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CHRISTMAS PARTY & CONCERT
We are looking forward to our end of year celebrations next Monday. All are invited to the Christmas Party being put on by the parents’ group. Festivities commence at 4:30pm after school with some great activities. A BBQ supper will be available with lots of tasty treats. All the activities are free but there will be treats to buy over the counter during the evening.From about 6:30, the children will perform the songs they have been preparing this term. The evening will close with a visit from our Jolly Fellow around 7pm.
We are asking that the children wear something festive – T-shirt, dress, shorts, caps etc to fill the hall with Christmas cheer.
SEE YOU THERE!!
YEAR 6 GRADUATION
Our Year 6 children will be finalising their primary school education on Wednesday next week. A whole school mass will be their final swan song and all families are invited to attend. Mass begins at 9:30 in the OLV church.
FINAL LITURGY
A final send off for the Year 6 children will begin with their farewell liturgy in the hall at 11:30am on Friday morning. The children will express their feelings about moving on and reflect on their years at OLV. We look forward to hearing from them – ALL are invited to attend.
CLAP OUT
The final official event for the year will be the Year 6 clap out. We will gather at the top gate on Sandgate Rd at 2:30 to send them on their way at 2:45pm with a “tunnel” of honour. Again, all are welcome to join us.BISHOP’S VISIT
Bishop Michael visited the school today and spoke with children and staff. He presented the awards this week which was a great honour.
SCHOOL CAPTAINS
All the students voted today for who they would like to represent them for 2024. We will be announcing the leadership team at the Year 6 Final Liturgy which begins at 11:30am.It is important to remember that all our Year 6 children next year will be recognised as school leaders and will be given opportunities to lead the school in different ways.
There obviously will be some disappointed souls next week and I ask parents to discuss how disappointments can be a great learning opportunity. Today's Year 5 Leadership Retreat was a good opportunity to reflect on leadership and ways to consider serving their peers.
STAFFING 2024
We are looking forward to a great year in 2024. There will be several permanent changes in the New Year. We have been given the green light to recruit for two full time teachers to fill the vacancies we have had to fill with short term placements. Whilst the selection process is still taking place, we hope to be able to announce them before the end of next week.Sadly, Mrs Bradley will not be returning next year and her replacement on staff will be Miss Rhianon O’Bree. Ms McGann will also not be returning in 2024, and her replacement is still being sought as a teacher and new Assistant Principal. Again, recruitment for this position is being finalised and should be announced next week.
At this stage classe appointments are as follows:
Kinder: Mrs Dunn
Year 1: To be advised
Year 2: Miss O'Bree
Year 3: Miss Slattery
Year 4: Miss Payton
Year 5: To be advised
Year 6: To be advised
I understand that the “To Be Advised” classes can be frustrating at this point of time, but the replacements will be full time appointments for the whole year and will be announced in due course.
We are also in the process of securing more replacements for positions that have changed. A Pastoral Care Worker for this school to support children and families in our school community is being sought and a replacement for Mrs Johnson, who took up a position in another school earlier this year, as our ATSI worker will also be made.
We are looking forward to a far more stable staffing next year and it is important to thank everyone for their patience over the last year or so. It has been difficult and the children need to be congratulated on their resilience and how they have adapted to some of the changes.
SCHOOL REPORTS
Reports will not be released this afternoon. There has been a last minute glitch so they will become available on Monday. Please check on COMPASS that you have access and let us know if there are any problems.
Martin Chatterton Visit
Martin Chatterton visited OLV on Wednesday. He was invited to entertain the children with a special Christmas performance. He is an author and illustrator from Liverpool in England. Martin was so engaging, funny and incredible with his drawing abilities. Martin drew many funny pictures of some of our students and teachers.
Martin’s website can be found at, Martin Chatterton (worldofchatterton.com) and it is engaging and has series’ you can watch called “Bluenoses” on the website.
During our Infants performance, Martin did some Caricature pictures of Kane, Adamma, Mrs. Dunn, Christopher, Jesse, Gemma, Mr Watmore, Eli and Maddie
Kane was turned into a Bananazilla with huge feet, and delicious looking banana and his own face. Kane certainly can’t open his mouth as wide as the picture.
Mrs. Dunn had her mind read by Martin and he thought he figured out Mrs. Dunn’s secret that she does on Friday afternoons from 2.56pm. She turns into a (taller) rockstar!!!! She was very impressed with his mind-reading capabilities and told the children she would bring in her rock costume to show them one day soon.
Adamma had her mind read by Martin also. He told us all she had 27 dreams last night. Before we knew it, Adamma was turned into the alien she dreamt about. One eye, and huge ears.
Christopher turned into the rabbit from Alice in wonderland. A real tale the children were familiar with. Christopher was humoured with his new–found look.
Primary then had their turn to be entertained by Martin. There were plenty of laughs and engagement from the Primary.
Firstly, we saw Jesse from Year 4 drawn. He was turned into Frankenstein's Monster. Jesse was most intrigued when it was revealed to him what he had been turned into.
Next up, Gemma took the stage. She seemed apprehensive initially, and rightly so. Gemma is having her ‘most offensive dream’ drawn for her, after Martin read her mind. She was turned into a flying chicken –powered by ‘love’. This drawing certainly got the laughs.
Next, Mr. Watmore was chosen by the children to be made fun of by Martin. Martin set out to draw the two different sides of Mr. Watmore’s personality. First, he drew his Monday expression, followed by his ‘rest of the week’ expression. Mr Watmore was a very delicate flower.
Finally, Maddie was selected from year 5 to complete our wonderful day with Martin. She had her peculiar dream read by Martin. Maddie was transformed into a baby with wind.
Congratulations
A big Congratulations to Gianna in Kinder for becoming a big sister. Gianna's family welcomed Elina on the 3rd December, Mum and bub are doing well.
In our thoughts
Please keep in your thoughts and prayers the Butler family. Matilda's Dad has gone through a rough few months and hopefully has had the last of his surgeries. We wish him a speedy recovery.
On Monday a note titled Looking forward to 2024 was sent home with the eldest child please take the time to read this note and complete the survey and return it to school by this Friday. The information from this survey will help us to start organizing canteen for Term 1 2024 and start to think of fundraising activities for term 1.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support while I had to step into the position of Acting Assistant Principal. Next year I will return to my previous position as Religious Coordinator at OLV.
Patty Dunn
Year 6 Retreat
This week Year 6 participated in their retreat where they reflected on their primary school years. Throughout the day the students had the opportunity to look forward to their journey to high school and we discussed any concerns they had. I would like to thank Mr Watmore for assisting me with this retreat.
Year 5 Leadership Retreat
On Friday Year 5 participated in a leadership retreat where they were able to look at leaders within our society and what a leader means to them. It is a very big step being a leader and I am sure that all the students in Year 5 will take on this roll to the best of their abilities next year. I would like to thank Miss Slattery for assisting me with this retreat.
St Vincent de Paul Hampers
Tuesday the 12th December all children will be able to come to school in their favourite Christmas shirt while also bringing in non-perishable goods which could go towards creating a Christmas hamper for the people less fortunate as us within our local area. Please donate generously towards this wonderful appeal. You too can make a difference in someone’s life.
End of Year Graduation Mass
Everyone is invited to join us on Wednesday 13th at 9:15am at our local Church to celebrate our last mass for the year. At this mass Year 6 will graduate. All classes will have some participation throughout the mass. So please come along and celebrate 2023 with us. We look forward to seeing as many families as possible.Patty Dunn
Dear Stage 3 Parents and Students,
In term 3 and term 4, Stage 3 have been participating in the BECOME.ME program. It’s a fun, interactive way to teach young people the adaptive skills and curiosity they’ll need to explore, design and navigate the fast-changing world of work. BECOME.ME will be integrated with our regular curriculum.
The program isn’t designed to direct them to particular occupations but to inspire them:
- to reflect on their unique and evolving strengths, interests and aspirations.
- to broadly explore the dynamic, exciting world of work, recognising and breaking free of gender and social stereotypes.
- to come up with multiple possibilities for their future that excite them.
- to design and implement experiments that allow them to test out and adapt those ideas.
FLIPPED CAREERS EXPO: THURSDAY 14TH DECEMBER 9:30-10:30am
The Flipped Careers Expo will be a great opportunity for our Stage 3 students to share their final projects. They will share their research and creative products in response to an inquiry question that focuses on a career of their choice. Stage 3 families and other classes will be warmly invited to come along to the Flipped Careers Expo on Thursday 14th December, from 9:30am-10:30am, in the school hall. Save the date!
Kind regards,
Stage 3 Class Teachers
Our Lady of Victories Shortland.
Useful links:
You can read more about the program https://www.become.education/
Check out the data privacy policy https://www.become.me/privacy.html
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
I cannot believe that another year has passed. This year we had a very large Kindergarten class which allowed me to work side by side with Mrs Gallacher as our teacher assistant. I would like to thank Belinda for supporting me with Kinder 2023. We are so proud of the achievement of all students in Kindergarten. They have grown in their knowledge and skills and they should be proud of how far they have come. I would also like to thank you the parents who have helped your child throughout the year.
This Wednesday student portfolios came home so you could look through their work samples. Please read through these in conjunction with your child’s report which will come out Monday afternoon on Compass. Please let me know if you have any difficulties access your child’s report.
Over the last week we have worked on using "because" in sentences. Please take a look at some of our great work.
Year 1
What a fantastic year we have had in Year 1 I cannot believe we are at the end of the year it has absolutely flown by. We have grown together, learnt so many new things and most importantly we have had so much fun. It has been incredible watching them flourish and develop into the kind, caring and supportive people they are both inside the classroom and on the playground. Thank you for all your help and support at home with your child this year it has been great working as a team to assist your child. It has been an absolute privilege getting to know and teach each one of them and they are all incredible and amazing in their own unique way. I wish them all the absolute best as they venture into Year 2.
In the last couple of weeks, we have been learning about how we can create a range of equations to reach a target number. Our target number was sixteen and we had to produce a variety of equations that would be equal to 16. Check out some of the equations we came up with.
Year 2
What an amazing year it has been! I can’t believe that we are already at the end of Term 4. I am so incredibly proud of the children in Year 2. I have seen such incredible personal and academic growth in each one of them and I couldn’t be more proud of their efforts and achievements. Throughout the year, they have each set their own goals and they all achieved these with flying colours! The children have grown as a group, and I am proud of the way that they have learnt to work together as a team. They look after each other and take care of each other, both in the classroom and on the playground. It has been an absolute privilege to spend this year teaching Year 2. Thank you to the parents for your unwavering support throughout the year. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you as a part on the community that helps our little people to grow. I wish them the very best as the move into the primary years.
Stage 2
In stage 2 the students had the opportunity to write haiku and limerick poems. Their use of similes, creativity and writing skills were phenomenal.
They also learnt about independent and dependent clause while writing sentences.
In Maths the students created a 3D object using toothpicks and tiny marshmallows to demonstrate vertices, edges and faces. To finish off the time unit they made clocks to learn how to read analog time.
During our Science lesson they applied their knowledge about how forces are used to affect speed and direction of a moving object by creating a marble maze.
Stage 3
As we are quickly approaching the end of the year, Stage 3 have been working busily to complete their BECOME.ME and Dream Holiday project tasks.
For our BECOME.ME work, students have been asked to reflect on their unique and evolving strengths, interests and aspirations and broadly explore the dynamic and exciting world of work. Students are now working on coming up with multiple possibilities that excite them and designing and implement experiments that allow them to test out and adapt those ideas.
Stage 3 Families are invited to attend the Flipped Career Expo on Thursday 14th December, 9:30am, in our school hall. This will be a great chance for Stage 3 to showcase their projects and what they've discovered about the wonderful world of work!
In maths, we are reaching the finish line for our Dream Holiday project task. Where students have been asked to plan and budget their dream holiday. Some of the work that has been completed so far looks fantastic, with some people opting to stay in Australia, whilst others are going abroad.It’s been a year to remember is Stage 3, we would like to thank all our students and families for the effort they have made throughout 2023. We wish you all a happy holiday season.
Miss Slattery and Mr. Watmore
| 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
We had a great day last week at the Mayfield pool at our annual swimming carnival. It was wonderful to see so many having a go - even in the 50m races by some of our infants. The relaxed atmosphere gave everyone the opportuntiy to compete at their comfort levels.
Presentation of trophies and ribbons will be presented after the Captains announcement following the final Year 6 liturgy.
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Aleki V, Ivy S, Elizabeth K, Lola C |
| Year 1 | |
| Year 2 | |
| Year 3 | |
| Year 4 | |
| Year 5 | |
| Year 6 | Summer F |
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: