2022 SCHOOL THEME - ‘MAKE A DIFFERENCE’

Dear Families,

It has been a pleasure joining our student leaders on school tours over the last couple of weeks. Visitors to our school have been impressed by the tours and the pride that our students express while speaking about our wonderful school.

As I have explained before, ‘school’ is much more than NAPLAN results. It is about belonging, feeling safe and having people to listen to you and support you when you need this. I can honestly say that our teachers are always thinking of ways to ‘grow’ our learners and communicate these successes with our community.

I look forward to joining our parents at Mass next Friday to celebrate the end of a successful term and inviting them into our school to see our magnificent students in action.

All visitors to the classrooms must wear a mask and have a COVID vaccination certificate. Please maintain as much distance as possible.

Our school community has been involved in a variety of activities to begin the school year

Parent/Teacher Chats to get to know our students that little bit better
Opening School Mass
Presentation of Student Leaders to the school community
Our Student Leaders speaking at Sunday Mass about what being a student at Holy Family means to them
Halogen Young Leaders Day
Pancake Making with Chef Justel, Chef Considine and Chef David
Curriculum Evenings
Year 5/6 Camp
Prep Welcome Mass and Family Barbecue
Sacrament of Reconciliation (Year 4)
Parent Welcome Function (Bowls Club)
Welcome Function for New Parents (onsite)
Annual School Sports
School Colour Run

It has been incredible to see how engaged our students have been in our new specialist subjects -

STEM (Science, Technology, English, Maths)
Performing Arts (Dance, Drama, Music)

We are looking forward to performances from some of our classes at assembly next Monday.

Communication

Just a reminder for families to keep up to date with the events happening at school via multiple sources.

Fortnightly newsletter
Skoolbag app
Operoo
Google Calendar
Class Newsletter
Class Reps
Social Media posts (instagram and Facebook)
Electronic sign

Please keep in mind that events can change at the last minute due to the current pandemic.

Parent Feedback

This term we introduced Level Newsletters each fortnight. Our staff would like to gather feedback on this initiative.

Can you please complete this quick survey by Thursday 7th April?

Parent Survey

End of Term Mass and Celebration of Learning

It is hard to believe that we are already in April!

On Friday 8th April our school community would like to invite our parents to join us for Mass at 9.15am to celebrate a fabulous term of learning and getting to know each other again.

Parents are then invited to come over to the school so that our students can showcase their learning from Years Prep-6.

This event has been advertised in our google calendar since last year but we had to wait to see if we could go ahead due to the pandemic. Primary schools still have many restrictions in place to ensure the wellbeing of everyone.

If you are going to enter the school buildings next Friday please follow the expectations below -

Everyone is to enter through the Administration area and check in via the QR Code
All adults must wear a mask unless they can show an exemption
All adults must show their vaccination certificate
All adults are encouraged to maintain social distance as best they can

Involvement in our Parish Community

Our Holy Family Parish would love to involve more school families in our weekend Masses. Father Justel is looking for people to welcome, read and altar serve. Once our students have made their First Eucharist then they can altar serve.

Please email me if your family would like to participate in the life of our Holy Family Parish - jdavid@hfmw.catholic.edu.au

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Congratulations to our Year 4 students who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday afternoon. Please continue to keep these students in your prayers as they now prepare to receive the Sacrament of First Eucharist in June.

Enrolments for 2023 Now Open

Don’t forget to pop into the office to get an enrolment form for Prep 2023.

Halogen Young Leaders Day

On Wednesday the 23rd of March, the Year 6 leaders went to the Exhibition Center in the city for Halogen Young Leaders Day. We listened to Lachie Smart, Guy Edmonds, Cate Campbell and Damien Flemming talk about leadership. We took a train for 40 minutes to the venue. There were many different schools as well. The 4 speakers gave us very inspirational quotes and lessons, such as to never give up and that it takes sacrifice to be a leader. We took notes and here were some of mine:

Youth is not something to hold you back
Failures are not a bad thing, learn from them
Failure and success takes resilience, acceptance and determination
Be humble
Sacrifice has a lot to do with choice
We all start at the same place
It doesn’t matter what it is, chase it

..and so much more. My favourite was about sacrifice. All four of the speakers talked about it and no doubt it will have to happen in everyone’s lives. Sacrifice is also about choice. But most importantly, the reason why we sacrifice is because our duties will always matter more than anything.

Lachie, Guy, Cate and Damien really taught us a lot about leadership and made us feel more confident in leading the school. Expect bigger things from the Year 6’s now because we’ve now got a lot more up our sleeves.

Rafael Sergianis

Open Days

Our school is now able to host face-to-face Open Days. Please let your friends, neighbours, work colleagues, local kindergartens and family know that our tours are back.

On Sunday 6th March our student leaders and myself will be attending the 10am Mass and speaking about the opportunities that Holy Family School offers students and their families. After Mass we will be hosting an Open Day session from 11am-12pm.

Our other Open Days are -

Wednesday 6th April (9.30am/12pm)
Wednesday 27th April (9.30am/12pm)
Tuesday 3rd May (9.30am/12pm)
Wednesday 11th May (9.30am/12pm)

Please phone the office to book your tour 9807 3300.

Staff News

A couple of updates -

Mrs Sue Gleeson will teach Year 1/2LP 3 days a week from the start of Term 2. She will work with Mrs Christine Page who teaches 2 days a week
Miss Eithne King will be on Long Service Leave at the start of Term 2
Mr Matthew Leeson has joined our staff as a Learning Support Officer

Colour Explosion

Thank you to our families for a successful ‘Colour Explosion’. Our school set a target of $10,000 but we have exceeded this amount by your generosity.

Announcements will be made at our assembly on Monday 4th April.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Please mark the dates Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th April in your diaries. Our interviews will once again be held online.

ANZAC Day

Our community will commemorate ANZAC Day on Monday 25th April.

On our first day back to school next term (26th April) we will gather for a meaningful prayer service to remember.

Prayer for ANZAC Day

O God, our ruler and guide, in whose hands are the destinies of this and every nation,

we give you thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in this land and for those who laid down their lives to defend them:

We pray that we and all the people of Australia, gratefully remembering their courage and their sacrifice, may have grace to live in a spirit of justice, of generosity, and of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(A Prayer Book for Australia)

Resilience Project

What a great start to the year we have had in launching our Resilience Project lessons through our weekly ‘Wellbeing Hour’ on a Monday. During our Learning Celebration Walks next week, you will see evidence of what we are grateful for and other insights through displays around the school.

Please also find attached a newsletter for parents and carers with some special family challenges and some ways to build positive connections and relationships with our children.

To view the latest Resilience Project Newsletter- Click on the Link

Kids Cafe

Our Kids Cafe will be open for two days next week for students to purchase an icy pole for 50 cents.

Tuesday 5th April
Thursday 7th April

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter break,

Julie David (Principal)

OSHC