Week 7

Parents and Carers,

Wow, what an awesome Twilight Sports night we had last night. It was so fantastic to see so many members of the school community come together and socialise. There was plenty of laughing and cheering, as well as extremely enthusiastic participation from some parents. The main aim of this event each year is to get together as a community and for families to establish or rekindle connections that are often overlooked as the busyness of family life takes over. Events like this don’t just happen so I need to thank Jo Johnson our PE teacher for her enormous efforts in getting this event up and running so successfully. Thanks also to all members of staff at school that supported Jo in organising and running the night. I know they all have families that they would normally spend their evenings with so their support during these out of hours events is much appreciated, and vital for them to occur. I look forward to sharing the results of the sporting component of the evening with you in the next couple of weeks. We will have a short assembly on Friday 17th March at 2.45pm to present the perpetual trophies to the house leaders and ribbons to all members of each house.

Congratulations to all our students who were able to come along on the night, especially those who competed at their first Twilight Sports. Special thanks to Sarah Medawar and the PFOL team for the great job they did organising the BBQ and refreshments for the evening. It was great to see parents volunteering to help with the BBQ because without their assistance we would not be able to provide such lovely food. The call for assistance goes out from the PFOL for a number of events each year, so hopefully if you couldn’t help with this one, you may be able to help next time.

As mentioned last week, we have our annual Open Day during Catholic Education Week, on Thursday the 16th March. We have had a number of tours through the school already this year, which supports our philosophy that ‘Everyday is Open Day’. I continue to welcome all families to spread the word about our wonderful school and invite people to tour the school on Open Day. A few parents have mentioned to me that they have noticed our new electronic sign on the Dudley St and Main Rd corner. With some luck, it should be up and running by the time you are reading this report. This should give us a great platform to get our messages out to the local community, so keep your eyes peeled.

As part of Catholic Education Week, our four School Leaders and two RE Social Justice Leaders will be attending the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral with Mrs Bisby. This mass is attended each year by students from all Catholic schools in Melbourne and is always a wonderful opportunity for schools to celebrate as members of the Melbourne Catholic community.

I have again included below the message from Father Michael about the Principal Appointment Process. Please have a look, as it contains a link to a Google form which provides families with the opportunity to contribute to the selection process. We have extended the deadline for responses to this form to allow further parent feedback. The new deadline is 4.00pm on Monday 13th March.

This week, we sent out copies of the Code of Conduct for Parents, ICT Acceptable Use Agreements and Photo Permission Forms via Operoo for families to sign and return. This is an annual task that we need all families to complete.

I’ll finish by just reminding all families that Monday 13th March is a public holiday and Tuesday 14th March is a school closure day for staff to complete their annual CPR, Asthma and Anaphylaxis training updates. I hope you all get the opportunity to do something special as a family for the public holiday.

Regards,

Mark

………………….

Dear families

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) is commencing the Principal Appointment process for Our Lady Help of Christians, Eltham. In this process feedback from staff, families and students is obtained to assist the Principal Appointment Panel in developing the selection criteria. Following is the link to a Google Form for families to complete as their part of this process:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZOTA8HRZKzicQisSFz6a6NFXKIRel8NeFFq5SlTHF2Q/edit

This Google Form will close on Monday, 13th March at 4pm so we ask that you take the time to complete this prior to the deadline. We thank you for taking the time to complete this very important survey in assisting to find a new Principal for our school community.

Kindest regards

Fr Michael Sierakowski

Find and connect with us

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourladyhelpofchristianseltham/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OurLadyHelpElth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourladyhelpofchristians/

Please refer to our School google calendar for events throughout the year.

Links

Victoria School Guides

Catholic Education

Issue 17, March 2023