Our Lady of Lourdes Primary Newsletter

Term 1 Week 7, 10th March, 2023

Key Dates


15th-27th MarchNaplan Years 3 & 5
Friday 17th MarchSt. Patrick's Day
Tuesday 21st MarchSchool Photos
Friday 24th MarchSchool Disco
Tuesday 28th March60 Year Anniversary Mass 10am, Morning Tea and  Open Classrooms
Monday 24th AprilStaff Development Day

Third Lent Sunday 12 March 2023

The Gospel (John 4: 13 - 15)

Jesus said to the woman, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst – not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life”. The woman replied, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

... On the way to Mass

How might the Samaritan woman have felt as she was walking to the well at the beginning of the story?

How do you think she felt after meeting Jesus?

On the way home from Mass ...

Jesus calls himself the “living water”. What do you think Jesus meant by living water?

The Prayer

God of our journeying, God of dead-ends, U-turns, and radical new beginnings; here we gather, confident only of your attentive and believing love.

Holy One, commune with us. Create streams of love and kindness within us. Amen.

The Question of the Week

Staff/Parents

Where have you found a source of “living water” for your own journey of faith?

Primary Students

Name some times when your belief in Jesus helped make you stronger?

The Action

Get involved with the faith movement! The Church is talking through the scripture, and so should we through our actions during Lent.

Mrs Miray Khoury

Religious Education Coordinator

St. Patrick's Day 2023

Friday March 17th is St. Patrick's Day. Wear something green to school.

School Photos

https://leadingimage.com.au/


Parents who want to order Family Photos can the use same Access Key 9BL8N99M.

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.

All students will have an individual photo taken on Photo Day regardless if they are ordering or not. Individual student ordering will stay open after Photo Day.

Orders placed after we have printed the bulk of orders will be sent directly to parents and will incur a postage charge per order

Naplan 2023

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life. Each year students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. 

From 2023, NAPLAN is moving to Term 1 and will take place from Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March 2023. The reason for this change is so that results can be returned to schools earlier in the year which will support teachers to understand the learning needs of their students and plan accordingly. 

NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling. 

In preparation for NAPLAN 2023, our school will undertake activities to help students to become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked.

Students and parents can access the public demonstration siteto familiarise themselves with NAPLAN and the types of questions and tools available. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended. 

If you have any questions about NAPLAN Online, please contact your child’s teacher.

Supervision, Well-Being Policy

Download

Anti-Bullying Policy

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Bullying Of Students - Prevention & Response Procedure

Download

Bullying Parent Help Sheet

Download

Student Data Validation

Parents and carers should receive an email or SMS (for those parents without email) from Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese (CSPD) asking you to review and, where necessary, update important contact and student information.

The link closes on Sunday 19 March so if you haven’t already done so, please complete the review/update as soon as possible to ensure that your family’s details are up to date.

If you have any questions or did not receive the link, please contact the CSPD Community Liaison Team on 9840 5796

Kindergarten 2024 Enrolments

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School is now taking Kindergarten enrolments for 2024.  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

Families should have received their 2023 School Fee Statement-Instalment 1. Please contact the school office (via email) as soon as possible if you have not received your school fee statement.

Flexible Payment Plans (BPAY and BPoint) are offered with Instalement 1. Please set up your Flexible Payment Plan immediately, if you prefer this option. Those families that do not accept a Flexible Payment Plan offer, instalment 1 is due by 15 March 2023.

Head Lice

There has been a report of head lice at the school. Please check your child for signs of lice or nits (small white eggs on the hair shaft). If necessary, consult the pharmacist about a suitable product.

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.

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. 

The 2023 Premier’s Reading Challenge closes Friday 18th August for students.

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.

Premier's Reading Challenge Form

Elizabeth Bryant Premier’s Reading Challenge Coordinator

Download

Sport News

P & F News

Easter Raffle

The P&F will be running the Easter Raffle again this year. More details will be available soon on when tickets can be purchased. 

If there there are any families who would like to donate Easter eggs for this please drop them off to the school office.

Thank you OLOL P&F.

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

Community News

No Parking Zones

Important Message from the NSW Commissioner of Police, Karen Webb APM

The NSW Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook is a comprehensive and free resource to assist parents, carers as well as teachers on a range of topics essential to child safety.  

The updated digital edition (link above) also includes important content updates from: NSW Rural Fire, NSW Ministry of Health, NSW Police Force, Fire and Rescue NSW, Transport NSW, State Emergency Services, NSW Department of Family & Community Services, eSafety Commissioner and NSW Office of the Children's Guardian.