Dear Families and Friends of Our Lady’s Primary School,
Welcome back everyone, it has been great chatting with you all in the playground and seeing all our beautiful students happy to be back at school. I take this opportunity to especially welcome our Foundation students; Nathan, Sofia, Chloe, Grace, Isabella, Emma, Owen, Myles, Lizzie, and Lauren.
We also welcome Leo and Hugh and their families to Our Lady’s. We hope that you have experienced a warm and happy welcome to our community.
This year we also welcome Ms Jessica Skinner - Year 1 /2 Teacher, Mr Stuart Andreou Mill ( Mr AM) - Year 3 /4 Teacher and Mrs Connie Payne - Learning Support. We are very grateful to welcome Mrs Therese Harrington to Year 3/4. Therese will be teaching the students in 3/4 AM whilst Stuart is recovering from surgery complications. We wish Stuart all the very best and look forward to officially welcoming him to OLPS soon.
We also welcome Ms Sandy Xu. Sandy will be teaching Mandarin for the terms 1 and 2 whilst Chaoying in on leave.
The Christmas and holiday season seems a distant memory now but I do hope that you and your family have had an enjoyable and refreshing break from the routine of school life.
Despite the continuing challenges we face we are truly looking forward to 2022 with optimism and excitement.
Communication
The partnership between school and home is a very important one. I encourage you to contact your child’s classroom teacher via email if you have any questions or concerns. Your class parent representatives will play an important role in keeping you up to date with social activities and general reminders. Details of your Class Reps will be shared with you this week.
The school newsletter will also provide you with valuable information about what’s happening at school and a platform to publish and celebrate student learning. Please take the time to read it.
Each term, every year level will distribute a Newsletter that will outline the curriculum focus, important dates, home learning expectation, and general reminders.
As Principal, I warmly invite your feedback. Through the year there will be opportunities to be involved in community conversations that will provide the opportunity for parents and teachers to work together in partnership always with the focus on attaining the best possible outcomes for our students.
Staff Emails
Open this link to access staff email addresses
Term Dates
Term 1 January 31st - April 8th @1.45pm
Term 2 April 26th - June 24th @ 1.45pm
Term 3 July 11th - September 16th @ 1.45 pm
Term 4 October 3rd – December 20th TBC
Operoo
We are excited to advise you that we are adopting a new parent communication system named Operoo. Some people may have already used this system, previously known as CareMonkey.
The Operoo system makes it very easy for you to respond to excursions, camps and other consent forms using your mobile phone, tablet or PC. No more paperwork! No more lost forms or notes covered in a squashed banana in bags, no more concerns about children missing out on information when they are absent.
It will greatly reduce the burden on you to provide information that is repetitive. It also puts you in control of this data so you’ll always know what emergency contacts and medical information is shared with Our Lady’s. We do need a valid email address from you in order to use the Operoo system. Please share those details with us if you haven’t already.
This morning you will have received an email asking you to sign up for your Operoo account. After that, you’ll receive notifications whenever there is an electronic form to complete for Our Lady’s School. From Our Lady’s perspective, you or your child’s information will only be visible by the relevant staff for you or your child and will be managed in accordance with our privacy policies. Details about Operoo’s security and privacy procedures can be found here: https://www.operoo.com/terms-policies-security/.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. You can visit the Operoo website for more information here: www.operoo.com. There is also a parent introduction page here: https://www.operoo.com/intro-for-parents
We hope that this small change makes it easier than ever to be connected to your child’s learning!
Parent/Teacher Chats
This week we will host our Parent/Teacher Chats. This will be an opportunity for parents to meet individually with their child's classroom teacher and talk through your hopes and expectations for the year ahead. They are also a lovely way to build a positive relationship with your child's teacher. Due to COVID requirements, we will be hosting these meetings remotely. If you have not already done so, please complete the registration form that was shared via the SkoolBag App last week.
www.schoolinterviews.com.au
Code: 8ugqs
Running Club - Year 3 to 6 Students
Running club will commence this Thursday, February 10th at Blue Bell Park. Mrs. James will be there at 8.00 am so we ask that students do not arrive before then.
Interschool Sports
Interschool Sports will resume in week 5 - February 25th for our senior students. Part of the requirements of participation is that a rapid antigen test must be completed the night before. If you have questions regarding this please contact Mrs. James for further information - jjames@olsurreyhills.catholic.edu.au
Lunch Orders - Balanced Living Catering
Lunch Orders will commence this Thursday 10th February. To place a lunch order you need to register through the Flexischool App. Orders must be placed by 9.00pm the night before.
