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LOCKDOWN
With the return to normal after yesterday's excitement, it was good to see the children settle back into the day's routine. Please let us know if you feel your child needs more debriefing over the incident.
PUPIL FREE DAY
A reminder that the school will be closed on Monday, 11 September. The staff will be in a spiritual enrichment inservice with other staff in the diocese.
GRANDPARENTS DAY
The children have been preparing to entertain our grandparents on Friday 8 September. The day will start with a liturgy at 9:15am followed by some light entertainment by the children. Morning Tea will be served afterwards.
FATHER'S DAY
Celebrations for Father's Day are getting ready. We will be hosting a B&E Breakfast for fathers from 7am. There will be an activity for the Dad's to interact with their children followed by a liturgy at 9:00am for those that can stay for the morning.A stall is being organised for the children to be able to purchase a small gift for their fathers. We are looking for some helpers to wrap presents and maybe help on the stall which will be held on Thursday 31 August. Please let Leanne know if you are able to assist with either of these activities.
REGIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING
Well done to our representatives in the Regional Public Speaking Competition. We heard some great ideas which were presented very well. Well done to Archer, Evette, Allison, Cooper, Pippa, Gabi, Leisha and Gemma.
P&F UPDATE
We are still awaiting the advice from the Bishop as to which way we can move with our P&F Association. At present I would like to encourage parents to stay involved in the school business. One way we can do that is to help out in the different activities that are being planned. For example, later in the year we hope to hold a Father's Day Stall, Disco etc which will need support of parents to plan and deliver. These are special social fundraising events for the school and we wish for occassions such as these to continue. Any money raised will be allocated to Parent nominated resources which can be brought up from time to time.Whether we keep the current model or move to the alternative (Parent Engagement Group), we still encourage and need the support of parents to be actively involved in some of the traditional activities organised.
THURSDAY CUPPAS
It is good to see those coming for a cuppa. Next week we will be discussing some fund-raising activities such as a school disco and how parents can be involved in assisting with the planning. Please come along at 2:15pm before pickup and have a chat.
Over the next few days I have been given the opportunity to travel to Tamworth with other Assistant Principals in our Diocese to visit primary schools within the Tamworth area to see the Lynn Sharratt journey they have gone through.
In the coming weeks we have a number of events coming up. on Friday the 25th the infants will be going on their Zoo excursion. On the 1st September as a school we will be celebrating Father's Day with an early morning breakfast followed by a liturgy. The following Friday 8th September we will celebrate Grandparents' Day where the whole school will put on a dance performance. Everyone is welcome to come a join us for breakfast and Grandparents' Day.
Parish Sacramental Program
Just a reminder for the students making their confirmation, the liturgy will be held on When: Wednesday, 23rd August, at 6:30 pm (arrive promptly at 6:15 pm).
Where: Our Lady of Victories at Shortland
Dress code: Students are to wear smart casual (dresses, shirts and pants)
We wish them all the best on this significant occasion, and they remain in our prayers: Billy F, Audrey S, Lily P, Emmesen P, Benjamin T, William T, Sophia T, Thea W, Natalia W, Grace Bailey, Eli Olejnik, Ariana C, Jennifer F, Hope H and Toma V
Upcoming Dates
18th August Parish Mass- Yr 1 & Yr 6
21st August Springtime liturgy Year 1
1st September Father's Day Breakfast & Liturgy Stage 2
8th September Grandparents' Day Liturgy- Stage 3
15th September Parish Mass- Yr 2 & Yr 5 Catholic Missions Day:
18th September Happiness Liturgy- Yr 3
22nd September Whole School Mass Celebrating' Our Lady of Victories' Feast Day (7th October)
BBQ Lunch
Family activities to follow school assembly
Kindergarten
When reading a new book, we often will do a picture walk first. This means we look through the book and look at all the pictures predicting what we think the story is going to be about. During this process a lot of questions are ask such as What can you see?, How are the characters feeling? This created great discussion within our room. The book we are looking at is Thunderstorm Dancing by Katrina Germein and Judy Watson. After this process the children were given- I wonder what you think is going to happen in the story. The children then wrote what they thought would happen in the book.
Year 1
In Year 1 we have been looking at asking questions before, during and after reading a story. This week we read A Coconut named Bob. We looked at the cover and thought of some questions about the story. After reading some of the story we had some more questions. After the story we got some of the answers to our questions, but we had a lot more questions for the author. Have a look at some of or questions.
