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COMMUNITY SPIRIT
A couple of recent activities at OLV have shown how wonderful our community is. Both the Father's Day and Grandparents' were terrific opportunities to share the skills and enthusiasm the staff and children have for our school. These occasions showcased how everyone enjoys the learning and teaching at OLV. It also gives us the opprtunity to connect with families and friends.
Thanks to evryone who were able to come and enjoy the occasions, but don't think we weren't thinking of those that couldn't make it. Look out this week for the dances online to reminince and share.
WELCOME
We welcome Adamma and Osita to our school. Their family has recently moved into the area from Rutherford. We wish them well as they settle into OLV and look forward to sharing their learning journey with them.PARENT WEBINARS
There are a couple of very good Webinars. They are focused on Digital Technology. You can go to www.eSafety.gov.au/parents/webinars
to find out more.
Parents are probably aware that COMPASS is now our preferred form of communiction between school and home. It sometimes experiences little glitches and we are thankful to those that point these out so that they can be rectified quickly.
The main problem about which we receive feedback is not being able to give permissions for various events. We find that this is usually caused because parents might be leaving it too late to do so. There is usually a cut off time set so that the appropriate organisational details - transport, food orderng, tickets etc - can be finalised. It is most important that parents respond to requests and events in a timely fashion.
Please make sure your access devices are up to date also and your passwords are working. If you have any issues, lease let the office know. Sometimes it is easier to come in with your device so that we can see what your issue is rather than try to explaiun over the phone.
QKR
As we move to a society where cash is becoming less the norm in financial transactions, we too are moving to that in our school financial system. Cash on site brings with the extra time and energy to manage and the more we can make that management less hands on the better.
This is why we are bringing Apps such as COMPASS and QKR into the school finaincial management. We are findng the QKR App very useful for Canteen and events which requiere paymnents of some sort. But as explained above there are cut off timeframes to which we need to adhere.
We will be opening teh Canteen schedule for teh rest of the year so that parents can make orders in advance if they wish. PLease send in any feedback about the effectivemness oof this. The usual cut off times for Canteen orders or cancellation is 8:15am on the morning of opening.
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
We very much encourage parents to be involved in the decision making and discussions about the things that affect their children at OLV. The immense pressures on families to be actively involved in meetings is evident as we struggle to find an Executive that manage the P&F Association.
Last term, we explored moving to what the Diocese calls a "Parent Engagement Group - PEG" which basically takes the pressure off having an executive overseeing the Association. It also takes away the physical need for parents to be responsibile for the money they raise during fundraising activities. It does not remove them from the discussion and decision making of how those funds should be expended.
We have investigated a weekly Cuppa & Chat (C&C) for parents to come in interact in some way and discuss issues that might arise. Parents are invited every Thursday from 2:15pm to meet with Mrs Dunn in the library for some input and organisational discussions if needed.
I would also like to meet with parents once per month after school in the same way we were for our P&F Meeting to organise and discuss any events coming up. Our first after school meeting will be Monday evening 23 October at 7:00pm mainly to discuss end of year events and other organisational matters such as Canteen and banking.
It would be great if you could come to both, but either one is fine.
Our Lady of Victories Feast Day
Week 1, Term 4 (Friday, 13th October) we will come together as a school community to celebrate Our Lady of Victories. The title of Our Lady of Victories dates back to a historic battle between Christian and Moslem forces at Lepanto in 1521. The Moslems had invaded much of Spain and were threatening to over run most of Europe and de-Christianise Europe. The threat was real and it all came together at a sea battle at Lepanto.
Realising the importance of this moment the Pope, Pius V, called upon all Christians to pray the Rosary for the success of this battle. The Christian forces prevailed, Europe was saved for the Christian Faith and the Moslems were pushed back to Africa.
To commemorate this day Our Lady of Victories will participate in a variety of activities- Friday, 13th October:
9:00am Whole school mass
10:45 am Morning Tea
11:15am Tabloids
12:45pm BBQ Lunch (ordered through QKR)
The sacrament of Confirmation
On Wednesday August 23, we were blessed to have the new Bishop of the Maitland Newcastle Diocese, Bishop Michael Kennedy, confirm 34 Candidates from the Wallsend-Shortland Parish, with fifteen students from Our Lady of Victories. The celebration took place at Our Lady of Victories Church in Shortland. It was lovely to see a full and packed Church come to support this important part of each candidate’s faith journey. The Bishop gave an informative sermon which inspired the young people to confidently confirm their baptismal promises, and understand that the Lord was further sealing them with his Holy Spirit, as a special sign of belonging to the family of God.
It was wonderful to see the two principals present the students to the Bishop, and the attendance of many teachers from the parish schools, showing their ongoing support. Special thanks to the music ministry, who made the service memorable, and the parents for their continuing support.
The children look forward to making their First Holy Communion in November, as the final step in the initiation process of their sacramental journey.
Tinah DeLuca-Tohi: Sacramental Coordinator Wallsend- Shortland Parish
PARISH NEWSLETTER.
Each term the Parish send out a newsletter with lots of interesting reading. The latest edition is below.
Kindergarten
After Visiting Hunter Valley Zoo. Kindergarten were very keen to write about their experiences. Just a few experiences that we would like to share with you.
Year 2
In year 2 we have been introduced to the comprehension strategy “Finding the main idea”. We have learnt that most text are all based around one main idea, and they include details about that idea. We discussed three strategies that we can use the find the main idea of a text.
- Look at the title and any pictures.
- Read the first and last sentence of the text
- Look for any words that are repeated several times throughout the text.
We looked at a text called “Amazing Earthworms”. We looked at the title and the picture of the earthworm, then we read the first and last sentences and found out that the word “soil " was repeated several times throughout the text. We concluded that the main idea of the text is that Earthworms help to keep the soil healthy.
Stage 2
What role does background knowledge and vocabulary play in supporting reading comprehension?
Background Knowledge
This refers to what students already know about a topic before they begin reading about it. Background knowledge plays an important role in contextualising facts in nonfiction and subject matter in a fiction story. When students have background knowledge of a topic, they are better able to make connections and gain a deeper understanding.
Vocabulary
Students should have an age-appropriate bank of vocabulary knowledge in order to be able to make sense of text. The best way to increase vocabulary is to read books with some unfamiliar words. But when students come across too many words they can’t define, this can leave them feeling frustrated and sap their motivation. Therefore, it’s important to target important vocabulary words periodically.
Wide-scale reviews of multiple vocabulary instruction studies spanning the full school age range (K– 12) have concluded that high quality vocabulary instruction can have a significant effect on reading comprehension (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986; Wright & Cervetti, 2017).
Years 3 and 4 have studied several picture books in shared reading, related to our persuasive writing focus this term. Each week, we have an explicit focus on building students’ background knowledge and ensure a rich and direct exposure to the vocabulary in each text occurs. This is achieved by unpacking the theme of each book which has included watching BTN episodes or YouTube clips related to the theme of the text i.e., learning about Iguanas when reading ‘I wanna Iguana’, which in turn has built their background knowledge.
We also purposefully select vocabulary from the text and dissect each word according to their meaning, provide visual aids of each word, examine non-examples, generate antonyms and synonyms and act out the words.
Both areas of reading instruction ensure we are building the bridge to reading comprehension!
Below are some of the texts we have been reading to assist students in their learning about persuasive writing while also building their background knowledge on Iguanas, cows and Koala Bears and unpacking words such as strike, impatient, polar regions, furious and neutral to name a few!
Stage 3
In Stage 3, we are learning about the Main Idea comprehension strategy. We can use this strategy to learn what the paragraph or text is mostly about.
Stage 3 have adopted this strategy in different areas of their learning, especially when reading informative texts about adaptations and biomes. Year 5 attempted this strategy when engaging with their class novel Song for a Whale.
Stage 3 have also lucky enough to spend some time learning how to create their own biomes using Minecraft Education. We are working towards replicating real life biomes by including plants and animals found in the program.
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.
SOCCER GALA DAY
We had a great day yesterday having a fun day of soccer with other children in our Region. All the children I spoke to about it had a lot of fun, exercise and socialising. They showed exception skills, sporting etiquetee and manners during the day.
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Florence C |
| Year 1 | Amelia I, Afia A, Leo K, Nikita P |
| Year 2 | Fetui T |
| Year 3 | Erleen S, Levi A, Brian K, Chase S |
| Year 4 | |
| Year 5 | Tobias I, Maddison H, Joseph B |
| Year 6 |
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: