OLV FEAST DAY 

We had a great day today celebrating the namesake of our School and Parish. It was a great community event. We celebrated with Mass at which each class participated in some way during the Liturgy. We sang and prayed with gusto and made the liturgy a terrific opportunity to praise our God and all that we have at Our Lady of Victories.

The family tabloid games which followed was a fun way to engage in some revelry and exercise to share some fun with our friends and families.

We then share a BBQ lunch to wind up our Patrons Feast Day.

For those that are not aware of the story of how our feast day came about. Click the link for a historical summary of where we got our name.

SCHOOL TV

Raising confident and happy children in a modern world can be hard work! Often one of the biggest challenges can be sourcing relevant and reliable information that you can draw on to support their wellbeing.

As such, Our Lady of Victories is excited to announce that we have recently added an award-winning resource to our school website. The resource, SchoolTV, includes evidenced-based information and practical strategies to build parent, carer and educator knowledge and confidence across a range of mental health and wellbeing topics.

The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle supported Our Lady of Victories to add SchoolTV to our website in response to feedback received from parents and carers who said they are seeking greater support in understanding the challenges their children are experiencing, as well as practical strategies for ways they can assist them. 

SchoolTV features interviews with leading wellbeing experts and researchers from around the world, on topics including:

Mental Health (encompassing grief and loss, suicide and self-harm, drug and alcohol use, anxiety, trauma and depression).

Healthy Bodies (including mindfulness, body image, sleep, eating disorders, diet and nutrition, physical activity and exercise).

Cyber Safety (encompassing cyberbullying, digital reputation, internet addiction, online gambling, sexting and managing screen time).

Positive Parenting (including friendship and belonging, blended families, resilience, positive parenting and understanding adolescence).

School Survival (encompassing school refusal, school transitions and exam jitters).

Diversity and Inclusion (including multiculturalism, neurodiversity, respectful relationships, gender diversity and supporting disabled youth).

These topics are presented in a variety of ways including videos, factsheets, podcasts and SchoolTV also includes recommendations for additional resources including books, apps and other websites.

While we will continue to host parent and carer information events as a school, one of the many benefits of SchoolTV is that you can watch it pre-emptively or as the need arises, from the convenience of your own home, either by yourself or, as a family.

From time to time, we may also promote key topics contained in SchoolTV for families either through Compass or our newsletter, when they coincide with student learning and/or matters arising in our school community.

Importantly, SchoolTV complements initiatives already underway in our school including our Student Wellbeing and Pastoral Care Policy and the “Wellbeing Together” Student Learning and Wellbeing Framework.

Our staff are familiar with SchoolTV, and as such, I am confident that this shared knowledge between staff and parents will assist us all in partnering together to better support children and young people’s learning, safety, mental health and wellbeing.

If you have any questions about SchoolTV, or the topics contained within the site, please get in touch with the staff listed on the site or, me directly.

Visit our SchoolTV site here:

https://shortland.catholic.schooltv.me/

YEAR 6 CAMP 

Our Year 6 children will be venturing out into the world of personal challenge and adventure when they head off to the annual Year 6 camp in Week 4. They will be testing their limits of endurance and confidence as well as experiencing new activities that they might enjoy in later years. The connections and bonding will give many of them a common base with the move onto High School next year.

KINDER ORIENTATION 

We start our Kinder 2024 Orientation next week when we welcome our 2024 cohort next week. Our Year 5 children have been working with Miss Slattery to develop their leadership and service skills that will be most useful in their roles as “Big Buddies”.

We look forward to welcoming the new students for the first of 4 orientations on Wednesday next week.

YEAR 6 GRADUATION 

A heads up for parents of our Year 6 students about their Graduation and End of Year activities. The Graduation Mass will take place on Wednesday, 13 December, in the OLV Church. This will be followed by a catered luncheon for them and their guests in the school hall.

YEAR 6 RETREAT

Year 6 will be on RETREAT on Thursday 7 December. They will be reflecting on their primary school years and imaging how their secondary school might look.

LEADERSHIP at OLV

The Year 5 children are invited to consider how they might like to be seen as leaders of OLV in 2024. They will all be expected to show leadership in all they do and involve themselves in representing and promoting the school for the rest of our school community. They will be exploring the  ideals of good leadership on retreat on 16 November after which the will present themselves to the rest of the community to pursue their leadership aspirations as Captains for 2024.

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.

We have been exploring 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 currently have 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 2nd Thursday (Not assembly week) 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.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

As part of the children’s Creative and Practical Arts (CAPA) program this term, they will be preparing for an end of year concert. This will be on Monday 11 December.

PARISH CAROLS

The parish is holding its Christmas Carols concert on Saturday 2 December. We will be looking for some children to be involved in presenting a song or two at this event.

REFERENDUM

Don’t forget to cast your vote tomorrow. Let’s hope the nation will make the right call.