Newsletter

Strategic Intent:

At Our Lady’s School, we aim to strengthen our Catholic community through: fostering respectful relationships; clear, strategic faith-filled leadership; and our commitment to professional pedagogical excellence that is founded upon our deep knowledge, collegiality, effective teamwork and our Gospel inspired dedication to the learning and wellbeing of each child.

Education in Faith

That students understand and make more meaningful, relevant connections between the Catholic story and their own lives.

That staff develop their capacity to design and implement a contemporary RE curriculum.

Leadership and Management

That staff teamwork and ownership of the Vision and educational priorities of the school will improve

Learning and Teaching

That student learning outcomes will improve.

Student Wellbeing

That the wellbeing of all students will improve.

School Community

That the home/ school partnership is strengthened to the benefit of student learning outcomes. 

Dear Families and Friends of Our Lady's School Community,

What an amazing Semester 1 the school experienced.  We had the joy of all being together at the commencement of the year and then our shared excitement  hit a bit of a speed bump with the lockdowns and the return to remote learning.  Our children and families have become extremely resilient and if nothing else, COVID  has taught us all to be grateful and  flexible and to  make the most of the precious blessings  that surround us.

Staff Farewell 

At the end of week one of term three, we will say farewell to Ms Emily Nicholson and Mrs Ange Loadman. Both Emily and Ange have had an incredible impact on the culture of Our Lady’s and on the lives of those they have taught. It has been my honour to have worked alongside them and witness their professional growth. We wish Ange well as she commences a fulltime classroom teaching position at St Justin’s in Wheelers Hill and Ms Emily Nicholson as she takes up a teaching role at St Martin of Tours in Rosanna.

On behalf of the school and parish community, I thank them both for their commitment to our school and wish them good health and happiness always as they continue their careers in Catholic Education.

Long Service Leave ( LSL)

Mrs Rose Urquhart will be on LSL for Term 3. Teaching in Yr 3/4U will be Michelle Benson. Michelle has been teaching in our school this semester and is very excited to be joining us for this time.

Mrs Joelle Lake will also be on LSL for four weeks. Teaching in Year 1/2 L during this time will be Mrs. Lynette Brugliera for the first 2 weeks and Mrs. Kathy Goulopoulos for the remaining 2 weeks. Both Lynette and Kathy are very well known to our students and are very experienced and highly accomplished teachers.

Joelle and Rose have undertaken an extensive handover of student data and other important information to these teachers. Lynette, Michelle and Kathy also attended a recent planning day. 

School Closure Day

A reminder that there is a school closure day on Monday July 12th, this is the first day of term three. There is no school for students on this day.School resumes for students on Tuesday 13th July.

On this professional learning day, the staff will be involved in reviewing our school performance in all 5 areas of our School Improvement Plan. 

Thank you for your continued support of our school. Have a safe and happy  mid-winter break.

Mrs Annie Engellenner

Principal

How lucky we were to have our school camp go ahead this year. I am extremely grateful to the staff who have been working for three straight days ensuring that this experience was a positive and successful one for all. A heartfelt thanks to Brendan, Ange, Tania, Ann and Clare for your commitment to our students. I also commend our students for their positive attitude and cooperative behaviour whilst on camp. I know it will be an experience that will be talked about for years to come. Well done to all involved.

A reminder for any parents that are wishing for their child to commence Foundation next year (2022), that they have confirmed their place with us and provided all the relevent document.

COVID Update - School Operation

Should it be necessary to enter the school buildings, parents are required to register their onsite attendance through the QR Code when they enter the office and wear a mask

Classroom Helpers - Unfortunately we are unable to continue this support for the time being and we hope to recommence classroom support when we return in Term 3. 

Excursions & Incursions - Until further notice we are unable to hold any incursions onsite or take students to off site excursions. 

Interschool sporting activities - These are not permitted until further notice. 

Assemblies and Large Gatherings - only to be attended by staff and students from OLPS at this time.

School lunch Orders will continue in term three on Thursday.

Before and After School Care will operate with the normal program hours. 

We have received advice from Catholic Education Density limits (applies to all school settings) - the density limit of one person per 4 square metres applies to spaces used only by staff and to publicly accessible areas. It does not apply to classrooms or other areas used by students. We will maintain our positive COVID-19 protocols, including additional cleaning of high touch areas, sanitising and cleaning our hands etc.

 Unfortunately we are missing quite a large number of chromebook chargers. Most likely that were not returned with the device following remote learning. Could you please take a look around at home for them. It will be a considerable cost to the school to replace them. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge 2021

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Our Lady’s is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:

• access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)

• a modern user-friendly interface

• rewarding  students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved

• the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 17 September 2021.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: www.education.vic.gov.au/prc 

We will be opening the school library on Wednesday mornings and at playtime so that students can come in to read and enter their challenge books.

Classroom Helpers

Please remember to fill in the google form if you would like to be a parent helper in our junior classrooms. Your classroom teacher will be in contact shortly.

parent helper days and times

Please remember to watch the presentation, present your Working With Children’s Check and also sign the confidentiality form from the office.

Presentation

Kimberly Chin

Literacy Leader

This weekend we honour with special love, the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. The students from Our Lady’s  celebrated this very special occasion with a whole schol meditation lead by Henry and JoJo from 1/ 2 L this morning.

Please note important upcoming dates for students celebrating the Sacrament of First Eucharist and Sacrament of Confirmation All dates are subject to change. 

First Eucharist 

Year 4 - Sunday 25th July *details will follow shortly 

Confirmation 

Year 7 - Confirmation Revisited - 18th July

Sacrament - Friday 30th July 6pm

*Please note an email invitation for our past students currently in Year 7 was sent from the Parish last week. Please notify Emily asap if you have not received this. 

Year 6 - Reflection Day - Friday 5th November 

Sacrament - Friday 12th November *TBC

If you have any queries, please let us know.  

Thank you, 

Emily Nicholson 
RE Leader 

Celebration of First Eucharist

'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and

whoever believes in me shall never thirst.' (John 6, 35).

Preparation for the Sacraments is an exciting time in a child’s faith journey.

Throughout the children’s inquiry into the Sacraments they explore the communal and celebratory nature of the Eucharist. They examine the origins of the Eucharist in the Passover and the Last Supper. Children investigate the parts of the Mass and the symbols, signs and rituals. They are given the opportunity to consider the significance of the Mass in their own lives.

Let us make a “small step of love” as we pray for the children of Our Lady’s Primary School who celebrated the Sacrament of First Eucharist last weekend;Lior, Samantha, Charlie C, Alfie, Jade, Georgia, Harry, Ariana,Leena, Cassidy, Quinn Maeve, Ari, James, Finn, Isla, Rhys, Charles P, William, Scarlett ,Jack, Holly and Ayla.

“We choose love by taking small steps of love every time there is an opportunity. A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, an embrace, a kind greeting, a gesture of support, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a visit, a financial contribution all these are little steps towards love. Each step is a candle burning in the night. It does not take the darkness away but it guides us through the darkness.” - Henri Nouwen

Let us continue to be a community that makes “small steps of love.”

Even on difficult days, there are still things to be grateful for. And by noticing more of the good things, we can train our brains to be more resilient. So this month I encouraging everyone to find and share the little joys in life.

Let’s take time to notice and savour the daily joys, however small – and hopefully we’ll then be better prepared for any setbacks too.

As Robert Brault once said, “Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you’ll look back and realise they were the big things.”

The Joyful June calendar is full of actions to help you find more joy, even though life isn’t perfect. 

The Victorian Government has introduced three interrelated reforms that are integral to reducing family violence and promoting child wellbeing and safety. The Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS), the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS) and the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM) commenced on 19 April 2021. From this date schools, including Our Lady’s Primary School, became an Information Sharing Entity (ISE) and when thresholds are met, will be able to share information with other ISEs.

Thresholds take into account the need for the information shared to promote wellbeing and safety, inform an action and not contain legally excluded information. The School will be able to share and request information with other ISEs, such as: Child FIRST, CYMHS, General Practitioners, community-based child and family services and primary schools. While consent is not required from any person to share or request information under these schemes, Our Lady’s Primary School will seek or consider the views of those involved when it is safe, reasonable, and appropriate to do so.

I am very pleased to announce that OLPS will be involved in the Resilience Project Partner Program in 2022. The program aligns with our Improvement Goals in the Student Wellbeing Sphere of School Improvement.

The disruption caused by the lockdowns,  can be emotionally challenging for many of our students. Friendships may need to be re-established and what was fun to play or do is no longer interesting for everyone. This time of adjustment can be an emotional one that often results in bursts of anger or sudden tears. Resetting our children’s resilience can be achieved by acknowledging feelings, discussing possible actions and then shining light on the good parts of the day.

Here at school, the children are developing their social and emotional learning through our Religious Education program and the Respectful Relationships program. The Resilience Project will provide another opportunity to support children in this way.

The Resilience Project, teaches  children and adults to become familiar with practising GEM (Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness). 

The GEM Chat may be something you may wish to practise as a family over these holidays. The questions provide  a great way to facilitate positive conversations in the car  pick up, over dinner or at a time that works best.

• What were three things that went well for you today?

• Who is someone you feel really grateful for today? Tell us why.

• What is it about our home that makes it our home/special family place?

• What is something you are looking forward to tomorrow?

Throughout the semester the children have created some amazing artworks. 

Mrs Jacinta Mulholland 

Visual Arts Teacher 

THANK YOU HAYVILLE RETIREMENT VILLAGE 

Our neighbours across Elgar Rd at Hayville Retirement Village have been kind enough to donate lots and lots of cylinders for us to use in our Year 3/4 art classes. They have been collecting cylinders for us for over a year!

We are sooo grateful and thankful for the donation.We need them to create our castle sculptures that we are working on this term.

We have been designing and building our sculptures and we look forward to showing the people at Hayville our finished works of art. See below a sneak peak of how they are progressing.

Written by Chloe, Charlotte, Grace, Lucy & Sophia!!!

School Lunch Orders

The children are absolutely loving lunch orders on a Thursday . We are incredibly lucky to have a small group of mums/dads to help distribute the lunches to the classrooms. They are however reaching out for others to join the team.

This may be a great way to expand your circle of friends and be involved in the school in this fun way.Volunteers needed to help sort & distribute lunch orders to classrooms on a Thursday from 10.30am-11am. Only a once a term commitment.!

Please email me if you are interested or talk to Luisa Johnson ( Marco Yr 3 /4 N)

Working Bees

Due to the recent lockdown we were unable to go ahead with our working bee this term. This was extremely unfortunate as we had a number of school maintenance priorities planned. We are hoping to be able to go ahead on Saturday, July 17th so be on the lookout for an invitation from Jason Brosolo ( Evie - Prep, Zander - Yr 1/2C and Beau 3/4 U, seeking your support. On a more positive note we were able to go ahead and have all the school gutters cleaned in an attempt to address the minor roof leaks that we have. 

Virtual Cross Country 2021

Dear parents,

This is a fun and simple initiative to keep your children active during the colder months. A big advantage of this is students can run on any day at any time that suits them, (so avoid the rain & strong winds). I will be running again this year in the VXC for staff and lging kms for OLPS, it will be fun for the OLPS cohort to 'virtually' run together, especially when our Running Group is taking a hiatus during Winter.I'm happy to sit with any student who requires help to sign up, they should just pop in and see me, it is very easy to log runs/walks.I encourage all students to sign up ,remember you may walk if you choose (it doesn't have to be running) I hope our wonderful runners from the OLPS running group will join in as a priority :)Lets see if we can get a massive kilometre tally for our school! Below is the link to log in.

Go Our Lady's!

Mrs James

https://www.ssv.vic.edu.au/Pages/VirtualCrossCountry.aspx

SSV Virtual Cross Country for 2021

Built on the success of the 2020 Virtual Cross Country event, SSV is delighted to provide this great opportunity again in 2021. Victorian primary and secondary students can take part in any way they would like - they can run or walk.Students can run or walk for a new personal best or for fun and fitness. The main aim is for students to get out and give it a go. Every meter run by a student will earn virtual points for their school. Students will be given the option to submit their performance, but if they wish they also now have the additional option to not have their performance made public. #SSVVXC

Getting started

Students should make sure they have parent/guardians permission before heading out for a run or walk or even better take them along and maybe also a friend.There are three simple steps for students to participate in the SSV Virtual Cross Country:

Important Information The Virtual Cross Country offers 1000m, 2000m, 3000m or 5000m. The Virtual Cross Country will run in parallel to the normal SSV interschool sport cross country pathway. The Virtual Cross Country performances cannot be used to gain entry to the SSV interschool sport pathway for any sport and no medals will be awarded. Virtual points will be allocated to the student's school which will be added to the school ranking ladder. Students from SSV Member Schools, from Prep to Year 12, are encouraged to enter as many individual repeated performances as they would like. The data collected is in accordance with the SSV Privacy Policy. Schools are encouraged to promote this opportunity to all students in an effort to get them involved in recreational running.  It’s also a great way to get students moving and in training in the lead-up to the SSV interschool sport cross country season. One of the important aspects we learned from last year is that teachers play a huge part in students participating in virtual sport opportunities. Survey results showed that 51% of students get involved when a ‘Teacher encourages’ them to be involved. Teachers have the option to download a spreadsheet to allow student entries to be submitted in bulk. Download the bulk entry sheet.

Things to remember

• Warm-up before you participate to minimise the risk of injury
• Be sure to have the correct footwear, clothing and equipment
• Remember we are not looking for the best, we are looking for students to give it a go
• Entrants provide their personal information to SSV for the purposes of SSV conducting the Virtual Cross Country and awarding school points. Entrant's information will be used in accordance with SSV's Privacy Policy
• The use of third party apps: Please be advised, this is not a Department owned or managed licensed software for Schools. To the extent permitted by law, the State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training) and its employees, agents and consultants exclude all liability for any loss or damage (including indirect, special or consequential loss or damage) arising from the use of, or reliance on, the this software whether or not caused by any negligent act, omission or misuse. By accessing and using this software, you accept that any disputes about this software or its contents are to be determined by the courts having jurisdiction in Victoria in accordance with the laws in force in Victoria (except any principle of conflict of laws inconsistent with this requirement).  The State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training) makes no representation that the content of this software complies with the laws (including intellectual property laws, privacy and data protection) of Victoria.

Friends of Wattle Park

The "Friends of Wattle Park"  would like to invite: students, staff and parents to join them in the carpark on top of the hill at 10.00am on Saturday July 3rd, to plant some small native plants around the park. They will provide the plants and gardening equipment. The event should take about one hour. Kirsten Phelan from Parks Victoria is coordinating this event.

The "Friends of Wattle Park" who since 1992, have planted indigenous and native plants in the park, weeded garden beds and taken tours of the park. 

It would be great to see OLPS supporting our local community in this way.

School Fees

School fee statements have been sent to families.  School fees can be paid by direct credit or  B-Pay. If you pay your school fees by credit card, when you fill in your credit card details please include the CVC number on the back of the card.

Student Absences

If you child is going to be absent from school, it is your responsibility to inform the school via telephone call, skoolbag app notification or email.

Teachers do not check their emails after 8.45am as they are invloved in the act of teaching or student supervision.

If you are notifying the school after 8.45am, could you please contact the office not individual class teachers. This will avoid the school needing to contact families.

Thank you to our parents that have voluntered to be class reps this year. 

Prep: Lisa Grant, Kat Brosolo, Joanna Kelly

Year 1 /2 C: Kasia De Costa, Emma Ryan

Year 1 /2 L: Jess Campbell, Laura Edgcumbe

Year 3 /4 L: Rach Voshege, Melissa Pellegrini

Year 3 /4 N: Marjie Langford, Rach Glass

Year 3 /4 L: Emma Lynch, Elaine Hanlon

Year 5 /6 H&L : Daniela Greening, Cath Bergin, Steph Johnson

Please see attached below information regarding Our Lady's School Uniform, including how to order online and the uniform price list.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Uniform Orders are filled on Mondays.
• Please order Uniform Orders thru CDF.
• To keep costs low we are only stocking limited quantities across the Range. If items are not available please allow a 2 week turn around to allow time for items to be ordered and delivered from our Supplier.
• If you need to try on Uniforms for size this can also be done on Mondays unless other arrangements have been made with Krista.
• If you have any queries, please email Krista on uniformshop@olsurreyhills.catholic.edu.au

All students attending Our Lady’s Primary School have the right to feel safe and be safe. The highest possible standard of care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school community.