13 December 2018

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

Principals Message

The End is Nigh

We are rushing to the end of the year at a fast rate of knots. It is supposed to be a happy time when we are expectantly waiting to celebrate the wonderful birth of Jesus Christ. It can, however, be a time when we feel rushed, stressed, anxious, frustrated and tired. SO, as we draw closer to the end of the year, let’s stop a moment, draw a deep breath and regain our focus and end the year with compassion, generosity, forgiveness, happiness and Jesus Christ in our hearts.

School Reports

Your child’s school reports will be available on your COMPASS Apps from tomorrow afternoon. Please see below how you access the reports. If you would like to meet with your child’s teacher please make contact with them for a time next week.

How to access your child/ren’s semester report:

Log into your Compass Account using the USERNAME and PASSWORD. If you do not remember your USERNAME AND PASSWORD, please call the office so that we can reset it for you.

1. Click on your child’s photo – this brings up their “DASHBOARD”.
2. Click on REPORTS from the tabs across the top.
3. Select the required report from the list.

Year 6 Graduation

We are celebrating the beautiful gift of our Year 6 students, who we have enjoyed for the past 7 years, at their Graduation Mass tomorrow. The whole school will be attending and all are invited to come along and join the celebration. Mass will commence at 10:00am.

Afterwards the Year 6 children and their invited guests will be sharing a luncheon in the Hall.

Christmas Concert

The big night is Monday night. The children, teachers and the P&F have been working hard to put together a wonderful night of entertainment and social interaction. The singing of traditional and not so traditional Christmas Carols and songs will keep you entertained. It is a casual affair and we hope that everyone gets into the spirit of the night – a relaxed celebration for the end of the year.

We ask that the children be ready to assemble in the Primary classrooms at 5:45pm. Please try to keep the children relaxed and clean before they assemble. Children that are attending should dress in a festive mood indicative of the season – happy and merry. (Please no skeletons or zombie Santas).

The raffle will be drawn after the concert and a visit from a special friend is anticipated. Let’s make it a great night. Enjoy the effort the children have put in and enjoy each other’s company.

Captains’ Announcement

We had some wonderful speeches from the Year 5 children putting forward their cases for why they would make good school captains for 2019. On Monday, the school body and teachers will vote for the person who they think will be the best leaders for 2019. The captains will be announced at the end of year Assembly on Wednesday next week. This Assembly begins at 10am and the announcement will be around 10:30 - 10:45am. All parents and friends are invited to this Assembly and Yr 6 will make their final presentations to the school community.

Don’t forget our “clap out” of the Year 6 group on Wednesday afternoon next week. We will gather at around 2:30pm at the top gate to form the tunnel and send them on their way at 2:45pm. Come along and wish them well.

Classes 2019

I would like to announce the classes and teachers for 2019.

Sadly, we will be saying farewell to Mrs Paff as a full time teacher at OLV. She will be returning next year as a part time teacher, releasing Mrs Dunn and Mrs McGann in their new Executive roles

OOSH is coming

On Tuesday Ms Tracey Sweetman met with a group of parents to present the proposal for OOSH services to commence in the new school year. Tracey is the Project Manager for St Nicholas OOSH. She outlined the programs and costs that are involved and answered many questions that the parents brought along. Information and enrolment forms for interested parents are attached. The link below gives you some background to St Nicholas OOSH and its services. If you are looking for vacation Care or even casual care for the Pupil Free Days next week, we are invited to contact her to use the Glendale Holy Cross School service for this year.

With applications and inspections to happen during the holidays, it is hoped to get up and running as soon as possible after schools starts in February.

From The Office

Family Discount Form

Thank you to all the families that have returned their 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.

Receipts

All receipts are now being emailed to all fee payers. If you have a new email address could you please contact the office and advise of any changed details.

FEES – School, Dancing & Swimming

We have sent out invoices to all parents for 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. Apologies to all those that might have been caught up in this misunderstanding.

School Fees

2018 Fees are now due for payment. Please ensure payment is made ASAP. If you are making payments via BPAY or Direct Debit, it is up to you to ensure that your payments are adequate to clear your account by the end of the year. If you require an extension or wish to discuss the matter please contact Leanne in the office. All families with payment agreements should continue with them.

Voluntary Contribution

If your latest statement is showing Voluntary Contribution amounts outstanding at the bottom, then you MUST advise whether the payments you make can be allocated towards this, or whether you would like these amounts removed from your Statement.

Class Equipment

As we end the old year and get ready for the New Year, it is important to remind everyone that the Primary children need to provide their own equipment for the classroom. To start the year, each child needs the following:

2x HB pencils, red pen, ruler, sharpener, eraser, glue stick, small scissors, coloured pencils (or similar) pencil case.

Children in the Infant classes will have the basics provided for them through the school.

