From the Acting Principal

Term 3 Week 10

Parents and Carers,

It has been a wonderful term, full of so many learning opportunities as the students have explored the units of work with the common theme of Science and Design and Technology. It has also been a term full of special events such as Book Week, Science Week, National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, Italian Day,  5/6 Camp, R U Ok Day and, of course, Footy Day.  Well done to all of our students who have shown such wonderful academic and personal growth this Term as they have demonstrated resilience, perseverance and having a go. 

Thank you also to all of the staff and families who have made these events so successful - it is the team at OLHC which makes it such a truly special place to be.

Thanks to all the families that have managed to respond to the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS) the window closed today. We highly value the feedback from our families. We use the data from the family responses to help us better understand the needs of our community, as a tool to set future directions for the school and as a way to celebrate what we do well and ways we can improve in the future. 

We wish to apologise to any families who were concerned by last week’s newsletter article about punctuality to school. We are mindful that for many families, differing arrangements are necessary to support the needs of individual students. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our Student Wellbeing Leader or myself to have a conversation, as we are always ready to support all of our families in any way we can. 

We had an unannounced  Emergency Evacuation Drill on Tuesday, September 12. The students were calm and responsible as they exited the building and headed for a main evacuation point which is in the Upper basketball court yard. It was a good test of our processes, as we had external service providers and relief teachers onsite who all followed the process outlined in the evacuation posters. These posters are visible and present in all rooms in the school. Apologies and thanks to the couple of parents who arrived to find themselves locked out of the school and had to wait until the drill was over.

The Prep Dance Concert was a special event on Tuesday this week. The Preps did a wonderful job of displaying their dance moves with some classics like the Macarena and the Nutbush as well as some newer ones. The highlight however had to be the parents and students combining to perform the Heel and Toe Polka. Despite being surprised about having to join in, the parents did a sterling job keeping up with the Preps. We need to thank our ACU student teacher Caitlin Richardson who has been working with the Preps over the past 4 weeks. Working with Barb she did a great job preparing the children for this event. We congratulate her on working so positively with our students in the classroom. We wish her well as she finishes her final assignments at uni, ready to join the teaching force next year.

We had the 90s Trivia Night last weekend on Saturday 9th of September. Thanks to Sarah and all the PFOL members and supporters who put so much effort into organising, setting up and conducting the night. Thanks too to all the families who were able to attend on the night and to the families who donated items for the silent auction. I managed to get a sneak peak at the set-up on Saturday afternoon when I dropped in to school and it looked great. I heard some celebrating from some members of the winning table on Monday but also plenty of conversation about what a great night it was. It must have been because the call to turn the Alarm on at school came in around 12:45 am!

Thanks to the Fundraising efforts of the PFOL and support of the school community.Three new 85” big screens are going into junior classrooms over the holidays to replace the old projectors that have served us well but are ready for retirement. We look forward to rolling out big screens in the senior building classrooms next year. Please keep up your wonderful support of the PFOL activities.

We had a great finish of the term, with our traditional OLHC, Aussie Rules Footy Day. As always, the yard was a sea of colour as the students turned up in their club colours then paraded and sung their way around the yard. The sun was shining as we headed over to Central Park Eltham, for a kick of the footy on the oval. Thanks to all the parents who were able to assist walking over and back. If your team is still in the finals, I wish them all the best unless they are playing my team, the mighty Brisbane Lions!

Congratulations to past OLHC pupils, Aislinn T and Olivia R for being selected as a 2024 College Captain and  2024 Mission Captain respectively, at Catholic Ladies College Eltham. We always love to follow the progress of our past pupils so if you hear of other achievements, please let us know. Whilst congratulating students, we need to make a special mention of Daisy, Noah. Jonah and Spencer who competed in the Nillumbik Division Athletics finals last week. All reports say they gave it their best and represented us proudly. 

We look forward to having all the students back at school on Monday October 2nd. We hope you all have a good break from the school routines, with some holidays or fun family activities and everybody comes back refreshed and ready to tackle Term 4.

Regards,

Mark Pinkerton

Acting Principal

Canteen window for (Friday) recess sales.  

Available for sale will be snack packets of Red Rock chips, Grain Wave whole grain chips, Pringles, Raspberry Twisters, Snakes, Smarties (Small 16g pkts), Yoghurt Frogs and Juicies. 

These items can be purchased through CDFPAY (and will be ready to pick up at recess) or can be bought directly from the window. 

If you are interested in helping our PFOL as a recess helper, please let us know. 

Friday Recess Orders

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Please refer to our School google calendar for events throughout the year.  

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