COMMUNITY SPIRIT

A couple of recent activities at OLV have shown how wonderful our community is. Both the Father's Day and Grandparents' were terrific opportunities to share the skills and enthusiasm the staff and children have for our school. These occasions showcased how everyone enjoys the learning and teaching at OLV. It also gives us the opprtunity to connect with families and friends.

Thanks to evryone who were able to come and enjoy the occasions, but don't think we weren't thinking of those that couldn't make it. Look out this week for the dances online to reminince and share.

 WELCOME

We welcome Adamma and Osita to our school. Their family has recently moved into the area from Rutherford. We wish them well as they settle into OLV and look forward to sharing their learning journey with them.

PARENT WEBINARS

There are a couple of very good Webinars. They are focused on Digital Technology. You can go to www.eSafety.gov.au/parents/webinars

to find out more.

Parents are probably aware that COMPASS is now our preferred form of communiction between school and home. It sometimes experiences little glitches and we are thankful to those that point these out so that they can be rectified quickly.

The main problem about which we receive feedback is not being able to give permissions for various events. We find that this is usually caused because parents might be leaving it too late to do so. There is usually a cut off time set so that the appropriate organisational details - transport, food orderng, tickets etc - can be finalised. It is most important that parents respond to requests and events in a timely fashion.

Please make sure your access devices are up to date also and your passwords are working. If you have any issues, lease let the office know. Sometimes it is easier to come in with your device so that we can see what your issue is rather than try to explaiun over the phone.

QKR

As we move to a society where cash is becoming less the norm in financial transactions,  we too are moving to that in our school financial system. Cash on site brings with the extra time and energy to manage and the more we can make that management less hands on the better.

This is why we are bringing Apps such as COMPASS and QKR into the school finaincial management. We are findng the QKR App very useful for Canteen and events which requiere paymnents of some sort.  But as explained above there are cut off timeframes to which we need to adhere.

We will be opening teh Canteen schedule for teh rest of the year so that parents can make orders in advance if they wish. PLease send in any feedback about the effectivemness oof this. The usual cut off times for Canteen orders or cancellation  is 8:15am on the morning of opening.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

We very much encourage parents to be involved in the decision making and discussions about the things that affect their children at OLV. The immense pressures on families to be actively involved in meetings is evident as we struggle to find an Executive that manage the P&F Association.

Last term, we explored moving to what the Diocese calls a "Parent Engagement Group - PEG" which basically takes the pressure off having an executive overseeing the Association. It also takes away the physical need for parents to be responsibile for the money they raise during fundraising activities. It does not remove them from the discussion and decision making of how those funds should be expended.

We have investigated a weekly Cuppa & Chat (C&C) for parents to come in interact in some way and discuss issues that might arise. Parents are invited every Thursday from 2:15pm to meet with Mrs Dunn in the library for some input and organisational discussions if needed.

I would also like to meet with parents once per month after school in the same way we were for our P&F Meeting to organise and discuss any events coming up. Our first after school meeting will be Monday evening 23 October at 7:00pm mainly to discuss end of year events and other organisational matters such as Canteen and banking.

It would be great if you could come to both, but either one is fine.