NEWSLETTER NO. 3 - 12.3.2025

SCHOOL CALENDAR

Upcoming Events:

Week 6
11.3.25       Diocesan Swimming Carnival (Dubbo)
12.3.25       Just Like You Workshop by Variety Children's Charity. Years 1-6
12.3.25       NAPLAN: Years 3 & 5
13.3.25       NAPLAN: Years 3 & 5
14.3.25       Year 6 Care Group Leadership Day
14.3.25       NAPLAN: Years 3 & 5

Week 7
17.3.25       St Patricks Day Fundraiser
18.2.25       NAPLAN: Years 3 & 5
20.3.25      Cross Country. Years 3-6. Competitive and Fun Courses. 9.15-11.15am. All welcome
21.3.25       2.15pm: K-6 Assembly (Hall) - all welcome

Week 8
24.3.25       Annual School Photo Day
25.3.25       Back-up Diocesan AFL 
26.3.25       Year 6 Excursion - Suzuki Farms

In 2025 our parents have access to the Google HFS Parent Calendar.  
Click on the link below to access the Google Calendar.

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Our Holy Family community gathered on Ash Wednesday for a reverent and solemn gathering to mark the beginning of Lent. Under the guidance of our priest, Fr Thao, our students showed exceptional reverence as they received the ashes, a reminder of our call to repentance, prayer, and renewal. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the wider members of our community who joined us on Ash Wednesday. Your presence enriched our shared experience of faith and reflection.

At Holy Family, we embrace this time of year as a community. The power of prayer, almsgiving, and reconciliation is stronger when we do it together. On Shrove Tuesday, we raised funds for Caritas Australia by selling pancakes. Thank you to our families for your generosity and participation. A special thank you to our Year 5 and 6 families for leading this event by making and selling the pancakes to our younger students and staff. 

During Lent we are called to focus on strengthening our relationships, navigating challenges with love and understanding, and lifting each other in prayer. As we journey through Lent, let us continue to support those in need, express gratitude for our blessings, and walk together in faith, gathered in love.

Mrs Alison Curtin - Acting Principal

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Car Drop Off & Pick Up Procedures

At Holy Family, our car pick-up and drop-off procedures are designed to ensure the safety and well-being of all students and families. We understand that drop-offs and pick-ups can be challenging at times but we are working together to create a smooth and safe experience for everyone. Holy Family provides various options, and families can choose depending on their needs. At the front of the school, a car pick-up/ drop-off zone is used in the morning and the afternoon. We kindly ask that if you use this procedure, that you adhere to the steps below to ensure a safe start and finish to the day for your family and the wider community. 

Morning- Car Drop Off:

• Procedure: In the morning, it is a "3 cars in, 3 cars out" system. 
• Step 1: The first three cars will pull into the drop-off zone.
• Step 2: Students will exit the vehicles promptly and safely.
• Step 3: Once all three cars have exited, the next three cars will pull in
• Safety Notes & Tips: 
•  Children should be ready to exit the car quickly to maintain traffic flow.
• The driver should remain in the car- “Kiss and Go”.
• Students should exit the car, by stepping straight onto the curb (not the road).
• Do not wait in the queue alongside a bus- this is double-parking and illegal.
• Families using the Visitor’s Carpark-  please drive slowly and give way to buses and cars using the Car drop-off.

8.25-9.00 am: A staff member is present to welcome your child, and those arriving by bus who use the pedestrian crossing.

Afternoon- Car Pick Up:

• Procedure: In the afternoon, we use a "5 cars in, 5 cars out" system to manage the higher volume of pickups.
• Step 1: The first five cars will pull into the pick-up zone.
• Step 2: Students will be directed to their respective cars using a numbered system (1-5) .
• Step 3: Once all five cars have exited, the next five cars will pull in.
• Safety Notes & Tips: 
• Please remain in your vehicle at all times. Staff will assist students as needed.
• Please remind your children to stay attentive, sit together as a family, and be prepared to enter the car quickly when it arrives.
• Do not wait in the queue alongside a bus- this is double-parking and illegal.
• Families using the Visitor’s Carpark-  please drive slowly and give way to buses and cars using the Car Pick Up.

