OSAC

OLA School Advisory Council Annual Report 2025

School Advisory Councils are an essential component of governing and operating Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. OLA’s School Advisory Council provides a forum for discussion and discernment, where parent voice and community perspective are available to inform, question and support the decisions made by the school, where students’ wellbeing and outcomes are paramount.

During 2025, the advisory council made up of parent, school and parish representatives met 8 times throughout the year to discuss and provide advice on matters affecting the school community including: 

• enrolments, class configurations and fee options for 2026 and future years
• policy updates such as Inclement and Extreme Weather Procedures, Medical Management and ICT Acceptable Usage (including guidelines for the use of smart watches/mobile phones and the school WhatsApp accounts)
• school programs to support student wellbeing and learning such as the 4 R’s, Spelling Mastery, Peaceful Classrooms, Bike Education and the Swimming Program
• process for complaints handling and child safety
• feedback from OLA’s Information Evening and future topics for parent education nights
• recognising and building upon the school’s accomplishments.

The Council worked cohesively throughout the year to support important school and community events and communicate the work of the Advisory Council through:

• contributing to Parents and Friends and Fete meetings and sharing the Committee’s updates with the Advisory Council Members.
• supporting the school to organise the working bees and assist our special guests on ‘G’ Day
• supporting the school to host and provide guidance to OLA’s new parents at the Prep Information Night
• establishing an online presence for the Advisory Council on the school webpage and providing regular updates in the school newsletters
• networking at the School Advisory Chair dinner hosted by the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools and sharing the learning with the OLA Advisory Council.

OLA's success as a friendly, inclusive learning community is thanks to the hard work and dedication of many people. We would like to acknowledge the amazing efforts of the Parents and Friends and Fete Committees, the inspirational OLA leadership team, the wonderful teaching, administrative and maintenance staff and of course – our OLA families. Your contributions are truly appreciated.

We would also like to sincerely thank the Members of the OLA School Advisory Council who have made a significant contribution in 2025: Pat Moran (Secretary), Ros Sayers and Ella Meagher, along with the OLA leadership team of Richard Jacques (Principal), Caitlan Taig (Deputy Principal) and Fr Alan Fox (Parish Priest) and we warmly welcome our newest advisory committee members for 2026: Anthony Bons, Laura Morel and Renee Wijensinghe. 

Sally Wright and Lucas Ryle (Co-Chairs)