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Principal’s Message – Issue Fourteen

Prayer for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Almighty and everlasting God,
You have taken up body and soul
into the heavenly glory the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of Your Son: Grant, we beseech You,
that, ever intent upon heavenly things,
we may be worthy to be partakers of her glory.
Through Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever.
Amen.


Principal’s Message – Issue Fourteen

Dear Parents and Caregivers

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated each year on 15 August. This date commemorates the death of Mary and her bodily assumption into Heaven. Because it signifies the Blessed Virgin’s passing into eternal life, it is the most important of all Marian feasts and a Holy Day of Obligation.

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also known as The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. Last Wednesday, OLA celebrated our Feast Day where the children joined in the celebrations with a mass, planned activities with buddy classes and a free sausage sizzle.

Thank you to the organising committee (staff) who coordinated the Feast Day and for all the children who wore blue on the day.

Write a Book in a Day

On Tuesday 18 August, a team of Year 5 and 6 students participated in the Write a Book in a Day Competition. Ms Mitchell helped us throughout the day. The OLA team name was The Ten Musketeers. They had to plan, write, illustrate and publish a book between 8am to 8pm with parameters, specific words, characters and was to be 2500 words. The book was called, Cassowary Runaway!

They really enjoyed creating the book and publishing it. I’ve been told they also enjoyed eating constantly throughout the day. The book was submitted into a competition, which helps raise money for The Kids’ Cancer Project. The published books are donated to hospitals around Australia for children to read. It was a long day but the team had a great time and are super proud of the book that was created. They created a whole book in a day!

Sacrament of Eucharist

This weekend, students in Year 4 will be receiving the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time. On Monday, the students participated in an on-site retreat day with Dr Nathan Leber where they were engaged in conversation, learning about the Eucharist and how it will become a part of their everyday lives.

Thank you to Dr Leber who kindly gave up his time to coordinate the retreat day and work with the students in engaging activities and discussions. We pray for the students receiving the sacrament this weekend and wish them all the best.

OLA Open Night

The OLA Open Night, scheduled for next week, will proceed as scheduled, however, restrictions will be in place due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. A maximum of 11 adults, including the classroom teacher, will be permitted in the classrooms at any given time during the night. Classroom teachers will be monitoring the number of adults in the classrooms and will only allow 10 parents in the classroom. The classrooms will be opened between 5.00 – 7.00pm on Wednesday 26 August.

National Science Week at OLA

As we celebrate National Science Week at OLA this week, our Science Specialist, Mrs Meyerkort, has been focusing her lessons on the National Science Week theme, which is Deep Blue: Innovation for the future of our oceans.

Pre-Primary: The students have been making waves and discovering that by using a rope they can simulate a wave pattern. They tested many objects in their water troughs to see if they could make different shaped waves. Some of them made tsunamis!

Year One and Year Two: The students are currently creating a border art for display in the Curiosity Lab, based on the beauty and diversity of the sea creatures found in our oceans.

Year Three: The students are looking forward to designing a dance and bringing along their sea creature friends to celebrate the magic of the ocean.

Year Four: The students will be putting on their thinking caps to discover ways to solve the problem of plastic straws that pollute our oceans and harm sea creatures in their Last Straw lesson.

Year Five: The students will be illustrating posters to promote the idea of tracking plastic in our oceans and making us aware of what we can do to stop this pollution.

Year Six: The students will be recording a News Flash video in small groups to explain the innovative Western Australian technology of wave energy, and explaining this renewable source of energy for our future, which harnesses the power of the ocean.

School Disco – Movie and TV Characters

As communicated previously, the school disco has now been scheduled for Friday 4 September. This year’s theme is ‘Movie and TV Characters’. This has been updated in the parent calendar. More information will be disseminated to all families in the future. The Year 5 parents are currently coordinating the event.

 

OLA Father’s/Caregiver’s Day Breakfast

The Father’s/Caregiver’s Day breakfast, scheduled for Wednesday 2 September will be going ahead, however social distancing rules will apply as per the current COVID -19 restrictions. The breakfast will be served outside the Sr Goretti Hall and all fathers/caregivers are invited to attend. For catering purposes, please complete the attached flyer and submit it to the eldest child’s teacher, by Friday 28 August.

Father’s Day Breakfast Catering Note

The Fathering Project

Please refer to The Fathering Project page of the newsletter for the latest update.

Enterprise and Innovation

Over the last couple of years, the Enterprise and Innovation portfolio, with Mary Barclay as the Team Leader, includes a number of initiatives introduced which encourage student involvement and participation. Our aim has been to keep children active with interests put forward by the staff members and students. The whole concept will eventually be embedded within the curriculum and will be self-sustainable with staff members each taking ownership of different innovations.

Large and small projects have been ongoing throughout the year. Our biggest success this year has been the ‘Walk for Water’ where we raised $5135 for Project Compassion and Caritas. It was a fun filled day spent thinking of others who don’t have enough water.

Organising activities for the school also include Masses, coordinated by the Christian Leadership Ministry with Mrs Barclay’s support, as well as ‘Mozzarella Meetings with Mr Martin’ where children share a pizza lunch with Mr Martin and discuss Year 6 and ideas for the school.

The Year 6 students are divided into four Ministries. They are now experiencing their second group for the year. The children seek to provide activities for the school which ensure that we are putting our faith in action and the OLA values of RICE (Respect, Integrity, Compassion and Excellence.) The Ministries also assist with organising events our fundraising goals of supporting LifeLink, Caritas, Project Compassion and Brother Ollie’s Wheelchairs for Kids. The Year 6 Ministry Groups include:

Sustainability Ministry: The students look after the OLA Market Garden and new planting will occur shortly! This ministry also organises Waste free Wednesday at recess and lunch time, use the Worm Farm and new this term is a project called Mobile Muster. The children are participating in a competition to create a video on the recycling of mobile phones.

Christian Leadership Ministry. The students have invited students in each class to participate in the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal.  Each year level was assigned a couple of items to bring in for the needy and homeless people of Perth. The items were collected in Week 3 and have been distributed to those who need it the most.

Sports Ministry: The students have been creating and recording two fitness videos that every class in the school can sing and dance along to in their classes. Last term’s ‘Chicken Dance’ and ‘Dance Monkey’ were created and very successful.

Events Ministry: These students are rostered on to help with Monday morning announcements where the school listens to all the events of the week. With the return of assemblies, this group will also set up and run the assemblies on Wednesday afternoons. They are also introducing the return of the Golden Broom and the introduction of the Golden Bin.

A special project last term for Enterprise and Innovation included a Year 1 Design and Technology project. The students worked individually with Mrs Barclay to plan and create an insect out of Lego. The children then drew and counted the pieces of Lego required, wrote the steps and drew the insect. Their creations were amazing!

There are a number of clubs currently operating at OLA. These on-going clubs, in the library include:

Lego Club – Tuesday mornings 8-8:30 am

Homework Club – Tuesdays after school 3:05-4:00

Chess Club – Thursdays at both lunches. Mrs Dale also puts out the chess boards at other times.

Each term we have on-going and new initiatives and suggestions are always welcome.

Thank you.

Greg Martin
Principal

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