3.15-3.30pm: Staff are present to guide and support families using Car Pick-up. Please be guided by the staff member at the Front Gate, who directs the traffic flow for Car Pick-up and vehicles exiting from the Visitor’s Car Park. 

General Guidelines:

• Be Safe: Always stay in your vehicle; staff will assist your children.
• Be Prepared: Ensure your child is ready for a quick exit in the morning and a quick entry in the afternoon to help keep traffic flowing smoothly.
• Be Patient: Our patience and cooperation are key to making this process smooth and safe for everyone.

Thank you all for your support in this matter.

Mrs Amanda McGinnes - Acting Assistant Principal

REC NEWS

Almighty and ever living God,
You invite us deeper into Your world, Your people, Your Lent.
May this time be one of outward focus; seeking You in those we often ignore.
Help us live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity, and encounter.
Give us hearts hungry to serve You and those who need what we have to give.
Lord Jesus, You call us to repent and to believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
You teach us to do God’s will. You invite us to follow You on the way to the cross. Renew in us the Grace of our baptism.
Transform our thoughts, words, and deeds that we might turn away from sin and live the Gospel.
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us.
Amen.

Our School Parish Mass is on Saturday, March 15th, at 6:00 p.m. at the Cathedral of St Michael and St John. This is Holy Family School's only parish mass during 2025. We understand how busy weekends can be and would greatly appreciate families making this a special Mass to reflect our community spirit here at Holy Family School. Miss Paula will play at our Mass, and we hope many members of our choir can be present to enhance the singing of the St Michael and John congregation.

We look forward to as many of our families joining Fr. Thao as he celebrates Mass this Saturday.

Every family received an invitation, please RSVP by Thursday, March 13th, 2025.

St. Patrick’s Day - Monday 17th March
Holy Family children are encouraged to wear something green with their school uniforms next Monday to celebrate St Patrick, the patron saint of our Bathurst Diocese. Our Year 4 Maroon children will lead the St Patrick's Day Liturgy at 9:15 a.m. in our School Hall, all welcome. Patrick’s deep faith and trust in God enabled him to serve them. He knew that God was with him every moment of the day and night, strengthening and protecting him. Patrick hoped in God.

Year 4 will host a ‘Green’ morning tea for students. During recess, there will be many yummy green-coloured choices to purchase and share. Don’t forget your gold coin. All money raised will go towards our Lenten journey.

St Joseph’s Day
On Wednesday, 19th March, at 9:15am in our school hall, our Year 4 Blue class will lead the school for our St. Joseph’s Day Liturgy, when we celebrate the feast of Joseph, the husband of Mary and father of Jesus. God called Joseph, a humble carpenter, to care for and protect Mary and Jesus.

Joseph showed great faith and trust in fulfilling the role God had given him. We can learn from Joseph to listen to what God asks of us and to be full of hope – ready to place our trust in God.

Thank you Thank You Thank you to the incredibly generous Year 5 and Year 6 families for hosting our Pancake Day last week on Shrove Tuesday. The school enjoyed a lovely morning tea with plenty of pancakes and pikelets! It was a fantastic start to our Lenten journey, with $640 raised for Caritas. Well done, everyone!

Mass Times
For the latest up-to-date Mass times, please click below:  

“Conversations about Catholics”  is a programme that runs for an hour each week for four weeks at your school. The idea of the programme is that you will have a better understanding of the Catholic faith and what your child will be learning at school. It  is especially helpful for those who have not been brought up in the Catholic tradition or who wish to help their child navigate this new experience. Sr Alice Sullivan runs the program and has done so over many years throughout the diocese of Bathurst. If you think this might be of interest or helpful for you, please contact Sr Alice on 0428741342 for further information. The programme will run early 2025.

LIBRARY NEWS - Mrs Davies & Mrs Windsor

Premiers Reading Challenge is not a competition but encourages students to read, read more, and read more widely. It’s a fantastic platform to improve literacy and encourage children to read for pleasure and learning.
The Challenge opened on 24 February 2025 and needs to be completed by 29 August 2025.
K – 2 students read 30 Books, and Years 3 – 6 students read 20. Each class has a tub of excellent books from the library to assist with PRC in their classrooms so that children can read when time is available.

