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WELCOME BACK
Returning to school at the start of the new year is always an exciting time. Watching the children return with such enthusiasm and wonder is very heartening as a teacher and reminds us of why we chose the vocation we did.
After a mixed year last year, we are looking forward to a better consistency and stability for the children and staff. We look forward to the wonderful things they will be doing in their learning.
Along with our new Kinder families, we also welcome the children of Steffens, Stanford and Hocking families to our school.
MEET THE TEACHERS
We would like to encourage you to connect with your child’s teachers early in the term. We encourage all parents and carers to pop their heads into the classrooms and introduce yourselves. On Thursday 15 February from 4-6pm, families are invited to meet with their child's teachers during a whole school “Meet & Greet”. Each stage will be open at different times in the afternoon, so for those with multiple children can meet them all. There will be a sausage sizzle available for an afternoon snack or early dinner.
As an introduction to the staff, here is what they look like and their role in the school.
KINDERGARTEN: Mrs Patty Dunn - Patty is also our Religious Education Coordinator. She will be released for this role by Hannah Matheson 3 days per fortnight - Thursdays and every second Friday.
YEAR 1: Mrs Cathy Fren who comes to us as a very experienced infants’ teacher – even before her fame.
YEAR 2: Ms Rhiannon O’Bree – really looking forward to consolidating the work with her class again this year.
YEAR 3: Ms Laura Slattery – Laura is also our school Gifted Education Mentor - She will be released for this role 1 day per week by Ms Kailee Jones – every Thursday
YEAR 5: Mr Blake Watmore – Blake will also be taking on the role of Sports Coordinator.
YEAR 6: Mrs Amber Deagan – Amber is also our new Assistant Principal & Pedagogical Mentor (to be explained at a later time) – she will be released for these roles 5 days per fortnight by
Mr Mark Fren. – every Wednesday, Thursday and second Friday. Mark is also teaching CAPA to all our classes - POP ART is the focus this term.
LEARNING SUPPORT: Mrs Jennifer McCallum (Tuesdays and Fridays) &
Mrs Alissa Homer (Wednesdays and Thursdays) coordinate the support and learning for our children with special learning needs.
Mrs Samira Telford,
Mrs Belinda Gallacher
& Mrs Rachel Paul support the children and teachers in the classroom setting.
ATSI EDUCATION: Mrs Hannah Matheson has been appointed as our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Educator. She works closely with the teachers to support the ATSI children in our school and provide links to the curriculum for all the children.
LIBRARY: Mrs Margaret-Mary Spencer (Mondays and Tuesdays) supports the curriculum in the developing research and communication skills alongside the class teachers’ programs across the curriculum.
Mrs Christine Moore takes care of the administrative side of borrowing and stock control. Borrowing is on Wednesdays and Fridays.
OFFICE: Mrs Leanne Fry is the face of the school at the front office. She is your contact for fees and enrolment enquiries. Office hours are from 8:30am to 3:30pm.
Staff of 2024 - Missing Margaret-Mary Spencer, Jenny McCallum & Samira Telford
CAPTAINS’ INDUCTION
We will be inducting our new school leaders next week on Friday 9 February at 2pm. All our Year 6 will be presented with their leadership badges and be inducted as leaders of our school. Please come along to welcome them in their new roles and encourage them to be the best they can be.
KINDER ARRIVAL
We are looking forward to the arrival of our Kindergarten cohort next week. The Year 6 children are chomping at the bit to welcome their little buddies to school. The Kinder's day will be from 9:30am to 2:30pm for the first week and supervision for those that need to go to OOSH or be picked up with Siblings will be available.
AFTERNOON PICKUP
We all like to keep our children safe, so we would like to encourage some of the following considerations when we pick up our children in the afternoons.
- Parking - if you are coming into the school to pick up your child, we respectfully ask that you do not park on the school side of Lovell Pde between the church and the bottom gate. This greatly hampers the smooth flow of the Valet Pickup line. Please consider parking in the church carpark and walking down the short 50m into the school.
- Valet Pickup - please be patient and wait the 30 seconds for the car in front of you to secure their children before they move off. Be mindful of the traffic coming down the hill from the carpark. Also be mindful if you are across residents driveways and please try to secure your child as quickly as possible.
- Sandgate Rd - Please do not call your children to cross the road unescorted. Those children that do need to cross will be escorted to the lights by a teacher.
RESPECTING OUR NEIGHBOURS
We are fortunate to live in such a welcoming and open neighbourhood. Parents are asked to be respectful of the private property of our neighbours and not to venture into their yards or play in the front lawns as you make your way to cars parked in the church or surrounding streets.
BIBLE IN A DAY (2 DAYS)
The parish is hosting Dr Charbel Raish to speak to interested people about how to understand the Bible. Instead of it being only 1 day, the presentation has been broken into two parts on Saturdays 17 & 24 February in the OLV Hall. More information and free registration is at:
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,
Thanks 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.
REGIONAL SWIMMING CARNINVAL
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: