Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

What a wonderful start to Term 4! There has been such a lovely feeling around the school these last couple of weeks. Here are some photos of the children which capture the joy of friends and that deep sense of belonging to a great community. It was lovely to hear children and adults sharing stories of their holiday adventures; it appears that all families (and staff) had a much needed and well deserved holiday, in readiness for the exciting term ahead. 

Traditionally, Term 4 is a transitional period for our students, as they prepare to move up to the next year level and even on to Year 7. For many of us, it's hard to believe how quickly the time has flown, in particular, for our soon to be departing Grade 6s. It only seems like yesterday they were in Prep! We look forward to celebrating their journey at OLA this term, in addition to planning their 'Big Day Out', Graduation and final assembly. 

As we settle back into the routines of school life, we take this opportunity to remind families to closely monitor the fatigue levels of the students, particularly with the desire to stay up later as a result of daylight savings. In addition to the enriching academic program planned for Term 4, students will also undergo extensive assessments to review their academic progress and track student growth. We know that students respond best when they are well rested and settled, so we welcome your support with this. 

District & Division Athletics

What an incredible day our OLA Athletics Team had at the District Carnival at the end of last term! Out of 40 talented competitors, 22 students  finished 1st or 2nd in their event and went onto represent OLA at Division Athletics on Thursday 9th October.  Special shout outs to our U12 Boys Relay Team (Olly M, Tyler, Alex & Jess), Sophie in Triple Jump, and Tyler in High Jump for setting new District records – outstanding achievements! We are so proud of every runner, jumper and thrower who gave their all. Your effort, teamwork and sportsmanship made the day a huge success! A huge thank you to Liz Thompson (OLA PE teacher), Pierre (Bailey’s Grandad) and Rachel (Vienna’s Mum) for their support and help with training sessions. Congratulations to all OLA students who went on to represent our school at Division Athletics on Monday just gone. A big congratulations to Sophie (Triple Jump) and Tyler (High Jump) who progress on to Southern Metropolitan Region on Wednesday 22 October.Please refer to the Learning & Teaching tab for more information on this special event. 

Donations received with gratitude for Fiji

At the end of last term we gathered some of our pre-loved school furniture and resources that we no longer are using. This equipment is being donated to The Katalyst Foundation who are creating early learning and school opportunities for children in Fiji. Thank you to the Katalyst team and our Grade 6 Social Justice Leaders for joining in the conversation and positive action. 

OSAC Update

It has been a busy time for OSAC in the last month with the advisory council meeting in September and October to consider a range of topics that has helped inform and support the decision making at OLA. At the end of last term, we hosted the school’s MACS Business Partner at our annual finance meeting and invited additional family representatives (so that we ensured good representation of 1, 2 and 3 child families) to discuss upcoming financial considerations at OLA. We were very grateful for the robust discussion and varying perspectives that each of our family representatives shared with the Committee.

More recently we met for a general business meeting and provided support to OLA by discussing and providing feedback on:

- Class placements, structures and numbers for 2026 and beyond

- Staff recruitment and programs

- Guidelines to support the community using the P&F WhatsApp accounts

- Options for school photography; and

- Swimming in 2026

- Working Bee arrangements.

At each meeting, members received updates and provided advice on matters affecting OLA and felt confident that the school is in a good place. Anyone interested in joining OLA’s School Advisory Committee can express their interest to Richard or Caitlan, either in person or by email. We look forward to the new OSAC Members for 2026 joining our next meeting on 17 November, before finishing the year off at the AGM on 8 December.

Lucas Ryle & Sally Wright

OSAC Co-Chairs 

OLA Class Structures 

As a staff and together with the Consultative Committee, the OLA School Advisory Council and parent input, our class structures take into consideration the following key elements:

• Priority for the development of learning outcomes for all students
• Priority for the wellbeing needs of all students
• Recognition of the formation of each of the characteristics, strengths and needs of each class and level grouping, for example, Prep, level 1&2, level 3&4 and level 5&6 across the school
• Allocation of staff to all classes and levels across the school, matching staff expertise to specific level placement along with staff team skills and dynamics, which will be shared 11 December 2025, following the 2025 orientation morning  
• Recognising the Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement and the industrial requirements in regards to staff allocation of hours and work loads and agreements in regards to class numbers from Prep-2 and 3-6
• Consideration of the funding as allocated to OLA School from Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) for our 2026 staffing budget.  Each Melbourne MACS school has an allocated staffing budget that cannot be exceeded. The school principal and MACS Business Partner use a MACS designed ‘staffing calculator’ to ensure that the school takes into consideration the allocation of all employees, their years of service, ‘oncosts’, level loading etc to ensure that the budget is allocated to best meet the needs of a school.   

The 2026 school structures are currently being designed to best meet the needs of the entire school taking into consideration the financial allocations to our school along with the 6 elements as listed above.  As a leadership team we will have great confidence that the allocation of teaching staff, along with support of staff, will provide a highly productive year of learning and growth for our student cohorts. School leadership is currently negotiating the final allocation of teachers, and support staff to levels.  We will advise community members of staffing appointments and classroom allocations for the 2026 school year in the coming weeks. 

Before and After School Care at OLA

TheirCare will be hosting a Parent Information Session for new and existing families on Monday, 20 October 2025, from 7:30 – 8:30 pm. 

The session will provide parents with an overview of:

• Our programming and activities
• Session structure
• Staffing and support
• Enrolment and booking management
• Grievance procedure
• Live Q&A

 Online via Microsoft Teams

Meeting link 

TheirCare

MACSSIS Survey Thank you

We are so grateful to all our families who participated in the 2025 MACSSIS survey. In the final two weeks we went from 40 to 80 out of our 193 families completing the survey.

That is 40% of our families having completed the survey. This is a record for our school and we look forward to the feedback informing us about what we are doing well and what we can do even better at. Congratulations to Amy Mee for being the lucky winner of the $50 Book Voucher and thank you again to all families who participated.

Prep 2026 Transition Dates & Times

We are excitedly preparing to welcome our 2026 Prep families and students for the Prep Orientation program. The orientation program is an exciting and enriching experience, as the children transition from a small Kindergarten setting to a larger, more vibrant school setting. 

For our new (and not so new) Prep parents, we look forward to welcoming you on Thursday 6 November at 7.30pm. This information evening is a wonderful opportunity to meet new families, teachers and key staff who will work with your children next year. Our orientation sessions are as follows: 

Calendar

Please open the ‘Key Dates and Events’ tab in this newsletter for important dates or access the OLA Calendar here.  

School Term Dates - 2025

Term 4, 2025

Tuesday 7 October - Tuesday 16th December (11 weeks)

School Closure Dates

Term 4, 2025

Monday 3 November (Melbourne Cup Long Weekend) - Assessment and Reporting

Friday 21 November - Faith Formation with Gen Bryant

Friday 5 December (the day after the production) - Planning for 2026

Calling for new OSAC members

I take this opportunity to thank Pat Moran and Sally Wright for their service to the OLA community as active members of Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School Advisory Council (OSAC) over the last 3 years. The experience and expertise that you both have provided OLA is very much appreciated. We especially appreciate you both being at the end of the phone for advice and support. Thank you Sally for being Co-Chair of OSAC this year and thank you Pat for being Secretary for the last couple of years. We know you will both continue to be great advocates for our wonderful school and that you will find new and exciting ways to remain connected.

The School Advisory Council acts as a supportive voice to the Principal, offering feedback on areas such as school improvement, financial governance, community engagement, communication, and the wellbeing and learning of our students.

How to Nominate: 

Please send an email to Richard Jacques principal@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au stating your wish to nominate for a seat on the Advisory Council. Include a brief outline of your background and areas of interest. As two vacancies have become available on OSAC, we are calling for nominations to fill these positions. Please find attached, the OSAC Membership Nomination Request, which contains detailed information regarding the role. Also please note the application closing date of Friday 31 October. We look forward to securing two new members for our team whose skills compliment those of the members already on the School Advisory Council.

Calling for new OLA Parents & Friends members

We thank our 2025 P&F Committee for their support of our great school and we especially thank our Co Chairs Lauren Koukoumanos & Claudelle Salter for creating such a welcoming and positive team. This year has seen a large focus on providing opportunities for the children and parents to have fun, enjoy being part of our great community and to fundraise. Please know that your active support is very much appreciated. We have also loved the social events organised in the different year levels and the support the P&F representatives give their level when there is a need for support for a family, a child or a staff member. These P&F Year Level Reps will be looking for new reps to join them or replace them in 2026. Current P&F Reps please let Lauren and Del know if you are keen to continue or if you have secured a replacement.

If you would like to be part of helping our school next year and adding to our wonderful sense of community, please consider joining the 2026 P&F Team. It is a great way to contribute to the development of the school and meet other parents.

We are looking for two parent representatives from each year level, who are responsible for updating the parents in their year level with important information/reminders, and organising a couple of events throughout the year. For example, the Grade 1 P&F representatives host the Morning Tea for new and current families on the first day of school.

