Principal's Message

Richard Jacques

Dear OLA Families,

Wishing our wonderful students, families and staff a very Merry Christmas. 

Advent is such a joyous time as we await in hope for Christmas and the birth of Jesus. This beautiful story was brought to life by our amazing Prep children last Monday in front of their proud families, caring Grade 6 Buddies and the whole school. We have very much enjoyed conversations in classes about how different families prepare for Christmas and what plans are in place for this Christmas Day. 

We invite all our OLA community to enjoy the Advent and Christmas Masses at this special time as well as throughout the year.

 

Our Lady of the Assumption and St Agnes Christmas Mass Times 

 

Saturday 24th December (Christmas Eve) 

6pm Mass    St Agnes’ Church, Highett

8pm Mass     OLA Church Cheltenham [Carols from 7.30pm]

 

and on Sunday 25th December (Christmas Day) 

9am Mass     OLA Church Cheltenham

11am Mass   OLA Church Cheltenham

End of Year Thank You

School Staff

My sincere thanks to our staff for their calmness, positivity and passion for learning and teaching. 2022 has been a great year for OLA and I thank the staff for going the extra mile. Thank you for your work in planning and organising engaging learning opportunities, for your report writing and for being so professional in your handover to the 2023 classroom teachers.  Thank you also for helping create special and memorable events, such as, the End of Year Dance and Community Event, the Building Project, the Fete, Bike Ed, the Sacraments, Incursions and Excursions, Prep 2022 Orientation Program, Grade 4 Camp Experience, 2023 School Leaders Program, the Big Day Out, Graduation, Advent liturgies.

 

Amongst it all I thank the staff for supporting each other and for their ongoing care for our beautiful children. This level of care can be witnessed by the manner in which staff cater for the wellbeing of our children and importantly for their academic growth. We have been most delighted to see that the collective efforts in the targeted delivery of curriculum positively impact our children.

 

We give thanks to a number of our colleagues and friends. We congratulate Julie Doyle and Carrie Mulcahy on their retirement and their commitment to education and in particular OLA. Your dedication, love of life and learning have been a gift to us all.  Thank you for the care you have shown each and every child and their family.  We wish you both all the very best in retirement. 

We thank Alicia Robertson, Sarah Dooley, Sarah Arnott, Michelle Congerton, Meg McCallum, Francine Jorgensen, Marsha Van Cuylenburg and Jacqueline Southwell for their contribution to the OLA community.  We wish each of them all the best as they explore new opportunities for personal and professional growth in new locations and/or new educational settings. On behalf of Fr Alan, the staff and past and present children we thank you all for your individual roles in developing the children that you have taught and cared for. We also wish Mark Bucilli all the best as he takes 12 months leave from his teaching duties at OLA.

 

Thank you to each and every staff member, may your Christmas holidays be full of peace, joy and restful days. 

School Families

On behalf of the staff team I thank each and every family for your support of the staff and your children throughout the year. We thank you for working with us and for being beside your children in their learning journey.  A sincere thanks to our parent community who have supported our school in so many ways this year; listening to children reading, assisting with PMP, supporting staff on excursions, working bee attendees, second hand uniform volunteers, library helpers, helping on the Parents & Friends Association and School Advisory Council and helping support our OLA Parish Fete. I thank you all for giving of your time and talent to make a difference to our community.

 

Enjoy a wonderful Christmas with your families and we look forward to you joining us again for the commencement of the 2023 school year. 

 

Children

As we conclude the school year we reflect on all that has been achieved. I continue to be amazed at how much we can fit into the school calendar. There have been many wonderful opportunities for the children to engage in purposeful learning and the experiences have been rich and varied. We thank our children for bringing joy to our daily work, for being kind and always giving their best. We congratulate our children on the level of engagement that they have demonstrated throughout the year as well as the sense of pride they take in themselves, their work, their belongings, the school buildings and grounds.  We also thank you for the respect that you show each other and all the adults in our community.

