Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

Welcome to Term 3 at OLA! What a happy and fun start it has been to the term.  We welcome two new families to our community.  Henry and Ariel in Grade 1 and Matthew in Grade 3. 

We have certainly copped an icy blast with the extra cold Melbourne mornings this week!

I hope the skiers in our community have made the most of the slopes this winter and I'm sure many a cup of hot chocolate has been enjoyed.  It is especially tough to get out of our warm beds and face the day so may I say big thank you to all for braving the cold, being at school on time and making the most of these super crisp mornings.

OLA Athletics Day

Who would have thought in one of our coldest weeks of the year that we would be blessed with the beautiful weather we enjoyed for our Athletics Day on Tuesday 19 July.  We held the OLA Athletic’s House Team Championships at Duncan MacKinnon Reserve.

What a day! 💙💙💙

✅ Stunning weather ☀️

✅ Excellent facilities 

✅ Amazing House team spirit 🤗

✅ Incredible parent helpers and staff 🙏

✅ Lots of fun. 🙌

CONGRATULATIONS to our Lourdes Red House Team on taking out the OLA House Team Athletics Championship Trophy.  Congratulations to all house teams for their spirit and 100% efforts:

1st Lourdes (red)

2nd Fatima (green)

3rd  Brigid (blue)

4th  MacKillop (yellow)  

In addition to extra points for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place getters, every child who participated and finished a race scored a point for their team, along with points for Make Jesus Real (MJR) moments (like teamwork, encouraging others, kindness, etc.) and extra effort.

A HUGE congratulations to all our students for their positive attitude and for giving their very best. 👏👏👏 There were some wonderful memories created at our 2022 Athletic’s Day.  Thank you for the feedback - both on what worked well and what could make it even better next time.  A huge thank you to our PE Teacher Melissa Roberts for all the planning and thinking around the day and to the staff and parent helpers for being so willing and enthusiastic in helping bring together what was a great day for our community.  One of our beautiful grandparents wrote:

“We would like to express our thanks to you, the staff, children and volunteers involved with the Athletics Day on Tuesday 19th. It was extremely well organised and the participation and encouragement of all involved was outstanding. The All School Relay was brilliant!!”

 A couple of notes of gratitude from parents too:

“Congratulations to all the staff on the success of Athletics Day!  It looked like the children had a fantastic time and the sun was lovely when it came out!

A big congratulations to everyone and especially Melissa Roberts, as I can appreciate the organisation, logistics and time spent towards a big fun day like this!”

“Just a quick note to say well done on the OLA Athletics Day. For what it’s worth, I thought the day was great and seemed to run well. I loved all the activities! What a great school event, full of house spirit and involvement from the parent community. After a couple of failed attempts, it was good to finally get the carnival up and running and have my kids involved in an athletics day. My kids thoroughly enjoyed participating in the variety of events and cheering on their house team.”

First Eucharist Parent and Child Workshop

We continue to keep our Grade 3 children in our prayers and thoughts as they prepare to make their First Holy Communion towards the end of August.  Thank you to the families who attended and participated in the Parent and Child Workshop last night.  We also thank Fr Alan for leading the faith formation of our families - your input is very much appreciated.  We also thank Caitlan and our staff for their thoughtful preparation and  organisation of the evening.

About Real Life

Thank you to all who attended the Prep - Grade 2 About Real Life Sexuality Program here at OLA on Monday evening. Sue Pain facilitated conversations between parents and children on a wide range of topics. Thank you to Sue Pain from About Real Life for being so supportive and clear in her conversations with us.  These parent and child workshops are so important as we partner together to educate the whole child. Josy has shared more information on the Wellbeing page of this newsletter.

Wakakirri

Our OLA Wakakirri Lunchtime Club had a productive rehearsal on Wednesday.  Caitlan, Shelby and Tess allocated costumes and finished the choreography for our performance of the Lion King.  The 40+ Grade 5 and 6 students are now looking forward to putting the final touches to their moves and incorporating props and sets in preparation for our performances in August!  We thank Alicia and Sarah D for taking a lead on the props and sets. 

There will be a performance both at OLA and Frankston Arts Theatre this term. 🦁👑

Building Project

On our fortnightly walk through and inspection of the building project I was excited to see that the roof is secured on our building project and that the plastering of walls is very much underway. The surrounding garden beds and seating between the hall and the new building has also begun. This is part of Stage 3 of our Master Plan and we are so grateful for the Victorian Government Capital Funding Grant of 2 million dollars to make this possible.

Working Bee

We are so grateful to the many families who have already joined us for an OLA Working Bee. These days are extra special as families get to be involved in the life of the school, meet new families and play a part in taking care of the buildings, grounds and gardens around our school.  We are also delighted to have many parishioners helping to make our Parish extra neat and tidy.  

