ENewsletter

Key Dates

Tuesday 4th April	9.30am Holy Week Play K-6 2:15pm Principal & Citizenship Awards
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

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord Sunday 2 April 2023

The Gospel (Matthew 21: 1 - 3)

When they neared Jerusalem, having arrived at Bethpage on Mount Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with

these instructions: “Go over to the village across from you. You’ll find a donkey tethered there, her colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you’re doing, say, ‘The Master needs them!’ He will send them with you”.

... On the way to Mass

Imagine yourself as one of the people in the crowd, spreading your cloak on the road for Jesus’ donkey to walk on, and shouting “Hosanna” to him as he passed.

Share what you might be experiencing.

On the way home from Mass ...

Hundreds of years before Jesus, the prophets wrote about the Messiah’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

What do their words tell us about Jesus?

The Prayer

Hosanna Saviour, we wave our palms and sing our praise as we remember your triumphal entry into Jerusalem. May your Spirit enter the heart of our prayer this day, giving us the strength to endure the journey which is ahead.

Amen.

The Question of the Week

Staff/Parents

How will you try to imitate the obedience and humility of Christ during this holy week? What decisions face you now that call for courage?

Primary Students

What could you do to show respect for Jesus this week as the church remembers his death and resurrection?

The Action

Spend some time reflecting on the events of Holy Week. If you are able, attend the Exposition of the Sacrament on Holy Thursday night at your parish. Sit alone before the tabernacle in a quiet hour, contemplating how the body of Christ lives in you.

On Tuesday April 4th at 9:30 am, parents and carers are invited to attend the Holy Week Play that some students from Kindergarten to Year 6 will be involved in. Beginning next week, these students will practise with Mrs Khoury to deliver a prayerful and reverent depiction of the main events of Holy Week.

Four special ceremonies commemorate the events of Christ’s Passion from His entrance into Jerusalem, when palm branches were placed in His path, through His arrest on Holy Thursday and Crucifixion on Good Friday, to Holy Saturday, the day that Christ’s body lay in the tomb.

Principal/Citizenship Awards

At the end of each term we hold an assembly to present the Principal and

Citizenship Awards. Each class teacher selects one student from their class to receive a Principal’s Certicate and one student to receive a Citizenship Certicate. The criteria for selection is listed below:

Criteria for Principal’s Award

Students may have shown one or more of the following:
Achieved high standard results this term
Continually produced work of a high standard
Have shown outstanding effort in their school work
Participated most enthusiastically in all class activities
Made great improvement/progress in their school work

Criteria for Citizenship Award

Students may have shown one or more of the following:
Treated others with care and respect
Helped other students
Considered the feelings of others
Demonstrated the values taught in our school
Cared for the environment
Displayed skills taught in our Social Skills Program

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

Afternoon Dismissal

We ask that each year, parents notify the class teacher with the names of any other parents their child is able to go home with in the afternoon. Please notify the office if there are any late changes to pick up arrangements. No adult should leave the school with a child that is not their own without the school being notified and being given permission by that child's parents.

Afternoon Pick-Up

We ask that parents be considerate at afternoon pick up in the way that they park before collecting their children. There is dangerous parking that is impacting vehicles and other pedestrians. Drop off in the morning is permitted in front of the parish gates from 8:30 am to 8:55 am but please do not park in front of the parish driveway in the afternoon, do not double park and please park close to the curb so that traffic can still flow. I received a photo this week from a concerned parent where a car was parked so far from the curb that it was a danger to other vehicles and children going home. We ask that all parents be aware of these dangers so that we keep all children safe. Hills Shire Council do visit at regular times in the morning and afternoon to ensure that everyone is parking safely. They take photos and send a fine in the mail. If other parents are concerned they may also contact the council. They will fine drivers who put children's lives at risk by not following the road and parking rules. We are aware that pick up time, like all primary schools, gets congested but the collection time for children is from 3:10 pm until 3:40 pm. Parents do not all need to arrive at 3:10 pm. Those who arrive after the early rush find that there is plenty of parking.

Parking Fines

Lockdown / Lockout Drill

Today at Our Lady of Lourdes we practiced our Lockout/Lockdown and Evacuation Drills. Thank you to all the students for their co-operation.

School Fees - Please Finalise Overdue accounts

School Fees Instalment 1 payment was due on Wednesday, 15th March, 2023.

If your school fee account is outstanding and you are not on a flexible payment arrangement, please finalise your account now.

School fee accounts on a flexible payment plan arrangement, please check your scheduled payments are paid accordingly and there are no missed payments. Thank you

Kindergarten 2024 Enrolments Now Due

We are now taking enrolments for Kindergarten 2024, if you have a student to enrol please submit enrolment forms by the end of Term 1, Thursday 6th April.

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.

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

Lost Property

We have number of items in lost property, some items have been left behind at various events over the last few weeks. Please contact the office if any of these items belong to you.

Sports News

MacKillop NSWCPS Swimming Championships

A big congratulations to Lucie Fallins, Archie Chan, Matthew Kenna, Jacob Makdessi and Gavin Pang who represented MacKillop at the NSWCPS Swimming Championships at Homebush on Thursday the 30th of March.

P & F News

Disco

The school disco was held last Friday and a great night was had by all. A big thank you to Bianca Pratt for her hard work in organising this event. A big thank you also goes to the Essey family for the slushie machine, the Magro family for organising the Photo Booth and to Mark Lines for being our DJ.

Easter Raffle

The P&F would also like to thank the many families who generously donated Easter eggs towards the Easter raffle. A special thank you goes to the Zalloua family for the beautiful handmade Easter cookies and the Francica family for the beautiful Easter headband. Good luck to all students next week!

Mothers Day Raffle Fundraiser

We are now organising gifts for the annual Mother’s Day fundraiser raffle. Last year’s raffle was a great success due to the amazing generosity of our school community in donating gifts and prizes as well as purchasing raffle tickets. We hope this year can be just as successful.

We are currently looking for donations no matter how small or large. If you have a new product, gift vouchers, services, or know any business that may be interested in donating to our fundraising raffle it would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like to donate, can you please bring the items into to the school office. If you have any questions or need to discuss anything at all about the raffle, please do not hesitate to contact Laura Jorgensen on ololbhevents@gmail.com or Rebecca Joumma on 0415 673 025

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 10, 31st March, 2023