Harkaway Hills College update - Open Day 15 March, photos of school, info sessions & 2017 enrolments

We made it!  

On Wednesday, 3 February, our school opened!  It's all there - classes, books, pencils, Spalding phonograms, crafts, desks & chairs, students, teacher, mentor meetings - not to mention solidarity amongst the parent community, including some impressive car pooling arrangements! 

No end of working bees and an extraordinary collective effort has given us a beautiful temporary site that the children are loving.  The very first afternoon of school, the site was blessed by Fr Joseph Pich, the school's chaplain, assisted by Fr Simon Grainger, administrator of the Belgrave parish.  

We enjoyed our first Mass as a school community the following Friday, at the nearby parish church of St Thomas More.

Open Day - Tuesday, 15 March 2016

We will hold the school's very first Open Day on the morning of Tuesday, 15 March.  We have scheduled it mid-week in order to present to prospective parents an ordinary day in operation.  

We place special emphasis on literacy in the junior curriculum and the school is proud to employ the Spalding method, which is so effective in teaching children to read and write - we encourage all families to attend this demonstration in particular.

The Principal, Frank Monagle, will also make a short address, and will endeavour to meet each visitor personally.

Details:

Tuesday 15 March 2016

10am until 2pm

10am - Spalding demonstration

10.30am - Principal's address

Morning tea provided

For location details please contact us.

Information sessions

We will hold information sessions in the homes of various families throughout the year.  

These sessions are intended to be small and intimate, and we welcome both those who are making their first enquiries and those who are already familiar with the school and would like to know more, or have specific questions they would like to ask.

RSVP is essential by contacting us.

Monday 7 March at 7:30pm

To be held in Beaconsfield.

Tuesday 5 April at 7:30pm

To be held in Endeavour Hills.

Tuesday 17 May at 7:30pm

To be held in Beaconsfield.

Enrolments for 2017

Enrolments for 2017 are now open!  We are accepting applications from families with children in any of Foundation, Year 1 or Year 2 for2017.

If you are interested in sending your child to Harkaway Hills College, please attend one of the above information sessions, at which we will make available information packs and enrolment application forms.

If you have already attended a previous information session, please request an enrolment application form by replying to this email, or contacting any member of the school Board.

Narre Warren North site update

We have a driveway - our contractors have done a wonderful job, and it is visible from A'Beckett Road.  We have also finished the car park, and the excavation and other work required for the placement of the portable buildings.

Work progressing at the moment includes the entrance across the Council property on A'Beckett Road, which involves a number of different parties, and connection of services.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the school Board, or by contacting us.

Finally, we thank you for your support and for your prayers over the years that have led us to this wonderful outcome - which is really just the very beginning!  

Warm regards

The Board of PARED Victoria

Harkaway Hills College - Count down! Full primary for boys, planning approval obtained, temporary site etc

The countdown has begun to our first day of school!  

And, as you might expect, we have heaps of news...

• First day of school
• Full primary offering for boys
• Planning permit obtained for Narre Warren North
• Site works commenced
• Temporary site for Term 1 - Mater Christi in Belgrave
• Orientation day for 2016 families
• Uniform
• 2017 enrolments

First day - Wednesday 3 February 2016

How amazing!

We are full of joy and gratitude as we eagerly await the very first day of our brand new school, which will be Wednesday 3 February.

We can't wait to capture happy snaps of our first families and staff on that long-awaited day, and we look forward to sharing them with you.

Full primary offering for boys

As you are no doubt aware, the PARED model of education offers coeducational classes from Foundation to Grade 2, after which time boys and girls are taught in separate schools until Year 12.  There are very sound reasons for these arrangements, which include the ability for each school to cater its teaching and learning style more closely to the student body.

It is usually the case that one school opens first - in our case, the girls school - and the other follows a few years later.  However, two circumstances have caused us to investigate other possibilities - first, the size of the site that we have obtained in Narre Warren North, and secondly, the presence in our school community of families with sons who would love to receive more than three years of education before we can reasonably open a second full (boys) school on its own site.

