One of the great pleasures of being a School Principal is taking prospective families on a school tour and discussing with them our Vision, Mission, our Strengths and, most importantly, their child. It is a huge decision to make when considering all of the school options that are available and if the decision to join our community is made, I take it as a great honour for all of us.

Decisions are based upon a huge range of factors. Yesterday a family came and visited our school having moved to Windsor Gardens from the Western Suburbs. The family were keen to enrol in a school that had a strong sense of values, a commitment of care and compassion. Importantly, the two girls just ‘love to sing’ and so musical opportunities was an important consideration. You would be aware of the very special place that music has in our school thanks to the classroom music programs, the Music Tutors, our celebrations and concerts and our Catholic Schools Music Festival Choirs. At the core of this is our dedicated Music Specialist Teacher, Basia Jedrzejczak.

Coincidentally, in an article in the Sunday Mail, May 21^st,  it was noted that through powerful music programs and experiences, children’s cognitive abilities are being extended. Research from Neuromusical Educator, Anita Collins reports links between learning a musical instrument and improved academic outcomes. “The brains of musically trained children operate and learn differently to brains of non-musically trained.” “There is a complex cognitive component to learning music, I describe it as a full body workout for the brain.”

Over the coming weeks we are re-commencing our Music Tutor programs and offering our children a range of musical instrumental lessons with our highly qualified Tutors. Your child’s Tutors will be in touch with you about the details. I thank each of them for their understanding and patience as we worked through all of the implications, advice and restrictions arising from COVID-19.

For those children who are not currently learning an instrument, you may consider the powerful opportunities that we offer and how these can enrich the whole learning of the child as the article mentioned above articulates.   Here’s hoping.....

As I finish off this article, I will be leaving to attend a meeting at the Church Office to present our proposal for the development of the Stage 1D building that I wrote about in the last Newsletter. Approval from this committee will go a long way to realisation of this project. Wish me luck!

God Bless