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Leadership Message – Issue Nineteen

All Saints Day

Dear Lord,
as the saints in Heaven adore You for eternity,
I beg for their intercession.
Saints of God, please come to my aide.
Pray for me and bring to me the grace I need,
to live a holy life in imitation of your own lives.
All saints of God, pray for us.
Jesus, I trust in You.
Amen.

Leadership Message – Issue Nineteen

 

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Appointment

Congratulations to Jade Rotondo who has been appointed as a classroom teacher at Infant Jesus School for the next two years. We wish Jade all the best at her new school and teaching position.

Faction Carnival

Wow – What a day! Congratulations to all the students who took part in the carnival and to our Champion Boys and Girls. Thank you to Mr Allsop in coordinating his very first athletics carnival – it was a huge success and it ran so smoothly! Thank you to all the staff and parents who assisted on the day and to all the wonderful families who donated cakes for the cake stall. Please refer to the Physical Education page of this newsletter for results from the day.

Book Week – Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’

Congratulations to all the students and teachers who took part in the Book Week Dress Up Parade last week. Unfortunately, I was off campus completing a school review, but the feedback I received was very positive. Congratulations to Mrs Dale and Mrs Durkin for coordinating the events, especially the guest speaker/author, Cristy Burne, and the dress-up parade.

Sacrament of Penance

The Sacrament of Penance, for our Year 3 and parish students, will be celebrated on Thursday 5 November inside/outside the Sr Goretti Hall. Due to the restrictions of Phase 4, families will be requested to socially distance themselves as specified by the health department. A huge thank you to Dr Leber for leading the children in discussion about the sacrament, during their Retreat Day on Tuesday, and to the Year 3 teachers for preparing them. Please keep these children in your prayers as they prepare to receive this very important sacrament.

Pre-Kindy and Kindy 2021 Enrolments

If you have not yet enrolled your child in Pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten for 2021, please contact the School Office ASAP to collect an enrolment package. We are reaching maximum capacity very quickly and we don’t want current families to miss out on enrolling their children.

End of Year Concert

I am happy to advise you all the OLA ‘End of Year Concert’ will proceed as scheduled, however due to the Phase 4 restrictions that will be in place on the scheduled day, and from our calculations, we have no choice but to include conditions to all families. Unfortunately, only immediate family members (a maximum of 4 immediate family members, excluding the enrolled OLA students) will be permitted to attend the event. To give further clarity to the above, for example, if a family only has three immediate family members, excluding the enrolled OLA child, they will not be permitted to bring another person, e.g. grandparent. We ask for your cooperation with the above and we’re in the process of considering filming the event and uploading the footage so family members, who weren’t permitted to attend, can view it when it has been uploaded.

NAIDOC Celebrations at OLA

Our NAIDOC Celebration has been scheduled for Friday 6 November. A ‘smoking ceremony’ has been coordinated, as well as lots of wonderful activities between the buddy classes during the day. A free sausage sizzle will be provided for all the students who would like one and students can purchase a fruit box/or water on the day (Children to bring to school a $2.00 coin, on the day and purchase a drink. Please do not send money to school prior to the day.).

During the day, a photo will be taken of all the children wearing a specific coloured t-shirt with their Sport shorts. The students will be assembled as the Aboriginal flag hence we request the students, in the following groups, wear free dress of the allocated flag colour:

  1. G Classes to wear black;
  2. M classes to wear red;
  3. Year 2 students to wear yellow.

Student Class Allocation -2021 and Beyond

During 2019, I communicated to all families it was becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate parents’ requests for certain classes and/or teachers. Over the last couple of years, we have received virtually impossible requests from parents and student placements in year levels, for example, on a couple of occasions, I received a request from a parent to place their child with another student. At the same time I received a request, from the other parent, not to place both these students together. As you can appreciate, this situation became very stressful for my staff and myself, trying to accommodate the parents’ request, which was impossible, and keep everyone happy. In previous years, at OLA, class lists were posted in late January when the students returned, giving parents no choice as to class allocation or teacher.

Many school principals do not take requests from parents and allocate class placements for the students. I too have done this in the past, however I do endeavour to support parents with their requests, to the best of my ability, however this is now becoming virtually impossible.

As educators and leaders, we’re very much aware of the students’ needs, their friendship groups and who would be the best suited teachers for all children. Do we get it right? Most of the time we do as we always consider the academic, emotional and social needs of the students, as well as the teachers. We need to give credit to our students for their resilience and ability to adapt to certain conditions and changes. Look what occurred during the COVID period when parents weren’t permitted on the school site? They became resilient and got on with their daily routines.

I have instructed my staff to take requests from parents, however only legitimate and reasonable requests/reasons given will be considered when students are allocated. Parents also need to remember that once the children get to secondary college, no choices are given nor are requests taken (I do realise there are always exception to the rule). I have faith in my OLA children to work through most situations. Please rest assured, and as mentioned above, we will ensure the students are happy with some of their friendship members in the same class.

Uniform Rescue

We have received the wonderful news that OLA has donated 450kg of uniforms to those in need. Thank you to all the families who have donated their old uniforms to this worthy cause. Attached is the latest Uniform Rescue newsletter.

Uniform Rescue Newsletter – Oct 2020

Altar Server Training

The OLA Parish invites all students in Years 4-6 to attend altar server training on Sunday 8 November at 4pm. Fr Ken, Franco Miranda and Nathan Leber (Safeguarding Officer) will meet the children in the Fr O’Mara Centre for a pizza snack followed by training in the church. Families may then like to stay for 5pm Mass after the training session.

World Teacher’s Day

Happy World Teachers’ Day to all our wonderful teachers and staff who work at OLA. If you get the opportunity, say thank you to our wonderful staff for going above and beyond the call of duty to educate your children and ensure they’re safe and happy whilst at school.

Year 6 Camp 2021

A great time was had by our wonderful Year 6 students, participating in many planned activities during the week. A huge thank you to Mr McIntyre and Ms Knight for coordinating the event and for giving up their family time so the students wouldn’t miss out.

At our post camp meeting, it has been decided the students would benefit from leadership and bonding sessions earlier in the year hence the 2021 Year 6 camp has been scheduled for Week 2 in Term 1. Further details will be disseminated, to the Year 5 parents, in the coming weeks.

Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2020

The OLA AGM has been scheduled for Tuesday 17 November commencing at 6.00pm, in the Veritas Library. If you’re unable to attend the meeting, comprehensive AGM reports will be disseminated to the community via the school’s website, after the meeting.

School Advisory Council & P&F Executive and Committee 2021 Nominations

Nominations are sought for the School Advisory Council and P&F Executive and Committee 2021. If interested, please refer to the School Board and P&F Pages of this newsletter for further information.

Thank you.

Greg Martin, Michael Morris and Rebecca Smith

The OLA Leadership Team

Parents and Friends

Parents and Friends

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  • P&F Executive Committee Positions Available
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Parish News

Parish News

  • Parish Information
  • Children’s Liturgy in the OLA Parish
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Library

Library

  • Book Week 2020: Curious Creatures, Wild Minds!
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Our Lady's Assumption
School Newsletter

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The School community seeks to foster a living faith, based on truth, where the potential and dignity of the individual is respected and nurtured in an environment of trust.