holy Family Chirch
- It's close to our house
- Friends going to the same school
- Curriculum, faith life of the school and the community feel
- The core values of Holy Family School aligned with what we wanted our daughter to grow and develop
- Small in size, good teachers and logistics
- The philosophy and atmosphere along with sound academics
- We chose Holy Family, because we wanted our son to go to a Catholic School. And out of the two schools we looked at, we were really impressed with the explicit Literacy program at HF. Literacy, based on the Science of Reading was really important to me. Also I was impressed with the ‘feel’ of the school. The willingness of students to speak to us when Ms King asked them questions. Auslan as the language was also a contributing factor. It felt right :-)
- We chose Holy family as we wanted to send our daughter to a catholic school initially. On walking around with the tour we were really delighted to see the relationships the kids of all ages have with one another and the connection with teachers and also the relationship with Ms David as Head. It was authentic and not a fear “principals coming sharpen up” was great
- I attended Holy Family and close proximity
What is one word you would use to describe our community?
- Caring
- Close knit
- Connected
- Family
- Family oriented
- Friendly
- Great
- Supportive
- Welcoming
Any comments about our Transition process
- Really good and thorough.
- We have loved it so far and our preppie is settling in well
- Everything was great and easy
- Well structured orientation process, grateful for all of the pre-planned family events
- Great first impressions
- It was a very organized process. The effort put into it is very much appreciated.
- It's well organized
- Has been goood. Parents dinner for new parents was a good idea.
- It’s been sensational. You can see the effort of the staff at every event and journey
- It was well structured and seamless
- It’s been wonderful so far.
- It has been a wonderful transition, very thoughtful and positive.
- It’s been fantastic! We have felt informed, included and important. Eithne did an amazing job at welcoming us and making sure we felt comfortable. The Step into Prep program was wonderful and Thomas was so confident and excited, by the time the start of the school year came around. Great communication, great info, warmth and welcome! Thank you :-)
- It’s been fantastic. Really impressed with how settled our daughter has gone in to prep making friends and engaging so well
NAPLAN
The NAPLAN testing window commences on Wednesday 13th March for stduents in Years 3 and 5. Please reassure your child that these assessments provide information for our planning and teaching over the next 12 months.
International Women's Day
The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion.
When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world.
And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.
Collectively, let's forge a more inclusive world for women.
With well over a century of history and change, the first International Women's Day (IWD) was held in March 1911. IWD isn't country, group or organization specific. It's a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging women's equality.
World-renowned feminist, journalist and activist, Gloria Steinem, reportedly once explained:"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."
(https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme)
Sacrament of Reconciliation
Our Year 4 students are continuing their sacramental journey by preparing to receive Reconciliation. Please keep these students and their families in your prayers.
Reconcilation Parent/Child Information Evening - Wednesday 13th March (7-8pm)
Sacramant of Reconciliation - Thursday 21st March
Open Days
Our Open Days are continuing throughout this term.
Please let your friends and family know about these days and times if they would like to visit our school with the possibility of joining our Holy Family community.
Holy Family's Behaviour Curriculum Implementation
Our staff and students are continuing to implement our 'Behaviour Curriculum' to ensure each students feels connected and safe in our learning environments. This curriculum is based on routines created by the Australian Education Resource Organisation (AERO).
Our students have been rehearsing their 'entrance' and 'exit' routines each day with the support of our staff. I must say how impressed I am with the way each student has adopted these behaviour expectations and the calmness that this behaviour change brings to our school.
This week we added a new routine for each student. This routine will help to refine methods for gaining all students’ attention to create a learning environment that supports student engagement and minimises disruptive behaviours.
Efficiently gaining all students’ attention supports student safety, maximises instructional time and reduces the likelihood of students missing critical information. Teachers use scanning, non-verbal gestures, and audible or visual prompts to gain student attention, to ensure students are focused and ready to receive instructions.
Easter Raffle
We will be running an Easter Raffle the last week of Term 1 and asking families to donate some Easter Chocolate (bunnies, small eggs, big eggs anything chocolate!!!) if you can for our raffle.Please drop all donations to the office by Friday 23rd March 3pm.Thanks in advance for your support.
Parents and Friends Committee
2024 School Year
Term 1
March
Thursday 7th - School Sports (Finishes at 5pm) onsite
Friday 8th - International Women's Day (Inspire Inclusion)
Friday 8th - School Closure Day (Staff PL Lorraine Hammond 'Science of Learning')
Monday 11th - Labor Day (School Closure)
Monday 11th - Catholic Education Week (In the light of Christ)
Tuesday 12th - Open Day
Wednesday 13th - NAPLAN commences
Wednesday 13th - Reconciliation Information Night (7pm)
Friday 15th - Holy Family School Colour Explosion
Friday 15th - Summer Sport (Year 5/6)
Sunday 17th - St Patrick's Day
Monday 18th - Open Day
Tuesday 19th - VACPSP Conference (Julie/Eithne)
Thursday 21st - Sacrament of Reconciliation
Thursday 21st - Harmony Day (Everyone Belongs)
Friday 22nd - EMR Swimming
Friday 22nd - Summer Sport Gala (Year 5/6)
Sunday 24th - Palm Sunday
Wednesday 27th - Open Day
Thursday 28th - Holy Thursday (final day of Term 1) Students finish at 1pm
Enjoy the subshine,
Julie David (Principal)