15 November 2018

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

Principal’s Message

We had a day this week which was a great example of a community working together to provide a service for newcomers to our community. On Tuesday, we welcomed our 2019 Kinders to the school and it was wonderful to see everyone making the day special for the new families and the established ones. We had parents coordinating and supporting the morning tea, teachers supervising extra children, preparing the sacred space and presenting their class. We had children showing great care and respect to the younger ones and we had enthusiastic entertainers. These few things (and I am sure there were more) show how we as a community work together to produce great things. Thanks everyone for a very successful Orientation Day.

Regional public speaking

We had seven children participating in the Regional Public Speaking Competition. Well done to Lily W – K, April W & Isla W in Stage 1, Xavier N & Olivia K in Stage 2 and Jocelyn B & Joseph A in Stage 3. They competed against five other schools in the North Region at Corpus Christi. All performed admirably, spoke clearly, and presented their ideas well. Congratulations to them all for representing the school so well.

OUT OF UNIFORM

We are having two OOU Days this term. OOU? Out Of Uniform. On Wednesday 28 November, children can come to school dressed in their fanciest Christmas attire. For the right to do so, we ask that each child brings something to add to our hampers for the Christmas Raffle. Each class will bring something different as follows:

Kinder: Puddings/tarts etc, Year 1: Drinks, Year 2/3: Chips/crackers Year 4: Shortbread/biscuits, Year 5: Savoury snacks/nuts, Year 6: Bonbons/lollies/chocolates

The second OOU will be on Friday, 7 December. We are encouraging children to wear a Christmas T-shirt on the day to launch the Vinnies Christmas Appeal. There will be BBQ lunch available on the day. More details in our next bulletin.

NEW STAFF

We will be welcoming 3 new staff members to our school community from 2019. Penny McGann has been appointed AP (replacing Bernard Hammond), Patricia Dunn as REC (replacing Ellen Morris) and Leanne Fry as Senior School Officer (replacing Nicole Parfrey – effective immediately). All were highly commended by the selection panels and will fit in very well to the OLV community.

Family Discount Form

A form was sent home for parents to complete in preparations for 2019 school fees. This is an important form that we then use to calculate the fees in the following year. It is vital that all parents complete this form and indicate if we need to apply family discount (including sibling across both primary and high schools within the Catholic system), Health Care card discount and the optional contribution to the Diocesan Pastoral Care program. The Diocesan Pastoral Care program contribute to the ongoing wellbeing of those most in need within our diocese.

PUPIL FREE DAYS

There will be two Pupil Free Days this term. Friday 30 November and Monday 3 December are set down for the teachers’ Retreat and a Professional Development day. Please note the school will closed on these days.

REC News

Plenary 2020

What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?

This is the question we are being asked by the Bishops of Australia. Together, we are on a journey of listening to God by listening to one another. All Australians are invited to engage in an open and inclusive process of listening, dialogue and discernment about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia. Your voice is needed – join in! Speak boldly and with passion, listen with an open and humble heart. With faith and guided by God’s Holy Spirit, we journey together, toward the future. As a way of clearing our minds and preparing ourselves to listen and share, we are asked to prayer the following prayer:

Plenary Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost. Come,
Holy Spirit of the great South Land. O God,
Bless and unite all your people in Australia
And guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another and to recognise Jesus,
our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories
and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age. Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us. St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.

Absences

SMS / Email notification of Absence

As part of Our Lady of Victories’ commitment to student safety and welfare, our school has begun notifying parents of their child’s unexplained absence via SMS message & email.

This service provides an SMS / email notification to parents of children who are marked absent from school without explanation once the roll has been checked in the morning.

Where possible, it would be appreciated if parents can notify the school at their earliest convenience regarding a child’s absence.

If a child is going to be absent for the day or is intending to arrive late (e.g. medical appointments etc.), then parents are asked to use the COMPASS APP or call the office to notify the school before 9:30am on the day rather than sending a note afterward.

It is hoped that by providing this service and in partnership with families we can continue to ensure all possible mechanisms are in place to maintain the safety of our students.