Please note the next two Working Bee dates are:

• Term 3 Saturday 30 July 10.00am-12.00pm 
• Term 4  Saturday 19 November 10.00am-12.00pm (Please note change of date in Term 4 to beautify the school the week before our Parish Fete)

Term 3 Roster:

Alexander, Bevan, Bustin, Campos, Canas, Casbolt, Cassar, Charters-Wood, Clancy, Cooper (Savannah), Dark, Davidson, Daviotis, De Gregorio, Derricott, Drever, Etienne, Fedrick, Fernandes, Fraser, Gillbee, Gray. Grose, Haber, Harwood, Hayden, Hel, Hollier, Killeen, Kirstein, Konstantos, Koukoumanos, Lambert, Maillard, Malone-Marty, Mayne, McSwiggan, Monotti, Murray, Nery, O'Keeffe, Peker, Picinic, Pinzone, Pryor, Rajakaruna, Ramadan, Rejman, Rigoni, Rutkowski, Salter, Seguel, Sellick, Shannon, Solomon, Splawa-Neyman, Trbusic, Treagus, Tsaousidis, Warner-Sheers, Watkins, White, Wicken, Wickenton, Williamson, Wise.

Help Wanted

Following our Grade 5/6s Camp to Camp Weekaway last term, the children have rallied together to request the installation of our very own GaGa Ball Pit.  One of our senior student’s Dads has measured the pit up in the best location that we could find and we have written to Bunnings to consider donating some of the materials needed.  What we are looking for is a team of parents to deliver this project by helping our lead designer and builder Nick Hollier later on this term.  Please email me if you are willing to support Nick with this amazing project, principal@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au

Fete

A request from our OLA Fete Sponsorship Team:

On behalf of the 2022 Fete Committee, I am reaching out to seek expressions of interest for a corporate sponsor for our upcoming fete in November. Do you work for, or know someone who works for an organisation that would like to partner with the school and parish to make this year's fete an even bigger success? If so, please complete the Operoo form sent on 22 July to provide your details.

On offer is digital exposure across the fete social media pages, links on the school website, physical billboard presence, and flyers that will be displayed in local shop fronts and distributed to local kindergartens and community groups.

Alternatively, if your business is in a position to donate goods or services for things like our raffle, these would be warmly welcomed.

Kind regards, 

Tim Dressing (OLA Parent)       

Safety Online

In partnership with Inform and Empower, Marty and Carley led a free parent webinar on Wednesday 13 July which our OLA families were invited to attend. Keeping our children safe online is such an important role for us as parents and teachers. We encourage you to follow Inform and Empower via social media for tips and recommendations in this area. 

Our students have also participated in their termly workshop on being safe whilst online with Inform and Empower. Please ask your child what is important to remember when being online. 

Reminder

Students must hand mobile phones into the front office as they arrive at school in the morning and pick them up again as they depart the school at 3.15pm.  At no point during the day is a student able to have their phone on them or activate their Apple Watch.  This is essential in protecting our students and keeping them safe.

COVID Update

Please find the latest update to our COVID Guidelines on a separate tab in today’s newsletter.  Information was also distributed to families on Thursday morning in regards to the recommendation to wear masks when indoors along with providing further details in regards to RAT tests and testing protocols.

2023 Plans

We politely ask all families to notify the school should your child/children not be returning to OLA in 2023.  We have had a number of enquiries in recent weeks across various levels. Having an accurate indication of our enrolment numbers ensures we are able to plan accordingly for the following school year and access appropriate funding i.e. staffing and resourcing. We thank you for your cooperation.

Condolences

We pray for Mel Power, (Chair of our OLA Parents and Friends Committee) William, Rupert (Gr6) and Kitty (Gr3) following the sudden death of Mel’s Dad, Roy Standbrook. We send our OLA community’s thoughts and prayers at this particularly sad time.

Congratulations 

Congratulations to Liz Thompson our PE Teacher and her husband Justin on the safe and healthy arrival of Georgie who was born on 20 June. A baby sister for Jack and Harriet.  This is such a precious time and we send our OLA love and very best to you all.

We look forward to…

It's a funny thing being a male and your wife expecting a baby and no one can see the baby growing!!  For those who may or may not know I wanted to share with you that Baby Jacques #3 is on its way in August!!  We can also confirm that Baby Pertz #2 is on the way in October.  Steve and I look forward to updating you with more baby news this year.  Watch this space…

Precious moments

Our Prep children had such a fun day celebrating Milo’s Birthday Surprise Party during the week. The two classes spent time making party hats, placemats and labels for their treats. The treats were brought in by each child to celebrate a letter of the alphabet, for example, R Rice, S Snakes and P for Popcorn!! The Preps then danced, played musical statues and sang Happy Birthday.  Thank you to our families for their extra help in making this a special memory to add to their Prep’s first year at school

What an exciting start to Term 3!

Enjoy the weekend.

Richard Jacques

Principal