Newsletter

Dear Families and Friends of Our Lady’s Community,

Thank you for all your kind wishes over the past few days. It was a difficult week and I really dislike being away from school for such a time, but the flu is a terrible thing to catch! If I can give anyone any advice, it would be to invest in a flu injection! The staff have been reiterating the importance of proper hand hygiene during this peak time with the students and I ask that you have the same discussions at home.

Keep happy and healthy! 

School Photos

Yesterday, we had the 2019 School Photos taken. I am very grateful to all our families for ensuring that the students were  looking their best - let's keep that up please! The children stood tall and I am very confident that we will all be very happy with the results.

School Closure - A reminder that our next School Closure Day is Friday, 31st May

NAPLAN Online

Despite a lot of negative press about NAPLAN this year, I am pleased to say that Our Lady’s participated in all the tests with no technical issues. Prior to the official testing day the students were involved in practice online testing to ensure their readiness. It is important to remember that NAPLAN provides us with one snapshot of data. Teachers rely on multiple data sources to track students academic growth. 

Camp

Next week we farewell our  Year 5 and 6 students as they head to Queenscliff for Camp. Accompanying the students are Lucy Ludescher, Brendan Hawke, Anne Skeete, Ali Sandy, Tania Purser and myself.

Stepping outside the classroom and into the wilderness for a three day camp can be a daunting experience for many students. But camps are also a great opportunity for students to step outside of their comfort zone in a supportive and safe way. We get to know each other in a different way when we are away together and every experience I have had on Camp, has been a wonderful one, despite the lack of sleep.

I am very grateful to the staff who are going to be working for 72 hours straight, for their organisation and commitment to our students.

We look forward to sharing many stories of personal growth, challenge and good times. 

Election Day BBQ

Regardless of your political preferences, the Election Day BBQ at Our Lady’s was a HUGE success! The initial count looks like we made approx. $1800 after expenses! 

Thank you to our awesome PFA team! It was a huge effort to get this up and running so successfully (and quickly), it couldn’t have been done without your generous contribution of time and support.

Thanks to all the volunteers and bakers that helped out on the day. A special  mention to Bread Street Bakery for generously donated extra bread and a whole tray of fruit buns for the day. It is great to have such wonderful support from our local community. 

Cross Country

 Thank you to our wonderful staff for supporting the students at our recent cross country event. It was another great day for our school community.

I would like to share with you a message of gratitude from one of our parents….

 “It was such a wonderful day full of so many happy and very proud kids and parents. Thank you so much for getting the OLPS kids involved in this opportunity”

Playground

Our playground is due for completion on Monday, June 3rd. During this week all of our students will be involved in planting out the garden space. This a really important part of the project as the students have played an active part in the designing of this beautiful space. They have a growing sense of ownership and with it the responsibility to care for and nurture its growth.

To ensure we celebrate this chapter in the story of Our Lady’s, we have decided to have an official opening and blessing of our new learning space on Thursday, June 27th. This date coincides with the celebration of the feast day of Our Lady. We are in the process of planning this special day and look forward to sharing the joy this space will bring to our community.

Parenting Ideas  - Parenting an Anxious Child

If you’re the parent of an anxious child you’re most certainly not alone. The number of children experiencing an anxiety disorder is currently estimated at 117 million worldwide. Here in Australia, there’s an average of 2 anxious kids in every classroom; and they’re the ones with a diagnosis. Many more anxious kids are yet to have their anxiety identified and understood. As much as we’d like to, we can’t rid our kids of their anxiety, but we can help them to manage it in ways that enable them move it from centre stage and get on with living a vibrant, rich and meaningful life.

 Here are 6 tips to support you to parent your anxious child. Please see link below. 

OLPS Social Media Launch

To further promote our wonderful school to the local community, OLPS have recently launched pages on both Instagram and Facebook. These pages will feature photos and commentary on events and happenings at our school throughout the year.  If you are on social media, we would love you to be part of our social community!

Find us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/OurLadysPrimarySchoolSurreyHills

Find us on Instagram, visit https://www.instagram.com/olpssurreyhills/

If you have not yet returned the Social Media Consent form for your child, now is a great time to do this. A form can be collected from the school office, or downloaded via the SkoolBag app. Please also see the link below.

2020 Enrolments

Foundation Enrolment Forms  - Sibling Enrolments for Foundation 2020

We request that all parents with Foundation enrolments for the 2020 school year submit enrolment forms as soon as possible.

This will greatly assist with our planning for student numbers and for our allocation of placements for new families to the school.  If you are aware of friends or family members wishing to enrol at Our Lady’s please advise them that enrolment forms need to be submitted ASAP. 

Enrolment Interviews for new families will take place in week 7.

Enrolment forms can be found on the school website.

Condolences

On behalf of  Our Lady's School Community, I extend our sincerest condolences to the Jobling Family on the recent  passing of Andrew's mum. I hope that you have felt the love of our community around you at this time.

Thank you for your continued support of our school community. 

