St Monica's Primary School is a two-stream comprehensive Catholic school serving the community of St Monica's Parish in the Hawkesbury District.
St Monica's Primary is one of the oldest Catholic learning communities in New South Wales, having been established in 1859. Our patron, St Monica, is the patron of mothers and womanhood. Her love of God and family is a love that we strive to live out in our school's Vision & Mission.
The bond between our school and local parish has continued to grow strongly. Our children have been given wonderful opportunities of experiencing faith celebrations through the support of Fr Gayan Thamel, our Parish Priest.
Teacher professional learning continues to be paramount and has led to curriculum changes. The core areas of English, Mathematics, Religion and assessment have been supported by increased resourcing and positive changes in school organisation.
At the centre of all this growth and the catalyst for our ongoing development as a learning community, has been the work, attitudes and beliefs of our teachers. The success of our work in bringing about significant change, has been the result of a professional teaching community that has been prepared to continually seek out ways to improve teaching practice, and matched with energy and expertise to carry out change. This development has been supported by our teaching community examining theory, undertaking professional learning, aligning syllabus to practice, and critically evaluating programs.
Through the ongoing support of our parent community we have been able to purchase a wide range of IT hardware. This allocation of resources has been supported by professional learning initiatives and planning.
Our growth in community has been seen in our Parents and Friends Association, Parent helpers Canteen support and generally, in the high level of participation in school and social events.
In many homes other languages are also spoken. Culturally, our population is mainly comprised of families from Anglo-Saxon, Maltese, Italian and Arabic backgrounds. St Monica's Primary draws its enrolment from a wide geographical range extending from Richmond to Castlereagh, Glossodia, Freemans Reach, Kurrajong Heights and Upper Kurrajong.
In recent years we have focused on empowering our children to be lifelong learners. We have made the learning environment stimulating, supportive, positive and enjoyable.
Our school has modern learning areas where 21st century learning and teaching take place. And technology is used to support learning, with every learning space equipped with Apple TVs, Chromebooks, laptops and iPads.