Therefore, the Board of PARED Victoria began several months ago to investigate the feasibility of continuing to offer education to boys, in these first few years, up to the end of primary school. In consultation with the PARED Foundation in Sydney, and Opus Dei which provides chaplaincy to over a hundred PARED-style schools world-wide, we have arrived at the conclusion that we can indeed offer a full primary education which is faithful to the PARED model, to both boys and girls.  Depending on numbers and resources, the boys will separate into a class of their own in either grade 3 or 4 and will continue on a separate part of the site until the end of grade 6.  During this time, the Board will be actively working to acquire a separate site for the boys school (continuing to year 12), and the students will transfer as soon as this is practicable.  Boys who finish grade 6 before the independent site is open will move to secondary school elsewhere, as is usually the case for students attending schools that offer only primary education.

We are very pleased to be able to offer these extra years to our families, a decision which is also a recognition of their commitment to and enthusiasm for our school.

Planning approval obtained for Narre Warren North

After a huge amount of paperwork, consultation, negotiation and plain old hard work, the City of Casey granted our planning application on 8 December, for our site in Narre Warren North.

It is no coincidence that this date was also the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and we thank all of you who joined us in a novena for this intention.  The decision was made in our favour without the need for any discussion amongst the councillors - a testament to the work put in beforehand, and the gentle guiding hand of the Blessed Mother.

Site works commenced

Another tangible milestone!  This week, works began at the site, making way for our portable buildings, accessways and services.

Whilst the portable classrooms that we will use on the site initially are easy to install, the driveway, car park and connection of services will require more time.  So a bit more hard work and inspired initiative has resulted in our acquisition of a temporary site.

Temporary site for Term 1 - Mater Christi in Belgrave

We are very grateful to Mater Christi, a Catholic girls secondary school, which has kindly made available to us a boarding house located on their site in Belgrave, for use for Term 1 of 2016.  It is separate from the rest of the Mater Christi school and has everything we need for the opening weeks of our first little class.

Orientation day for 2016 families

We enjoyed another milestone in December - which was to formally welcome our 2016 parents and students, and inform them of all the practical details for the coming year.  It was exciting to gather together the official founding families!

For those of us who have been working toward this school for many years, it was very moving to see our first class interact together and with their teacher, Miss Watson, in an educational environment for the first time.  We were struck by the conviction that they have a truly unique opportunity, in this tiny class, to learn and grow within a school community which can focus on each individual so personally, addressing all their academic and emotional needs.  

It will be a very small class for this first year, and in time when the school is much bigger, we will reflect fondly on these tiny pioneers!

Uniform

The full uniform was also presented at the orientation day.  For your interest, we post some photos of various items of the uniform, featuring one of our eager 2016 students, Claire Burger.

2017 enrolments

Always looking ahead, we are now open to expressions of interest for enrolments in 2017.  Please contact us for information about the enrolment process.


We look forward to being in contact shortly with further announcements and photographic evidence of our long-awaited first day of school!

Warm regard and best wishes for you and your families in 2016.

Harkaway Hills College update - preparing for 2016, fundraising report etc

Orientation day for 2016 families

Our 2016 families have been notified of the upcoming orientation day on Sunday 13 December 2015.  Students will spend the afternoon with their teacher, Miss Watson (Roisin), and parents with the principal, Mr Monagle (Frank).  

We are really looking forward to sharing all of the practical details that will make our school a reality!

Uniform

We are proud to announce that we have finalised our uniform design, and are presently awaiting samples to present to the 2016 families on the aforementioned orientation day.  Be assured that our 2016 students will be looking very smart indeed!

Fundraising report

We are very grateful that our fundraising efforts have borne wonderful fruit since our launch this time last year - we have raised a considerable amount in lump sum donations, as well as monthly contributions to assist with interest payments on our land.

To round off our fundraising target for 2015, our final initiative is to obtain ten $10k loans.  We are asking for these loans on an interest-free basis for a period of 5 years.

We invite you to consider whether you know of anyone who would be in a position to make such a loan to the school - whether you yourselves, or family members, colleagues or friends.  If it would be helpful, we are available to make a presentation to potential lenders about the school, its philosophy and its financial arrangements.

(Already since preparing the first draft of this update, we have obtained our first $10k loan - nine to go!)

Donations

Further, as we approach Christmas and the season of generosity, we reiterate that donations of any size are of great assistance to the school, and we invite you to consider supporting our wonderful project, which is fast becoming very tangible - the uniforms being the latest instalment!  

