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CHRISTMAS PARTY & CONCERT
We are looking forward to our end of year celebration on Monday week 10 (11 December). The festivities begin around 4:30pm with some great activities organised by the parents. There will be a Jumping Castle, Face Painting, Tattoos, Cookie Making and much more. There will be a sausage sizzle and hot food available for dinner. Please log onto the QKR app to order something for dinner.Around 6:30pm the children will be ready to entertain everyone with some songs in the hall that they have been preparing in their music classes. This will be followed by a visit from our friend from the north pole around 7:30pm.
It should be a great afternoon and evening for all the family to enjoy.
YEAR SIX GRADUATION
Year 6 are gearing up for their special day on Wednesday 13 December. The day will commence with a whole school mass to which all families and friends are invited. Mass begins at 9:30am. Each class will play a role in the mass. Following Mass the Year 6 and their invited guests will share a hot luncheon in the hall.FINAL ASSEMBLY
On Friday of Wek 10, the school will hear from Year 6 as to how they have perceived their time at OLV at their final assembly at 11:30am. This is always a very moving time for these children and all are invited to share their insights in the hall. We will also be announcing the school Captains for 2024 at this assembly. From 2:30pm we will have our "clap out" to send them on their way.
HAMPER RAFFLE
We will be calling for donations for the Hamper Raffle with a Out of Uniform day on Monday 4 December. The children are invited to come dressed in their happiest festive gear. The cost will be a donation for the Christmas Hamper Raffle. Each class is asked to focus their donations on the following:
KINDER: Bon Bons, Lollies or Chocolates
YEAR 1: Drinks, Christmas Gift Bags/Bag Carriers
YEAR 2: Chips or Crackers
YEAR 3: Shortbread or Biscuits
YEAR 4: Shortbread or Biscuits
YEAR 5: Savory Snacks or Nuts
YEAR 6: Jams and Honey
Raffle tickets to sell to your family and friends will go out on Monday next week. The Raffle will be drawn at the Christmas Party & Concert on Monday 11 December.
CAPTAINS’ SPEECHES
We will be hearing from the Year 5 children next week as they put their cases forward to convince us why they would make good school leaders next year. They will be presenting their cases to the school each morning next week from Tuesday to Friday from 9-9:30am. Everyone is invited to come along and hear their stories.
The Roster for the week is:
END OF YEAR REPORTS
Your child's Semester 2 reports are being prepared by the teachers and will be released from 4pm on Friday 8 December. Please ensure your COMPASS access is working so that you can read the reports. If parents would like to discuss their child's progress, please contact them to arrange a convenient interview time.
PARISH CHRISTMAS CAROLS
We have been invited to present an item at the Parish Christmas Carols on Saturday evening, 2 December. If there are any children that would like to be in a small school nativity/choir and present a song please let me know on Monday. We will work with the children during the week to prepare them for a spot in the concert. We are looking for 8-10 children.
The children would be required on Saturday evening from 6:30pm to 7:30. There will be a BBQ dinner avaiable prior to the concert. All are welcome to attend.
BISHOP'S VISIT
On Friday 8 December, we will be hosting a visit form our new Bishop. Bishop Michael be mixing with the children and staff during the morning.
FIRST COMMUNION
On November 26 at 10:30am at Our Lady of Victories Church, several children will be finalising their faith initiation when they receive the Eucharist for the first time. It is a very special moment for these children and their families. We look forward to sharing the Eucharist fully at our school masses throughout their time at OLV in future. We wish the children all God's blessings and congratulations. All families are welcome to join us on this special day.
Congratulations to: Natalia, Aliera, Lily, Audrey, Grace, Sophia, Grace, Thea, Ariana, Billy, Eli, Toma, Jennifer, Emmesen, Benjamin & William.
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.
Year 1
Over the last two weeks in Year 1 we have been learning some new digraphs and trigraphs. We have learnt the spell the sound /j/ using -ge and -dge. We know that we use -dge when the /j/ sound comes straight after a short vowel sound. We have also learnt a new trigraph to make the /ch/ sound. We can use -tch and we know that we will only see -tch at the end of a word.
Year 2
In year 2 this term for Science we have been learning about the Earth’s Resources. The children have been working together to design and build a house that takes care of the Earth’s Resources. They have included solar panels, clothes lines, water tanks, compost gardens etc. They have had so much fun, learnt A LOT and done an excellent job!
Stage 2
This term in Geography lessons, Stage 2 have been learning about 'Australia and it's neighbours'. With a particular focus on New Zealand, Fiji, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. The students have been researching the similarities and differences these countries have with Australia. As part of this terms research, over the past 2 weeks students have been creating their own travel brochures to provide information on their chosen country to potential tourists. They are highlighting the best places to live in their country, what the weather is like, and what sites there are to see! The kids have been enjoying discovering the many wonders our neighbouring countries possess!
Stage 3 News
Little Brother
Stage 3 have been following Vithy and Mang’s adventures set in Cambodia in our Term 4 novel, Little Brother. Each week, we are adding new Wow Words from the text to our Literacy Wall. We then implement these words in our reading, writing and speaking and listening tasks. To summarise our weekly reading goals, we are creating character profiles and 10-word summaries to assist us in gaining a deeper understanding of what is occurring in the text.
Year 5 Australia in Space Questacon Exhibit
On Friday 17th November, Year 5 attended the Newcastle Museum for a morning of curiosity, discovery, hands-on fun and deep learning. The Australia in Space Questacon Exhibit links perfectly with our current Science unit Earth’s Place in Space, providing Year 5 with connections to their learning and to develop new understandings of all things space! Highlights of the day included the floating experiment, trying on an astronaut’s space suit and experimenting with machines and lazers.
Many thanks to Mr. Watmore, Mrs. Gallacher, Mrs. Pickford, Mrs. Fitz-Gibbon and Mrs. Hughes for assisting with transport and supervision on the day – Year 5 had a blast!
| Kinder |
Henry B - for an enormous improvement on learning his sight words. Elizabeth K - for being able to compare the area of two objects. Maria T - for knowing all sounds taught this year. Gianna D - for being able to read our fluency passages with ease. Evie C - for being able to compare length using the words longer and shorter. Kai P - for being able to compare the area of two objects. |
| Year 1 |
Harry W- for remining focused on your tasks and putting effort into everything you do! Cooper G- for explaining the strategies you use to solve equations in a very detailed way! Josie B- for your exceptional sentences and story writing! Nikita P- for always trying your hardest and making great progress in Literacy! |
| Year 2 |
Eleanor T – working hard to do her best in all learning areas. Lucy C – her enthusiastic attitude towards class tasks. Tomi O – her persistence to improve her reading fluency and accuracy. Thomas O – his outstanding knowledge and application of phonics skills. |
| Year 3 |
Elsa S: for her positive and enthusiastic approach to Maths activities. Chase S: for his excellent listening skills and thoughtful contributions to class discussion. Grace B: for her high level of interest and participation in a Science experiment. |
| Year 4 |
Kasey S – for her amazing research skills when completing information tasks. Well done! Grace G – for her consistent involvement in classroom discussions and for her wonderful bookwork. Keep it up! |
| Year 5 |
Leisha K - for being a kind, friendly and respectful member of Year 5! Blake B - for his willingness to try another prove it strategy in Maths tasks. Michelle A - for her improved confidence in contributing to class discussions and for her willingness to try her best! Clayton S - for assisting his Kinder Buddy with a positive and smooth transition into big school. |
| Year 6 |
Max G – for his application during mathematics lessons. Mark M – for impressive note taking during Geography lessons. Furahisha S – for taking great pride in her presentation of her home learning tasks. Lochlain H – for showing great enthusiasm and determination in his swimming lesson this week. |
| V & M Awards |
Kindergarten: Kane for being a kind and caring friend to his peers. Year 1: Lorcan H- for playing beautifully with other and including them in your games! Year 2: Chris H for being kind and inclusive. Year 3: Natalia W for being a friendly supportive class member. Year 4: Isabella T for always being a kind and positive influence in the classroom. Year 5: Maddie H for never seeing a need without doing something about it. Year 6: Meti S for always being a caring, supportive member of Stage 3. |
| Leaders Awards |
Shammah N - for being a good sport on the field. Margreit K - being a good friend. |
| Newcastle Permanent Maths Competition |
Congratulations to students in Year 5 and Year 6 for your participation and efforts in this activity! |
| Lexia Awards |
Oriana H Level 5 Nikita P Level 5 Michelle Abraham Level 12 |
SWIMMING CARNIVAL
Our carnival date draws closer. It is important to return the nomination forms by Monday next week.
We are looking for some volunteers to help with Timekeeping or as a Starter for the day. If you have some time on Friday 1 December, please let us know. So far, we have two volunteers – we will need about 8, if possible. It’s a great way to get close to the action to cheer on the children.
The format of the carnival will go something like this (though times may vary slightly).
Carnival Start and Welcome: 9:45am
100m Freestyle: 9:50am 25m freestyle Infants (optional): 10:00am
Primary 25m & 50mFreestyle: 10:15 Infants Noodle Race: 10:45
Short Lunch Break: 11:00am
Infant Novelty Events in wading pool: 11:15am: -12:15pm
Infants return to school: 12:45pm
Primary Form Strokes – 25m and 50m: 11:30 – 1:30pm
Once we have all the nominations, we will be sendng out a draft program for parents to chck if the nominations are correct.
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | |
| Year 1 | Sam C |
| Year 2 | Eleanor T |
| Year 3 | Natalia W |
| Year 4 | Isabella T, Daniel Z |
| Year 5 | Maxwell W |
| Year 6 | Indigo H |
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: