From the Principal's Desk

Mrs Julie David

STUDENTS FINISH (Wednesday 15th December) 3.15pm

FIRST STUDENT DAY 2022 

(Monday 31st January)

Dear Families,

On behalf of Father Justel and our staff I would like to thank you for your support and understanding during such a challenging year. Our staff have continued to provide the ‘best possible’ learning opportunities for all students whether remotely or onsite.

Please be assured that your children and their wellbeing has been our main priority over the last two years. Let’s hope we can all celebrate Christmas with our family and friends and enjoy a well deserved holiday!

Thank You

On behalf of St. Vincent de Paul I would like to thank our families for your generous

 donations to support families in our community during the festive season.

Whole School Disco

Thank you to our Parents and Friends for organising our disco on Monday 13th December. All students are invited to wear ‘free disco dress’ on Monday to celebrate this special occasion.

Year 6 Graduation Day

On Tuesday 14th December we will officially say goodbye to our Year 6 students and some of our families. These students have been busy planning and preparing for this special day.

Two students will be presented with the following awards.

1. Community Spirit Award -for the student who has shown initiative and put in a lot of hours of work in their own time to connect and engage and make a difference within the school and wider community.

2. Faith, Life and Learning Award - to the student who lives out the school motto and excels academically, socially and personally. They always have a positive attitude and have shown personal growth in all areas of the curriculum and as a global citizen.

These awards have been decided by our 2021 staff.

Families are welcome to attend this celebration but everyone must check in via the QR Code and wear a mask.

End of Year Assembly

Everyone is invited to our ‘End of Year’ assembly on Wednesday 15th December at 2pm. This assembly will be held in the quadrangle. All students are invited to wear free dress in the Christmas theme on this day.

Visitors must check in via the QR Code and wear a mask.

Thank You and Goodbye

It is hard to believe that we are saying goodbye to our Year 6 class of 2021!

I would like to thank each student for the contribution that they have made to our school community over their years at Holy Family.

A special thank you to our School Captains - Emilio and Ashlee and our School Vice Captains - Summer and Archie for your support this year. Your dedication and enthusiasm to lead assemblies and support me has been amazing!

I wish each Year 6 student all the best as they embark on their secondary school education. I know that each of you are ready for secondary school and all the new opportunities this next stage in your education will provide. Please remember to stay positive and optimistic, build strong social connections and be respectful to everyone.

Thank you for your leadership this year and remember to aim high and achieve your potential.

Camp Program

Everyone in our community has missed out on special celebrations over this year but Miss King and our staff have worked hard to ensure that each student has experienced our Camp Program with limited opportunities.

• Prep Camp Day (Puppet Making)
• Year 1/2 Camp Day (MCG Tour and Mini Golf)
• Year 3/4 Camp (Arrabri Lodge East Warburton)
• Year 5/6 Camp (YMCA Mt. Evelyn)

We look forward to sharing these wonderful experiences from Prep-Year 6 in 2022.

2022 Student Leadership Speeches

I had the privilege to listen to some of the 2022 Student Leadership speeches. It was pleasing to witness the confidence each of our students displayed when either speaking in front of their peers or being interviewed by one of our staff members.

Our 2022 Year 6 students will receive their Leadership Badge at our Beginning of the School Year Mass next year. This Mass will be held on Friday 11th February at 9.15am. Everyone is welcome to attend this celebration.

End of Year Mass

Our school community gathered together on Thursday 2nd December for our 2021 Thanksgiving Mass. Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for this Mass.

A BIG thank you to Miss Considinde who had to lead our singing due to some technical issues!

Christmas Mass Times

Father Justel is looking forward to inviting everyone back into our church over the Christmas season.

There will be Christmas Carols 30 minutes before Mass and the times are -

Christmas Eve -

5pm, 8.30pm and 11pm

Christmas Day -

10am

Parent Acknowledgement for Sacraments

I thought I would share some comments I received via email from some of our families in relation to the celebration of our Sacraments.

We just wanted to extend our thanks to Miss Considine, Father Justel, yourself and the teaching team for bringing together the Holy Communion Celebrations over the weekend. 

Our son and all his friends had wonderful celebrations but  even more than that, the events in preparing the kids in the lead up to last weekend, generated a better understanding, excitement and pride for all of them.  It was lovely to see everyone’s efforts rewarded and the individual receiving of Communion for each child really made it special.

Thank you to everyone involved

 Thank you for the beautiful evening you organised on Thursday night for the grade 6 confirmation.

It was such a lovely evening and everyone I have spoken to about it also enjoyed the evening. 

We loved the way Father Justel engaged everyone in his homily and spoke to the children. 

Thank you. I can imagine a lot of work goes into organising an event like this and I just wanted to say it is very appreciated. 

2022 Staff Changes

At the end of every year schools have some changes to our staff. Holy Family has the following staff changes for 2022.

I would like to say thank you to each of the staff members below and wish them all the best for 2022. Our school community has been fortunate to have you on our staff team. Your professionalism, dedication and care for our children has been amazing!

• Lisa Wright (Long Service Leave)
• Sue Gleeson (Long Service Leave)
• Trish Poelsma (Learning Support Officer at Aquinas College)
• Marea Mitchell 
• Janine Standfield
• Chantelle Santamaria (Maternity Leave)

Message from Lisa Wright

After two years in a row of cancelled Long Service Leave, my husband and I have decided to take a year's leave from our jobs and head off in our caravan around Australia.While I am grateful for the opportunity of this year-long adventure, I will miss the children and families I have worked with over the last few years. Hopefully we will reconnect in 2023.

I wish everyone in the Holy Family community a happy and healthy 2022.

Merry Christmas,

Lisa Wright

New Staff 2022

We have some new staff members joining us in 2022. We hope they enjoy being part of our amazing learning community!

• Joelle Lake will be joining our teaching team. Joelle is currently teaching at Tintern Junior Girl’s School. She has many years experience teaching classes Prep-Year 4 and has a number of Leadership Positions
• Rebecca Rawlins will be teaching Performing Arts. Rebecca is currently teaching at Silverton Primary School and has majored in Dance, Drama and Theatre Studies. She also owns her own dance studio
• Kasey Dielemans is returning after Maternity Leave

2022 Specialist Subjects

After discussions with our staff we have decided to make some changes to the Specialist Subjects that we offer at Holy Family School.

I am pleased to share with you the following subjects that will be offered to all students once a week -

• Physical Education (Mrs Michelsson)
• Performing Arts (Miss Rawlins)
• Italian (Mrs Cetrola)
• Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) (Miss Sombekke)

Our Visual/Media Arts program will be taught by our classroom teachers and each class will have an allocated time to go to the library each week to read and borrow books to bring home. 

Reports

Our Semester Two student reports will be sent home on Monday 13th December. Please take time to celebrate the achievements of your child/ren in such a different year of learning. You should also celebrate your achievements as ‘teachers’ during the remote learning time!

I was pleased to read about and see the growth that our students continued to make in their learning during the constraints of this year - the partnership of home and school was very successful.

Family Calendar

I have developed a hard copy of the 2022 Holy Family Calendar which will be sent home and is attached to this newsletter. I hope this helps with planning for 2022.

Save the Date

Our Parents and Friends Committee would like all parents to place the following dates in their 2022 calendar. These are fabulous opportunities for you to get to know other families in our community.

• Friday 11th February 2022 (Welcome Drinks for our entire parent community)
• Friday 18th March 2022 (Holy Family Colour Run) Major 2022 Fundraiser

2022 Open Days

The following dates and times have been set aside for our Open Days in 2022. Please share these dates with your family, friends, kindergartens and child care centres.

• Wednesday 9th February 2022 (9.30am and 12pm)
• Thursday 17th February 2022 (9.30am and 12pm)
• Friday 25th February 2022 (9.30am and 12 pm)
• Sunday 6th March 2022 (11.30-12.30pm)
• Thursday 17th March 2022 (9.30am and 12pm)

Term 4 Dates

• Monday 13th December (2-3pm) Whole School Disco
• Tuesday 14th December (Year 6 Graduation)
• Wednesday 15th December (Final Whole School Assembly)
• Wednesday 15th December (Final day of 2021 School Year 3.15pm)

2022 School Closure Days

• Friday 11th March
• Tuesday 14th June
• Monday 8th August
• Monday 31st October
• Friday 25th November (2023 Planning Day)

Wishing everyone a safe and Holy Christmas,

Julie David (Principal)