Year: 2015

As a Catholic School, Holy Family embraces pastoral care as a key tenet in our philosophy. We believe everything in our school begins and ends with our personal relationships. Our other key values are sharing and support. We try to live out our philosophy to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. Holy…Continue Reading Catholic Schools in Northern Adelaide Embracing Positivity

I was chatting to LibrarianSarah M. in the Library recently about the Mass furniture in the Sanctuary in The Centre. I told her that I noticed she did not push the Altar Table or the Lectern into a corner when school resumes each Monday. She told me that she leaves it in place and the…Continue Reading Be open and creative and good ideas can flow

Ten years ago when we were installing the latest form of presentation technology at the time, the so-called “interactive Whiteboards” we were removing the “old” fixed static White Boards. When the staff were lifting off the White Boards from the walls, in some places lo and behold they found their predecessors ..blackboards. As it happened, we…Continue Reading “Magic” Screens, new ways of presenting and sharing learning

Recently there was a meeting of generations in my home Parish when my youngest son acted as Sponsor for my oldest grandson at his Confirmation. It was lovely when our Parish Priest Fr Michael welcomed the whole family casually but warmly as we assembled in a pew near the front of the Church. “G’Day boys”…Continue Reading Speaking of feeling at home in Church….

I enjoyed our time spent with Dominican Friar Fr Timothy who was visiting Adelaide at the invitation of the Archbishop. His message was deceptively simple: His Vision for local Church was for people to feel at home. As DH Lawrence wrote that being at home is “to be like a grasshopper in the grass” When…Continue Reading Words from the Wise….

When I was growing up, I can remember my mother saying to us “It is important to at least look the part!” I think sometimes it related to the sporting field. She was saying that if you were playing a sport, it was important to present yourself well. If it was football, boots clean, socks…Continue Reading You can at least look the part…

Recently, one of Position of Responsibility in Ecology leaders, Daniel Pearce was helping to establish one of the above ground garden beds in the St Francis of Assisi Piazza outside the R/1 Classrooms. What we have noticed is that although Mr Pearce is a Yr 3 / 4 teacher , the fact that he helped…Continue Reading Daniel Pearce working in God’s Garden

Recently, I was meeting with the two teachers who were in Positions of Responsibility for “Making Learning Visible”. They were asking were wondering where to start… My mind went to Situational Analysis, Coalition of the Willing and Building on Strengths. So I said “lets go on some learning Walks around our 33 Classes and look…Continue Reading Making the learners and the learning visible at Holy Family Catholic School

Our partnership with the Vietnamese community and our joint efforts to build community and to raise money for projects that will provide the community with much needed support and resources, are worth recording. We have jointly conspired to present four mega-events over the past couple of years: The first event was a fundraiser for projects…Continue Reading Celebrations with the Vietnamese Community

Interestingly, it was against the backdrop of Inquiry Days that some other intriguing pedagogically events were unfolding across the school. One of the issues emanating from the Inquiry Days was an apparent disconnect between the learning needs of children and what the teachers saw as imperatives. The children were at varying stages of requiring support…Continue Reading Emma and Elizabeth’s Classes