Term 1 Week 3 2024 Newsletter

From the Principal

Our next chapter

Welcome to a brand new school year! Our Lady Queen of Peace School celebrates its 75 year anniversary this year. What makes the anniversary extra special for me is that the school now has an enrolment of over 200 students for the first time since 2018, the last year that Year 7 students were part of primary education.

We currently have 221 students enrolled (not including our mid year Reception students). We have not seen an enrolment of over 220 students since 2016. We welcomed 46 children to our beautiful school – that is at least one new child per class. Our school growth is the result of the positive feedback about the school from our community. Together we have changed the story of Our Lady Queen of Peace School. I am thankful for the amazing staff, School Board, Parents and Friends, and families. I also want to acknowledge and thank the students; they are meeting my expectation of being amazing.

A few people have asked, “How big do you want the school to grow?”. There is no magic number in my mind. My focus has and always will be ensuring we provide quality teaching and learning, inconjunction with a loving, caring, and safe environment for our students. When we are no longer able to provide this, then the school has grown too large. As we grow, I am mindful that maintaining these two pillars is my focus.

Live, Learn, Lead

Each year in Term 3, on behalf of Catholic Education South Australia, we conduct the Live, Learn, Lead survey. The survey was developed in 2020 and designed to help schools access the perceptions of staff, students and parents/carers. It focuses on:

Catholic Identity – Catholic Education
Curriculum and Co-constructed Learning and Assessment design – Learning Support
Student Agency, Identity, Learning and Leadership – Enjoyment of School and Autonomy and Independence
Community Engagement – Welcoming School, Parent-School Partnership and Safe School
Infrastructure

Comparing the 2023 parent data against the data from 2022, the school has shown significant growth in all the domains. This affirms for me that we are moving in the right direction. The data also supports the construction of the school’s Annual Improvement Plan. This will be uploaded to the school’s web page in the near future.

I will present more on the LLL survey at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM will occur Tuesday 5 March 2024 (Week 6). All families are welcome to attend. As part of the AGM, there will be a call for new membership to the School Board. If you would like to be part of the School Board, which meets twice a term, please complete a nomination slip – you can self-nominate or you can be nominated. Nomination slips can be collected from the front office, or accessed via a Seesaw message distributed to families on Friday 16 February 2024.

My approach

Though the school’s leadership structure has changed, I am still available to catch up with families, if needed.

2024 Leadership team:

Lee Abela - Principal
Marissa Redden - Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission
Adriana Pilla - Assistant Principal Learning, Engagement and Teaching
Olivia Mammone - Key Teacher: Inclusive Education
Courtney Elliott - Key Teacher: Data

My approach is that I would rather know than not know, and I can only do things when I have information. Please feel welcome to catch up with me if needed. I have absolutely enjoyed the positive feedback I have received over the last 12 months.

In addition to welcoming our new students to the school, we also welcomed some new staff to the school in 2024:

Diem Savy – Reception teacher
Kim Whyte – Year 1 teacher
Michael Mastrangelo – Year 3/4 teacher
Andi Benzija – ESO and Occasional Care facilitator
Ava Falkenberg – ESO
Tanya Larsson – ESO

Even though it has only been a few weeks, their impact on student learning has been significant. Click on their images that appear in the following gallery.

Take care.

Lee Abela
Principal