Principal News

Inspiration

Pope Francis has been and continues to be an enormous inspiration to me. 

His work comes from a grounding in service. In his first month as Pope, he laid out this call by stating,  ‘Preaching the Gospel requires humility, kindness, charity, brotherly love. To approach evangelization with an imperialism or attitude of conquering doesn’t work.

I hope that my work at Holy Family will demonstrate a service to others at its core—a benefit to students and a service to families. 

Welcome Miss Kinnish

It is with great pleasure that I welcome Miss Lauren Kinnish to our staff. Lauren has already been working with our Year 1/2 class on Thursday and Friday, through our agency. Now she is a member of our team and will also teach Sport classes on Wednesday. Tish who has been teaching sport, will teach Visual Arts on Wednesday, as we have many talented students in that field, and Tish will bring her talents to allow our students to develop their artistic and creative skills. 

Change of Times

As per the letter sent out yesterday, our new school times will be 8:50am to 3:25pm. This change will not impact teaching and learning, or play times. Students can be picked up from their classrooms, with all parents welcome into the classrooms, classes will not be brought to the office. If you wish to use the pick up zone, your child will come to the seats outside the staff room and be collected from there (Wet days will be like it is now). The first week may be some small bumps, but we will make it work with a community approach. 

School Return

We start school on the 10th of July. The office is closed over the holidays. For urgent matters, you can email principal@hfdoveton.catholic.edu.au, though the email won't be accessed daily. 

BBQ

Thank you to all the families that attended our BBQ. It was wonderful to meet many new faces, and we want you always to feel welcome to come and speak to me, or speak to the teachers.  

Signage

You will notice more and more signage going up around the school. We have outstanding students, and a dedicated staff, but we must get our message out. You can help us through word of mouth as well. If you have positive comments, please tell others, or you can write a Google review! If you have concerns, please, as stated above, come and speak to me. 

Head Lice

We have had a number of cases around the school. It is not uncommon for this time of year, though we need a team approach. So please can you monitor your child's hair and treat if necessary. 

Community Hub

With sadness, I advise you of the closing of our Community Hub in its current form. We are excited, however, about the opportunities to connect with our families ahead.

Our families are always, and will always be welcome at our school, and we are excited that Mrs Glenis Cheyne will continue with us, with a critical role in Family Partnerships. In particular, we want to grow our connection with our own Parish, and Glenis will support this work.

Glenis will lead many new initiatives focusing on our engagement with our current and prospective families. We will ensure that our families have structured opportunities to learn how to support their children and informal opportunities to gather as a community. 

We have connected with the Community Hub at Autumn Place to ensure that families wanting support with English and other services, can remain connected to these services.

We wish to thank all the services and people who have supported our Hub, and know that we will connect again, when the opportunities present. In particular, to Community Hubs Australia, The Smith Family and Wellsprings for their support. Thank you.

We thank all the people who have come to classes at Holy Family. We hope that you got some benefit out of these experiences.

We aim to share more of our wonderful community of students, staff and family and build this with more enrolments. We know the work Glenis will do will be paramount to that, and we saw the genesis of this work with a BBQ on Thursday afternoon. 

As one door closes, many more will open.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school. 

Paul Sharp

Principal