Amalgamated Notre Dame launches new vision

By Bridget Spinks
Ron Dullard, director of Catholic Education and Paul Hille, principal of a new two-stream primary school in Cloverdale, launched the new school crest and logo, motto, vision and mission statement at a special function on 26 August.

“Founded on Faith” is the new motto for the Cloverdale Notre Dame Catholic Primary School which, once complete, will have the capacity for 450-500 students.
The school is an amalgamation of two smaller Catholic schools situated 2.8km from one another, Holy Name in Carlisle and Notre Dame in Cloverdale, which catered for 150 and 250 students apiece.
In 2008, Catholic Education Commission and Archbishop Barry Hickey decided to amalgamate the two schools to “build a bigger school to cater for Catholic families in this region,” Paul Hille, Notre Dame principal told The Record.
He said it was a “big thing to shut down a school” because of the emotion involved with a school’s history and spirituality.
In light of this, the Catholic Education Office promised the community that they would build the school “within the year to minimise disruption,” Mr Hille said.
The result has been an unprecedented alacrity in constructing the amalgamated school – something that “has not happened before in this area in Perth”.
“We’ve closed two schools, demolished one and built a new two-stream school in ten months,” Mr Hille said.
He credited all those who have been part of the process, namely the Catholic Education Commission of WA, the director of Catholic Education, the Bishops who own the schools, the school boards, the local council, the school staff, the community, the architects and the builders.
The construction is due to be completed by January 2011.
The amalgamated school came into effect in January 2010 under the name of Notre Dame Catholic Primary School but operated on two campuses, Carlisle and Cloverdale.
The Notre Dame pupils at the Cloverdale campus are taking lessons this year in demountables and are spending their lunchtimes at the park across the road. They can watch their new school being raised up before their very eyes through the windows of their classrooms.
“The community members have been very positive about the new development,” Mr Hille said.
A combined $2.8 million in government funding from the Building Education Revolution (BER) scheme from both Holy Name and Notre Dame was put towards the new Notre Dame School to build a library and multi-purpose room.
This BER grant combined with a low-interest loan and another Australian government grant has made the construction of the new school on Church owned property possible, and “cheaper”, Mr Hille said.
Schools are normally built in several stages and can take years to complete. But building Notre Dame Catholic Primary School within 12 months, “in one hit,” decreased the overall cost because resources were rationalised, re-tendering at each stage was bypassed and only one building company has been employed to construct the project, he said. The exciting part of the project, he added, was rebranding the school, forming a new identity and “building a community feel”.
A work party discussed, debated and formalised the new motto and core values.
Integrity, excellence, justice, compassion, courage and innovation are the core values the school wishes to promote and all “with Christ as our guide”.
“As a Catholic School, we’re founded on that. Christ was the example for us to live by. He showed us that example while he lived on this earth and our role as a Catholic school is to pass on that example to our students and parents,” Mr Hille said.
Paul Hille said that it was very important that Notre Dame was identified as a Catholic school.
“To pass on the Catholic faith to children and to help parents is a wonderful honour,” he said.
Enrolments for Kindergarten 2011 are already full, he added.