Dear Parents, Carers, Staff and Students, 

Last Friday we were able to invite parents and carers back into the school  to help celebrate our Friday afternoon assembly that was led so beautifully by our Year  Five students and teachers. The Year Five students reminded us that this week is Harmony Week and as a community we need to strive towards ‘everyone feeling like they belong’. 

As I observed the joy on the faces of parents and carers who attended  the assembly, I was reminded that your partnership with the school is so important in bringing to life who we are as a school community and what we aspire to be. A key initiative by the Diocese to support the key relationship between the school and parents was to develop the CEDoW Lighting the Way Together, Parent-School Partnership Framework. As a Catholic community our mission along with the mission of the Diocese is to ‘create vibrant Catholic communities where every student finds meaning and purpose in their life through experiencing continual growth in faith and improvement in learning’  (Lighting the Way, Vision and Strategic Direction, 2019-2022). This mission comes alive when there is a genuine partnership between home, school and Parish.

Over the next few weeks I would like to highlight the key partnership  principles and invite parents and carers into a conversation regarding these important principles.

This week, we focus on the partnership principle of:

 Co-creating a Catholic Community 

 As we aspire to co-creating a Catholic community, there is an expectation that parents and the school live this in our school community by:

Valuing and respecting: 

• the Catholic identity of the school as a community centred on Jesus Christ;
• its connection to the parish community and the wider community of the Diocese of Wollongong;
• the expression of its tradition through prayer, liturgy and Catholic beliefs and teachings. 

Being welcoming, inclusive and compassionate. 

Respecting the dignity of all. 

 Acknowledging that the wellbeing of the individual is balanced with the common good.

 Living the Catholic faith through the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. 

 Supporting social justice initiatives that give witness to the Catholic faith in action.

A full copy of the Lighting the Way Together, Parent-School Partnership Framework is available for download below.

Within the context of the framework, we will be exploring ways to collaborate with parents and staff to further provide opportunities for parent involvement and engagement in the school and with your child's improvement in learning and growth in faith. Our hope is that parents feel like they belong and we continue to work towards providing every opportunity to ‘be community’.

Take Care

Justin Devlin

Principal