OUR LADY OF HOPE NEWSLETTER - Term 2 Week 4 2023
A Word from the Principal
Dear Families,
As the wet weather and shorter days become more common place, our staff and children continue to demonstrate high levels of enthusiasm and energy for their learning. The recent Three Way Learning Conversations enabled our children to understand that they are deeply immersed in their learning journey. Likewise, their active participation in the Yr 5/6 Camp, passionate involvement in the Dream Big performance and continued respectful engagement in our weekly Community Prayer are but a few of the moments of grace that we witness at Our Lady of Hope School. How good was the attendance at our Mother's Day Breakfast and Liturgy!
In this edition of our newsletter there is important information about upcoming capital works that will be evident on our school site. More importantly, we invite our families to attend an hour session with our architect on Tuesday 6th June at 7pm to share your vision for how Our Lady of Hope School can be transformed into the future - exciting times!
I trust that after recent technical issues our communications platforms, SZApp and Seesaw, have been resolved and you are able to maximise these tools to maintain efffective contact with Our Lady of Hope School.
I continue to invite families to make contact with your child's teacher or Leadership if there are matters that you wish to discuss. Our partnership is crucial in ensuring our children receive the very best learning opportunities.
Stay warm!
Kind regards,
Paul
Religious Dimension
Prayer to Our Lady of Hope
In May, the Catholic Church has a significant devotion to Mary, Mother of God. We commit this prayer on behalf of our school family, seeking Mary’s intercession in our lives and express our gratitude for the many blessings we experience.
Our Lady of Hope,
light up our way.
You continue to be hope for the poor.
You are trusted by the humble.
You provide strength to the marginalized.
You courageously are the defender of the innocent.
You are a comforter of the exiled.
Our Lady of Hope,
You give us
A voice of freedom & peace.
You are a sign of God's maternal aspect.
A sign of the Father's nearness.
A sign of the Son's mercy.
Almighty and eternal God, the blessed Virgin Mary,
glorious Mother of your Son, helps and protects all those who call upon her.
By her intercession may we be strong in faith,
steady in hope,
and persevere in your love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sacramental Program
We continue to pray for the children who are preparing to receive the Sacrament of First Holy Communion and Confirmation on Saturday 3rd June at St David’s Catholic Church. This is a significant moment for our students and their families and we trust that it provides an opportunity for all of us to renew our relationship with our God.
Learning Dimension
Three Way Learning Conversations
It was pleasing to witness the majority of our families accept the invitation to meet with their child’s class teacher at our recent Three Way Learning Conversations. I applaud our children for being courageous in attending these meetings for the first time and taking the lead in sharing and describing their learning journey and goals. This is a critical skill that enables them to take an active involvement in their learning and expand their meta cognition skills.
Semester One Reports
Our staff will be utilizing the CESA program called SEQTA to report on your child’s learning over Semester One. This report will be distributed as an electronic document to families via email in Term 2, week 10. It is crucial that your contact email at school is up to date. If you have changed employment or your email address, it is imperative that you have notified the school and provided your current email address.
Yr 5/6 Camp
Congratulations to our Yr 5/6 classes for their amazing participation in the Woodhouse Camp last week. Despite the cool and wet weather, the children displayed loads of resilience in undertaking all of the prescribed activities, including swinging across a creek bed… and falling in!
I am grateful for the dedication of our staff and parental support. Much effort is expended in coordinating a three day camp and the smiling and exhausted faces of the children reflected a great deal of appreciation for the experience.
Life Buoyancy Institute
At the start of Term 2 all of our staff and OSHC Team undertook Impact Training with David Kelly from the Life Buoyancy Institute. LBI is committed to working in partnership with Our Lady of Hope School to be an education community that is eager to increase our capacity to be a trauma responsive family and to build the capacity of our children to manage their behaviour. This will be enhanced next term when a number of our staff will be trained in the PBIS (Positive Behaviour Interventions & Support) approach. Once these staff are familiar with the protocols, all of our staff will be engaging with these principles.
Over the next few weeks we will be sharing further information with our children and families so that we all share a common understanding and respect for the expected behaviours at OLOH.
Hope Grows News
Lunch Time Gardening!
We have Hope Grows Garden open on Fridays at lunch time. We do weeding, watering and we look for vegetables that could be harvest!
Sometime soon Hope Grows members will be planting some vegetable seedlings in our garden. Can’t wait!!
Hope Grows members have been busy this term. Tidying up garden beds, weeding, filling up garden beds with soil and planting seedlings. Well done team.
Cooking with Room 14
On a cold wintery day Room 14 had the opportunity to bake apple turnovers. They were so yummy! Thank you to the Szlazak family for donating the delicious apples!!
Peaceful Kids
This week we had three staff attend a two day training seminar for the Peaceful Kids Program. These colleagues will join one of our Education Support officers, Mrs Franca Hall, who is an existing facilitator, who has already run two groups for some of our children in our early years classrooms. We look forward to these staff embedding the key principles of the Peaceful Kids Program and upskilling our children to develop life skills that will enable them to self-regulate their emotions.
Dream Big Performance
Congratulations to our classes for displaying their musical and performing arts abilities at our biannual Dream Big performance. The environmental theme is a vital message that needs to be shared across a range of mediums. We continue to admire the creative genius of Mrs Reuther and her energetic approach to engaging our young people in whole school events. It is amazing to witness our children cooperate effectively with classmates and present high quality items which demonstrate their music theoretical and performance skills.
Indigenous Artwork
Over the next four weeks our Yr 3 – Yr 6 children will be working with Nikki Carabetta to prepare an Indigenous Art mural on the western side of the Science/Italian Room. The basis of the art work is attributed to the efforts of our Yr 3/4 classes from 2022 who developed a personalized welcome to country. These words depict a recognition of the close connection we share with the local environment. Our Reception to Yr 2 classes will participate in another project late Term 3 or early Term 4.
Administrative Dimension
New Volunteer Induction Session
If you have any queries about your current volunteer status or would like to start the process of becoming a volunteer at OLOH please contact the Front Office staff on 8289 8344 or email mmcgrath@oloh.catholic.edu.au
Marion McGrath, Principal’s Assistant & Events Coordinator
Master Planning Process - Community Meeting with Architect
On Tuesday 6th June at 7pm we invite our families to attend a meeting with Nick Grbin to share their thoughts about what they would like to see Our Lady of Hope School include in our Master Plan. This is an opportunity to assist in the design of our capital works that will transform our school site for the next thirty years. What learning spaces would you like to see our school construct? What outdoor areas could be improved? What features could maximise the environmental elements? How do we provide spaces that build our sense of community? All of these questions and more will be asked by our architect. We are seeking members of our families to make themselves available to assist us in maximizing the Master Planning process. Please consider being involved in this process.
Capital Works
It is exciting that a number of projects will be occurring at Our Lady of Hope School over the next few months:
Two Relocatable Classrooms: In order to accommodate increased enrolments next semester and to ensure we have a dedicated Pastoral Care/Counselling Office and STARS classroom, two relocatable classrooms will be situated on the northern side of Room 1 & 2. We envisage that these buildings will be required over the next five years as we aim to transform our school site through the creation of a Master Plan. As a result of these buildings being brought on to our site, three trees, seating and a wooden cross will be removed and a deck and verandah will be located on the northern side of the two buildings.
Nature Play Project: A quote has been accepted and we have been informed that construction will commence in 10 weeks. This play area will be established between the library and the TTG Council Hall as a Campus project. We anticipate that children will be able to access the finished product at the start of Term 4 2023.
OLOH Fence: We are re-fencing the existing fence between the Parish Centre and the Admin Office. This will be ‘black’ to match the existing parish fencing. A large gate is being included to allow larger vehicles to access our school.
Student Entry Door: We are greatly concerned about our children’s current access to our Front Office (walk out of a fenced area into an unfenced area adjacent a car park). We will be redirecting our fencing to direct children to a new door which will be constructed adjacent Kirsten’s Office. It is envisaged that this project will be undertaken during Term 3.
Enrolments at OLOH
To all current families; if you have a young child due to start school in 2023, 2024 or 2025, please ensure that you have lodged an Enrolment Application (you would have received correspondence from the school if you have lodged paperwork). Places are filling fast! Enrolment applications can be obtained from the front office or via our school website:- OLOH Enrolments. If you are not sure please email us at kslazak@oloh.catholic.edu.au and we will check our enrolment records.
School Absentee Notification
If your child or children are going to be away for any reason (i.e. illness, family/social, medical/dental appointment, car trouble, running late etc.) we ask that parents please contact the Front Office via the SZapp absences form or if this is not possible by phone on 8289 8344. If your child arrives at school after 8.50 am, please sign them in at the Front Office.
Uniform Shop News
The Uniform Shop is now open on Tuesday morning between 8:30-9:30 am and Thursday afternoon between 2:30-3:30 pm for the remainder of this term. Any further changes to opening times will be notified via the newsletter and SZapp in due course. It is located off the courtyard in the room between Rooms 7 and 8 just to the right of the ramp.
The Uniform Shop order form can be found on the OLOH website: https://www.oloh.catholic.edu.au/uniform-price-list or alternatively hard copies of the form are available in the Uniform Shop as well as the Front Office.
Admin Staff
Canteen News
All Qkr App orders need to be submitted by 8:30 am. There are two menus: a Mon./Tues./Wed. option and a Thurs./Fri. option (link below). Please remember that you can order in advance and on recurring days. This will be particularly helpful with the much earlier cut off time.
As always, volunteers are welcome and if you have a spare hour or more especially on a Wednesday or Friday, give me a call on 8289 8448. If you are volunteer trained, have all the relevant clearances, are double vaxed and can spare some time (even 15 minutes makes a huge difference), I'd love to see your smiling faces!
If your child receives an emergency lunch, please pay for it via the GPS Qkr App under the Monies Owing section. The Qkr App is not a personalised system for each student so please just pay the relevant amount for the order.
The Canteen Price List for Term 1 2023 can be found on the link below.
Natalie Cotton, Canteen Manager
Community Dimension
Peaceful Kids
At OLOH we are genuinely committed to your child’s wellbeing. ‘Peaceful Kids’ is a program that began in our school during Term 1 this year and we are excited to be continuing it. ‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children. This program helps children to build their emotional resilience so they are better equipped to deal with the day-to-day stresses that life can bring at times. The program runs for 5-8 weeks with teachers identifying students who they feel would benefit from attending these small group sessions. If your child has been identified, you will receive communication from the school with information and a consent to complete. Please contact me if you’d like any further information.
Sarah Alford
OLOH Outdoors
Last term we invited families to express an interest in coming together to plan outdoor activities for our families. Our first planning meeting will be held on Wednesday 14th June, 7pm – 8.30pm. If you would like to make suggestions, please feel welcome to join us or feel welcome to email your ideas to pbennett@oloh.catholic.edu.au.
The intent of the group is to plan activities such as bike rides, bush walks, beach days, river visits, camping weekends etc. The list of events is only limited by our creativity!
Feros Care
State SAPSASA Swimming Championships
Rose Welden recently competed in the State SAPSASA Swimming Championship. Rose had a super competition winning a Gold in the 4 x 50m freestyle relay, Silver in the 50m butterfly and Bronze in the 50m freestyle. Well done Rose on a great result.
School Calendar
Families are able to access a ‘live’ calendar at the following locations:
- Szapp tiles
- OLOH Website ‘News & Events’ tab – School Calendar
- OLOH online newsletter
A paper copy is static and doesn’t allow us to make alterations should circumstances change. Whilst it is our intention to eliminate date changes, should they be necessary, we will communicate these to families via Szapp/Seesaw.
Noticeboard
The services and events contained in this bulletin are in no way connected with the school and are included in this newsletter for your information only. Parents and caregivers need to make their own enquiries and assessments about the suitability of these events and services for the needs and those of their children.
Kildare College
You are invited to explore what sets Kildare apart, on their next College Tour. Visit the Kildare website to book your place: https://www.kildare.catholic.edu.au/your-enrolment/college-tour-registration-form
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College
2024 SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN - We are pleased to offer a wide range of scholarships and support to families enrolling their daughters at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College. Scholarships include: Academic, Financial Assistance, Performing Arts and Parishioner. Applications for 2024 close on Friday 2nd June 2023. OLSH College scholarships are offered to new students starting in Years 7 & 8 to help girls flourish and achieve their full potential. For more information visit: olsh.catholic.edu.au/node/50
eSafety Commissioner Fact Sheet
Golden Grove/Wynn Vale/Greenwith Neighbourhood Watch Newsletter
Free Community and Volunteer Expo
Northeast Zodiac Netball Club
Gemini Netball Club
DanceSA
DanceSA provides students with enjoyment through creative learing and dance. For more information on what DanceSA offers phone 0438854484 or email info@dancesa.au