Follow these instructions:
If you are able to assist with the distribution of lunch orders to the classes, please email me - aengellenner@olsurreyhills.catholic.edu.au. This process is not a long one, but it means that you would need to be available between 10.30 am - 11.00 am. It would be much appreciated if you considered being part of the roster.
Assembly
Please join us for assembly on each Monday afternoon at 2.45pm. Our assemblies will be held remotely at the moment, in line with COVID protocols. This will be a wonderful opportunity to welcome our new students and staff to OLPS!
Zoom Link
Opening of the School Year Mass - Please note the change of date
It was previously communicated that our Opening School Mass would be held on Sunday the 20th of February. Due to COVID restrictions and following consultation with Fr Brendan Reed, this Mass cannot go ahead as planned.
Our Lady’s and Our Holy Redeemer will celebrate together on Saturday 19th February at 6.00pm. The Mass will be held at Our Holy Redeemer Church.
The Mass will be attended by the Year 6 school captians and their families only.
In conjunction with the OLPS PFA, we will host an outdoor event in the coming weeks to welcome back our families and introduce families, joining us for the first time.
School Psychologist
I am delighted to inform you that we have been able to secure the services of a School Psychologist. Ms. Carmeline Augstine BSocSci (Psychology) (Honours), AMAPS who will join us next week.
Managing Big Feelings Webinar - For Parents of Students in Prep to Year 6
As a follow up to our Parent Session last year, Carly will once again be working with our school community supporting families to manage the trial and tribulations of parenting!
I encourage all parents to attend.
Presenter: Carley McGauran
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022
Time: 7.30pm (75 minutes)
Webinar registration
The link for parents & staff to register is www.bit.ly/2022school
Sustainability Leaders
Level Crossing Removal Project
This week our sustainability leaders Jack, Finn and Nikolas oversaw the delivery of tree stumps for our outdoor learning areas. The stumps have come from the Level crossing Removal Project.
Here at Our Lady’s we are very proud of our sustainability initiatives and look forward to working with the broader community in 2022.
We were very fortunate to have received a $25000 grant for shade sails. These sails will support us in developing outdoor learning spaces for our students.
Wellbeing Wonders
Over the past week, the students and teachers have enjoyed getting to know each other and spending time together onsite. The first weeks of school are a great time to acknowledge everyone's uniqueness and celebrate what positive impact this has on a class family.
The Classroom Teachers are continuing to revise the School Expectations, Positive Behaviour Matrix and Consequence Flow Chart with their students to help build a happy and safe learning environment for all. It was wonderful to see the beaming smiles, hear the laughter and feel the happiness within the classrooms and around the school.
Some of the 5/6 students enjoyed creating their own class vision statement based around the OLPS Vision statement.
Guided by the spirit of each other
Inspired by God’s loving words
5/6BU is a community that accepts everyone and promotes wellness in all.
5/6BU is a place where you can express your ideas
We follow in Jesus’ footsteps
Lior, Bronte, Lucy, Finn
Guided by the life of the Holy Trinity
Inspired by our teachers and fellow peers
5/6BU is a community where everyone is accepted for who they are.
5/6BU is a place of friendship, growth, and hope.
Growing together, one step at a time
Leena
School Maintenance
During the holidays there were a number of works done across our school:
- the decking was sanded and stained
- a deep clean of all the internal rooms was done, along with the steam cleaning of all our carpets
- the gardens bed attended, the bamboo trimmed
- our new aqua bubblers and air purifiers arrived!
I take this opportunity to thank all the teachers and administration staff for all the work that was done over the holidays in preparation for the start of the school year. Your efforts to create a warm, welcoming and engaging learning environment for our students is very much appreciated.
Student Wellbeing
This year as part of our Student Wellbeing Program and Social and Emotional Learning curriculum we will be working with the team from the Resilience Project. Carissa has included some information for you further on in this newsletter.
One of the most powerful strategies we can draw on as parents is our ability to ask rich powerful questions of our children. Questions invite a response therefore the more powerful the question, the richer the response may be.
I invite you to ask these questions of yourself and your children every day, as we work together this year to develop Gratitude, Empathy and Resilience across our community.
1- what was the best thing that happened to me today?
2- who am I most grateful for today and why?
3- what am I looking forward to most about tomorrow?
Looking forward to working with you all in 2022.
God Bless
Mrs Annie Engellenner