 

Congratulations to the graduating Grade 6 class of 2022! We thank them for being great role models and leaders. We wish them all the very best as they journey into the next stage of their education and their life. We hope that their secondary school years are full of reward, great friendships and learnings that set them up for positive futures. 

 

We look forward to our Grade 4 and Grade 5 children stepping up to be our new leaders in 2023 and our 2023 Preps bringing their own sense of joy to our community.   

 

I congratulate all the children on their efforts this year and hope that the Christmas break will offer them rest and refresh them for another productive year in 2023. 

 

Parish Team

I thank Fr Alan for his ongoing support for our parish and in particular the parish primary school community.   We thank him for welcoming our classes to Mass and for celebrating the Sacraments. I thank Vino who works in the Parish Office for her gentleness and kindness and the Parish Team for partnering with the school.  

 

A Personal Note of Thanks

My thanks to Gabrielle and Alicia for their daily support for myself, Caitlan, the staff and school community.   We thank Gabrielle and Alicia for their many hours of work.

 

I also acknowledge the work of Lee Vaessen and Mark Thredgold, our leaders in maintenance, who continue to maintain our school site in an outstanding manner. 

 

Thank you to our Level Leaders, Michela, Shelby and Gen who continue to model being good human beings, positivity and professionalism. We thank Gen in particular for her commitment to the Leadership Team as she concludes her term as Senior Level Leader and we welcome Steve to the team in 2023. Thank you to Christine for leading Literacy and a love of reading and writing, especially through intervention and extension. Thank you to Josy for your lead and support in Learning and Teaching and for sharing your passion of meeting children’s individual needs in learning and wellbeing. 

 

I thank Caitlan Taig for her significant role of making OLA a better place to be for our children.  Caitlan’s passion for each child in the school is undeniable and her relentless desire to improve each child’s learning outcomes is inspiring to witness.   I thank Caitlan for her ongoing leadership, for the many unseen weekend and evening hours dedicated to the school and children, for our regular conversations centred on school improvement and of course for the good humour, the daily banter and for the balanced wisdom she is able to provide. Thank you also for ably taking on the Acting Principal role earlier this year while I joined my family for a two and a half month extended holiday around Australia.  Thank you Caitlan.   

 

At our Graduation last night we said thank you to our Grade 6 Class of 2022 and we also honoured the many families who completed their time as a parent with a child in the primary school years.  Please know that you always hold a special place in our Parish community. We have 35 families leaving whose time at OLA total an amazing 332 years.  A special mention must go to Kiera Kenny’s family who have been at OLA for 23 years, followed by Olivia and Will Clancy’s Family for 15 years and Ellie Murray’s family for 15 years.  Thank you to all of our exiting families for being part of our OLA family and thank you for all you have given to our community.

Thank you and wishing these families all the very best…

ARMISTEAD

BOURANDANIS

BOVOPOULOS

BRADLEY

CLANCY

CLEUR

COMAZZETTO

DE  GREGORIO

DELORINO

FERNANDES

GILLBEE

GURUNG

HAYDEN

HOLLIER

HOULT

JANSZ

KENNY

LAWLOR

LETELIER

LEWIN

LIANG

MAYNE

MURRAY (Liz & Phil)

MURRAY (Fiona & Paul)

NEUWECK

O’CONNOR

O’DONNELL

RAJAKARUNA

RIGONI

SEGUEL

SELLICK

SPLAWA-NEYMAN

TANFARA

TREAGUS

ZAHOPOULOS

Graduation Gratitude

A big thank you to Gen O’Meara and the senior team for their organisation of such memorable graduation events. The children, parents and staff enjoyed it all. Thank you also to Libby Fedrick and the Grade 5 parents for hosting such a wonderful graduation celebration. The food, drinks, music, cupcakes and decorations all added to help create a special atmosphere and a great night.

