Week 8

Parents and Carers,

We had our annual Open Day during Catholic Education Week, on Thursday the 16th March. We had a number of tours through the school during the day. Huge thanks to the Year 6 students for doing such a great job of the tours on the day and over the past few weeks. We have already begun to accept enrollments for 2024 and the overwhelming feedback from the parents is, what fantastic spokespeople for the school, our students are. We have more tours booked over the coming weeks and hope you continue to spread the word that ‘Everyday is Open Day’ at Our Lady’s.

As part of Catholic Education Week, our four School Leaders and two RE Social Justice Leaders headed off to the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral with Mrs Bisby. This mass is attended each year by students from all Catholic schools in Melbourne.

We had the final wrap up of our Twilight Sports with the presentation of the Perpetual Trophies and the Ribbons to all the students on Friday afternoon. Congratulations again to the sports captains on the great night. It is good to have healthy competition in sports at school as long as we remember that fun is the most important focus. I was lucky enough to award the Overall Winners Trophy to the Green House Captains, Daisy and Philippa. They accepted it from the Gold House Captains, who were part of the victorious Gold Team of 2022. I can’t thank our PE teacher Jo Johnson enough, for her enormous efforts in getting this event up and running so successfully. It was very hard for me to let go of an event that I have run for the past 20 years. No rest for Jo though, as her focus now turns to the House Cross Country on Friday 31st of March at Central Park. This is a great opportunity for the leaders of blue, gold and red houses to wrest the spotlight away from last year's winners, green house.

It is with a little sadness that I farewell two of our staff members. Jayne Carroll, who has worked as a learning support officer with us for nearly 5 years, will be leaving us and making a big change by moving to England. She has penned a farewell to the community that is included in the newsletter. Brie Morgan who has also been working as an LSO and in the before and after care program is also leaving to commence her teaching career in a neighbouring Catholic school. They will both be missed by the staff and all the students they have worked with during their time as part of the Our Lady's community. We wish them both every success as they embark on their new life adventures.

All members of the community are invited to join a group of our Year 4 students, and Year 4s from Holy Trinity and St. Francis Xavier, in receiving the Communal Rite of Reconciliation, at 7.00pm on Monday 20th March at Our Lady's church. The OLHC Year 4’s have been preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation at school and home during this special time of Lent. It is an opportunity for all members of the community to say sorry to God and seek His forgiveness.

Last week, we sent out copies of the Code of Conduct for Parents, ICT Acceptable Use Agreements and Photo Permission Forms via Operoo for families to sign and return. This is an annual task that we need all families to complete. If you haven't received your invite through Operoo, let us know.

The uniform shop transfer is upon us. As communicated last year, we have been in the process of moving to an external supplier to provide our school uniform needs. Wednesday 22nd of March is the last day that you will be able to purchase uniform items this term. We then complete a stock take and our existing stock will be transferred to Ross Haywood Uniforms, situated above Burger Lounge in Main Rd. They will need a couple of weeks to get all the items onto their system. The online order portal will then open on Monday 17th of April (second week of the school holidays). We will send out more detailed information about the new ordering process next week. Hopefully most families are well placed for uniform at the moment.

I take this opportunity to pass on the sincerest apologies from the staff at Ross Haywood over the issues with the new bomber jacket. They have taken steps to rectify this issue and won’t be putting the jackets back on sale till they are convinced they have rectified the issue.

This week the Year 3 and 5 students have commenced NAPLAN testing activities. They have completed the writing and reading tasks and will be doing the language conventions and mathematics next week. Thanks to Dina Rubini, our new Leader of Learning and Teaching for organising a nice settled couple of days, the children seem to have taken part well. Dina would also like to invite any prospective parent classroom helpers to a training session on Thursday 30th March at 2.30pm or Friday 31st March at 9.15am. These sessions will run for approximately 30 minutes. More detailed information will come out about these sessions via Operoo and the newsletter next week.

I look forward to catching up with the parents of our 2023 Preps at the annual Prep Parents’ Dinner next week on Wednesday 22nd of March in the school community centre. It is such a great opportunity for the new parents to build on their bonds as a group and a chance for me to tell them about the benefits of school working bees!

Term 2 for students will commence on Wednesday 26 April. Staff will be participating in a Professional Development day on Monday 24 April and Tuesday 25 April is ANZAC Day.

As always I encourage you to take a moment to read about all the other exciting things happening at OLHC in the other areas of this newsletter.

Regards,

Mark

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Harmony Week

MONDAY 20 - SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2023