ENewsletter

Key Dates

15th-27th March	Naplan Years 3 & 5
Friday 17th March	Last day to purchase Diso tickets
Sunday 19th March	Year 6 Parish Mass 9.30am
Tuesday 21st March	School Photos K-6 Assembly 2.15pm
Friday 24th March	School Disco
Tuesday 28th March	60 Year Anniversary Mass 10am, Morning Tea and Open Classrooms
Thursday 6th April	Last day of term
Friday 7th April	Good Friday
Monday 24th April	Staff Development Day
Tuesday 25th April	ANZAC Day Public Holiday
Wednesday 26th April	1st Day, Term 2, Students return

Fourth Lent Sunday 19 March 2023

The Gospel (John 9: 13 - 15)

They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see”

... On the way to Mass

What are some ways that God might be made visible through you?

On the way home from Mass ...

I wonder how the blind man felt when Jesus said that God would be made visible through him.

The Prayer

Loving God, your dream for us is life to the full. As we come confidently before you today, help us to acknowledge our dependence on you for all things and our need for your healing touch to help us see.

As we come hesitantly before you today, draw us closer to you, so that, as we travel with you towards the cross this Lent, we may be enabled to live more fully the life you have given us. As we come uniquely

as ourselves before you today, assure us of your love for each one of us. Amen.

The Question of the Week

Staff/Parents

What are you doing in your life right now to move toward light rather than darkness?

Primary Students

How might you let the light of your faith in Jesus shine for others to see?

The Action

The fellow they knew as the man born blind becomes the only one with clear sight. Are we surprised? This is the way with God’s people. The last are first. The meek inherit the earth. The loser takes all, and the crucified one is raised from the dead. It all makes Christian sense. God likes the colours outside the lines. Invite God to expand your sense of what is right, acceptable and good. Ask that your blindness be healed, and that you be given clear sight.

Holy Week Activities

Teachers and students will deepen their knowledge in and understanding of the events leading up to Holy Week.

Beginning on Monday in Week 11, every class will visit the church with their class teacher and retrace the steps that Jesus took during His last hours on earth. Every child will be involved in prayer and reflection opportunities as they visit the 14 Station of the Cross.

The students will then complete a follow up activity in class.

Teachers will invite students to share what they know about the events during Holy week and answer any questions they may have about the holiest week in our liturgical calendar.

60 Year Anniversary

Please join us on Tuesday March 28th @ 10am for a whole school mass where we will come together as a worshipping community to celebrate Catholic Schools Week and Our Lady of Lourdes 60 year anniversary at Baulkham Hills.

After mass, parents and carers are invited to join us for morning tea. Following that, we are inviting you to our open classrooms where you can see all the wonderful learning that is happening in our amazing school.

We are very much looking forward to celebrating this special milestone in our Catholic history together.

School Photos- Full Summer Uniform

Family Photo orders must be done by 4:30pm the night before Photo Day so we can organise a list of Family Photos that need to be taken. Any Family Photos that have not been ordered before the cut-off will not be taken. Unfortunately, we cannot make any exceptions on the day.

Contacting Your Child’s Teacher and Other School Staff

At Our Lady of Lourdes, we value our strong relationship with families and welcome opportunities to communicate with parents and carers. We also recognise that email is a fast and convenient way to contact your child’s teacher or other school staff.

We wish to remind you that staff read their emails at various times throughout the school day, they are generally not expected to respond to

emails outside of normal working hours. In the case of emergency please

contact the school office on ololbhills@parra.catholic.edu.au or phone

88413700 . Our caring team will return your call or respond to your email

as soon as possible.

If you wish to contact a staff member, please continue to send your emails to your child’s teacher or the relevant staff member. Thank you so much for your assistance and understanding. If you have any questions about the above please contact the school.

Winter Uniform

All winter uniforms are now available for purchase. Please place your orders before next term to ensure you receive them on time.The students will be changing to winter uniform on Monday 15th May.

Orders can be placed via Qkr app by MasterCard. The QKR app is a safe and convenient way to order and ensures your uniforms are delivered to the school.

Please note: Always read the terms and conditions on the app before ordering. Please choose carefully as Ozfahions do not refund if you simply change your mind or make a wrong selection. However, they gladly exchange within 14 days of the purchase date. Returned merchandise MUST be in its original condition with all tags still attached and accompanied by proof of purchase otherwise the exchange will not be honoured. Any item that has been worn will not be able to be exchanged.

Please see uniform size chart below

Any questions please email to: elle@ozfashions.com.au

OzFashions Uniform Size Chart

Download

2023 Premier's Reading Challenge 2023

The Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more, and to read more widely. The PRC is open for all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 9, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools.

The challenge requires children to read a certain number of books depending on their age. After books are read (or ‘read to’ for Kindergarten to Year 2 children) you or your child will need to enter the books on the PRC website using the child’s unique log in code at https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html . Please also refer to this website, click on the tabs for the rules of this challenge and the ‘Book lists’.

Students can include any books read from the end of the 2022 challenge on their 2023 reading record. The PRC rules have been updated for the 2023 challenge. Students can now include up to 10 choice books on their reading records, and can count 5 books from an approved series as PRC books.

If help is required on how to do the Challenge or how to navigate the website and the answer cannot be found on the PRC Support site, please contact Elizabeth Bryant via email

ebryant@parra.catholic.edu.au

Please find the link to a Google form if you do not wish to complete the paper copy. Registration closes on Monday 3rd April.

Premier's Reading Challenge Form

Elizabeth Bryant Premier’s Reading Challenge Coordinator

Download

Kindergarten 2024 Enrolments

We are now taking enrolments for Kindergarten 2024, if you have a student to enrol please submit enrolment forms soon as possible.

Enrolment forms can be downloaded from our website or collected from the office. Please return the completed enrolment forms to the school office with all the required documentation including originals.

School Fees- Now Due

School Fees Instalment 1 payment was due on Wednesday, 15th March,

2023. Please finalise your fees as soon as possible if they have not been

paid by the due date. Thank you.

Parking

When dropping your child off in the morning or picking up in the afternoon, we ask that parents be considerate of others and remember to move right up in the line, behind the cars in front of you, rather than just stopping in front of the school. This allows more cars to fit in the area in front of the school and contributes to the safety of all children and the smooth flow of traffic. Please remember it is illegal to double park.

Sport News

Diocesan Swimming 2023

Congratulations to the nine students from Our Lady of Lourdes who participated in the Diocesan Swimming Carnival at Blacktown on Tuesday the 14th of March. Students and relay teams who placed in the top four will compete at the NSWCPS MacKillop and Polding Swimming Trials to be held on Thursday 30th March. We wish these students all the best at the next level.

Additionally, a big congratulations to Jacob Makdessi who was awarded Age Champion on the day- an amazing effort!

P & F News

Easter Raffle update!

If anyone would like to donate Easter Eggs to the raffle please drop these into the office by Friday the 24th of March. Any donations big or small will be greatly appreciated.Thank you for your support!

School Disco

Parish News

Children's Rosary Movement

Children’s Rosary participants gather together to pray the Rosary every Monday during the school term. Parents need to accompany children.

Bring your Rosary beads and spend some time in prayer.

Where: OLOL Church

When: Monday (school term only)

Time: 3:30pm

Contact: anitamolina@hotmail.com

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary Newsletter

Term 1 Week 8, 17th March, 2023