FEES – School, Dancing & Swimming

We have sent out invoices to all parents Tuition, Dancing and Swimming with what we can determine as outstanding amounts. If you are certain that you have paid the fees please jot me a note to explain, if not, then please forward your payment. Apologise to all those that might have been caught up in this misunderstanding.

Compass App

We are coming to the end of the term and we will soon be posting the Term 4 Children Reports on COMPASS. To access the reports you will either need the APP or access COMPASS through the webpage at:

Using the Attendance Notifications through COMPASS will be the preferred method of informing the school that your child is away. By sending it through COMPASS, it is immediately synced to the class roll.

Schoolzine App

Go to this link to download the Schoolzine App:

You will be able the school newsletter there and notifications will come through Schoolzine similar to SkoolBag.

Skoolbag Has Stopped

We are no longer using Skoolbag a means of communication. Parents are asked to delete this App from their Smartphones and refrain from using it.

Book Club

The last Book Club for the year has gone home this week. Please mark order forms clearly with your child’s name and items to be purchased. Please place order forms and money in an envelope and put in classroom note bags. All orders need to be returned to school or placed on-line no later than Monday 26th November, 2018.

P&F News

P&F ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The AGM will be in FEBRUARY 2019. Please give some thought to nominating for a role with the P&F next year. The AGM will be held in March and all executive positions must be vacated. The current position holders cannot be re-elected to those positions under the constitution, which states you may only be elected to that position for two consecutive years. So please, to keep the association running next year come along to the meeting and put your hand up for a role. Position descriptions were sent home yesterday.

McDONALD’S FUNDRAISER

McDonalds Fundraiser - notes were sent home this week inviting families to be part of the McDonalds Fundraiser being held on Tuesday 27 November from 6-7pm at Wallsend. We need a minimum of 30 people to attend from OLV to receive a portion of the profits for that hour, so please come along. Pass on the info to your family and friends and let’s swamp Maccas on this night.

CHRISTMAS HAMPER RAFFLE & OUT OF UNIFORM

Christmas Hamper Raffle and out of uniform day - the Christmas out of uniform day will be held on Wednesday 28th November and we are inviting all the children to dress up in their best Christmas costumes, hats and/or t-shirts. Instead of a gold coin donation, we ask that families contribute items for our popular Christmas Hamper Raffle which is drawn at the end of year Christmas Concert (Raffle tickets will come home next week).

We ask that each class send in different items for the raffle as follows:

Kinder: Puddings/tarts etc., Year 1: Drinks, Year 2/3: Chips/crackers, Year 4: Shortbread/biscuits, Year 5: Savoury snacks/nuts, Year 6: Bonbons/lollies/chocolates

NEXT MEETING – DATE CHANGED

Our Association’s next meeting date has changed and is now scheduled for Monday 19 November at 7pm in the school library. Come along and join in the discussions and decision making of the association.

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF DATE FOR THIS MEETING

Pastoral Care News

OLV students have been doing a terrific job of weeding, watering and planting. Our children enjoy watching their plants grow and tasting the fruits of their labour. Cleaning up the garden area under the trees is on my agenda. Hopefully, we can get a little help with the trimming of trees prior to the holidays.

Quote for the week: "A few nice words can help a person more than you think."

Author unknown.

Be kind to yourself and Take Care.

Take Care and God Bless
Karen Johnson (PCW)

Class News

Kinder

Kinders were buzzing with excitement on Tuesday as they welcomed the new Kinders for 2019 with a magnificent performance of ‘The Three Pigs Song’, sung and played on percussion instruments. This was followed by an energetic rendition of the “Chicken Dance”. They then invited the new Kinders to be their partner for the Chicken Dance. They were exceptional and made their teacher very proud. They also enjoyed spending time in the Year Six classroom with their buddies and Mrs. Francis while Year Five accompanied the new Kinders to the Kindergarten classroom to participate in a number of play activities. In Maths we are learning how to problem solve using addition and subtraction strategies. In Religion, we viewed a video clip of ‘The Good Shepherd’ and ‘The lost Sheep’. We learnt that Jesus cares for us and protects us like the Shepherd who cared for his sheep. We also learnt about “Joseph” who had a coat of many colours and got to create a multi coloured coat for Joseph out of coloured paper squares. We love our Literacy groups each morning as we have a turn on the computers, get to work in the Office to improve our writing skills with Mrs Bradley, play with and write about our Farm and use a colour coded sentence maker to write sentences using Adverbial phrases. In Visual Arts, we are focusing on the artist “Alexander Calder”. He is the most famous kinetic sculptor in the world. We created an easy Alexander Calder inspired sculpture and cannot wait to take them home.

Year 1

Last week, Year 1 read the story ‘don’t let the pigeon drive the bus’ by Mo Willems. Everyone wrote a letter to the bus driver pretending they were the pigeon and gave strong reasons why they shouldn’t be allowed to drive the bus! This week we have read the story ‘click, clack, moo, cows that type’ by Doreen Cronin. In this story, the cows typed out a letter to the farmer asking for electric blankets to keep warm in the barn, however their letter was just not persuasive enough! Year 1 worked together to edit the letter and replace the weak language with strong words to make it more persuasive.

In Maths, we looked at equivalent number sentences, such as, 3+4=5+2. In some questions a number was missing and Year 1 had to work it out. We have also been measuring length using informal units. Straight objects are easy to measure but we found ways to measure unusual lengths liked curved string. This week we have been learning about chance language such as ‘will’, ‘might’ and ‘won’t’. Year 1 have also been creating some picture graphs to display data that we collect as a class.

In Religion, we have discussed the ‘rules’ God delivered to Moses on the mountain, ‘The Ten Commandments’. Year 1 have sorted the Commandments into two groups: commandments about loving God and commandments about loving others. We have illustrated how we follow one of the commandments.

In Science and Geography, we have talked about one of our local spaces ‘Northcott Park’. Year 1 came up with the different ways we use the park; to play, to have picnics and celebrate birthdays. Everyone labelled their drawings of an improved version of the park showing ways we could use this space more often and in all weather conditions. A shelter over the equipment would allow us to use it in the rain. More tables would allow more people to have space to picnic or lunch together. A bubbler could be useful after running around in the park.

We have been enjoying the warmer weather and taking our fruit break outside to listen to weekly news!

Thank you to everyone who has kindly, donated some cardboard boxes to our class for our Art projects! We have enough boxes now and are very excited to put it together!

Year 1 will be presenting the Monday morning School Liturgy on the 19th of November at 9am in the hall. Children, who have readings, have taken them home to practise this week. We hope you can join us!

Year 2/3

In English, year 2/3 is focusing on the book Circle by Jeannie Baker. It nicely links to our Geography content about Australia’s neighbours as well as offering a great opportunity to study a quality narrative which depicts the migratory flight of the bar tailed godwit and explores many related themes in a visually interesting manner. The students have written a diary entry from the perspective of a key character in the text as well as studying the vocabulary and repetition used by the author. We are also studying Jeannie Baker’s use of collage in the text during visual arts. In maths, we have been completing our number strand including patterns and algebra and fractions. Year 2 students are knowledgeable about different ways to depict fractions, while year 3 students are aware of mixed numerals and comparing fractions. In geography, we have travelled to Indonesia and learnt about the climate, population, location and other interesting facts including the high number of volcanoes in this country. We are now considering New Zealand and some key facts about one of our nearest neighbours. In science, we made a model to represent the process of how night and day occurs. Finally, in religion, we noted how Jesus lived out the beatitudes in His life, while in health, we are learning about conflict as it relates to our friendships.

Year 4

In Religion, we have continued to learn about 'Liturgy' and its importance to our Catholic life. Liturgy is a community celebration where we give thanks to God and remember Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Liturgy involves ritual and has specific symbols and gestures that we use that help us feel very much part of the celebration. In Maths, we have been using 'displacement' to find the 'volume' of various objects. In English, we are learning more about the structure of compound/complex sentences. We are hearing words like - main clause, subordinate clause, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and subject and predicate. These are helping us be more creative in our work. In Visual Arts, we are looking at works by Nick Gustafson - an American artist who uses bright colours to paint rainforests and animals. We are currently working on a piece featuring frogs. In Geography, we are enjoying learning about the Great Barrier Reef. This week we have worked in pairs to find out about the traditional owners of the Reef - how they use it and protect it and its significance to their culture.

Year 5

After waiting for what seemed like FOREVER, most of Year 5 finally met their Kinder buddies for 2019. There was such a sense of excitement among Year 5 as they waited to finally meet these little people. There were some nerves at first, by both big and little buddies, but over the course of the morning, relationships were formed that will last a very long time. After the experience, Year 5 reflected on their morning as a very positive experience. It was so good to see the students care for, console and lead their little buddies through the many activities that had been set up for them. Introducing themselves to their little buddy’s mum/dad was a very mature step that some took the opportunity to make.

In RE, we have been looking at the process of SEE, JUDGE, ACT as a way of looking at social justice issues like a person being left out of a game, someone parking in a disabled zone or a new non-English speaking family arriving at school. The students have shown their level of care and compassion in their responses to these activities.

In Maths, we have been focussing on the strategy of working backwards in our problem solving. They are becoming more and more confident with this and the other strategies we have learnt over the last term and a half. Problems are not so much of a problem, when you have the tools to assist! We have also been working on chance/probability and are now tackling more patterns and algebra content.

In English, we created a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories we have been working. We are now returning to “Hitler’s Daughter’ to complete the story and the associated activities.

In Science, we presented our reports on the Industrial revolution, watched YouTube clips on the birth of the assembly line for the Model T Ford and compared it with an assembly line in a modern Ford factory. We also watched a clip from ‘I Love Lucy’ to show what can happen, when an assembly line goes wrong! Very funny!

Looking ahead, next Thursday we will travel by bus to Raymond Terrace to participate in a leadership day, run by the CSO. This will precede the students thinking about leadership positions for 2019, the speeches for which will happen soon after. I will speak to the students about all of this when it is time to do so.

Year 6

In Religion, we have been discussing how we can have an impact on God’s Creation for the better. Through discussion and activities, we have concluded that it is up to each one of us to play a part in sustaining nature and the environment through our actions. In English, we began reading our novel, New Guinea Moon by Kate Constable, and spent some time discussing the character’s first impressions on arriving in PNG for the first time. We are gaining a deeper insight into Australia’s history with PNG through the events of this novel. This week in Maths, we are working on order of operations and we are increasing our abilities to solve problems effectively with the mnemonic, BIMDAS. Ask us and we will explain! We are gaining a good understanding after lots of practice. In Geography, we worked in small groups to create a flow chart to represent the connections between Australia and Papua New Guinea. We looked particularly at trade, through imports and exports.

In Personal Development, with Mrs Francis, our topic has been Fit for Life and we have been designing physical activity programs for each other and participating in some fun fitness activities. We have also surveyed each other on our general physical activity and discovered what body systems benefit from physical activity, exercise and fitness. In Science, our topic is Earthquake Explorers and we have been looking at the models that scientists use to describe the layers and composition of our earth. We are investigating earthquakes and how and why they occur. This week we have been experimenting with the phenomenon of liquefaction and how and why tectonic plates respond to movement below the crust.

SPORTS NEWS

Term 4 Swimming

Our annual swimming Carnival is to be held on Thursday 29 November at the Lambton Swim Centre. Yesterday you should have received a nomination form for the carnival. There are events for strong swimmers (50m) and not so strong (25m). we also have a noodle race for the non-swimmers and infants. There will also be novelty events for the Infant children in the small pool. Children cannot enter both 50m and 25m events. Only 50m events are considered for championship points. All nominations need to be returned by Wednesday 21/11/18.

Class Awards

Class awards for Week 10 last term.