REC News

The Season of Advent

This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Advent. The word ‘advent’ means the arrival of a notable person or thing. The Church’s season of Advent marks the beginning of the Church’s year. The Church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration, while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s Kingdom when he returns for his people. Advent is also a time of preparation for the great feast of Christmas – which celebrates the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Mass times in our Parish this Christmas are:

Christmas Eve – Wallsend High School 5.30pm
Christmas Eve Vigil – OLV Church Shortland 6.30pm
Christmas Eve Midnight Mass – St Patricks Wallsend – 10pm
Christmas Day – OLV Church Shortland - 8.00am
Christmas Day – St Patricks Wallsend – 9.00am

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.

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

Thank you to all for your generous donations to Vinnies Christmas Appeal. It was lovely to see the children in their festive coloured t-shirts and outfits last Friday. The total raised to date is $646.00. Money in class boxes and that has been raised by Mini Vinnies lunch activities will be added on at the end of this week. Many thanks again and best wishes for a joyful Christmas and peaceful New Year.

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.

Compass App

We are coming to the end of the term and we will soon be posting the Semester 2 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 SZ app:

You will be able to access 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. We cannot send or receive any notifications via this App.

PLEASE USE THE COMPASS APP FOR ALL NOTIFICATIONS ABOUT CHILD ABSENCES.

P & F News

Christmas Raffle:

We will be drawing the Christmas Raffle on Monday night at the Concert. If you haven’t returned any sold tickets, then please bring them along on Monday so that all can be entered into the draw. Tickets will be available to buy on the night as well. Thanks to everyone who brought along all the goodies for the hampers. We have some great prizes to give away.

P&F Annual General Meeting:

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday, 25 February, 2019. All positions will be vacated. The election of office bearers will be held then. Current Executive may choose to nominate for re- election.

The success of our P&F this year has been because of the committed group of parents that want to be involved closely in the planning and discussion of various events. The outgoing P&F Executive needs to be congratulated in setting goals and seeing them through. Well done to all involved.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR FAMILIES AND SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THOSE THAT VOLUNTEERED FOR VARIOUS EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Pastoral Care News

As we near Christmas, I begin to wonder if we become too busy to take care of ourselves. Do we spend time with the people who really matter? Do we call family for a chat or show our appreciation in the way of a smile? It’s the small things that can change someone’s day for the better.

Our students have given up free time to make gifts for the residents of the Retirement Village. This act of kindness will brighten up someone’s Christmas Day. I’m proud of these students. It reflects what a great community we have.

Please leave a message at the office if you can help out with the trimming of trees one afternoon for an hour or two, or maybe one Saturday morning before the Christmas holidays. I will only run a working bee if I can get a couple of people to help out. Thanks to the people who have assisted in the past.

God bless,

Karen Johnson - Pastoral Care Worker

Library News

Library borrowing has now finished for the year. Please return all library books ASAP. Thank you.

As the year is coming to an end, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported the Library this year with the Book Parade, Book Club, donations and encouraging your child to borrow our wonderful range of books.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderfully happy and safe New Year.

Margaret Mary Spencer – Teacher Librarian
Christine Moore – Library Assistant

Class News

Kinder

Kinder have been counting down the days to Christmas. Each day we light the Advent candles, sing an Advent song and take turns reading the Advent prayer. Then we draw a student’s name out of a box to see who gets to open the window on our Advent calendar. The lucky person gets to eat a chocolate treat. In Religion Kinder watched videos of the Christmas Story and identified the characters: the most important character being baby Jesus, as we wouldn’t have Christmas without him. We have certainly learnt the real meaning of Christmas. In English, we have been sharing the story “Wombat Divine”. Australian bush animals play the role of the characters in the Nativity play. Wombat doesn’t suit any role however he ends up being baby Jesus and drops off to sleep. We learnt some new vocabulary: divine, nativity, beaming, audition and innkeeper. In Maths, we have been learning about 3D objects: cubes, spheres, cones and cylinders. We sorted them according to their properties eg. curved, round, pointy, flat. We identified objects in the environment that match these properties. We also learnt about measuring area. Area is the measure of the amount of surface. We covered the surface of objects with small blocks and counted how many. We were then able to compare the area of different objects. In Geography, we have been developing our mapping skills. We followed the “Key” on pictorial maps to locate places and features. We made our own map of an island, drew some features and buried some treasure. A big thank you to all our Reading helpers – you have been very valuable and have contributed greatly to the learning of the students in Kinder this year. Kindergarten are ready and eager to move on to Year One. They are an enthusiastic, well-behaved group and you should be very proud of their achievements this year. They will be missed by Mrs. Bradley who is very thankful to have taught them. A Happy and Blessed Christmas to all. Keep safe and enjoy your break.

Year 1

It is hard to believe just how quickly the end of the year is approaching! Year 1 have worked very hard this year and I'm sure they are all looking forward to a well deserved break!

In English, we have revised our understanding of adjectives through the text 'The Day the Crayons Quit' by Drew Daywalt. The crayons used a variety of describing words in their letters. We have also been looking at contractions in the text 'I Wanna Iguana' by Karen Kaufman Orloff.

In Maths, we have been learning about two-dimensional space. We have looked at different 2D shapes and how to identify them by their properties. Year 1 have compared regular and irregular shapes. This week we have been learning about area. Year 1 have learned how to make accurate area estimates using informal units. They have been measuring area by covering objects with blocks.

In Religion, we have been discussing what 'Advent' is about. We have looked closely at the Advent wreath and what the candles represent: hope, peace, joy and love. It is a time of waiting and preparing for the coming of Jesus.

In Science, we have been identifying the difference between light and sound. We had fun listening to different animal sounds and trying to identify what animal they belong to. We went for a walk around our school and compared the sounds we could hear from inside our room to outside around the school.

Our aquariums for Creative Art are really taking shape. Year 1 have shown great creativity sculpting different sea life using clay: jellyfish, seahorses, starfish, crabs and fish. We have created some turtles and small fish to place in our aquariums too. It's exciting to see it all finally coming together and they should be proud of their efforts!

We have had a fun visitor called Jingles keeping a watch in our room and he has created great excitement! He certainly keeps us guessing just where he might show up next!

I'd like to wish all our families a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for the New Year! Hoping you have a happy, well rested and safe Summer break. Thank you for a fantastic year and some great memories!

Year 2/3

We are on the final stretch of year 2/3 and we are working hard until the finish line. In maths, we are now working on our skills telling time to the nearest 15 minutes for year 2 and to the nearest minute for year 3. Last week we completed some chance experiments and graphed the results. In English, we read a beautiful story titled “Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle” by Glenda Millard. This is a lovely story about a family that endure bushfire at Christmas, but hope comes in the form of a new babe. There is a lovely comparison with the first Christmas story. In Science, we considered the difference between the earth spinning and orbiting and what effect this has on our planet. In religion, we compared two gospel accounts of the story of Jesus’ birth and noted the differences. Last week we completed an hour of code which assists in developing our problem solving and understanding of positional language. We can’t wait for our Christmas concert next week. I hope to see all families there.

Year 4

In Religion, we are learning about the Jesse Tree which symbolises the genealogy of Jesus. We have discussed the concept of waiting and of how the Israelites waited over 2000 years for the coming of the Messiah. We recognised the need for God’s people to have been very patient and trust God that he would keep his promise. In English, we continue to write each day to improve our written expression. This week we have focused on common and proper nouns and on adjectives to give more detail to our work and make it more interesting. We are also working on improving our handwriting skills as we prepare for writing in pen in Year 5. In Maths, we have completed some activities involving mapping and position. We are learning to measure distances between two places by identifying and using a legend on a map. Some of the distances we have measured by using a legend and a map of Australia are: Newcastle to Canberra – 400km, Alice Springs to Darwin - 1300km, Cairns to Perth – 3700km and Sydney to Launceston – 1000km. In Geography this week we have written a newspaper report on the Great Barrier Reef as a final activity in the unit.

Year 5

Wednesday morning marked the end of the leadership speeches and this morning we voted for our 2019 leaders. While this has been a somewhat stressful time for the candidates, I am very proud of them. They all wrote speeches that reflected who they are, what they have to offer and how they have already demonstrated their leadership qualities and delivered them with confidence. This was a huge step for some of the quieter students in the group, but they did, and did it well.

This week we have been making ‘patchwork quilts’ to represent the main ideas and themes in “Hitler’s Daughter” and we had a fun day designing and making a product to protect a fragile item during transit. Stay tuned for some photos.

Year 6

Only four more days of primary school! We can’t believe it! We have had a busy week as the year comes to a close. We have all written speeches about our special memories of our time at OLV and Mr V has recorded us. We spent time this week preparing for our Graduation Mass tomorrow. We are looking forward to our special day and to enjoying our Graduation Lunch together, before we go our separate ways to high school next year. It will be a wonderful memory to take with us.

We are looking forward to the Christmas Concert next Monday night and will enjoy being there for our final concert performance together.

We will be leading the final Liturgy for the year next Wednesday morning, in the Hall at 10 am, and it will incorporate a thank you for our time at OLV. It will be followed by an Awards Assembly and then the announcement of next year’s Captains.

We invite all parents and friends, to our Graduation Mass tomorrow, the Liturgy on Wednesday morning, as well as the “Year 6 Clap Out” at 2:45pm next Wednesday afternoon, to help us celebrate our final week at OLV!

Thank you to everyone in the school community for making our time here so amazing! We will miss you all!

Sport News

Swimming Champions

We had a great day at our carnival a couple of weeks ago and presented the ribbons and trophies to the swimmers last week. For those who missed it, the Champions for 2018 are:

Tennis Ace

Congratulations to Oscar H who was selected to represent the Diocese at the Polding Tennis Trials early next year. Oscar fought off a talented field and finished second in his division. Great effort Oscar and best of luck next year!

Class Awards

Class awards for Week 8