Our Lady of Lourdes Primary Newsletter

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and to say, ‘Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.’ And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him here.’ So they called the blind man. ‘Courage,’ they said ‘get up; he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Rabbuni,’ the blind man said to him ‘Master, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has saved you.’ And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.

Blindness is a powerful metaphor that is used repeatedly throughout scripture. It is almost always a metaphor for blindness of heart or blindness of mind rather than a purely physical affliction. There are multiple accounts of healing blindness in the gospel. Saul/Paul is blinded on the road to Damascus and only has his sight restored when he is baptised. The Pharisees are described as being ‘blind fools’ and there the prophets make numerous references to blind seeing as a sign of the Messiah’s arrival. It is a very powerful image of being ‘blind’ to truth and ‘blind’ to the teaching of Jesus.

 © Greg Sunter 

Advice from NSW Health is that parents and carers should not send children to school if they are unwell, even if they have the mildest flu-like symptoms.  Schools will make arrangements for students who are unwell or have flu-like symptoms to be sent home.

If students are absent or have been sent home due to flu-like symptoms, they should not return until they have a negative COVID-19 test and are symptom-free.

Schools must sight the negative COVID-19 test result prior to allowing students  to return to school i.e. NSW Health or COVID-19 Testing Centre correspondence (SMS or email or hard copy) and/or a medical certificate must be provided to the school and a record of this kept by the school.

We understand that the following arrangements may be inconvenient to some parents, however, we are obliged to follow the NSW Health Guidelines to ensure safety and minimise adults gathering outside the school gates. 

To allow for the safe dismissal of students, pick-up times will be staggered for different year groups and their siblings. We ask that you adhere to the designated times to ensure a smooth and safe process. Please stay in your car until the time for pick-up to limit the grouping of parents. As children are unvaccinated, it is recommended that adults and students wear a mask during collection time.

2:45pm -

Kinder - top playground (outside open learning area)               

Year 1 - Church verandah               

Year 2 - Church verandah

Siblings will join their youngest brother and sister and be collected from that area.

Students who do not have a sibling in K-2 will be collected at the following times and locations.

3:10pm 

Year 3 and 4 - Church Verandah               

Year 5 and 6 - top playground (outside open learning area)

Siblings will join their youngest brother and sister and be collected from that area.

The Oakland Avenue gate will not be open for parents to enter the school for the collection of children.

Children are to wear summer uniform during Term 4.

Uniform orders can be placed with Ozfashions via the Qkr app.  Please see the size chart for an approximate sizing of uniform items. 

Deliveries to Our Lady of Lourdes Baulkham Hills are every Tuesday and Friday during school term. 

Please choose carefully as there are no refunds, however, Oz Fashions are happy to provide an exchange.

If you have any questions please email Elle elle@ozfashions.com.au 

Last term and across the school holidays, students from Our Lady of Lourdes band were given the opportunity to participate in an optional recording project run by Teaching Services Australia (TSA).

Over 300 students joined from more than 50 school to rehearse weekly on Zoom.

They worked in 5 groups at various levels ranging from beginner to advanced and each group learned and recorded a band song. Some students submitted audio recordings whilst others also participated in the video recording session. Everyone worked hard, learned a lot and enjoyed making music together.

Congratulations to those students from Our Lady of Lourdes who participated, you have done an amazing job keeping music alive in these challenging times.

If you would like to see an examples of what these students achieved, see the following links:

Putting the band back together

Star Wars

Monster Rock

Old MacDonald Had A Band

Power Rock

We will be conducting a zoom information evening for parents on Monday 8th November at 7pm(a link will be sent home closer to this date). 

We are still aiming to hold an onsite Orientation session for our 2022 Kindergarten students, however, a date has not be set as we are awaiting further Covid restrictions to ease.

We are aware of the importance of these events before the 2022 school year commences.

Please click here to find the latest COVID-19 bulletin from the Centre for Population Health.

In this edition:- 

• COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents
• Your COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate
• COVID-19 and international travel
• Helpful tips coming back to primary school 
• High school vaccination program 

Skoolbag is the school’s primary avenue for immediate communication with parents.

Skoolbag is a communication app which all parents are strongly advised to install on their smartphones, ipads etc.