Principal News

Weeks 4 & 5

Hello, Holy Family Community

This week we received the sad news that Mrs Cristina Elicano will not be returning to Holy Family in 2023. She has decided to accept a teaching job at Harkaway Hills College for next year. 

Cristina has been a valued member of the Holy Family community for the past four years and will be sadly missed by students, staff and parents. I want to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Elicano for the contribution that she has made to Holy Family School and wish her well in her future endeavours. I am confident she will be a great asset to her new school just as she has been here, caring for the children in her care.

We are currently advertising for a new classroom teacher. We pray that we find someone as dedicated as Mrs Elicano to join the Holy Family staff. I will keep you updated on this process over the coming weeks.

2023 Class Structure and Classroom Teachers

After much consideration and consultation, we decided on the following 2023 class structure. Being a small school, we only have a few options to choose from that best suit the needs of all children. The model we have come up with is the most equitable regarding the number of students in each class, with each class being roughly the same size. 

• Ms Julie Feddersen and Pak Kris will continue in 2023 as our specialist teachers.  
• Ms Connie Drossaert will continue in her Learning Diversity and Wellbeing Leader roles, ensuring that the children at Holy Family receive the highest quality of support in their learning and development.
• Mrs Simone Crist will continue in her role as Literacy Leader providing coaching, mentoring for the staff in the curriculum areas of English and English as an Additional language, and literacy intervention for the students. 
• Our Learning Support Officers, Sam Semmens, Sanny Oey, Sue Tuipea and Mary Tzatakis will continue to support the children in their learning.
• Our School Secretary, Bernadette Blaney, will continue to be the welcoming face of our school.
   
• We will have a whole school Bump Up Day on Wednesday, 14 December, where all children will have the opportunity to go and spend some time in their new classes with their 2023 teacher and classmates.
• The Prep to Year 3 classrooms will be downstairs in the junior school, and the Years 4, 5 and 6 will be upstairs in the main building.
• In 2023 the Year 4, 5 and 6 children will go on school camp.
   
• Please email me if you do not intend to return to Holy Family in 2023
  principal@hfdoveton.catholic.edu.au

Prep Orientation

This week we commenced our Prep transition program, welcoming our new Preps for 2023 and their families. The children enjoyed participating in gross motor skills and art activities with their parents in the Prep classroom. So far, we have 13 Prep enrolments for next year, which is a steady number.

• Our next Prep Transition session is on Wednesday, 2 November: 10 am-11 am
   

Our Patch

Our before and after-school care provider, Our Patch, has decided not to continue their contract in 2023. Unfortunately, this means that next year, we will no longer be able to offer before and after-school care at Holy Family.

This year was a trial run of having this service at our school, and we have just not had the required number of children attending to make it a viable option. Whilst we recognise that it will be a great inconvenience to the small number of families who currently use the service, Our Patch has been running at a financial loss this year and cannot continue to operate this way into the future. Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to grow the program enough to keep it as a service within our school. I hope for our current Our Patch families that this does not cause too much inconvenience.

Due to staffing shortages, Our Patch has not returned to provide after-school care with this term. I am in constant contact with Our Patch regarding this and hope it can return by the end of the year in the coming weeks. I will keep you up to date with any developments.

Have a wonderful week, and God Bless

Pauline Moran

Acting Principal