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YEAR 6 CAMP
Our Year Class will be testing their courage and cooperative planning skills at the Year 6 Camp next week. There will be some very tired bodies when they return. We wish them well with their adventure and look forward to hearing some wonderful stories. We wish them a safe adventure.
REGIONAL DEBATING
Four of our students, Gemma, Harrison, Ojo and Thomas, represented the school at the Regional Debating Competition held at Corpus Christi, Waratah. Their topic was “All children should learn a musical instrument”. The team presented a very strong positive argument but were pipped by a very well drilled team from St Peter’s Stockton. Well done to the whole team who represented us with great enthusiasm and good spirits. We are very proud of you all.KINDER ORIENTATIONS
We had a great rollup last week and our Year 5 buddies did a wonderful job welcoming them and getting them settled in for the morning. Our second day will be on Wednesday, 8 November. The children will again spend some time with Mrs Dunn and their biddies followed by lunch. The parents will be listening to our guest speaker who will explain the philosophy around the Successful Foundations program we run at the start of the Kinder year. Any other parents who might like to sit in on this talk are welcome to join us at 9:30am.END OF YEAR CONCERT
In CAPA classes the children are preparing for our end of year concert. This will be held on Monday 11 December from 5pm. It will incorporate some great singing from the children. We will also be holding a BBQ supper and some activities for the children. If we wish hard enough, we might get a visit from someone special.
PARENT ENGAGEMENT GROUP
Apologies for not getting to the parent meeting last Monday. I look forward to meeting up with interested parents next week, Monday 30 October at 7:00pm. We will be discussing the future direction of the Association and look at planning activities for 2024. We would also like to discuss moving forward for the Canteen, Fundraising, Christmas Concert, financial management. Please come along and bring any questions or suggestions or feel free to send them into school prior.
SWIMMING CARNIVAL
We are looking forward to conducting our annual swimming carnival on Friday, 1 December. It is a day for all children of all abilities. This will be a great opportunity to put into practice the skills and strengths they are developing during their weekly lessons. Stay tuned for more information and nomination forms for the events. The carnival will be held at the Mayfield Pool.
SCHOOL CAPTAINS
We are inviting the children in Year 5 to present themselves to the student body to be their representatives as School Captains. All our Year 6 children are all seen as school student leaders and are recognised by giving them leadership opportunities throughout the year. We will also be looking for students who are willing to put themselves into representative moments and advocate for their peers.
We are asking our Year 5 students to begin preparing short speeches that illustrate to the community how they would make excellent representative of the school and their peers. From Week 7 we will listen to how they will serve the school community and shortly after have a vote for our captains for 2024.
EGGS FOR SALE
We have 3 dozen fresh free-range eggs for sale that our little ladies have provided. $5 will secure a dozen for you.
Schooltv
This week on schooltv in the special reports section you will find and article written by Dr Michael Carr-Gregg called War and Conflict which comments on how children can react to information they hear or see on social media and news feeds.
"When children encounter traumatic events, their brain processes these emotions, storing them as powerful memories. It's natural for them to be curious, concerned, or even scared. Their world view is still forming, and these events can be overwhelming and difficult for them to process." by Dr Micheal Carr- Gregg.
There is a short article to read or a video that you could watch to be able to listen to Dr Michaels ideas and thoughts on this topic. At the end there is a poll which is anonymous and is only reported on an aggregated basis. Please follow the link to be able to access this article.
Home Page SchoolTV | Our Lady of Victories Primary School - Shortland
PAT Testing
Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are a series of standardized assessments designed specifically to provide objective, norm-referenced analysis of students' skills and understandings of key subjects to their teachers, usually through planned instruction.
During the first 4 weeks of this term Years 2-6 are participating in PAT testing in the areas of Reading, Mathematics and Vocabulary Skills. The teachers will be able to analyze this data to help your children through their learning journey and how they can further support all the children within their class.
Patty Dunn
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.
Kindergarten
During the last few weeks Kindergarten have worked on the book The Potato People by Pamela Allen. We focused on the vocabulary words- gradually, drooped and exclaimed. The children had a homework task which was to make a potato person then send in a photo. During Talking and Listening the children explained to the rest of the class how they made their potato person. I was very impressed with the potato people made by all students and their explanations. Have a look through out PowerPoint.
Children’s Week
Children’s Week is a national celebration of children’s rights, talents and citizenship. The Theme of 2023 is based on the United Nations Convention of Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Article 31: Children have the right to relax, play and to join in the wide range of leisure activities.
There were over 400 submissions in a range of mediums from painting through to poems. Oriana from Kindergarten draw the below picture and it has been published in the Children’s Week Art book https://issuu.com/diomn/docs/0003470_cso_cw_digital_book_01_150_dpifinalweb
Congratulations Oriana you are a very talented drawer.
Year 1
In Year 1 we have been learning about contractions. Contractions shorten two words into one. We have been practicing changing two words into one and using an apostrophe to show that letters are missing. Check out how we changed two words into one!
In writing we have been learning how to expand simple sentences with adverbs to make them more interesting. Adverbs describe how a an action is being done. Have a look at our interesting sentences with adverbs!
Year 2
In year 2 we have been working hard on our reading fluency and comprehension. We are working on decoding words accurately, without making any mistakes. This will help us with our comprehension and understanding of the texts that we read.
We have also been working on 'summarising' as a comprehension strategy to add to our toolbox. We have learnt that we should only use the important facts or information from a text to summarise it. Here are some of our summaries from the text, "A trip to the zoo"
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 3 News – Learning About Science is Out of This World!
In our Science and Technology unit, Stage 3 have begun to consider Earth as a component within a solar system. We are also learning how to use models for investigating systems - astronomical scales. So far this term, we have:
*Cruised the solar system to learn more about the features of our planets and other space objects
Fun fact: Our solar system is made up of a star (the Sun) and all of the objects that travel around it. The objects include planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. Scientists know that most stars can host their own planets, so we know there are likely to be billions of other solar systems in the Milky Way Galaxy.
*Learnt how to order the planets by creating our own mnemonics. Have you heard of this one?
Year 5 will be attending the Questacon Space Exhibition at the Newcastle Museum on Friday 17th November. Year 5 families, I encourage you to read messages from me on Compass for more information on this excursion. I am in need of 3 kind parents who are willing to assist with carpooling children.
Thank you for your support. -Miss Slattery ?
*More information about the exhibit:
Australia in Space brings an exploration of Australia’s contemporary excellence in space to a national audience.This travelling exhibition allows visitors to discover how space pushes the limits of ingenuity and technology, and how space is changing the ways we live and work.Visitors will use innovative hands-on exhibits to discover Australia’s inspiring contributions to the space sector, and the surprising ways space technologies are used in everyday life.This travelling exhibition includes 24 experiences installed in a 450 m2 gallery. The exhibition is divided into 3 modules, each exploring a different realm of space operations:
- Lift Off: Explore how Australia is getting to space, and what we are doing there.
- In Orbit: Discover the challenges of operating in orbit, and Australian innovations that take advantage of the opportunities it presents.
- Earth & Beyond: Learn how Australia’s location and expertise gives us a unique advantage in space operations, benefiting both deep space exploration and our lives here on Earth.
SWIMMING CARNIVAL
We are looking forward to conducting our annual swimming carnival on Friday, 1 December. It is a day for all children of all abilities. This will be a great opportunity to put into practice the skills and strengths they are developing during their weekly lessons. Stay tuned for more information and nomination forms for the events. The carnival will be held at the Mayfield Pool.
AWESOME EFFORT
Congratulations to Gemma M on her 7th placing at the State PSSA Athletics Carnival on Wednesday. We have watched her journey from our school carnival to regional and diocesan representation, then as a Polding rep competing in the State carnival. An awesom effort!!
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Jesa S, Evie C, Hayden M |
| Year 1 | Theodore |
| Year 2 | Matilda B |
| Year 3 | Amerti S |
| Year 4 | Kasey S |
| Year 5 | Blake B, Ashton F, Heath F |
| 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: