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,

Once again we find ourselves in remote learning mode. I am very grateful to the staff for the professional way they responded once again with no official notification prior to the end of the school day. The staff at OLPS are an amazing group of educators who care deeply for your children. They are people of integrity, trust and expertise.

The timely distribution of our Remote Learning Survey recently, has provided us with really helpful feedback.  I accept that no one model is going to meet the needs of all our families but I feel confident that our approach provides targeted teaching and addresses the overall needs of our students in a positive and supportive way.

Survey Snap Shot

We received 37 responses and overwhelming the feedback has been gracious, positive and acknowledging.

Ø  Our kids love school and it’s rarely a battle to get them going each day which is a credit to the school for fostering that enthusiasm.

Ø  As parents, we are particularly concerned about the amount of time our children are exposed to technology and minimising it. The learning packs have been great, thank you for arranging this

Ø  The cooking activity was so well received- and great idea for a Friday!

Ø  Keep doing the small group meets, this is really helpful and more focused learning time.

Ø  Overall the teachers did an amazing job and look forward to getting our girls back to school where they learn best!

Ø  Our family has had a positive experience with online learning

Ø  You’ve done an amazing job.

Ø  Nothing to improve at all. The learning pack has been great

Ø  I’ve been more than happy so no changes I can think of suggesting.

Ø  You will never please 100% of the school always. From what I hear around community, OLPS has done very well.?

Ø  Overall, well done on the program at short notice.

Ø  Overall a positive experience, well done!

Ø  The teachers and support staff did a great job with home learning.

Based on your constructive feedback we have adjusted our program to include more opportunities for explicit teaching groups in literacy and mathematics, more online teaching, specialist classes have been spilt over two afternoons and the daily schedule will be distributed between 5.30pm and 6.00pm the night before.

We look forward to continuing our work together and supporting one another. We are blessed to be part of a community that cares, especially  in times of such uncertainity. I am proud of our personalised approach to learning and teaching and passsion to nurture the uniqueness of each and everyone of our precious students.

Remote Learning Reminders:

It is an expectation that students wear their school uniform when learning at home or onsite. Thank you for enforcing this at home as it helps the children to delineate between learning time and recreational time.

Skoolbag App – The app is the primary source for information in regards to official school communication. Please take the time to read the communications that are sent to families. 

School Performance

Producing a school performance is a very exciting event for any school. It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the many talents of our students and come together as a community. The past few weeks have seen such disruption to the rehearsals and incursions that it is impacting on the readiness of the students. Therefore, given these circumstances we believe it is not possible to be ready for our performance on the date arranged, Friday 3rd September. What we have been able to do is negotiate an alternative date and venue; Monday 18th October @ 7.00pm at Genazzano College in Kew. This will ensure that the lead up to the concert is a positive and successful experience for the students.

I am especially grateful to Connie and Brendan for all their work writing the script and negotiating alternative arrangements. Many schools missed out on being able to hold their performances last year and are keen to have the opportunity in 2021.Let's hope that things have settled down by October and we can go ahead as planned....fingers and toes crossed!.

Access to the School

Until further notice any access to the school needs to be via the Church Carpark gate. The works to relay the footpath were planned for the term break, but with the recent lockdown the Council decided to bring this forward. Thank you for your cooperation.

Welcome Back

Next week we welcome back Mrs Joelle Lake. Joelle has been on Long Service Leave for the past four weeks. We have been fortunate to have Lynette and Kathy teach 1 /2 L during this time and thank them both sincerely for all the work they have done over this time.

Please don't hesitiate to reach out to me if you need anything and remember you are all doing a wonderful job. 

Enjoy the weekend in the backyard!

Annie Engellenner

Principal

Be a gift of love and compassion for one another.

St. Mary Mackillop

On Monday we had a Mini Olympics day at our school. The day started off with an opening ceremony, the country groups were waiting and when their name was announced by Charlie B they marched behind their flag, to the Multi Purpose room, whilst the anthem of their nation played over the loud speaker.

Tahlia read an opening speech and Bridget read a story about Pierre De Coubertin who was the founder of the modern Olympics. Tom L read the ‘Athlete’s Oath’ on behalf of all of the students.

Siena, Liam H and Olivia B did a relay to light the Olympic Flame. This burned brightly for the whole of the Olympics!

After that all country groups rotated through 7 event stations.

We did Sack races, Balloon tummy relay, Pool noodle fencing, Paper plane Javelin, Throw the thong in the esky, Meteor ball and Swimming races with no water!

At the end of the events we had the closing ceremony and then all the points that

countries earned were added up.

Gold medals were given to the winning team, this was China. Silver medals went to Jamaica and all of the other countries 3rd-7th position received a bronze medals.

It was awesome to have the whole school together dressed up in country colours and having a fun time together.

Cara M

My favourite bit was the Sack Racing because you had to go around in a circle. 

Isaac J

My favourite activity was the fencing, I was the red fencer. I was fencing with Siena. 

Arthur N

I was in Australia. My favourite activity was the Sack Races, I fell over but only half. 

Chloe B

My sister Olivia lit the Olympic flame, she wore a white dress. Liam also ran a lap and helped with the flame. 

Isabel C

I was in Jamaica, we came second and got a silver medal. We had to march into the MPC for an opening ceremony, the national anthem of Jamaica was playing over the P.A when we marched in. My favourite event was Sack Racing, my sack was red. I didn’t fall over! 

Conor M

I was in the USA, my team leader was Mrs Coloretti. We had to wear red white and blue clothes to school.  My favourite was the pool noodle fencing. Mr Hawke said “Swords to the Sky, kiss your blade … En Gaurd!” One of the Sports leaders…Charlie read out the names of the countries and we all had to march to the MPC. This was called the Parade Of Nations. 

Patrick J

I was in Jamaica, I liked being in Jamaica because we had Mrs Antennuci as our teacher. I liked the swimming without any water event. I rolled little numbers on my dice but took big steps!! 

School Fees

School fee statements will soonbe  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.

Working With Children's Checks

There are in excess of 20 parents that no longer have current Working with Childrens Checks. Please check your details and update if necessary. 

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.