Annie Engellenner

Principal

On the 17th May OLPS entered the following squad to represent our school at the NBDPSSA XC championships. These boys and girls ran with determination and made those of us lucky to attend, so proud! A large group of parents also attended on the day and their wonderful support was very much appreciated by our runners, who felt (and heard!) strong support from the Our Lady’s camp.

A record number of students from OLPS qualified to the next stage of Division Competition.

CONGRATULATIONS to the 5 students running next week at Ruffey Lake Park in Doncaster;

EMILY F, BILLY, LUCIEN, AMELIE, SIENA. 

CONGRATULATIONS to all of our runners running in each event with up to 120 other students from district schools. Cross Country running is never easy and the way our boys and girls took it on was nothing short of courageous! Distance running (the months of training and competing) is about so much more than sport and develops in our kids character strengths that will carry them through life. 

Yours in Sport,

Jane James

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Our Lady's Primary School is excited to be participating. 

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 6 September 2019. 

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 booklists and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit the link below.

Welcome to Ellen Regos from Cultivating Community who was at our school today working with Preps and the 1/2 classes on all things to do with composting and worms.

Surrey Hills Wattle Park Parish provides sacramental preparation, catechist classes for children within the parish who do not attend the parish schools. 

EUCHARIST classes, for children who have been Baptised and received First Eucharist (First Communion) will begin Thursday, 13 June. 

For Reconciliation and Confirmation class enrolment details (Eucharist enrolment in Term 2) please contact:

Nanette Giovannini,

Parish Sacramental Coordinator. nanette.giovannini@cam.org.au Tuesdays & Wednesdays, Parish Office, (excluding school holidays) 9890 2510.

Week 4

1/2JL 

Oliver - for being much more focused and engaged in his learning and displaying a growth mindset. Keep it up Oliver!

Emilio - for trying your best in all tasks. It is fantastic to see how your confidence has grown. Keep up the wonderful effort.

Olivia S - for your outstanding results in your reading. Olivia you always enjoy reading groups and read with great expression. Well done!

3/4C

Georgia - for approaching school life with a positive attitude and for always working hard in class. Well done Georgia!

Nikolas - for having a positive attitude towards his learning and for working very hard to achieve his writing goal. Well done Nikolas!

5/6L

Tom M for his hard work and effort to include descriptive language in his narrative writing. Well done Tom, keep up your hard work!

Zimo for the high standard of work she produces and the diligence she shows towards all learning tasks. You are a star Zimo!

Performing Arts

Siena W and Barnaby for your contributions to the Wakakirri storyline. You’re awesome!

Week 5

Foundation

Lawrence - for trying his best in the classroom. He is working very well and being great learner in Prep.

Tabitha - being a positive and happy learner in Prep. She makes the classroom a brighter place.

1/2 S

Luke M - for his wonderful enthusiasm in Readers’Theatre

Lucy G - For her conscientious effort in learning her spelling words

Abi - for her wonderful narrative writing

Harry B - for his fluent and expressive reading

1/2JL

Florence - for building your confidence in sharing your opinions and ideas during group discussions. We love to hear your ideas. Keep up the good work!

Zara P - for leading by example during reading rotations. Zara it’s great to see you organise the group and help others. Keep up the great work.

James M - for consistently sharing your thoughts, ideas, questions and wonderings with the class during all learning tasks. Thank you James and keep it up!

3/4U

Tahlia - for working extremely hard on all tasks and persevering when tasks become difficult.

Finn O - for your excellence in completing all your tasks and the generosity you show to all your classmates.

5/6H

Fintan  - for hard work and great attitude during NAPLAN week

Jack E - for being a great leader, polite and always looking for ways to help others.

5/6L

Julian - for the beautiful and insightful poem he wrote about Anzac Day. Keep up all your wonderful work Julian!

Sport Awards

Barnaby 5/6L - for demonstrating a high level of true sportsmanship when considering others in the Cross Country Championships.

The entire XC Team - for running with courage and good spirit, achieving 3rd Place at District Level.

Tuckshop will operate on the following dates for Term 2:

June 7th, June 14th and June 21st .

N.B. There will be no tuckshop on Friday 31st May - School Closure Day.

Many thanks,

Luisa

Details are as follows:

Save the date 2019 PFA Dinner, Box Hill Town Hall, 20th July. More details to come. Please save the date.

Major Raffle

This is a very straightforward stall involving: 

• Distributing raffle tickets to school families (i.e. pop a book in an envelope for each family and hand to the school office for distribution) 
• Sell remaining tickets - we have found after mass at OLPS (both English and Chinese) and OHR has worked really well - in the few weeks leading up to Fete
• Collect/keep all ticket stubs and cash from school and community sales
• Sell remaining tickets at the Information Stand on Fete Day
• There is NO requirement to source raffle prizes, get the tickets printed etc. It's all done for you!

Please contact the Fete Coordination Team if you'd like to put your hand up for any of the above olwpfete@gmail.com 

David McCann, Joanna Kelly and Damian Glass

Fete Co-ordinatorsOur

Lady's Primary School Surrey Hills