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VALE BISHOP BILL
On Saturday last week, our Diocese lost a wonderful Pastor and servant of the people. Bishop William Wright passed away after a short battle with lung cancer. He had resigned his position as Bishop of Maitland Newcastle in September and passed away in hospital last weekend.
He had the difficult task of healing the broken people of our Diocese due to the sexual misconduct of some of its priests and leaders. His work on this is recognised as being an important conduit for this healing.
I had the pleasure and honour of joining Bishop Bill on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2019, and it was his presence that brought a calmness and holiness to the experience. I had the honour of renewing my wedding vows with my wife, Narelle, in the church in Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding there, along with three other couples on our pilgrimage. Bishop Bill presided over the ceremonies. His words were full of love and God's blessings. A great gift to his people.
May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, Rest in Peace. Amen
KINDER ORIENTATION
We had a great time last week introducing our 2022 Kinder cohort to the OLV community. Everyone was very excited about coming to a new place, meeting their buddies and finding out what was in store for them. With the little ones coming from different Pre-School settings, it is important to encourage new friendships and social interaction.
Our Year 4 & 5 children also showed great leadership and responsibility in caring for their little buddies.
We look forward to the next gathering on Thursday 25 November.
Here is a glimpse of the morning.
https://olovps.schoolzineplus.com/_admin/cms/media/file/1323
Congratulations to the Butler family for welcoming a handsome baby boy, Henry, into the world last Thursday. Matilda is a great big sister.
SEMESTER 2 REPORTS
Your child's Semester 2 Reports will be available through COMPASS from Friday 10 December. Due to COVID (and similar to last year's lockdown, the report format will be different than usual.
The Semester 2 Report is focused on the Religion, English and Mathematics outcomes and content taught between when the Semester 1 Reports were written and the timing of the reports in Term 4.
- The Commitment to Learning is a scale from Emerging to High and based on RE, English and Maths
- The Student Achievement in these same subjects will be recorded as Working Towards, Working At or Working Beyond class expectations for the semester.
- The Learner Profile Section includes Personal and Social Development as well as Learning Dispositions on a scale from ‘Requires Support’ through to ‘Consistently’.
- There will be opportunity for teachers to provide a comment for parents identifying a student’s strengths and any challenges that can be developed in coming months. These will continue to link learning between the school and home as we transition to the new year.
Every student in NSW has had their learning impacted by these experiences and educators are intensely aware of the consequences. As a faith community, we acknowledge parents as the primary carers, educators and formators of their children. For this reason, you are uniquely situated at this time to provide additional insight in the progress and ongoing support of your children's learning now, and into the future. Together, we will work to reduce the long-term broad impact of COVID-19 on student outcomes.
If parents would like to discuss anything about their child's learning, please feel free to contact their teacher to arrange an appointment.
YEAR 6 GRADUATION
We are working hard at holding a meaningful and celebratory occasion for our Year 6 children. In the past, we have included the whole school, children and parents, to celebrate and send off our Year 6 children, but it is looking like this will be scaled down this year to only include the parents of the Year 6 children. If restrictions change we should be able to celebrate in a bigger way.
Graduation will be on Tuesday 14 December from 9:30am
CONFIRMATION
Kinder
Kinder are learning to use adjectives in their writing. Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They can be colour words (easiest to use), shape or size words like' round' and 'big',
number words like 'ten' and 'many', feeling words like 'soft' and 'furry' and taste words like 'sweet' and 'sour'. Can you spot the adjectives in our work samples?
Year 1
In Writing lessons both in lockdown and since we've been back at school, Year 1 have been learning how to write 'stretchy sentences'. 'Stretchy sentences' are sentences that give lots of detail - using similes and descriptive language - to help the reader conjure up an image in their head. Stretchy sentences cover details such as who, where, why, how, and what. Stretchy sentences feature in good examples of narrative writing and they are much more interesting to read than simple sentences. Here are some examples of our independent writing in class.
Year 2
Year 2 read the book How to sneak a Monster to school by Christopher Francis. Then they worked in pairs to write their own procedures. We hope you enjoy reading them.
Year 3
Year 3 has been working on writing 'procedures'. A procedure consists of three main parts: 1. Title 2. Things Needed 3. Method. Sometimes, a 'tip' or 'warning' may be added to the procedure, at the end. Three examples of a procedure are: recipes, scientific experiments and how to do something. When writing a procedure, the 'things needed' are always listed in the order they are needed.
Here are three samples of a procedure written by students in Year 3. Their task was to write a procedure about 'Getting Ready for School'. The fourth sample of writing is a narrative written by one of the students about a race between an elephant and a guinea pig. Happy reading, everyone!
Year 4
Year 4 has been working on writing a Recount of a picture book we have been studying over the last couple of weeks. The story is called, “Where the Forest Meets the Sea” by Jeannie Baker. It is a wonderful story with very few words, but we found it really interesting! We found it related very much to our unit in Geography on Sustainability.
Here are some of our attempts to recount the story in our own words.
Year 5/6
Year 5 and 6 have really worked hard all year on their writing by carefully choosing words, experimenting with word order, and adding a range of literary devices to their work. Recently they worked on improving their writing by including complex sentences. Given a variety of images, they created amazing sentences. Enjoy the wonderful word choices of these fabulous young authors!
