OUR LADY OF HOPE NEWSLETTER - Term 3 Week 10 2023

A Word from the Principal

Dear Families,

Another term quickly passes and we reflect on the evolving growth that we witness in our children, staff and across our learning programs and school site.

It has been a challenging term having to confront the loss of those close to our school family and I once again express my gratitude for the way in which our families supported our staff and children though these experiences.  The passing of William and Sharyn has reminded us all of the preciousness of life and I trust that their legacy is to remind us to value every moment of every day.

Amidst this heartache, we were able to gather together to witness the joy of our Book Week Parade and Grandparents Morning Tea. Likewise, our Father's Day Breakfast and Prayer Service enabled our children to acknowledge the important men in their lives. Then last week we were blessd with sunshine and our school enjoyed our 2023 OLOH Picnic at Thorndon Park - what a cracker day!  It is always enjoyable being able to mingle with children, staff and families in such a relaxed environment. The final excitement was witnessing our choir  singing beautifully with exuberance and passion this week at the Festival Theatre. Please feel welcome to share your feedback to me (pbennett@oloh.catholic.edu.au) about our school events so that we can continue to refine and improve what we undertake at our school. 

The jigsaw diagram provides us with an understanding of the four key focus areas that we are addressing. Further in this newsletter there is information about other elements of our school that we have been addressing this term. These include our:

• Approach to Positive Behvaviour Intervention & Supports
• Uniform Review
• Capital works (New Nature Play and Upgrade to Senior Primary Playground) 
• Connection with Futures Focused Learning Network (Student Agency) and working with Lee Crockett

As always, our journey in educating our children has been a tremendous team effort and on behalf of our staff we extend our appreciation to our families for your loyal support and encouragement during Term 3. Hopefully you are able to enjoy a wonderful break with your children and we look forward to your child/ren returning on Tuesday 17th October. 

Kind regards,

Paul 

Religious Dimension

Staff Reflection Day 

On Monday 16th October our staff will be participating in a Staff Reflection Day led by Fr Joshua and David Kelly from Life Buoyancy Institute. The focus of the day is to deepen our undertsadning and connection to St Eugene DeMazenod, the founder of the Oblate Priests who minister in our TTG Parish. It will also allow us to discern the spirit of the key values that have been deeply immersed in Our Lady of Hope School over the last 30 years. Our aim is to refine our vision and mission as we prepare to celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2024.

St Vincent de Paul 2023 Charity Event

Learning Dimension

Futures Focused Learning Network

In mid September, three staff travelled to Canberra to spend a day at Evelyn Scott School to view their approach to teaching and learning. This school has been working with the Futures Focused Learning Network over the past three years and it was terrific to view their practice with increasing student agency. On Friday 8th September, our staff had the opportunity to meet in their Learning Teams with Lee Crockett and get a broader understanding of what we aim to achieve over the next 3 years. I am appreciative that three of our School Board members were able to meet with Lee in the afternoon and hear first hand the principles that we are eager to embed to ensure every student takes responsibility for their learning.

Our Destination

To commence the journey of joyfully releasing responsibility for our children

to build their capacity to be lifelong learners and agents of their learning.

Personal Responsibility

We are working towards enabling our school family to build their understanding of Positive Behaviours Interventions & Support. We have also invited our community  to share the core values that they feel will identify the behaviour expectations that we seek  at Our Lady of Hope School. The feedback thus far has been tremendous and added a significant parent perception to our documentation. There is still time to access SZapp and share your views. 

Administrative Dimension

OLOH Uniform Review

Behind the scenes our Uniform Review Committee have been analysing the data that we received from 30% of our families about our current uniform and policy. It was unanimous that children, staff and families are eager for our committee to seek alternative uniform styles so that we are all familiar with different options, costings, durability etc. By undertaking this task we believe that informed decisions can be made. This will assist in our school community having a common understanding of what is meant by a sports uniform, active wear uniform and formal uniform. Once this is determined then we can seek broader feedback from our families about which direction we take in electing a single or double OLOH uniform in the future. I reassure families that this committee is extremely aware of the financial pressures upon our families and any final decisions will provide sufficient implementation for potential alterations to our uniform items. A realistic timeframe would have our school family making a decision about our uniform in twelve months time.

Playground News

Our Student Leaders have met with their peers from Greenwith Primary School and established a common understanding of the expectations for how students must utilise this new campus playground safely. We are waiting for a final safety audit to be undertaken and expect that our children will be able to start accessing the Nature Play area next term. 

Furthermore, the Senior Primary  playground, adjacent the TTG Council Hall, will be upgraded over the next three months. This is a joint project between TTG Council, Greenwith Primary School and Our Lady of Hope School. The next significant upgrade of the shared facilities is likely to be the re-surfacing of the basketball/tennis/netball courts in 2024/2025.

Introducing Positive Behaviour Intervention and Supports (PBIS)

Capital Works

Over the holidays we expect to have the STARS Classroom and Counselling Room placed into position in front of the Parish Centre. There will also be a verandah and deck added to this space. Likewise, a deck will be built in front of C5–C7. Our main staff car park will also have the trees trimmed during the first week of the holidays.

New Volunteer Induction Session

If you have any queries about your current volunteer status or would like to start the process of becoming a volunteer at OLOH please contact the Front Office staff on 8289 8344 or email mmcgrath@oloh.catholic.edu.au

Marion McGrath, Principal’s Assistant & Events Coordinator

Enrolments at OLOH

To all current families; if you have a young child due to start school in 2024 or 2025, please ensure that you have lodged an Enrolment Application (you would have received correspondence from the school if you have lodged paperwork).  Places are filling fast!  Enrolment applications can be obtained from the front office or via our school website:- OLOH Enrolments.  If you are not sure please email us at deeles@oloh.catholic.edu.au  and we will check our enrolment records.

School Absentee Notification

If your child or children are going to be away for any reason (i.e. illness, family/social, medical/dental appointment, car trouble, running late etc.) we ask that parents please contact the Front Office via the SZapp absences form or if this is not possible by phone on 8289 8344.  If your child arrives at school after 8.50 am, please sign them in at the Front Office.

Uniform Shop News

The Uniform Shop is now open on Tuesday morning between 8:30-9:30 am and Thursday afternoon between 2:30-3:30 pm for the remainder of this term.  Any further changes to opening times will be notified via the newsletter and SZapp in due course.  It is located off the courtyard in the room between Rooms 7 and 8 just to the right of the ramp. 

The Uniform Shop order form can be found on the OLOH website:  https://www.oloh.catholic.edu.au/uniform-price-list or alternatively hard copies of the form are available in the Uniform Shop as well as the Front Office. 

Admin Staff

Lost Property

There are a large number of items in the Lost Property cupboard located in the Front Office.  The items include: school uniform woollen jumpers, sports windcheaters, drink bottles, lunch boxes and miscellaneous items.  Can you please remember to label everything and if you have purchased an item of secondhand uniform, please relabel it with your child's name.  PLEASE NOTE: Some items will be passed back to the Uniform Shop for resale, drink bottles will be thrown away and lunch boxes in good condition will be washed and passed onto Vinnies to find a new home.  Other items will be disposed of as they haven't been claimed for an extended period of time.

Community Dimension

Save the Dates for Term 4

A few events occurring during Term 4:

• School Photo Day Friday 3rd November
• P&F Disco Friday 10th November
• Family Fun Night Friday 17th November 5-7.30 pm
• After School Sports/SAPSASA Presentation Assembly Monday 27th November 9.15 am
• Whole School Music Assembly Thursday 30th November 9.00 am
• OLOH Volunteer Afternoon Tea Friday 1st Decmeber 2.00 pm
• Graduation Morning Tea Wednesday 6th December 9.15 am 
• Graduation Dinner Thursday 7th December 6-9 pm

School Calendar

Families are able to access a ‘live’ calendar at the following locations:

• Szapp tiles
• OLOH Website ‘News & Events’ tab – School Calendar
• OLOH online newsletter

A paper copy is static and doesn’t allow us to make alterations should circumstances change. Whilst it is our intention to eliminate date changes, should they be necessary, we will communicate these to families via Szapp/Seesaw.

OLOH Playgroup

Continuing our focus on Reading at Playgroup, what an AMAZING celebration we had today!

Some of our students came and read stories to the Playgroup families.  This was such a huge achievement for the students and a true indication of how far they have come in their reading and self-confidence.  Some of them read to just one family, some to a small group and we even had one student read to the whole group. 

We were so proud of the students and were so excited for them to share their wonderful reading skills with our Playgroup families.  They should feel extremely proud of their efforts. 

Our Playgroup families thoroughly enjoyed listening to the students read and interact with them.  A wonderful morning at Playgroup!

The children had great fun today exploring their favourite things. They made breakfast and enjoyed cooking some food on the BBQ, building things at the tool bench & of course the dolls and prams were extremely popular, as always. It was such a glorious morning and it was lovely to see so many children outside drawing with chalk and having fun with water pots & paintbrushes.

The children listened to the story The Unexpected Arrival of The Golden Speckled Egg and then worked together with such excitement to create a nest for our little egg that will arrive at Playgroup very soon. As part of our recent reading launch the children will be encouraged to read & sing to and play & dance with our little egg to help it grow. They will be waiting with much anticipation to see if our egg grows & to see what might happen if it hatches in the next few weeks.  Watch this space for further news...

Week 3 at Playgroup saw the arrival of our Golden Speckled Egg.  The egg is associated with our reading initiative, Paint Playgroups Read.  This initiative highlights the importance of reading to children from birth and encourages a love of books.  The children were enthralled with the egg that sat proudly in the nest they had constructed last week.  The joy and wonder on their little faces was such a delight to see.  They touched the egg, read to it, spoke to it and even took it outside to keep it warm in the sunshine and to help it grow.  They were all imagining what could be growing inside the egg.   Some of the suggestions were a duckling, a dragon, a dinosaur, a platypus or a chicken.  We will just have to wait and see.  Our craft focus was around things that hatch from eggs and our other activities were about construction.  Watch this space to find out what happens to the Golden Speckled Egg next week.

What an amazing morning we had celebrating National Science Week.  Our Playgroup families marvelled at many of our experiments and were also surprised to know that they can all be done with simple materials that are kept at home.  The Walking Water experiment is a great example of mixing two colours together to make another colour and creates a spectacular rainbow to enjoy.  All you need are some glasses, water, food colouring and paper towel.  The Rain Cloud experiment demonstrates how rain falls from the sky and all it needs is water, shaving cream and food colouring.  We made rice dance by mixing water, rice, food colouring, bi carb soda and vinegar.  Everyone loved the Sizzling Muffins that were made by mixing bi carb soda, vinegar and food colouring in a muffin tray.  The children were so excited and squealed with delight when the muffins rose up and overflowed. But the final and most thrilling of all the experiments was the erupting volcano.  Both adults and children were enthralled with the red 'lava' rolling down the sides of the volcano and the joy on the children's faces was such a delight to behold. Fun and wonder can come from such simple things. 

The Golden Speckled Egg also joined in watching the events of the morning and let's hope it may have grown for this week's session when we celebrate Book Week. 

We had a wonderful morning at Playgroup recently when we celebrated the dads and other significant males, who are in the lives of our Playgroup children. It was so lovely to see the dads and grandads building things, colouring in, driving the cars & trucks, reading with the children and just enjoying each other's company. 

The children were so excited when they saw the craft activities we had set out, which allowed them to explore and creature their own craft items. 

The rock-painting table was extremely popular and the finished products were truly amazing! 

It was great to celebrate Father's Day at Playgroup. 

Bern and Ali, 

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College

College Tours held monthly on a Tuesday, 9.30 am and 5.30 pm.  To register visit: olsh.catholic.edu.au

Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College is a vibrant and inclusive community allowing your daughter to discover her full potential. We invite you to our College Tours to see ALL we offer girls from Years 7 – 12. Come and see how your daughter will find her place with us, as we nurture her to thrive as a confident young woman.

Places filling fast! Enrol now to secure your place for Year 7 & 8 in 2024 & 2025.

Raptors Softball Club

Royal Surf Life Saving Holiday Swimming Flyer

I Can Network Cycle Flyer