Bookclub Orders Due - Wednesday 19th March!

SPORTS REPORT with Mrs Blaire Clarke

Eastern Region Swimming Carnival: Last Monday Holy Family took 44 swimmers to the Bathurst Aquatic Centre for the Eastern Region Swimming. We competed against all the Bathurst Catholic primary schools as well as the Catholic schools from Portland, Lithgow and Oberon. We congratulate Zane Waterford on setting a new Eastern Region Swimming record in the individual medley of 3:07:21. We had a successful day with many of our students qualifying for the Diocesan Swimming carnival. Those students were Finlay Adair, Bronte Booth, Matilda Burke, Tyler Cafe, Levi Campbell, Hudson Cronin, Rydah Cronin, Patrick Gilles and Zane Waterford. 

Diocesan Swimming Carnival: Well done to all our swimmers who competed so well in Dubbo on Tuesday!  A huge congratulations to the following students who have progressed to the Polding Championships which will be held in Homebush on 2 April: Zane Waterford, Tyler Cafe, Rydah Cronin and Patrick Gillies. Zane is progressing for many individual events and Tyler, Rydah, Patrick and Zane are members of the Senior Boys Relay Team.  A special congratulations to Zane Waterford who was the Senior Boys Champion at this Diocesan Carnival!  All the best boys at your next event.

AFL Trials: Last Friday, several students from Holy Family travelled to Learmonth Park, Bathurst for the AFL Bathurst Dio Trials. The boys had an excellent day with Jack Humphreys and Charlie Robinson being selected to attend the AFL Polding trials in Newcastle next month. Well done boys on all your efforts.

Primary Cross Country: Next Thursday 20th March is the Primary Cross Country being held at Holy Family. There are several changes this year, including the event being held in the morning (9.15am) and there being a competitive and non-competitive course. Students will have an opportunity to walk the course over the next week with their teachers.

WHS NEWS

Safety is everyone’s business!

It is so great to see so many of our students riding their bike or scooter to school each day. We have new bike racks ordered for the school grounds to cater for our growing needs.

We are working together to teach our children about the importance of safe riding to and from school. Helmets must always be worn and fitted correctly to protect young heads. Encourage your child to walk their bikes across roads and intersections for added safety. Riders should stick to the left-hand side, travel at a safe speed, and stay alert to traffic and pedestrians. 

Let’s work together to ensure every child arrives at school and home safely!

Mrs McGinnes 
WHS Committee Voice

CLASS IN REVIEW - 1 Blue

NAPLAN TESTING (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy)

NAPLAN tests the important skills that are essential for every student to progress through school and life, such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy. The content of each test is informed by the Australian Curriculum.

The NAPLAN Testing window starts on Wednesday March 12, and concludes Monday March 25. All testing is online, except Year 3 Writing.

HFS Dates:

• Wednesday 12th March - Writing

• Thursday 13th March - Reading

• Friday 14th March - Conventions of Language

• Tuesday 18th March - Numeracy

If your child is absent on any of these dates, there will be an opportunity to complete that missed test/s in scheduled catch up testing times. (Before March 25).

Mrs Munro
NAPLAN Coordinator

SCHOOL PHOTOS - ORDER NOW VIA COMPASS PORTAL

In case you missed it, school photos are now ready for ordering through the Compass Portal. If you're unsure of your login details, please get in contact with the school office for assistance.

Photo Day: Monday, 24 March 2025

Once you've logged in, you'll need to follow a few easy steps on the home page, or you can go to 'More' and 'Photo Ordering'.

Once you have placed your Individual Photo order you can place your Sibling photo order, these MUST be ordered before midnight prior to photo day. It may be helpful to remind your child that they are having their photos taken in a sibling photo as well as well as an individual setting. 

If you have any questions regarding the photography service or packages available for purchase, please contact the friendly team on 02 6360 2008 or by email centralwestnsw@msp.com

ENROLMENTS CLOSING SOON FOR KINDERGARTEN 2026

P & F NEWS: SCHOOL DISCO ~ Save the Date!

SURVEY FROM CATHOLIC COUNCIL SCHOOL PARENTS (CCSP)

Tell us about your experiences as a Catholic school parent and what you'd like to know more about

We value every parent's thoughts and opinions!

CCSP would like to know how involved/engaged you feel you are in your child's learning at a NSW/ACT Catholic school, how connected you feel in your child's school, and your thoughts on how schools could enhance family-school partnerships.

This data informs our parent learning program and provides us with valuable information about how our dioceses and schools are engaging with families.

Thank you so much for taking time out to give us your feedback.

Please click the link to go to the survey:

https://ccsp.schoolzineplus.com/survey/71

"MISSED PHONE CALLS" FROM THE SCHOOL

If you have a “missed call” from the school, please listen to the message before calling the school as often a return phone call is not required. Also, if you have more than one child at the school, it helps the office to find the right staff member
for you if you do need to return the call.

COMPASS TIPS & GENERAL HOUSEKEEPING

ATTENDANCE NOTES:
Partial Day:  Please sign in/sign out at the kiosk in the office.
Full Day/s: Please enter your child's attendance note in Compass.  If they are away for multiple days, you can choose the start and end date to cover the duration of the absence.

Note:  Attendance notes need to be completed no more than 7 days after the absence.

CONTACTING YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER BY EMAIL:
If you use Compass on your computer, you will have access to "Email your child's teacher".  Unfortunately this is not available via the app on your mobile phone.

LOST PROPERTY:
We have a continual high volume of lost property at school.  Please ensure all of your child's belongings (including drink bottles and food containers) are clearly labelled.  Labels need to                 be renewed after time due to wear and tear.  Thank you for your attention to this issue.

PARENT & TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Our Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Week 10 this term (Mon 7, Tue 8 & Wed 9 April). Under our banner of ‘Gathered in Love’, these conferences serve as an opportunity to come together as a community and engage in conversations about our children and their educational journey at Holy Family. In 2025, conferences will be held in your child’s classroom.

Bookings will be completed online through our Compass Parent Portal. It is essential that you have logged into Compass to create your booking/s.  We suggest one booking per family where we can work in partnership and information is transparent for all involved.  Please contact the office should your individual family situation require a second booking. 

If you have misplaced your login details, please contact the school office as soon as possible so that we can re-generate your unique login details for you. Further instructions will be in our next newsletter on 25 March, so in the meantime please ensure that you are able to login into the Compass Parent Portal.

CEDB PARENT CHARTER

“Our Catholic Community Working Together - A Charter for Schools, Parents and Volunteers in Catholic Schools of the
Diocese of Bathurst.”  This code of conduct outlines the expectations of how we interact at our school. Please be familiar with this important document. The document is available on our website.  Click below to download a copy of the Charter.

COLLECTION NOTICE

ON-SITE AFTER SCHOOL CARE

This is a continuing service available to our families. Care is available from 3.15pm - 6.00pm (or part thereof). Centacare is our provider and you can express interest by contacting:
• Sam 0456 711 150 or 0491 147 453
• Email at: holyfamilyoshc@centacarebathurst.com.au
Sam and the team can answer any questions you may have.

CANTEEN

LUNCH ORDERS:  Download the ‘Flexischools’ app to order your child’s lunch online.  Full instructions can be found on our website and are also available via the link below.
Parents must order online for their child’s lunch order.

Open: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
Closed: Tuesday & Friday

No ice blocks or slushies to be ordered with lunch orders - thank you.  If you have any queries please phone Vikki on 0439 964 462.

PHOTO ALBUM

Shrove Tuesday - Pancake Fundraiser

Eastern Region Swimming Carnival

Diocesan AFL Trials

1 Maroon Baptism Lesson

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

School student travel information for parents and students

School Travel Passes
Students who require a School Opal card or travel pass but have not yet applied need to apply or update their details as soon as possible.

In the Opal network, students should travel with a Child/Youth Opal card until they receive their valid School Opal card. If outside Greater Sydney, parents should contact their local bus operator to discuss their travel needs.

Students living in rural and regional areas will receive their travel pass from their nominated transport operator. It may be issued via their school or be sent directly to them at home. Note: some rural and regional operators do not issue travel passes. Students/parents should confirm with their nominated operator if they do not receive a pass.
 

Terms of Use

Students using School Opal cards must tap on and tap off in line with the Opal terms of use .