The St Monica’s students are an inspiring group. From an early age, led by the Year 6 students, the children focus on outreach to the broader community. You’ll read about Emma’s work in this newsletter, as an example of not only this outreach but the benefits she sees flowing back to her. Archie also talks about big ideas and becoming

prepared for taking on roles in the community as an adult. The mission of St Monica’s is to work collaboratively to empower each other to be ‘inclusive citizens’. The children arrange amazing fundraising days to support our Global Partner school in Kenya and Australian families during the drought and recent fires. They also coordinate food hampers for St Vincent de Paul, just prior to Christmas to assist local families who needed a helping hand. Their generosity of spirit, empathy for others, creativity of ideas and incredible enthusiasm is wonderful to see and experience.  Knowing our students are our future; we will be in good hands!

St Monica’s is blessed to have an amazing community who are very supporting and lookout for one another. As a school community we love celebrating the many special moments in a family’s life and the many events in the life of the school. These include the birth of a new baby, a sporting achievement, the results of a piano exam, an extra special staff birthday and the love of grandparents on Grandparents Day, to name a few.  Celebrating these moments together is an expression of who we are, the love we share due to the value we place on the wellbeing of one another in our diverse community.

In a time of considerable educational change, that is particularly unsettling and confronting for many families, we have drawn on our strong link between school and family to support the parents and children as they undertake Remote Learning. 

It is a privilege to lead such a committed and highly dedicated team of teachers who work extremely hard to create exciting and safe learning experiences to engage the children, whether at home or at school. The teachers have been working brilliantly at making this as straightforward as possible for our children and parents. I have been so impressed with their determination and can-do approach, and the collegiate spirit of generosity and support they have demonstrated in their planning and development of the new program. I also draw comfort knowing that everyone is determined to make the new MS Teams video conferencing platform work, so that the children and teachers can once again see each other.  Squeals of excitement are again heard daily around the school as the children connect with their teachers and classmates. Building meaningful connections is a vital part of the daily fabric at St Monica’s.

As an active Catholic community St Monica’s focuses on reaching out to families experiencing hardship or loss. It is at times like these where we draw courage from our faith, and we remind ourselves of the strong Catholic values underpinning the children’s education.  It is during these times we can be truly grateful for the compassion, strength and resilience in our children, our families and the teachers. It is when times are tough that we really draw strength from our Catholic faith to be strong and determined in life.