Dear Parents and Parishioners,

Earlier this week you would have received details enabling you to register for your child's Parent-Teacher Conversation. If you have not already done so, this is a friendly reminder to book your preferred time. The Parent-Teacher Conversations enable the opportunity to discuss your child's progress throughout Semester One, while also providing the chance to set goals for Semester Two.

The Semester 1 Reports will 'go live' this Monday 20 June.

Introducing Mrs Hansen

Mrs Penelope Hansen has been appointed as Year 3/4 classroom teacher at OHR and will role-share the education of the students with Mrs Lisa Canty from the commencement of Term 3. Mrs Hansen is currently employed at St Roch's Primary School in Glen Iris. Penelope spent all day last Thursday visiting OHR as part of her induction to our school. She is very enthusiastic about commencing at OHR and brings with her a strong educational background. The following is a personal introduction written by Mrs Hansen, which was shared earlier this week with the families in her class:

Hello! I am Penny Hansen, the new addition to the 3/4 teaching team. I have been passionately teaching for the past 9 years, mainly in the junior years of Prep - 2. I am thrilled by the opportunity to teach Year 3/4 and join the Our Holy Redeemer community. I have previous experience in Mathematics and Digital Technologies Leadership and I am keenly interested in both areas. I believe that teaching and learning is maximised when it is in partnership with students and families so I am looking forward to working with you and your children and facilitating learning where students find success and growth. My teaching is underpinned by faithful values of respect, compassion, trust, integrity and collaboration.

As a lifelong and enthusiastic learner, I embarked on further study in 2018 resulting in graduating with my Masters of Educational Leadership in 2021.

When I’m not at work you will find me playing with and raising my 2.5 year old son, William with my husband, Leigh. I also enjoy spending time at the beach, gardening, cooking (and eating), shopping, pilates and spending time with my family and friends.

New Child Safe Standards

In July 2021, the Victorian Government announced new Child Safe Standards (CSS) to further strengthen child safe environments and protect children from abuse. The new CSS come into effect on Friday 1 July 2022.

From 1 July 2022, 11 new Victorian Child Safe Standards will replace Victoria’s seven current Child Safe Standards and principles in place since 2016.

The revised Victorian CSS support greater national consistency, reflecting the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, developed following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The CSS comprises new requirements, including:

the involvement of families and students in child safety efforts
focus on the safety of Aboriginal children and young people
management of the risk of child abuse in online environments
governance, systems and processes to keep students safe.

As Catholic educators, we have a moral, mission-driven and legal responsibility to uphold and actively promote the wellbeing and safety of every student entrusted to our care.

Catholic schools are well-placed to respond to the changes because the extensive strategies and policies already in place for the wellbeing and safety of every child will help us be compliant with the new CSS.

Congratulations Maddy

Jump to the PE & Sport page to learn of Madeleine S's amazing achievement in cross country this week. We are all so proud of her.

Union/Mont Albert: School hoarding artwork project

Megan Croucher - Senior Strategic Communications Adviser - has invited our Year 5/6 students to be part of an exciting artwork project during Term 3. The Year 5/6 team has enthusiastically taken up the offer as it also ties in nicely with last week’s excursion to the city where the students toured the best of Melbourne's world-renowned street art scene. The decorated artworks will also be a great way of promoting the name of our school amongst the broader community.

The following is a copy of the invitation that Megan extended to the 5/6 teachers last week:

“There is an opportunity for local school children in Grade’s 5 & 6 to create an artwork that will then get displayed in large format on the hoarding about the Surrey Hills Station car park on the southern side (closest to Canterbury Road). We have done similar works on previous projects and the end results have been awesome and it’s quite special for kids to be able to walk past with their families and see their work in large format and on display for everyone to see.

Hoarding is the fencing we put up around site to provide a secure boundary around works and is basically a huge blank canvas (around 2m tall and 15m long) available to be decorated. We’d be looking to work with 2-3 schools in the local area to develop the artworks.”

Below is a reference to what has been created in the past.

Engagement with Prayer

As noted in last week's Newsletter, the staff from our three Parish schools - OHR, OLPS and OLGC - came together on Friday for a day of professional learning and engagement with Prayer. The day was facilitated by Fr Brendan Reed, Fr Frank O'Laughlin and Dr Helena Goldsmith.

The first session explored what it means to be a Catholic Dialogue School. There were opportunities to engage in dialogue around the 10 characteristics of prayer. During the second session, Helena incorporated a number of different prayer activities providing opportunities for staff to engage with God, self and others in creative ways. Helena chose the Emmaus story as a focus because it is well known and could be readily applied to the types of prayer that we explored.

Throughout the day opportunities were presented for the staffs from our three schools to mix and dialogue.

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Frank

Key Dates