Staffing 2023 Update

We are delighted to announce that we can now confirm Mrs Yueni (pronounced Yeni) Yang as the 1/2KM classroom teacher for Term 1 2023. Yueni knows OLA well as she has taught here as a Casual Relief Teacher. Yueni visited OLA during the week to meet her new class and to participate in the important handover process that we conduct at this time of year. Mrs Kirsten Milinski will continue her cancer treatment in Term 1 and we look forward to Kirsten returning to OLA in Term 2 2023. 

 

Yueni Yang

Yueni wrote to her class... Hello 1/2KM! I am super excited to be your teacher for Term 1 of 2023! It is going to be full of fun, learning, and growing. I can’t wait! You may have seen me around OLA before as a relief teacher this year. I have been a teacher for 10 years now, and last year I was teaching 1/2 in Canberra. I lived there for about 4 years before moving back to Melbourne because we miss it too much! I have a little sausage dog named Bucklin. He can be a bit mischievous but is very cute! I recently got married to a Prince (that’s his last name) and we love travelling, playing board games or going swimming at the beach in our down time. 

 

Prayers & Thoughts

We thank our community for keeping Kirsten Milinski (Prep KM) and Mel Roberts (PE) in your prayers and thoughts. Both Kirsten and Mel are currently receiving treatment for Breast Cancer. We also thank our community for keeping Carrie Mulchay in your prayers and thoughts as she continues to recover from heart surgery. Three great women who are grateful for the OLA community being beside them on this next stage of their journey.

2023 FIRE Carriers

We congratulate all children who nominated for the Grade 5 FIRE Carrier leadership positions.

 

FIRE stands for Friends Igniting Reconciliation through Education. The FIRE Carrier Project is a joint initiative of the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Victoria and the Opening the Doors Foundation with the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools.  The story of FIRE Carriers began with a dream to bring Aboriginal culture, history and spirituality into the forefront of education in Catholic schools. It was important to teach the stories of the oldest living culture to our youngest generations to ensure the living truth, the dreams and hopes of our Indigenous people were heard. This would be a genuine pathway to reconciliation. The fire spread and the initiative of the FIRE Carriers has grown throughout Melbourne and parts of Victoria for over 10 years.

 

This evening we are proud to be announcing the FIRE Carrier Leadership roles for 2023 at OLA.  We thank all students who nominated for this important role and thank you for writing to us expressing your interest.  We really appreciated the effort that each of you went to and thank families for your support and encouragement.  We had 17 students apply for the FIRE Carrier roles and congratulate each student for doing so.  We are proud of each of you.  

 

The successful candidates are:

Alastair D

Alessio P

Alice W

Annabel E

Ben S

Isabella K

Congratulations to the successful candidates and to each student who nominated for the role and we look forward to sharing this news with the school on Friday 16 December. We also look forward to working together and creating exciting leadership and learning opportunities in 2023.

 

2023 Grade 6 Student Leaders

We were proud to introduce our new 2023 Grade 6 leaders to the community at the End of Year Prayer Service and Assembly today.  

 

Evesham Road & Friendship Square Kinder Visits

Evesham Road Kinder and Friendship Square Kinder have taken the time to visit our school and in particular the new Library with children, parents and their teachers enjoying a story, some fun activities and a play on our playground. We believe visits like this go a long way to supporting our Kinder students making the important transition from life in Kinder to life in primary school. We have also provided Kinders with our OLA Social Story and attach it here for you to enjoy and share with your child if it helps.

Reports 

On Thursday last week, parents received their child’s Semester Two Report and child’s Self Reflection on the Parent Portal. We hope that the Semester Reports along with the two sets of Parent/Teacher Interviews this year have provided you with a solid understanding of your child’s academic progress throughout the year.

2023 Handover and Planning

We have been delighted to welcome our new staff for 2023 to OLA on at least three occasions over the last couple of weeks of the term for handover and planning which is all helping to kick start 2023 in the best possible way. At our Professional Learning Meetings this week and on our School Closure Day staff have sat one on one to handover important learning and wellbeing information on each child so that the next year’s teacher is set up to give your child the best start possible.  In addition to a thorough handover and sharing of data, teachers also met on the School Closure Day in teams to collaborate and plan for RE, Inquiry, Mathematics and Literacy.  The conversations were rich and productive and the teachers are well on the way to being set up for a successful 2023.