Year 2
Year 2 have been asking lots of questions before, during and after reading. We have learnt about the words we can use to start off our questions. These include who, what where, why, how, I’m wondering, We have learnt that we can ask questions before and during the text that might be answered within the text as we read and that we can do further research to answer the questions we have after we read, and that these can help us to better understand what we are reading.
Stage 2
Stage 2 has been busy incorporating fluency passages during reading instruction to improve their ability to read fluently and aid their comprehension. We have been focusing on students’ accuracy in reading words, their rate or speed of reading a text and the expression they employ. Over the coming weeks, we will include various fluency passage routines, including repeated reading, choral reading, paired reading and reader’s theatre. Stage 2 has enjoyed adding this new routine to their reading instruction and are already seeing the benefits!
Stage 3
In Stage 3, we are reading the novel Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly. This is a story of a deaf girl's connection to a whale whose song can't be heard by his species, and the journey she takes to help him. This novel is a great connection to our Science unit (Growth and Survival of Living Things) and Geography unit (Factors that Shape Places).
We have been exploring how to ask questions before, during and after reading to deepen our understanding of the text.
VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION
In order to Volunteer at OLV you are required to complete the Volunteer Induction and be cleared by the Catholic Schools Office to Volunteer.
Please follow this link https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/ and complete the steps.
EXTERNAL PROVIDERS
If your child will be seeing a provider (e.g. speech therapist or occupational therapist) this year at school, please complete the attached application form and return to school. If you require further information, please don't hesitate to contact the office.
COMPASS
OLV uses the "Compass" App. Log in details for parents/carers have been emailed to all new parents. If you are still unable to login, or your account has been made inactive, please contact Leanne in the office to arrange a reset of your password.
- For all new families please familiarise yourself with the information booklet you received in your information pack or enrolment pack, "Parent Portal Compass User Guide" This is also attached
- Only Parents/Carers have access to Compass Parent Portal. Parents must have separate email addresses in order to both have access to compass
- New Users when logging into Compass are given the opportunity to update their details. It has been noted that some parents have updated their mobile phone number by taking out the gaps within the phone number. This is not required. The system requires phones numbers to be in this format
- REMINDER: PLEASE ONLY EXPLAIN WHOLE DAY ABSENCES - PLEASE DO NOT REPORT PARTIAL ABSENCES through the Compass App. Reporting partial absences will cause inconsistences with your child's attendance
- SMS's are sent to parents of students who are absent from 9.35am each weekday morning. You will receive a text message if your child was not present during the marking the roll process. Please logon onto compass and explain your child's absence. Do not reply to the text as compass does not accept reply texts
- Please notify the office beforehand if your child is going to arrive late; you will however still receive an SMS. The arrival time of the student will be logged as an explained absence when they present to school on their arrival
- On occasion you may be sent a text message even though your child is in attendance at school, this may be because they have arrived late and not come to the Office for sign in. If your child is late, please come into the Office with your child and sign them in via the compass kiosk.
QKR APP
Part of “progress” is moving towards a cashless society. To assist with the banking, ordering and handling of money, we are moving more of our payments to the Qkr system.
You will find attached instructions for the QKR App. This easy to use phone app gives you the flexibility to place orders for Canteen and fundraisers from your phone. It also reduces the need for your child to bring cash to school. Please remember to amend your child's year group on the QKR App to aid the timely collection of their order. We will be moving to a wider usage of this app as the year progresses.
- Make sure your child matches the class they are in now. You may need to go to your account settings and change their class. This will have to be completed at the beginning of every school year
- Please do not send in a paper bag as well as ordering online; this will stop any double up of ordering
- If your child is away or sick and you have ordered their lunch, you have until 8.00 am to cancel your order on QKR and receive a credit for next time
- All ordering is now closing at 8.15 am Monday morning. This allows enough time to print out the relevant reports for our volunteer ladies
- As of Term 2 all lunch orders will only be able to be ordered through QKR. Cash on the day will only be for ice blocks, lollies and chips.
We will be looking at providing this service for other quick financial transactions such as sausage sizzles, raffles, pie drives etc,
Thaks to everyone for taking up this service.
