We are getting a makeover!

The school has successfully gained $2.54 million dollars in funding to give our school a much needed refurbishment. We have a masterplan for what the building will look like, however, we will now work on more specific drawings and building designs. This process will take a while, but it is an exciting time in the history of Holy Family. We would like to thank our Federal Member Jullian Hill, who was a strong advocate for the project.

Thanks to everyone that attended the carols events. We are now getting a lot more parent engagement and we hope this is just the beginning.

Congratulations to Ms Jenna Wynd on the arrival of Emma. She is now eight days old and doing very well!

Staff News:

Unfortunately Bern has not recovered enough to return to her role yet. We hope that she can return in the future, but that will be her decision, in consultation with medical professionals.

We will welcome a new teacher, who was highly recommended, Miss Pei Yi Lim. Pei has been teaching at St Anthony’s in Noble Park.

The class teachers will be:

Prep: Marnie Lambden Grant

One/ Two: Pei Yi Lim

Three / Four: Julie Feddersen

Four / Five: Lea Drury

Five / Six: Kylie Hudson

Next year, we will have two lead teachers. They will work like a second teacher in the class, providing more explicit teaching and more feedback. They will also teach the class in the teachers absence so our students get more continuity and more intervention.

Prep, One/Two, Three/Four Lead Teacher: Simone Crist

Four/ Five, Five/ Six Lead Teacher: Serena Jordan Munro

Pak Kris will return to teach Indonesian through Visual Arts. Serena Jordan Munro will continue to teach STEM. Pauline Moran will teach junior Sport and I will teach middle and senior sport. Our final specialist will involve a variety of subjects which students will get to choose to be involved with, including Cooking, Digital Tech, Sport, Social Justice, Visual Arts and Performing Arts. This will involve students being able to focus on their passion and strengths. We have trialled the project this year with great feedback from all stakeholders.

Our Office Admin will be Samantha Semmens. Jerome Giacotto will continue doing one day a week in the office as well. We thank Donna, Jerome and Shokoufeh who have stepped in during this year.

Our Education Support Team is growing with Thomas Howe, Kaveen Webster, Mary Tzatzakis, Mia Wilkinson, Aqsa Ahmed, Sanny Oey and Pearl Perera continuing. We will also welcome Dharti Gehlot and Shokoufeh Mohammadi into our education support team.

Glenis Cheyne will continue as our Family and Community Engagement Leader and our Student Wellbeing officer Paing Tun will increase his role to full time.

Connie Drossaert will continue as Wellbeing and Learning Diversity Leader and Pauline Moran will continue as Deputy Principal, leading the teaching and learning in the school.

Picking Up Students

We have had an increase in the number of students being picked up well after school time. This in some instances has been as late as 5pm to 7:30pm.

We know problems happen, and we are here to support, but this can not happen, while it is unfair on staff who have family pick up commitments themselves, it creates serious Child Safety concerns. A child should not be alone with an adult at the school.

A few notes to ensure that you have a Plan B:

We have after school care, if you are a family with work commitments, it is there to support you. You must be enrolled, so even if you think you might need to use it, enrol your students and you can use it casually. Most families are eligible for big subsidies which mean the cost can be as little as a few dollars a day.
We can not send a child to after school care who is not enrolled. It is a separate entity with its own compliance requirements.
If you are running late, call the school.
Ensure you have updated emergency contacts, family friends who can help. If you need support with this, we can help put you in contact with friends of your child’s families who may be able to help.

We appreciate your support with this.

Christmas

Whilst Christmas is a great time of the year, it is also very challenging for some families. We hope that you can experience the joy of Christmas through some aspect this year. Jesus' birth reminds us that there is always hope. Pope Francis has pleaded for peace in recent days, and often speaks about the message Jesus brought was love, not power over others.

Parish Carols

All families are invited to Parish Carols this Friday night at 7pm in the hall.

Pop Culture Parenting

Looking for a podcast to help with the challenge of parenting, then this is the podcast for you. I am re-listening to the sleep episode as I can not get my children to go to sleep at the moment, and my beautiful daughter is throwing some serious tantrums, so I have been brushing up on how I support her with those. These episodes let you know that everyone is facing challenges parenting and even experts get it really wrong. So hear from Dr Billy about specific strategies you can implement to support not only your children but yourself. His best advice is, you need to look after yourself before you can help kids, and that as a community, we need to help each other doing this. So maybe call a friend and offer to take the kids for a play date, then swap so the kids get a fun experience, but you as a parent get a well deserved break!

ESafety

Holidays means time online. The esafety.gov.au website is brilliant for tips and tricks to support families, but importantly, you can also report any online issues. I said at the Carols, if your child comes to you about a problem online, they have done a great thing and you are awesome for listening to it. Many children won’t tell because they will just have the device taken, so they may be punished for what someone else did to them. We do need limits around use, we do need constant supervision, but building a trusted relationship about sharing challenges is the most important step to keep your child safe online.

More to come early next week!