From our Stand in Principal

Dear Parents,

I just want to say how impressed I am with the staff at OLF. As I walk from class to class and around the playground, I see a group of professionals every day completely dedicated to their profession. I’m so impressed with the teaching and learning I see in action. It’s nice to see explicit instruction combined with the opportunity for students to collaborate and think for themselves in order for deep learning. With the assistance of the LSO’s, your children are certainly in good and safe hands. What is obvious at OLF is that it is such a caring school. The office staff, support staff and teachers are doing an amazing job.

Book week will be celebrated on Friday after a week dedicated to books and reading. Reading is one of the most important activities children can do and to foster a love of reading is critical in the growth and development of all young people. The Library has come alive and so have classrooms. I’m certainly looking forward to a wonderful day on Friday and I hope many of you are able to join us.

I happened to walk into the Library this week and came across Ms Tozer working with her Stage 3 STEM Mad Enrichment group who have had a busy week. They have been engaged in two full day workshops throughout the week. They are in the final weeks before their projects are due and have been focusing on prototyping and testing their designs. Some designs include:

• UNTANGLED - a motion sensor detector used to reduce sea turtles becoming entangled, by sending out an alert when a sea turtle approaches

   

• SWARMZ - a robotic bee used to pollinate flowers in areas with low bee populations 

   

• MASTER SWITCH - a master electric switch designed to turn on/off all electronics in classrooms at recess and lunch in an effort to reduce electricity wastage

   

• ENERGY AWARE - a portable solar powered charger to charge everyday items such as phones

   

• THERABEAR - a plush teddy that has voice recording capabilities for children who are upset/distressed and find it difficult to communicate. It uses AI technology to capture the recording and send a brief outline to a parent on a connected app. 

   

How impressive is this! Congratulations to Ms Tozer and her students on these wonderful initiatives.

Our school captain at De La Salle Caringbah, Dene Krywulycz won an amazing award this week that I would like to share with you. Dene does a lot of volunteer work in and around the school as well as in the local community. Dene can be seen every Tuesday morning helping in the Parish gardens and is also involved with coaching and mentoring a local all abilities Rugby side. For Dene’s commitment to community service, he won an Order of Australia Association 2026 Youth Award and was presented this award at Government House by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales. What an honour for Dene, particularly given only 25 of these awards were given in the state. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead.

Peter Buxton| Stand in Principal