Principal's Message

Principal's Report

Dear Families & Carers,

Welcome to another exciting edition of our school newsletter. We are all set for an action packed week with the Festival of the Sacred yesterday, a whole school excursion to Galen on Wednesday and a House Sports Day on Friday. 

Festival of the Sacred

Yesterday, our Grade 5/6 students travelled to the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre, combining with St. Joseph's Benalla, St. Mary's Rutherglen & St. Patrick's Wangaratta for a performance like no other. There was singing, dancing and acting during this extravaganza as our students performed on centre stage. I must say, performing at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I am so grateful Catholic Education Sandhurst supports us to provide for our students. Check out these amazing images from Jenni Kennedy (CES).

House Colours Sports Day

On Friday, we are holding a very special school event. Our very capable house captains are organising some fun for our whole school. Children are encouraged to wear their house colours with pride and bring a sense of adventure to participate in a range of sport activities planned by our house captains. Events kick off from 12pm - all welcome. 

When your child enrols at Our Lady's Primary School, they are allocated to a House. We have three houses here at our school;

MacKillop (Red)

Pangerand (Yellow)

Delany (Blue)

Our House Captains spent time within the house teams last week, building team moral! Children came together for cross age activities, creating chants and posters for our upcoming sports session. Friday is set to be an exciting day of challenge and friendly competition.

Staffing Announcements

Rosie Pane, our very dedicated librarian here at Our Lady's Primary School has officially resigned from her position with us, effective at the end of the year. Rosie currently works at Our Lady's Primary School each Monday. Rosie then  works from Tuesday - Friday at St. Patrick's Primary School. Rosie has been offered an additional day to assist with her workload at St. Patrick's Primary School. Rosie has assisted us with our library for the past 20 years and will be sadly missed by us all. We do however understand that working 5 days a week at St. Patrick's is optimal.

We are also saying farewell to Kristy Eames. Kristy joined our team in Term 3 and is finishing up at Our Lady's on Thursday. Whilst Kristy has only been with us for a short time, she has worked intensively supporting our students in the Foundation area of our school. Kristy is finishing up to pursue a career outside of education. We wish Kristy all the best with her future endeavours. 

Bizarre Bazaar

As part of the Grade 5/6 Inquiry Unit, Bizarre Bazaar, our Grade 5/6G class are looking to raise money for a local charity. 

The students would like to;

• hold a disco (gold coin donation for entry)
• sell zooper doopers ($1)
• offer a lunch of a sausage in bread ($2)

Our Grade 5/6G students are looking to hold this occasion on Friday the 1st of December, 2023. Order forms will be sent home in the near future. At this stage, the charity the students are raising funds for is undetermined, but once we know more we will share that with you all. 

Attendance

At Our Lady's, we have been working hard on promoting school wide attendance. At the moment, as an extra incentive, we have a competition going on which class can work together to have the best attendance in the school! Here is our latest tally board...

Week 8

1st: 1/2NH

2nd: 3/4WY

3rd: Foundation

4th: 1/2BH

5th: 5/6G

6th: 4/5G

Check out the Attendance Matters page for all the twists and turns of our competition so far!

Class Dojo Raffle

Last week, our School Wide Behaviour Blitz was 'Being a good sport.' Congratulations to Deegan (Foundation) for last week's win!

This week, we congratulate Charlie (4/5G). Charlie has been spotted travelling to school safely. Thank you Charlie for being an amazing role model to those around you!

Also, congratulations are in order for our Student of the Week! These awards were presented at Assembly on Monday;

Foundation: Dylan 

Grade 1/2BH: Ella

Grade 1/2NH: Matilda (absent)

Grade 3/4WY: Claudia

Grade 4/5G: Henry

Grade 5/6G: Leo

School Closure Days

We wanted to take this opportunity to inform you about some important changes we are making to our teachers’ work patterns and conditions and benefits. These changes have been carefully considered and are necessary due to a variety of factors, including how all Victorian schools are required to allocate a teacher’s workload.

These changes deliver several positive changes for our dedicated staff, including enhancing their well-being and work life balance and the overall functioning of our school. We continue to ensure the quality of Catholic education continues and maintain a safe and nurturing environment for our students remain our top priorities.

However, implementing these changes will mean that an additional Pupil Free day will be taken on Monday the 18th of December with a focus on teacher professional practice, allowing staff time to ensure documentation, data and all processes are complete before the end of the year. We appreciate your understanding and support in this matter. This then moves our final day with students to Friday the 15th of December, 2023. We hope that by grouping our school closure days together at the end of the year we are making it easier for families to manage these days. 

Our commitment to your child's education, experiences and wellbeing remains, and we will continue to communicate any updates or adjustments as they occur. If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you for your continued partnership as we strive to provide an outstanding education for our students.

Blessings,

Cassie Lynch