Last Sunday’s Gospel…

Last Sunday the famous Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount were the focus of the Gospel reading. Jesus explained that the people who are particularly struggling are the ones who are blessed in a special way by God. We live for the Kingdom to come as well as this world. All of us have a responsibility to share what we have with everyone because there really is enough for everybody. Our priest spoke about the new ‘poor’, the selfish and greedy, the ones without values and people who can’t see any hope. We need to try to support them too and bear Jesus’ love to them.

From the Principal...

Welcome back to another school year and to our new families and students, a very warm welcome to Holy Family! We look forward to many happy years getting to know you and your children and working with you to make our school the best school it can be.

Best Start assessments have begun so we will have many new Kinder students and their families in and out over the next week. I know you will greet them with a smile and make them feel welcome. In addition, we have quite a number of new students starting in other grades. All are saying that a big reason in choosing Holy Family is what the community say about us. So thank you for telling everyone how wonderful our school is and please keep telling us if there are things we need to improve.

I let you know, towards the end of last year, about a new playground we were to be getting with funds from Campbelltown Catholic Club. Unfortunately that hasn’t progressed as hoped over the break. I do have a meeting next week with the relevant parties so I hope that project will commence soon!

As you will be aware, we have the Swimming Carnival coming up next week for our Years 3-6 students with water fun activities for our Year 1 and 2 students at school. It is only the second year that we have had all students attend the carnival and we have worked hard to integrate the feedback you gave us last year. Please give us feedback again – the things that work well and areas to tweak. You will notice that directions about parent interactions with students are very strict. Having 200 children in such close proximity to water with over half being non-swimmers is a high risk activity. We have many strategies in place to make those risks manageable and I am very confident all will run smoothly. We want you to be able to watch and cheer for your children and wave to them. Having you there is very important and please come if you can. We do ask however, that you do not come into the fenced area where the grandstand is, or to the grandstand area if you are a parent helper, to approach or speak to your children. If you need to get a message to them, please ask a staff member who will be happy to help you. As soon as we get extra people into an area supervision becomes compromised and students are trying to please parents and teachers at the same time. I am sure you will understand that there are extra risks around the water which is why we are extra careful. If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to contact me. 

With the return to school, all grades will complete a cyber safety course. This will coincide nicely with the upcoming Safer Internet Day, promoted by the eCommissioner for Children. In preparing for these things we have been looking at device use in the school. On the whole, our data shows very positive trends and responsible use. There are a couple of areas we need your help with. Can you please ensure ‘Notifications’ are turned off your child’s device after they have finished using them in the evening – if you permit that? Perhaps make it part of the routine when they are charging their device ready for the next day. Lots of ‘dinging’ in classrooms is very distracting. And please don’t message your children during the day. We are very happy to pass on messages through the office. Students know they aren’t allowed to message you and we have had a few difficult situations to sort out when these things have happened due to miscommunication. I am very happy to speak to you about this if you have any questions.

This is my fourth happy year at Holy Family. It will, hopefully, be our first without Covid dominating our daily lives. In the coming weeks I will keep you informed of our learning plans for improvement as well as the various activities that make up the tapestry of school life.