Gemma's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

Well it’s certainly clear that Winter is on it’s way as we wake up to frosty and wet mornings.  This is a good reminder that children should start wearing their Winter uniform to keep warm and dry over the next few months.  

It has been a privilege to meet our 2024 new enrolment families and begin the process of preparing for next year.  Each new enrolment will be connected with a Year 5 buddy who will begin writing letters to be sent home this week!  This is one of many exciting experiences to come that will continue to foster strong relationships with our community.  

On the 29th May, we will welcome Emma Stenhouse to St Gabriel’s and St Stephen’s as an artist in residence for a week.  Emma’s work is predominantly inspired by nature, connection to country using elements of contemporary art and traditional Iconography.

She will be working closely with our children through artistic workshops to create a mural that will be on display at both schools.  The mural will be a collaboration of children’s, educators, and family voices aimed at representing our schools and the history of our community.  We will be holding a family ‘Cuppa and Chat’ on Monday 29th May at 2.20pm at St Gabriel’s.  This is an opportunity for you to meet Emma and share your stories with her about our schools and the community.  Emma will be here during Reconciliation week in which we will celebrate a week of restoration and friendship.  We invite our community to wear Yellow on Wednesday 31st May. You can wear a touch of Yellow or go all out. 

You can find out more about Emma on her website: https://emmastenhouse.com.au/ 

Congratulations to the Goodyear Family! Otis has a new brother, they welcomed a beautiful baby boy into their family earlier this week.  We wish them happiness during this precious time.  

Our Year 6 children will be attending the Darebin Council Anti-racism workshop next week in collaboration with local schools, targeting and supporting the voices of year 6 students, in order to act on systemic racism issues together.  We are looking forward to hearing from our children and their ideas on supporting people from different cultural backgrounds and building community.  

Our thoughts and prayers are with children and families from Exford Primary School, Eneysbury.  We know that they will be receiving the best possible care from the doctors and nurses treating them and we will continue to keep them in our prayers each day.  

The shade sails in our sensory garden were enabled by the Victorian State Government Grant.  We are extremely grateful for this support.

We are pleased to share that Gemma is recovering well from her procedure. We send our best wishes to her for a smooth recovery and look forward to having her back with us. 

Thank you 

Jarryd and Laura