Dear Parents & Parishioners,

Our children’s belief in their own ability to do things is of great influence on their motivation, perseverance and success. Self-belief can motivate our children more than their actual skill level. If they truly believe they can succeed at a test or write a poem, they may be more likely to achieve it than other children who have better ability, but who don't believe they can achieve it. The more our children believe they can do, the more likely they are to generalise that self-belief to other areas of their life. They then believe they have the ability to attempt, persevere and succeed in a whole range of activities.

Self-belief is about being aware of and valuing your true self. It is not about how others see you or how you think others see you. Self-belief is different from self-esteem because self-esteem generally means how you feel about yourself in comparison to others and so can fluctuate according to circumstance. Self-belief is more like an inner light that comes from within you. It is not about how we behave on the outside but rather about our inner feelings and how they make us optimistic about life.

“Promise yourself to live in the belief that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.” Christian Larson.

Parents can help children to believe in their own ability by teaching them to take the initiative to make things happen, instead of waiting for them to happen. Likewise, parents can help children to be proactive by helping them – not telling them – to think about options and solutions instead of problems and barriers.

“Your mind can think of only one thought at a time; make it a positive one.” Author Unknown.

When we, as adults, evaluate our lives, we are more likely to regret challenges we did not confront, risks we did not take and contests we did not enter as a result of self-doubt or lack of self-belief. We are less likely to regret actions we took as a result of innovative self-belief or being too optimistic or even foolish. As least we made the attempt and knew the result!

During last Monday's assembly, I spoke about the fact that we need to 'work hard' in order to achieve our goals. I used the following video as a talking point with the students, where we explored how goals can be achieved despite soemone's age or disability ... we just need to be prepared to put in the effort. This clip captures the emotions of some paricipants as they crossed the finish line in the TCS2025 Sydney Marathon.

Prep 2026 Transition

On Tuesday afternoon we held the first Transition Afternoon for our 2026 Prep students and their parents. It was wonderful to see so many new faces during the afternoon. While the incoming students were warmly welcomed by both Michelle and Mary, the parents joined me in the hall for their own transition afternoon. I was very proud of our School Captains and Vice Captains who joined me for a Q&A session on what it means to be a student at OHR.

Story Stones Garden Bed

For information on this week's Visual Arts workshops, with an Indigenous persepctive, make sure that you head to the Learning & Teaching News page. It's well worth reading about our latest whole-school project.

Working Bee - all hands on deck!

Our last Working Bee for this year will take place this Sunday 19 October. The Working Bee is scheduled to run from 8.30am – 10.30am. We have had good attendances at all Working Bees throughout this year and are hoping that this trend will continue. If you have not attended a Working Bee this year, you may consider attending this one.

A sausage sizzle will commence at 10.00am to conclude the morning.

Bring along the whole family. Even if you can only volunteer an hour of your time, it will be greatly appreciated.

For task planning and catering purposes, please indicate your attendance by emailing either:

Luke: luke.torpey@jrtpartnership.com.au or

Justin: justin.trees@hotmail.com

The school has a limited supply of tools, so we request that you bring a variety of tools along on the morning , including: hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, gloves, wheelbarrows and shovels.

We plan to address the following tasks:

Trimming high bushes along York St, adjacent to the top playing courts
Weeding the Orchard Garden along York St side of the property
Weeding garden beds near hall stairs
Preparing the grounds near the sport shed where our students' new rock pathway installation will be laid
Clear spouting above Sport Shed
Distribute mulch on garden beds.

PFA OHR Colour Fun Run

The OHR Colour Fun Run online fundraiser was launched on Monday.

The OHR PFA have partnered with online fundraising company Go Raise It for the online fundraising website. Each student will be able to set up their own fundraising page on the website and there are a couple of spot prizes to drive signing up and starting their fundraising. There may be some additional spot prizes along the way to continue building excitement and encouraging fundraising efforts up until the fun run on Friday 14th November.

As part of creating their fundraising page, each student will choose their class as their fundraising team. The website includes leader boards allowing us to create a little bit of healthy competition between teams. The 3 classes that are the top fundraisers will be rewarded with a special prize for their class. You can view the leaderboards and links to information about fundraising prizes on our Fundraising hub page:

https://ourholyredeemercolourfunrun.goraiseit.com.au/

On Monday, the PFA distributed a letter for students to take home. Parents should also have received all necessary details to help their child/ren set up their fundraising page.

Many thanks for your support. The more funds raised, the more that goes back into our students' school environment and learning!

With thanks,

OHR PFA Committee

Term 4 School Closure Days

Melbourne Cup Weekend - Monday 3rd & Tuesday 4th November
2026 Planning Day - Monday 1st December

OHR Twlight Christmas Carols

Please note the change in date for the OHR Twilight Christmas Carols. So this event does not overlap the weekend of the OHR Parents & Kids Camp, the Carols have been moved to Friday, 21st November.

Mr Bode has already commenced preparing the students for this event during Performing Arts lessons.

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Frank

Parish News