Dear Parents & Parishioners,

Yesterday afternoon we gathered as a school community in the church to celebrate Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the first day, or the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days prior to Easter. During the mass all the children and adults had the opportunity to be marked with a sign of the cross made from blessed ashes. The ashes are made from palm branches blessed on the previous year's Palm Sunday. The ashes are a symbol of penance and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice.

Lent is often a time given over to “holy” words of repentance and promises of self-reform but:

“However many words you speak, what good will they do if you do not acton them?” Buddha

The challenges of our times today are not merely political and social, they are spiritual. It is difficult to grow spiritually, morally or ethically, if we fail to give due recognition that all people are equally valuable and important. We can’t grow spiritually, morally or ethically if we belittle people different to us in their appearance, manner and customs in order to make us feel more important as human beings. We will begin to grow spiritually, morally and ethically, when we are ready to sincerely embrace the truth and fascination of our differences and welcome the common yearnings we have about life.

May our journey over the next 40 days be fullfilling and affirming of others.

Introducing our School Captains & Vice Captains

This year we have two School Captains and three Vice Captains working in the service of students and staff. Our two School Captains are Poppy T and Art T, while our Vice Captains comrpise Matisse M, James G and Hugo H. Unfortunately, Hugo was absent for our photo.

Below, each has shared an insight about themselves and their hopes for this year.

School Captains

My name is Poppy T and I am very excited to be one of the School Captains this year at OHR. I can’t wait to be a leader of this school and I really want to help out our school as much as I can. I love to learn and I am going to be in year 7 next year. I really can't wait for all of the new opportunities that high school will offer. I live in a family of four with my brother, Harvey, my mum and my dad. Some of my hobbies that I love are playing tennis and hanging out with my friends.

My Name is Art T. I am 11 years old and I am very proud to be one of the School Captains in 2024. I am very excited to take up the responsibility and everything that comes with it. I live in a family of three with my mum and dad in Surrey Hills. My hobbies are playing sports over the weekend. The sports I play are soccer, cricket and basketball. I also enjoy playing chess with my dad and playing games with my friends. I can't wait to represent OHR and be a role model for the younger students so they will become great role models in the future when they are leaders of this school.

Vice Captains

My name is Matisse and I am one of the Vice Captains at Our Holy Redeemer (OHR) in 2024. I am really looking forward to being a leader of our school this year and helping our school to be the best it can be.

My family and I recently moved to Park Orchards, which is about a half hour drive each morning but because I love this school so much, I wanted to stay and graduate here at OHR! At home I live with my Mum, Dad, and brother, Mason, who is in year 8 and used to go to OHR, too.

I also have two dogs, Dasher and Luna. Some of my interests are netball, drawing, and my most favourite of all, Calisthenics, which I spend a lot of time practising and performing!

My name is James G and I am 11 years old. This year I was lucky enough to be elected as School Vice Captain at OHR.

I love coming to school to learn lots. At home I live in a family of five with my brother Will, my sister Charlotte and my mum and dad.

My favourite hobbies are tennis, reading and spending time with my family and friends.

I promise to work hard to be an effective leader that you would be proud of in the school. I will try to uphold and obey all the rules and become the role model that students can all look up to.

My name is Hugo H and I am a School Vice Captain for 2024.

I live in a household of five that includes my mum Sinead, my dad Tom, my brother Max and my sister Alice. I am 11 years old and my hobbies are sports and walking with my dogs.

This year I am proud to be elected as the school Vice Captain of OHR and I am excited to lead my school as a leader in 2024. Since it is the start of the term the preps are nervous so I will try my best to make them feel comfortable at their new school. There are also many other new students at OHR and this means the year 5/6s of 2024 will have to step in to help the teachers in making the new students feel welcome in the school community.

I will do my best at being the best leader I can be and try my best to make OHR a safe and kind community. As a captain, my promise to the school and my teachers is to be a person of trust. Having trust is key as a school leader because teachers might ask you to keep something secret and announce it later on at an assembly.

Raising Kids in a Digital World

Join us on Thursday 21 March for an enagaging, insightful and practical webinar where you will hear from both the expertise of an experienced primary school teacher and cyber safety educator - Marty - combined with the insights of a psychologist and mum - Carley.

Inform & Empower is endorsed by the eSafety Commissioner as a Trusted eSafety Provider.

The Digital World is a rapidly evoloving landscape for parents and their children. This very practical webinar will provide parents with the tools to support their children in navigating this landscape in their homes.

Here is the link so that parents can register for the webinar :

bit.ly/21march2024

Once parents register (with an email address and name), you will be emailed a link to the webinar. You will also receive reminder emails. The day following the webinar, you will receive a link to access the replay. Therefore, we recommend that even if you are unable to attend the live webinar, that you register to ensure access to the replay which will be available for 30 days.

The following article might also make helpful reading:

Assembly - Introducing our Preps

At this Monday’s Assembly we will take the opportunity to publicly welcome our class of 2024 Foundation (Prep) children. They all have settled well into Mrs Hollow’s classroom environment and have had a very happy first two and half weeks at school. The staff are very proud of our Years 6 and 5 students who have relished the opportunity of acting as responsible buddies to these young children.

Prep - Yr 2 Parent Gathering

Our first gathering of parents will be the Prep - Yr 2 evening at the home of the Korda's. This is scheduled for next Friday, 23 February. Please refer to the details in the invitation, below:

School Closure Day

Our first school closure day for Staff Professional Learning will take place on Tuesday 12 March, immediately following the Labour Day Long Weekend. We hope that this provides some families the opportunity to have an extra long weekend.

PFA Calendar of Events

Make sure you visit the PFA News, further in this Newsletter, to preview the calendar of planned social and fundraising events occuring throughout 2024.

Supervision Before and After School - Repeated

The children are supervised before school by teaching staff from 8.25 – 8.40am. Commencing at 8.30am, the children may enter their classroom and begin setting up for the day as long as their teacher is in attendance. In the interest of child safety, we request that children are not dropped off at school any earlier. Teaching staff are not scheduled for playground supervision until 8.25am as prior to this time they are regularly involved in meetings, preparation and administration.

The children are dismissed at 3.15pm, with staff supervision in the school grounds extending from 3.15pm – 3.30pm. We kindly request that all children be collected by no later than 3.30pm as staff are often involved in a variety of meetings commencing at this time.

We appreciate the fact that so many parents and/or guardians have been prompt in picking up their children at the end of the school day.

Please note the following:

Children are allowed to play on the Junior Playground equipment between the times of 8.25 – 8.40am and 3.15 – 3.30pm, but not in the sandpit nor on the Middle/Senior Playground Equipment at the Northern end of the grounds.
In the interest of everyone’s safety, ball games are not to be played before or after school between the times of 8.25 – 8.40am and 3.15 – 3.30pm.
Children should never wait to be picked up in York Street. They should always be collected by an adult from within the school grounds.

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Frank Dame

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