23 August 2018

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

Principal’s Message

Congratulations!

What a wonderful two weeks we have had!

Wallsend Winter Fair

On Sunday 12 August we participated in the Wallsend Winter Fair.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to our 42 students who took part in the Grand Parade. We received the news on Friday evening that we had won 1st Prize in the parade! We have received a $250 Gift Voucher which we will put towards buying some items for our new playground areas. Well done on your effort, boys and girls, and of course the Mums and Dads who made the effort to bring their children along and support OLV!

A huge congratulations to our Lunchtime Dancers who put on a wonderful performance on the day! They were full of enthusiasm and spectacular moves. Miss Cheryl has suggested we show the performance at one of our Assemblies. You will be informed when the date is decided on.

Regional Debating

On Tuesday our Year 6 Debating Team took part in the North Region Debating Competition. The team consisting of Zoe H., Josie J-P., Joseph A. and Sienna W., won their first debate and went through to the second round where they were just beaten. The adjudicator stated that it was a very close result. Congratulations to the team and to their very capable reserve Ruby L-P. on their enthusiasm and commitment to learning and developing their excellent debating skills. Well done to all of you and thank you for representing Our Lady of Victories so well!

Book Week

We celebrated our annual Book Week Parade and Book Fair on Tuesday!

It was wonderful to see the students and teachers getting into the theme of “Find Your Treasure”. We had some incredible characters relating to the Pirate theme as well as some other loved characters. Well done everyone for entering into the spirit of this year’s Book Week!

A BIG thank you to Mrs Spencer and Mrs Moore for all their work in organising another successful Book Fair and to the parents and students for their support of this annual Library Fundraiser.

Playground

We are making progress with the new playground spaces. It seems as though the work will be completed this week. We are organising a Safety Inspection and hopefully will be able to use the new areas before too long.

Once again I would like to say a BIG thank you to our wonderful P & F for their generosity in enabling the work to be carried out. I know it will be greatly appreciated by all our students.

First Eucharist Apology

I need to apologise to three of our children who made their First Holy Communion on 5th August as their names did not appear in the last newsletter. Congratulations to Isla, Harry and Julian whose names were inadvertently missing from the list. Along with Annalise, Dakota, Elsie and Georgina, they completed their Sacraments of Initiation and became full members of the Church.

School Photos

Photo day is this Monday 27th August. Please return the envelopes on the day with or without an order. If you are purchasing photos the envelopes need to be returned with the correct payment as change IS NOT available. Family photo envelopes are available from the office. Please ensure children are in full winter uniform with the correct shoes and their hair neat and tidy. These photos provide great memories in years to come.

As the photos had to be postponed, spare envelopes are available from the office. Please ensure you check to see if you need one prior to photo day.

YEAR 6 FUN DAY

Next Friday, 31st August is the date for our Year 6 Fun Day! It will begin at 10 am, allowing the students time to set up their activities, after the Fathers’ Day Liturgy.

All our Year 6 students are busy preparing for their stalls and activities. A flyer will be sent home to inform you of the various happenings.

There will be posters around the school next week detailing the cost of the various activities.

We would ask the school community for donations of cakes, biscuits, etc. for our Cake Stall which will be held on the day.

It will be an Out of Uniform Day and the children will have lots of fun! A reminder that students must wear shirts with sleeves and suitable shorts – no very short shorts, please.

Footwear needs to be closed-in shoes, preferably joggers, to ensure safe participation in the activities.

There will be a Talent Quest in the Hall at 12:15 pm. This is always a very entertaining part of our Fun Day as our students share their many wonderful talents with our community.

The Awards Assembly will take place in the afternoon.

Please try to come along and join in the fun of the day!

COMPASS

Late Arrivals

A reminder to parents that if your child arrives at school any later than 8:55 am, you MUST sign them in through the Kiosk in the Front Office. This is especially important on Liturgy or Mass mornings as many teachers mark their rolls on the app on their phones. Rolls must be done as soon as possible in the mornings so that we can send out alerts to parents, in the interest of keeping all our children safe.

Please DO NOT drop your child off at the gate, but accompany them into the Office.

As of next Monday, the Bottom and Top Gate will be locked at the end of the Morning Assembly under the COLA, meaning you will need to come through the Office Gate and sign your child in at the Office Kiosk, should you arrive after this time.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Absences

SMS / Email notification of Absence

As part of Our Lady of Victories’ commitment to student safety and welfare, our school has begun notifying parents of their child’s unexplained absence via SMS message & email.

This service provides an SMS / email notification to parents of children who are marked absent from school without explanation once the roll has been checked in the morning.

Where possible, it would be appreciated if parents can notify the school at their earliest convenience regarding a child’s absence.

If a child is going to be absent for the day or is intending to arrive late (eg medical appointments etc), then parents are asked to use the COMPASS APP or call the office to notify the school before 9:30am on the day rather than sending a note afterward.

It is hoped that by providing this service and in partnership with families we can continue to ensure all possible mechanisms are in place to maintain the safety of our students.

ASTHMA PLANS

Reminder letters were sent home last week with students whose Asthma Plans need updating and those whose medications were out of date. Please ensure these matters are addressed as soon as possible. It is so important to have the Asthma Plans and medications in order, in case of emergency. Thank you.

Tissues Please!

All classes are in need of tissues during these colder months. If you could send in a box to your child’s class, it would be very much appreciated

NAPLAN SCHOOL READINESS TRIALS

Last week our Year 3 and Year 5 classes successfully participated in the online Item Trial after overcoming some technical hitches. Thank you, girls and boys, for your patience and cooperation – especially Year 5 on the first day!

Next week, in Week 6, both Year 3 and Year 5 will again take part in a NAPLAN Online test to assist in checking our school’s readiness for NAPLAN Online in 2019.

Both classes will be completing trials on Wednesday 29th August and Thursday 30th August. For both NAPLAN events the children will be in the Library using laptops or tablets.

School Fees

Everyone should have received a copy of their school fee statement. This is the final round of billing for 2018. All families should have their fee payment plans well under way or be ready to make the final payment for 2018. If you do not have a payment plan in place and have outstanding fees that you are struggling to pay, please contact the office and make an appointment to see Mr Vandermaat upon his return. It is very important that you make one of these appointments before letters are sent home chasing up outstanding fees.

ASPIRE 2019

Auditions for ASPIRE 2019 will take place during Term 4. Anyone who will be in Year 5, 6, or 7 next year is welcome to try out for the production. There are posters outside the canteen displaying some information.

If your child is interested in auditioning, contact Mrs Carroll for further information.

KINDER Enrolments 2019

The enrolment period for 2019 is now open. Parents who are seeking enrolment for their children at OLV in 2019 should ask for an Application for Enrolment from the office. Alternatively, an enrolment pack can be found on our school website at:

or on the CSO website below:

If you are aware of any families that are also considering enrolling next year, please pass on this message.

P&F News

If parents would like to add to the monthly meeting agenda, please call Kylie Westaway or send an email to OLVparentsandfriends@gmail.com.

Clothing Pool:

The Uniform Pool is now set up and operating from the “Bell Room” next to the Year 1 classroom. The Uniform Pool is open every Thursday morning from 8:40am – 9:10am.

Please Note: We can only take cash sales as no EFTPOS facilities are available.

Canteen Roster:

Please keep an eye on our Facebook page and COMPASS for the Term 3 canteen roster that will be out soon.

A reminder that if you do not have a current WWC number on file with the school office you will no longer be able to put on the canteen roster. As we hate to turn volunteers away, we ask that all volunteers submit their WWC numbers to the office ASAP. If you need any assistance with applying for your number or the process involved, please see Nicole P, in the Office or Nicole W, the Canteen coordinator.

LEXIA AT HOME

The way to access, Lexia at home has changed. If your child is using the Lexia program at home please check the new instructions to ensure you are correctly accessing the program.

Good work to all those children working hard at home using Lexia.

Mrs McCallum

Pastoral Care News

Our Scarecrow, which was made by our talented students, has finally made his way into the garden.

The birds absolutely love him. I don’t think he is doing his job too well.

The sensory garden (bath) is complete and some plants have been planted. Take a look if you get a chance.

There are still lemons available for a small donation. All donations will go towards more plants for our garden.

Take care and God bless

Karen

REC News

On Friday August 31st, the school will celebrate Fathers’ Day by holding a Fathers’ Day Breakfast followed by a Fathers’ Day Liturgy in the School Hall at 9am. All fathers, grandfathers and significant males in our OLV community are welcome to attend with their families. During this event, there will be a slideshow featuring these special men in our lives. Please email photos you wish to be included to clare.paff@mn.catholic.edu.au by Friday 24th August 2018.