The hungry owl waited patiently as the clueless mouse scurried by. Cooper
The fluffy owl stared while he camouflaged himself to get away from the insane hunter. Caleb
The owl sat motionless as it waited for the perfect time to pounce. Breanna
The owl sat patiently waiting, searching around with his beady eyes for their prey. Levi
Like a feather on an eagle, the two boys soared through the sky, dodging clouds left and right. Julian
The children shrieked with pleasure because they were having the time of their lives, viewing the world underneath. Ruby
Wind whistled loudly in their ears, until the passengers on the aircraft noticed them. El
The mischievous ant held onto the leaf because one wrong step and it could lead to his sudden death. Marley
As the ant looked out of his leaf spaceship, all he could see was planets, other spaceships and aliens having parties. Tahlia
The ant floated slowly until he fell off the waterfall. Fin
The tiny ant was as still as a statue as any wrong move could lead to serious consequences. Sonia
The ant that was floating on the leaf was scared of drowning in the dangerous flood waters, until the ant firefighter came and saved him. Harry
A range of emotions filled James' mind whilst the bright white sand flicked upon him. Annalise
As his heart pumped faster than ever before, he flipped really high. Georgina
He did all kinds of tricks, until disaster struck. Elsie
The man flipped on his board while he watched the impending doom down below. Archie
The snowboarder’s adrenaline rose as he flipped over the snow covered mountain, realizing he could see the whole world. Isla
2022 School Fee Information Form
Please find attached your 2022 School Fee Information Form. Could you please fill in the attached form and return to school no later then the 30th November, 2021. This form helps the school prepare the correct school fees for next year. Your nominated person responsible for school fees is the name that is currently on your fee statement now.
You can fill in the form online through your compass notification and return by email or you can print the form out and return to school next time you are dropping off or picking up your child/ren, or place in the school letterbox.
Every child attending OLV needs to have a form submitted which helps the school prepare the correct school fees for next year. Please ensure nominated person responsible for school fees is indicated clearly in the form.
BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT UPDATE
As part of the update to our Behaviour management policies, which were presented and discussed last year at P&F meetings, as a school community, we have decided to implement PBL across the school. We worked on this during the back end of 2021, but were disrupted by COVID and the At Home Learning that was required. When we came back, we had to concentrate on cohorting across the school and socially distanced meetings, so no more work was done on this. However, a new year brings a fresh start, despite the restrictions we still have in place. Our goal is to implement PBL, slowly and explicitly, to ensure greater understanding and embed the concepts and practices.
A discussion was had about the best way to start, and it was decided to define, or in some cases re-define, the term ‘bullying’. In this way, we can help the students understand the term and be able to correct their use of the term, give them alternatives to the word, and help remove the 'bullying' label from behaviour for which it does not fit. It's an easy word to use, and has lost its meaning over the years so we decided that we needed to stop and redefine it, so that when it is used in the PBL program, we have a shared understanding of what it is and what it is not.
To do this, we are beginning with lessons from the Bullying. No Way! website (Bullying No Way) which was discussed last year with Craig Moore (Behaviour Support) from the CSO. It is a wonderful site and by using one source, we will have consistency of message across the school.
The definition of bullying from this site is:
“Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening. Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records). Bullying of any form or for any reason can have immediate, medium and long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders. Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying.”
This definition will be unpacked for the students according to their age and stage of development, without losing any of its meaning, through use of the resources and using the language around the school and within classrooms during lessons. All classes will begin these lessons this week, and as we move slowly and carefully, embedding the concepts well, we will be able to build upon this with our PBL, later in the term.
| Kinder | Ruby H, Maksim S, Henry W, Elizabeth L |
| Year 1 | Joyce H, Eli O, Brian K, Anabel L |
| Year 2 | Madelyn M, Toma V, Luka S, Gabriella K |
| Year 3 | Indi P, Maxwell W, William T, Leisha K |
| Year 4 | Chase B, Thomas E, Alek S, Zoe W |
| Year 5/6 | Sonia K, Marley B, Harry F, Julian A |
| Captains | |
| Lexia Awards |
Thomas O, Matilda B, Erleen S, Charlie F, Joyce H, Josie B, Charlie M, Annabelle H, Evan S Congratulations to Evan, Erleen, Annabelle and Chase in Year 1 for completing the Minilit program Level 1. |
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Eleanor T |
| Year 1 | |
| Year 2 | |
| Year 3 | |
| Year 4 | Indigo H |
| Year 5/6 | Tahlia B |
Congratulations and we hope you had a happy day
Please find attached P & F minutes.
PARENTS FEDERATION AGM
The Federation of P7F Associations is holding its AGM and General Meeting on Tuesday 30 November (NB - thia is a new date) via ZOOM from 6:30 - 7pm and then the Genral Meeting from 7:00pm to 8:30am.
If you would like to tune in please RSVP by Friday 26 November your intentions to cath.garrett-jones@mn.catholic.edu.au with your email contact to receive a ZOOM link.
We look forward to these meetings as an opportunity to affirm our commitment to Catholic education and the important role of parents and carers in the partnership that exits between schools, parishes and the broader community.
You will be able to access the school newsletter here and notifications will come through Schoolzine. Please DO NOT use the old SkoolBag App. It is no longer used for communications of notifications and messages..
Go to this link to download the Schoolzine App:
ST NICHOLAS OOSH VACATION PROGRAM
How to enrol for our OOSH Services: