Dear Parents & Parishioners,

I hope your children had a great break over the school holidays and that everyone had the opportunity to soak up the great weather over the Grand Final Weekend.

'Footy Colours Day' and OHR's 'Walk for Tiwi'

The last day of Term 3 concluded in great style with all the students dressing up in their footy gear and partaking in the range of footy activities that were organised and run by the senior students. A highlight of the day was The Walk for Tiwi where over $640 was raised by our school. I know the community on Bathurst Island will be very appreciative of our efforts. Thanks to David Crawshay and the team of parent helpers who concluded the term with a BBQ for the students.

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Parent Engagement at Home

Parents have a pivotal role to play alongside teachers in the development of their children at home including, and most importantly, their mental health.

How can parents use prevention strategies to support their children's mental health? Facilitate learning at home through easy to implement activities that foster self efficacy, improve focus, cognitive skills and encourage positive wellbeing!

Small Tasks Lead to Larger Missions: If your child struggles to focus and is easily distracted, begin with small, manageable tasks like sorting the cutlery drawer or their clothes into categories. This builds foundational focus skills and gives them the confidence to tackle larger projects on their own.

The Art of Conversation: Ask your child to maintain eye contact during conversations. This can drastically improve focus, awareness, listening and attentiveness that helps them to listen more attentively at school.

Engaging with Puzzles: Puzzle games can not only entertain but also instil patience and concentration. They also provide opportunities for building resilience, following instructions or rules and learning how to cooperate with others.

Music and Focus: Ask children to listen to a song from start to finish, then discuss what they’ve heard - the words, instruments, shifts in the music tempo. This sharpens awareness, promotes attentive listening, relaying words or messages in the song and improves memory skills. This also encourages them to sing which is so good for their wellbeing!

Educational Car Rides: Turn a car ride to sport or family outings into an educational quest, seeking out various objects or landmarks as you go and describing them. This increases children’s awareness of their surroundings, improves observational skills and enables them to learn how to describe what they see. This also helps with perspective and verbal skills that help your child to develop important brain connections.

If you need to make a new rule in the car to put phones in the glove box, do it!

All of these strategies support children’s brain development and provide parents with ways to create connections with them.

2023 Swimming Program

Make sure that you go to the PE News page to obtain details of this year's Swimming Program, which commences in just three weeks. It's time to locate those swimming caps and goggles!

All swimming forms that were emailed on Monday are to be returned to the classroom teacher no later than TOMORROW as these forms need to be taken to PLC by Mrs Golds this Monday. Thank you.

Kids Disco is Next Friday

Only one week to go until the annual Kids Disco! So get your platform shoes on, dust off the sequin jacket and get ready to boogie.

Details can be found on the PFA News page.

OHR Colour Run ... One Month to Go!

Thank you so much for supporting our school. This term, we are hosting a Colour Explosion School Fun Run to help us fundraise for the PFA. All PFA funds go directly back to the school to benefit our students. Most importantly, the Colour Explosion School Fun Run will be a fun and exciting day for our students.

When is the Colour Explosion School Fun Run? We will be hosting our Colour Explosion School Fun Run during the afternoon of Friday 4 November. Make sure students bring a WHITE T-shirt to wear during the Fun Run. They will be covered in non-toxic, biodegradable colour powder from head to toe!

Volunteers will be required on the day. More details to follow.

Is the powder safe? The non-toxic colour powder is made of high-quality corn starch and permitted food colours, so it’s safe for skin and eyes. Students with asthma are advised to be careful in their decision to participate.

How does my child fundraise? Fundraising is easy – simply follow the instructions outlined in your child’s sponsorship booklet, which they received at the end of las term. Your child can accept donations online by creating a cybersafe fundraising profile at www.australianfundraising.com.au .

We ask that you assist your child to create their online profile page.

More details can be found on the PFA News page further in this newsletter.

Summer Uniform

As advised last term, students have the option of wearing either their summer or winter uniform for the first two weeks of this term, but not a combination of the two. We also ask that the students wear black leather school shoes on the days they are not wearing their sports uniform.

All students will be required to attend school in their full summer uniform from Monday 16 October.

Term 4 School Closure Days

Melbourne Cup Weekend - Monday 6 & Tuesday 7 November
2024 Planning Day - Monday 27 November

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Frank

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