Class News

Kinder

There were sixteen very excited Kindergarten children on Tuesday parading an assortment of very colourful pirate costumes, some mermaids and some from space. Thank you to the parents who made this possible and helped the children change into their costumes. The winner of The Picture book of the Year, “A Walk in the Bush,” by Gwyn Perkins, was one of our favourites and we were excited that it won. In Religion we recalled God’s plan for people to live happily and peacefully together. We viewed “God’s Dream,” a book written by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and made connections with students' own experiences about living peacefully and happily with each other. We viewed a video clip of the song “Kindness Changes Everything” and identified the kind deeds school students were doing in the playground to help each other out. Another song we are learning, “All About Kindness” can be found on YouTube (Harry Kindergarten Music). These are all great songs to teach children appropriate ways to interact with others. We also learn that our kind actions reflect the love of God. In English we read the story “Cat and Fish”, two creatures from very different worlds who liked the look of each other and became friends. They had to learn new ways of being together and had fun along the way – a great story to teach acceptance of others who may be different. We wrote their next adventure which took them to space where they played with aliens on the moon. In Maths we are working on multiplication and division. We learnt to share a collection of objects into equal groups. In Science we looked at what materials are made of and learnt that different materials are made to suit their purpose eg. you can’t have a paper raincoat! In Geography we completed a mind map of places that we belong to and identified why they are important. Thursday is our favourite day of the week as we get to do Gymnastics.

Year 1

In English we have been continuing our work on Cinderella and did a great job using adjectives to describe how Cinderella looked before she when to the ball and after. Year 1 have looked at the setting, characters, events and ending of the fairy tale and have summarised these details. Our sound this week is the ‘ow’ sound. It is proving to be tricky as it sounds different in certain words such as long o sound in ‘bow’ and the ‘ou’ sound as in the word ‘cow’.

In Maths we have been developing our strategies to add and subtract numbers. We have learnt how to add and subtract using objects, counting on and counting back and also number lines. We look for clues with the numbers when we add to help us do it easier, such as doubles or some numbers that are near doubles.

In Religion, we have been learning about the prayer that Jesus taught us, the ‘Our Father’. Year 1 have learnt the meaning behind some of the lines used in the prayer that we are used to saying each week in Liturgy. Year 1 will be presenting the school Liturgy ‘Love One Another’ in Week 6 on Tuesday 28th August at 9am in the Hall. Children with readings have been given them to take home and practice. We hope you can make it along to our Liturgy!

In PE, year 1 have been partaking in rotations with Miss Speirs. We have been developing our vertical jump skills. Children have enjoyed practising this skill in different games and movement activities. We have learnt the importance of landing in the ‘motorbike’ position when finishing this jump to protect our knees. This is something Year 1 have recognised they use in Gymnastics lessons each week!

Year 2/3

Another busy fortnight for year 2/3. In Religion we have been studying the Hebrew Scriptures. We learnt about the way the bible is structured into chapters and verses and we considered the main types of writing such as historical and wisdom texts. In Geography we have continued to compare the climates and features of many Australian places including Perth, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Barron River. In English we utilised our growing knowledge of different geographical places and wrote an information report about The Great Barrier Reef. We were interested to find out about the threats to the Reef such as the crown of thorns starfish, which eats coral, as well as pollution caused by human activity. In Maths we have been developing a better understanding of multiplication and division. Year 2 have focused on division in particular and year 3 have worked on problem solving with multiplication and division. We all are continuing to develop our critical and creative problem solving skills with a range of problems to ignite each of our lessons. In PD/ HEALTH we are developing great Gymnastics skills as well as enjoying our PE rotations. Our Health focus has allowed us to critically think about what it means to be healthy. In Drama we have commenced a range of improvisations considering how our body language helps us to tell a story. We also have been engaged in reader’s theatre. Our Dance Unit is extending some of the PE skills we have learnt in Zumba, to allow for further expression and consideration of rhythm and movement.