We will gladly accept donations either to our operating fund (which finances our classroom fit-out and educational resources etc as well as our loan repayments) or to our building fund (which is tax deductible and finances our buildings).

Bendigo Bank

A final note with respect to fundraising.  The Board recently moved the school's banking to the Bendigo Bank. We were delighted with a further benefit of the change, being the arrangements in place to support community projects.  Every time a customer opens a debt facility and makes reference to Harkaway Hills College, the Bendigo Bank will make a donation to the school through its “Clubs Reward” programme!

So, we invite you to consider the Bendigo Bank when it comes to your credit card and mortgage arrangements - and if you choose to open an account, please mention Harkaway Hills College.  For more information, our contact is Charmaine Jeffery, Branch Manager at Belgrave.

We wish you a wonderful Christmas with your family, and look forward to sharing many more updates and exciting milestones in 2016!

Harkaway Hills College Upcoming Information Sessions

We are hosting several information sessions over the coming months - please see the details below.

Introduction to the PARED model of education and Harkaway Hills College

• Who: October - Frank Monagle, founding member of PARED; past principal of Redfield College and Wollemi College, Sydney; current member of Melbourne school steering committee.

• November - Andrew Mullins, former teacher, tutor and headmaster at Redfield and Wollemi Colleges in NSW, schools of the PARED Foundation.

• What: An introduction to the PARED model of education and Harkaway Hills College, for new parents and families.

• When: Saturday 10 October, 2:30pm

and again on Sunday 22 November, 2:30pm

• Where:  October - home of Damien & Tatiana, Guys Hill 

          November - home of Trent & Isabelle, Beaconsfield

• RSVP to enquiries@harkawayhills.org or 9028 4420 by

• October: Friday 9 October.
• November: Wednesday 18 November.

For babysitting purposes, please indicate how many children you intend to bring.

What does it mean that the school has a "Catholic ethos"?  And what is Opus Dei and how is it involved?

• Who: Andrew Mullins, former teacher, tutor and headmaster at Redfield and Wollemi Colleges in NSW, schools of the PARED Foundation.

• What: Harkaway Hills College, and all PARED schools, are schools that have a Catholic ethos and teach the Catholic faith, but they are not "Catholic schools".  Andrew Mullins will explain what this means.
  
  Further, Andrew will explain the spirituality of Opus Dei, which has inspired this model of education, and will describe the involvement of Opus Dei in the chaplaincy of the school.

• When:  Tuesday 27 October, 7:30pm

• Where:  Home of Trent & Isabelle, Beaconsfield

• RSVP:  Thursday 22 November to enquiries@harkawayhills.org or 9028 4420.

Orientation day for 2016 families

• What: Orientation day for both parents and students.
  
  Frank Monagle will address parents about practical details and arrangements whilst Roisin Watson meets her 2016 class of students.

• When: Sunday 13 December, 2:00pm

• Where: Please introduce children to Miss Watson at the home of Trent & Isabelle, Beaconsfield.
  
  Then parents to head across the road to home of Elizabeth & Daniel.

• RSVP:  Monday 30 November to enquiries@harkawayhills.org or 9028 4420.

Harkaway Hills College Update - teacher, crest, buildings and more!

We hope you enjoy reading this latest update – as we count down to 2016, we are pleased to confirm that we have...

        A teacher!

        A school crest!

        Our first buildings!

        Finalised our application for school registration!

And also...

        An update on our planning permit application

        Marina Haines’ presentation on YouTube

        Advertising in Melbourne’s Child

We have a teacher!

We are delighted to announce that a teacher has been appointed for our very special inaugural class in 2016.

Roisin Watson was introduced at our last information seminar in July and enjoys a long history with the PARED model in Sydney.  Her grandparents were founding parents of the first schools in Sydney, she herself is a graduate of Tangara School for Girls, and she returned there last year to teach a Foundation class.  She has enthusiastically agreed to the challenge of moving to Melbourne to teach our very first class in its very first year – history in the making!

We hope to arrange another occasion for parents (and future students!) to meet Roisin (Miss Watson!) before our school opens.

We are grateful to PARED in Sydney for assisting us in the effort to find the right candidate for this important role – and to Tangara for relinquishing such a wonderful teacher!

We have a school crest!

We have been working with a designer to create an image that captures something of the spirit of our school and our aspirations for its students and community.  We are proud to unveil the result.

Each element has been carefully chosen, and is rich with meaning.

The school’s motto, Veritas et Virtus, is placed in a prominent position, expressing the aspiration that each student seek the truth and grow in virtue each and every day.

The rose signifies the beauty of each child. A rose in bloom is magnificent – and every child is beautiful, unique and unrepeatable.  Of course, anyone with a rose bush in their garden knows that its full beauty can only be achieved by careful pruning, and will be enhanced by loving attention. Further, along with its beauty comes its thorns, which for us represent the difficulties each person faces and the weaknesses he or she strives to overcome.  In essence, the school aspires to help families to prune and nurture the character of their children, so that each child can grow to reach his or her true beauty, as a child of God and as an adult who contributes fully to society.

The Southern Cross is the national emblem of Australia, the constellation we can see any time of year in the southern hemisphere.  Its cross shape signifies Christ, our light and guide. In Christian tradition, stars have long symbolised guidance and clear direction, and called to mind our Blessed Mother, for whom we hope our students will have a great love.

And finally, the Roman wreath signifies victory.  We hope that students will aim to be victorious in all areas (study, sport, music etc), but most importantly that they aspire to be victorious in seeking and obtaining the fullness of truth and virtue.

We have our first buildings!

We have acquired four portable buildings, which will be our first classrooms, chapel and administration buildings.  These temporary buildings are “stage 1” of our building plan and are currently being stored for us by the supplier until our planning and building permits are finalised.  They are perfect for our purposes and almost brand new, having spent a year at a prestigious girls school in Camberwell.  They are a great setting for creating wonderful memories of these pioneering first years of our college.

Application to government for school registration

We confirm that our application to register as an independent school was lodged at the end of May, and is currently being assessed by the Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority (a branch of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development).

The application consisted of a vast number of policies, procedures, financial documents etc, which collectively outline the effective operation and good governance of our school.  We have planned for everything – from corporate structure and governance to financial modelling, from student welfare policies & procedures to emergency evacuation plans, from school curriculum to facility and property maintenance... and many other things besides!

As you can imagine, this application has been an excellent opportunity for us to comprehensively plan out all the important aspects of the operation of our school, and has been two years in the making.  Its submission was a major milestone for our steering committee. 

Planning permit update

As previously mentioned, the local council is considering our application to obtain a planning permit, which will permit us to operate a school on our site.  We recently lodged further details it had requested of us, including the full design and style of the buildings, facilities and landscaping.  Our architect has produced some fabulous images of the layout and the design, which we look forward to presenting to you.

Marina Haines info session on YouTube

We enjoyed a great presentation from Marina Haines in July, during which she discussed many aspects of a new and small school, including curriculum, composite classes, and achieving academic excellence.  The highlight was definitely her impromptu Spalding literacy class, which had us all volunteering to learn phonograms and rules in the hopes of earning a smartie or two...

If you missed this entertaining presentation, or would like to re-live it, please visit this YouTube link.

Advertising in Melbourne’s CHILD

We were all proud as punch to see an advertisement for our school appear in the MELBOURNE’S CHILD magazine –  check it out here.

Harkaway Hills College - upcoming events

Please see below for details of events in the next month.

From Temperament to Character

We feel this event hosted by Family Education Australia will be of value to our families.

Who: Dr Andrew Mullins has over 30 years of experience as an educationalist, including as teacher, tutor and headmaster at Redfield and Wollemi Colleges in NSW. He is author of the book Parenting for Character and of many other papers on related topics, including a doctorate focused on the neural bases of virtue.  Dr. Mullins has been nominated to present this topic at the biennial IFFD conference to be held in Mexico later in 2015.

What: From temperament to character - discover and develop our children's potential using their unique personal traits - whether easy going or sometimes hard to handle.

This seminar will help parents identify the need to focus not only on the training of our 'challenging children' but to be also aware of the unseen needs of what we could call our 'easy, less demanding children'.

When: Saturday 29 August 2015 - 6:30pm wine and cheese, 7:30pm presentation

Where: Hawthorn Library, 584 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn

Cost: $25 per person or $40 per couple

Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com/141252

Introduction to the PARED model

Who: Dr Andrew Mullins, former principal, teacher & tutor of Redfield and Wollemi Colleges in Sydney (run by the PARED Foundation)

For whom: New families and others unfamiliar with the PARED model of education

When: Sunday 30 August 2015 at 2.00pm

Where: Damien & Tatiana’s home

RSVP to paredschoolmelbourne@gmail.com by Sunday 23 August – this is essential for babysitting arrangements!

Ideals in teaching

We are hosting a series of presentations for teachers, discussing different aspects of the wonderful vocation of teachers - who are called to help form the children of today to become the society of tomorrow.

We have enjoyed two presentations already, and we welcome anyone interested in enriching their professional lives as teachers to get in touch, and we will update you as to future sessions.

If you know of any teachers, students studying to be teachers, or those considering teaching as a possible career, please invite them to join our mailing list.

The Board of PARED Victoria

Harkaway Hills College - upcoming July information sessions

Next information seminar - Sunday 12 July

You are warmly invited to our next information seminar, where we will be pleased to welcome again Marina Haines.  

Marina will give a detailed presentation on the curriculum for the early primary years, focusing particularly on the Spalding approach to literacy, to which much time and effort is devoted in these foundational years.  With her day to day experience of successfully growing a very small school and enjoying outstanding academic results from day one, she is the perfect speaker to answer all questions about how a small school operates and how a full range of learning experiences can be provided in these first years.

Marina recently retired as principal of Montgrove College, a PARED school in Sydney's western suburbs. Marina was the first principal of the then-called Orchard Hills Preparatory School, which opened in 1999 with 15 children in foundation (prep). Orchard Hills Prep has now grown into Montgrove College for girls and Wollemi College for boys.

When: Sunday, 12 July 2015 at 2pm

Where: Damien & Tatiana's home 

RSVP: Monday 6 July.  

For babysitting purposes, please advise whether your children will be attending and, if so, how many and what ages they are.  We will ask for a donation towards babysitting costs.

Information sessions in local areas

All families are most welcome to attend these sessions, held in the homes of interested families around Melbourne, which will be small and intimate.  They present an opportunity to ask any and all questions that families may have about the College and the PARED philosophy.

Sessions have been held already in Wheelers Hill and in Montmorency, and two more have been planned.

In Keilor, at the home of Natasha and Joshua Peart on Saturday, July 4 at 2pm.

In Lysterfield South, at the home of MariaJose and Ricardo Peralta on Saturday, July 25 at 3pm.

Please email paredschoolmelbourne@gmail.com for details.

Also, if you live elsewhere and would like us to host a session in your area, we would be happy to do so - please get in touch.

We look forward to seeing you at one (or more!) of these sessions soon.

Harkaway Hills College update - new website! Also, school motto, tax deductible donations etc

We are delighted to share some significant announcements, including...

            1.  Tax deductible donations
           

            2.  Launch of new school website

            3.  Announcement of school motto

Tax deductible donations

We are very pleased to announce that the ATO has approved our building fund for the receipt of tax deductible donations.  We can use this tax deductible fund for building expenses related to education.

We invite you to consider whether you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the College's building fund, to contribute to the enormous and exciting task of building an amazing school with wonderful facilities, to benefit students and families for many decades to come!  

(Though please note that we are also in need of donations for expenses such as the land which are not tax deductible.) 

If you would like to contribute financially to the school please contact: Tatiana or Damien Burger or Pat Coyne.

School website

We are excited to launch an official website for Harkaway Hills College - please see www.harkawayhills.org!

It features information about our vision, mission and values, about the character education we offer and our curriculum, and our Catholic ethos.  It also includes the blog that we will continue to maintain and links to Youtube videos of our previous seminars.

School motto - VERITAS ET VIRTUS - Truth and Virtue

Our school motto has been chosen to reflect clearly and simply the main focus of the school's efforts, which is to assist families so that each member can grow in truth and in virtue.

Upcoming information sessions

We will forward another email in the coming week announcing details of an information seminar focussed on curriculum which will take place in July, and of local information sessions planned for Keilor and Lysterfield South.

Enrolments

As you are no doubt aware, we are receiving applications for enrolment of families with children in foundation and grade 1 in 2016.  If you are intending to apply for enrolment in 2016 and have not commenced this process, please make contact with us ASAP!

We will continue to update you on the progress we are making on a regular basis.  If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, please email paredschoolmelbourne@gmail.com