Feel free to chat to this year's P&F members if you would like some more information or, better still, if you would like to get involved. You can also speak with me in person or email any questions or ideas to principal@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au

Class Placements 2026

The staff work together on class lists for the following year from the start of Semester 2. The process will be completed with consideration given to social cohesion, friendship groupings, placement of siblings and positive academic influences. Other factors to be considered include keeping a ‘balance’ of children with social, emotional, physical, behavioural and academic needs, and an even spread of year level numbers and genders in multi-age classes. This is an opportunity for students to either further develop existing friendships or an opportunity to develop new friendships. We see the ability to create new friendships each year as a valuable opportunity to further develop personal life skills for all children.

Parent Input - Meeting with the Principal

If parents have any relevant information that they believe is essential to the class placement process, they are invited to make a time to meet with the Principal to share their thoughts. Parents are requested to make an appointment in the month of October each year. Appointment times can be negotiated with the school office by calling 9584 9488 or email office@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au We will evaluate all input and make a professional judgement on the placement of the child in question. The final decision rests with the school. Please keep in mind the many limitations that are already placed on the staff during this complex process. Appointments relating to class placements must be made by 31 October each year so that staff can have relevant information to assist them with the placement of children. 

'Teacher Shopping'

Parents making requests simply as ‘Teacher Shopping’, without any foundation, are unlikely to receive their requests for the next year. The reference ‘teacher shopping’ is a term used when parents have heard positive comments about teachers in the school from other parents and think that teacher may be good for their child. Likewise, a sibling may have had a teacher previously that a parent wishes for their next child to experience. We would love to meet all requests but there are other elements around class placements, as detailed previously, which may take priority over a request as such. We are blessed with a highly skilled and enthusiastic staff team and we are confident that all teachers will meet the needs of your children. If all parents submitted requests for teachers then our system of student allocation would be compromised. As stated above, parents are invited to meet with the Principal to discuss thoughts that may be pertinent to class placements but we ask that you take on board all of the above information when making your request.

Summer Uniform

As of Week 3, all students need to be wearing their full (correct) summer uniform. A school hat must be worn at break times, with a strict 'no hat, no play' rule applying. Students are required to apply their own sunscreen, as staff are not permitted to do so. We encourage families to please apply sunscreen before school and if you would like your child to apply sunscreen again during the day to have a roll on sunscreen in their school bags. 

Correct school shoes and socks must be worn and we remind students and families, when purchasing new school shoes for next year, black sneaker Asics or Nike runners are not part of the regular school uniform. If the sport shoes are black leather and black soled then they are welcome to be worn as school uniform - no branding to be visible in white or another colour other than black.We thank you in advance for your understanding. 

School Fees

Term 4 school fee statements will be sent out next week. We kindly request that all families with outstanding account balances settle their payments at their earliest convenience. In the event that you did not receive your fee statement as anticipated, please reach out to Maria (mhogan@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au). Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated. Please note Term 4 is the term a school relies on its cash reserves that are paid by our families and that is why our fees are due at the end of Term 3. We appreciate all families who have been at the table or in conversation and have established a payment plan with the school. For anyone who is on a payment plan we understand that payments do continue in this last term of the school year.

Congratulations

Sport's Colour's Day

Congratulations and thank you to all in our community who joined us on the last day of term in wearing your favourite sports colours to school. September is such an exciting time for finals. In addition to AFL we enjoyed honouring sports such as Rugby, Soccer, Netball, Hockey, Martial Arts and F1!

Principal Awards

It’s just the start of Term 4 and already we have some outstanding work being handed in. 

Thank you Damian and Ella P for sharing your writing with us and thank you for presenting your ideas to such a high standard. Thank you Maree for coming into the office to launch your Mum's very own book, 'Is it the First of December'. Congratulations Maree and of course Maree's Mum Joanna.

Football Victoria 3x3 Tournament

A huge congratulations to Zoe K (5/6SP) who competed in the Football Victoria 3x3 tournament over the holidays. A big achievement for Zoe's team who won the championship! Congratulations. 

Brisbane Lions

We have seen some very happy Brisbane Lions fans at OLA over the last week and one teacher in particular! What a win! What a premiership!

Thank you

How lucky are we at OLA to have such important people from our community come to speak to our Preps. This was a huge support to their learning about the people who help to keep us safe and make a difference in our lives. Thank you to these wonderful firefighters and thank you to our Prep students for being so interested and keen to learn more.

P&F Event

Please support this fun community event that is being organised by our OLA P&F.

Friday 7 November - Colour Run at Cheltenham Park for the children

May this final term of the school year be a special one. It certainly is the best term for learning and we thank our families for partnering with us to make sure it the best term yet.

Richard Jacques

Principal