Year 4

In Religion we have continued talking about justice and reading various scripture passages that highlight Jesus’ teachings on justice. One of the passages was 1 Cor 12:4-11 where Jesus spoke about spiritual gifts. This lead to us identifying our own gifts and talents that God has given to each of us. Jesus’ ‘Parable of the Talents’ teaches us that we must use our gifts wisely, and, most importantly, use them in the right way and not in a destructive way. In English we are nearing the end of reading ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’ by C.S Lewis. During our reading, we have completed recall activities, cause and effect activities, comprehension, vocabulary activities and summarising. In Maths, we have been learning to use the ‘Guess and check’ strategy to solve problems. We also worked on learning more about temperature and reading a thermometer. We placed some thermometers in various places around the school and read the temperature at various times throughout the day. This was an interesting activity. We found that although the air temperature was in the mid to high teens, the thermometers that were placed directly in the sun showed a temperature of up to 40 degrees Celsius. This week we are learning to use the decimal point in measurement to separate whole units from part of a unit. In PDH we discussed feelings and emotions. We discussed times when we have felt disappointment and ways to help us deal with this emotion. We also identified feelings that promote positive self-esteem, good health and wellbeing. We had a great day on Tuesday celebrating Book Week. Thank you to Mrs Spencer and Mrs Moore for organising the Amazing Book Fair. The Character Parade was such fun!

Year 5

What a busy couple of weeks!

No doubt the children told you about all the issues with the Naplan item trial! We hope that those issues don’t plague us next week when we do the Naplan Online test trial, in which we will be sitting a writing test, but typed and an omnibus test which encompasses parts of all of the other tests. This is a trial to test the functionality of the system and there will be no scores awarded or received by the school. It is a way to ensure smooth sailing for when we sit in fully online from 2019. Finger are crossed.

In RE, we have continued discussing prayer. We are almost at the end of this unit and the students have worked very well, contributing to discussions in ways that has shown deep thinking and real applicability to life.

In Maths, we have been looking at the wonderful world of triangles and what makes each one special. We have used mathematical labelling and have used protractors to construct examples of each.

In English, we have continued with our novel and have used the description used by Jackie French to illustrate the bus shelter, which is one of the two main settings in the story.

In Geography, we have identified different types of houses in different regions of Australia and now will form groups and investigate the same, but worldwide. We expect to be amazed at what we find.

In Science, we investigated the question “How does light help us see?” by using peek-a-boo boxes and torches to find the object inside. We made an amazing list of sources of light, listing around 40!

We have been working really hard with Mrs Francis during Drama, and PDH where we have been looking at what makes us unique and body image.

PE has started again and we have improved our throwing skills and now move on to another fundamental movement skill, hopping, with Miss Morris.

It’s hard to believe the term is almost half over.

Year 6

In Year 6 in the past couple of weeks we've been very busy and quite flexible in our learning. We all had a go at debating in class and then on Tuesday our selected team of debaters represented OLV in the Regional Debating at St Dominic's Mayfield. Mrs Mc Callum accompanied Josie, Zoe, Joseph and Sienna who had a convincing win in their first debate. The team came close to a win in their second debate and were gracious in defeat. Their trusty reserve, Ruby, went along too and was a great support to the team.

In Religion we have continued to learn about the parts and significance of The Liturgy and we were able to witness and apply our understandings when we participated in a Mass to celebrate the feast of Our Lady's Assumption.

In Maths, our focus has been on Patterns and Algebra, creating and exploring sequences of whole positive and negative numbers, fractions and decimals. We have also been measuring length and calculating perimeter using different units such as metre, centimetre and millimetre, this has taken us outside the classroom for some real-world measuring challenges.

In English, we are coming to the end of our study of Dragonkeeper by Carole Wilkinson, and have been responding to the text creatively by exploring the experience of the interesting main characters and recognising how they've developed.

In PE we have worked on Dodging as a skill and applied this in games.

Science has been exciting! Apart from completing an audit of appliances that use energy in our homes, we are investigating the potential use of wind and water as energy sources. We are presently making and testing waterwheels in our groups and investigating what influences their efficiency to lift a weight.

Yesterday we celebrated Book Week with a visit to the Book Fair, a fantastic parade of assorted pirates and other characters. In the afternoon we had a good read of some short-listed books with our classmates.

We are very excited about, and busy planning, our Year 6 Fun day which is next Friday, 31st August!

SPORTS NEWS

Term 3 Gymnastics

For sport in Term 3 the children will continue their Gymnastics program each week. However, so that we have access to the excellent program that we have used in the past, we need to change our sports day to Thursdays for Term 3 this year. The cost of the program is included in the Sports Levy.

Class Awards

Class awards for Week 8