Principal Appointment

On behalf of the Executive Director of Catholic Education, Dr Debra Sayce, I would like to announce that Mrs Velma Erskine has been appointed as Principal at St John’s School, Scarborough. Velma will be taking up this position from 1 January 2020.

Velma has been part of our school community since 1 January 2018 in the role of Assistant Principal.

Velma has been in a number of short-term principal roles, including St Brigid’s Primary School, St Anthony’s Primary School, St Luke’s Catholic Primary School, Notre Dame Catholic Primary School, St Joseph’s Catholic School, Boulder and recently at St Mary’s Northampton.

On behalf of the Our Lady of Assumption community, we congratulate Velma on her appointment and wish her well in her future endeavours.

Kindergarten Enrolments 2020

We’re currently in the process of finalising our Kindergarten enrolments for 2020 and we want to ensure all our siblings have been included. If you haven’t enrolled your child for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten 2020, please liaise with Chris Balen in the office and complete an enrolment form. We certainly don’t want any of our children to miss out on placements!

Feast of the Assumption

All families are invited to join us for Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption on Thursday 15 August at 9am. Planned activities will be organised for the children and families will be advised before next Thursday.

Before School Drop Off

As mentioned in my previous communications, there are no supervising staff members on duty until 8.10am each morning. With the Out of School Hours Care now open, and the area being licensed, we are unable to leave the front gates unlocked whilst there is no supervision, therefore the main gates to the school will be locked until 8.00am each day – students will not be able to be dropped off at school until this time. If you require your child to be dropped to school before this time, please enrol them in the Out of School Hours Care service that operates out of the Fr. O’Mara Centre. An enrolment package is attached for you and more information is available via the school website and office. Thank you for your support with this matter.

Out of School Hours Care Enrolment Form

Vacation Care at OLA OSHC

Nicole Leach, the Nominated Supervisor at OLA OSHC, has invited all families to complete a Vacation Care Survey for the upcoming holiday break. The survey is attached for you. If your child will be attending Vacation Care in the September/October holiday break, you are encouraged to complete the survey and email it directly to Nicole via the OSHC email oshc@ola.wa.edu.au

Vacation Care Survey

Consent to Use Student Images

Thank you to those families who have completed the new consent form for student images. As mentioned previously, photo permission is now an ‘all in’ approach. This means that your child will not be included in photos that may appear in published materials as outlined in the letter that went home to families. Commencing Monday 12 August, these new permissions will apply. Please note that any material published prior to this will not be removed as the previous consent forms were in effect.

If you have not returned your child’s permission slip to their class teacher, please do so by 5pm today. A copy of the letter is attached below.

Consent to Use Images

OLA Survey

As we continue our journey to raise standards at OLA and to provide/create an environment that is conducive to learning, it’s time to hear from the students, parents and staff their thoughts about our wonderful school. Towards the end of this term (or beginning of next term), the students, parents and staff will be given the opportunity to complete a survey about how we’re travelling. From the data collected, and in consultation with the OLA School Board, we will collate the information and incorporate it into our goals, within the 2020 Strategic and Annual School Plans. Parents will be advised when the survey goes live.

Bubs Play at OLA

As mentioned in previous newsletters, the Leadership Team, in consultation with the OLA Board, will be introducing a ‘Bubs Play at OLA’ program. We are planning to commence the program by Week 8 this term (and possibly sooner). Please register your interest by emailing our Assistant Principal, Vel Erskine, if you would like to attend the sessions. Also, as mentioned previously, we encourage families to invite friends and family members with children between the ages of 0-3. Vel’s email address is vel.erskine@cewa.edu.au

New School Uniforms

This week, the OLA School Board were given their first viewing of the new OLA uniforms. The uniforms are a modern, unisex and streamlined design that maintain the integrity of the school’s image. The Board have submitted a few suggested changes to Nell Gray as the first stage of the review process.

From Monday next week, families will be able to view the new pieces in the office from 8am until 3.45pm each day. The uniform samples will need to be returned to Nell Gray on Friday 9 August. Please email any suggestions to the school’s Administration address admin@ola.wa.edu.au and these will be forwarded onto the OLA School Board.

At this stage, we are still awaiting samples of the following:

• winter jumper
• tie
• academic socks
• school bag
• library bag
• homework folder

Please note that the School Board has the final say over the new uniforms as due consideration has been given to the process with the invitation for comment on the current uniforms in 2018 and the establishment of the Uniform Sub-Committee. As you can appreciate, there are many differing viewpoints on uniforms which is why the School Board will be acting in the best interest of the school community.

We look forward to the positive comments with the launch of the designs next week.

An FAQ is attached below for your information.

Uniform FAQ

Farewell

Mrs Margaret Menegola has resigned from her position of Finance Officer at OLA. Margaret has been a part of the OLA community for over 30 years as parent and employee. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Margaret for her contribution to OLA, her warm and welcoming nature will be missed in the office. We wish her all the best in the future.

Chess Knights and Lego

Thanks to the P&F, we launched Chess Knights and Lego clubs in the library this week and what a turn out. Thank you to Mrs Barclay and Mrs Dale for coordinating these very successful programs and to our wonderful P&F for providing the funds to purchase the equipment.

Have a great weekend

Greg Martin
Principal