Thank you to OSAC 

On Monday 28 November the Our Lady of the Assumption Parish School Advisory Council (OSAC) met for the final time for 2022.  We thank our OSAC Chair for presenting the OSAC Annual Report to the Community which you can view here: 

 

 

We thanked our 2022 OSAC members for their support of our great school and we made a small presentation to our outgoing members Jaime Picinic and Jo Hansen. 

 

Thank you to OLA Parents & Friends Association

On Friday 9 December we hosted the OLA P&F AGM and Christmas Drinks.  This was a great chance for our parent community to celebrate the year and enjoy some Christmas cheer whilst checking out our newly renovated buildings. Mel Power shared the 2022 P&F Annual Report to the Community which you can view here:

 

 

We are so grateful to the 2022 P&F for raising $17,471 in 2022 - thank you to all in our community for helping make this possible. This money has been put towards items such as the following:

 

Bike Ed

Grade 5 & 6 Bike Ed $3817

 

Library 

Moon shaped lounge  $6465

4 Tall Stools $978

2 Flower Ottoman Set $1790

Hot Pink Double Lounge  $1475

3 Hexagon Ottomans  $2,385

Bean Bags $537

 

Total $17,447

 

We thanked our 2022 P&F and Fete Committees for their support of our great school and we made a small presentation to our outgoing executive members Mel Power, Claire Melican and Susan Wixted. We also welcomed our 2023 OLA P&F Committee members.  Andy Wright will be our Chair in 2023 and he will be supported by Stacey Straford as Deputy Chair.  Rose xx will be our Treasurer and xx will be our Secretary. Please refer to the P&F tab in this newsletter for the names and contact details of committee members and some welcoming words from Andy.  

2023 Dates

Term 1 
Friday 27 JanuaryStaff return to school
Monday 30 & Tuesday 31 JanuaryOne on One meetings for students and their teachers
Wednesday 1 FebruaryGrade 1-6 students first day of school
Thursday 2 FebruaryPreps first day of school & Welcome Morning Tea
Friday 3 February5.00-7.00pm Family Welcome Picnic
Term 2
Wednesday 26 April - Friday 23 June
Term 3
Tuesday 11 July - Friday 15 September
Term 4
Tuesday 3 October - Monday 18 December (staff conclude 20 December)

Celebrations 

Welcome to the OLA Family

Congratulations to Marie and Joe on the birth of their beautiful baby boy Leo.  Frankie and Chiara are super proud to be a big brother and big sister.  It is wonderful to hear that all is going well - enjoy this precious time. May you get to catch up on some sleep in the coming holiday time.

 

Last Newsletter

This is our final newsletter for 2022. I thank Alicia Robertson for all her work on the newsletter over the last 7 years - you have made these newsletters your own and we love the spark and professionalism you bring to them - we are going to miss you!

 

 

Kindness and School Spirit Award

Congratulations to Alessio Polino for being awarded the Mary MacKillop Kindness & School Spirit Award for 2022.

 

Grade 6 Awards

Congratulations to these students for being presented with the following awards:

Community Spirit & Leadership Award               Zoe Salter  

Young Achiever Award                                               Archer Armistead

Lorraine Francis Award                                             Kara Gurung

Fred Hollows Award                                                   Rupert Power

SSV Sporting & Academic Award                         Neve Hoult  

OLA House Team Cup                                                Lourdes Red House Team

Prep 2022

 

From the start of the year to the end of the year we have been so proud of our 2022 OLA Prep children. Here is a glimpse of their growth over the year.

 

Thank you all for an amazing year at OLA.

 

Wishing all members of the OLA community a safe, relaxing & joyful Christmas. 

May we all find time to be together with our loved ones over this Christmas and holiday break. I know I have a couple of very excited children at home enjoying every second of this festive season.

Richard Jacques

Principal