Health Care Card
Most families have already completed the attached Health Care Card Forms and returned to the school with a copy of their Health Care Card. If you have a Health Care Card and have not handed it in please contact the Office. Health Care Cards gives up to 50% off your tuition fees.
| Kinder |
Solomon T- for being able to solve subtraction problems. Ivy S - for being able to subtract numbers using pictures. Sadie S- for being able to solve addition problems. Lola C- for being able to order numbers from smallest to largest. Hayden M - for being able to do an impromptu speech in front of the whole school. Kane S - for a great effort with sounding out and making words. |
| Year 1 |
Isabelle - for a great attitude towards your learning and developing your confidence to contribute to class discussions! Israel - for trying hard in all your learning and working on focusing on your tasks! Nikita - for great improvement in Literacy and contributing to class discussions! Amelia - for working incredibly hard in all areas at school and presenting great speeches! |
| Year 2 |
Maksim S - for using his knowledge of the cardinal directions to locate the Australian States. Ruby B - for her outstanding use of the 'asking questions' strategy when comprehending in reading groups. Fetui T - for the incredible improvement she has made in reading fluency. Lucy C - for asking great questions during reading comprehension. |
| Year 3 |
Thea W - Excellent work and staying on task all the time Elsa S - Her clever contribution in the maths lesson Van K - Helping to distribute the computers to his peers |
| Year 4 |
Jennifer F - for fantastic work in Mathematics with place value Daniel Z - for informative and enthusiastic contributions to class discussion |
| Year 5 |
Emme P - for displaying a resilient and positive attitude towards school life. Blake B - for the respectful and responsible attitude he displays during his learning. Joseph B - for applying a can-do attitude towards his maths investigations. Heath F - for being a curious and determined learner in Year 5. |
| Year 6 |
Harper S - for sharing interesting and thoughtful ideas during class discussion Meti S - for applying a growth mindset during mathematics lessons Ava G for showing great research skills in Science and Geography lessons Ojo T for being a happy, helpful member of Stage 3! |
| Principal Awards |
Regional Representatives at Diocesan Athletics - Harper S, Max G, Gemma M, Lily P, Michelle A, Charlie F, Suma M, Freya B Class Representative for Public Speaking Archer R, Evette C, Amelia I, Cooper G, Ruby H, Allison A, Ariana C, Lily P, Pippa M, Gabriella K, Maxwell W, Leisha K, Gemma M, Harrison S |
| V & M Awards |
Kindergarten: Luca for always being kind and considerate to others. Year 1: Alexis for always ensuring others are included and looking after your friends! Year 2: Malachi K for standing up for what is right for the good of everyone. Year 3: Levi A for being kind and helpful Year 4: Luke S for being thoughtful and caring Year 5: Virginia V for supporting and encouraging her peers at school. Year 6: Freya B for always putting the needs of others before her own |
| EALD Awards |
Jesse M - For always giving his best effort in all subject areas. Elsa S - For working very hard and putting her best effort into all her work. |
| Leaders Awards |
Jess M - for whenever he is injured, he always makes a valiant effort to get up with an enthusiastic smile on his face Toma V - for being a kind and caring soccer player |
REGIONAL SOCCER GALA
The North Region will be conducting a Soccer Gala on Thursday 14 September. A five-a-side gala is being held at the Speers Park Sporting Complex and is open for children in Years 3 to 6. The chidren have been asked to nominate and I would like to finalise our entries and send home more information to those interested. If your child would like to be involved and hasn't already nominated, please have them see me by Monday afternoon. Once numbers have been finalised, details will be sent to those who have nominated. It should be a fun day.
TERM 4 SWIMMING
We will be conducting our 6 week swimming program from Day 1 of next term. The children will be travelling to the Forum at the Newcastle University for their weekly lessons. Please ensure you have responded to the COMPASS notification so that we can place your child in the most suitable group for their lesson. Mondays will be the children's sports day for next term, so it will be SPORTS UNIFORM every MONDAY.
STATE PSSA SOCCER
Amidst all the hype about the Matildas, we might wish Gemma M all the best as she participates in the State Primary Schools Sports Associatioon Soccer trials this week. She is representing the school, diocese and Polding in three trials with children from all over the state. A future Matilda in the making? We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Maria T |
| Year 1 | |
| Year 2 | |
| Year 3 | |
| Year 4 | |
| Year 5 | |
| Year 6 | Thomas E |
Congratulations and we hope you had a happy day
ST NICHOLAS OOSH Services
How to enrol for our OOSH Services:
You will be able to access the school newsletter here, special dates notifications and other messages from time to time.
Go to this link to download the Schoolzine App: