Principal's Message

Principal's Report

Dear Families & Carers,

Welcome to another exciting edition of our school newsletter. We have had a busy couple of weeks with swimming. The children were, as always, amazing role models for our school when out and about. We are now in Week 6 of Term 4. 

2024 Structure & Staffing

Firstly, it brings my great pleasure to announce that we have added another member to our team! Please join me in welcoming Caroline Horg to the Our Lady's team. Caroline is currently working at St. Joseph's in Benalla and will transition across to us for 2024.

After much hard work behind the scenes, we are pleased to announce our structure & anticipated staffing for 2024.

Classrooms

Foundation - Mrs. Caroline Horg

Grade 1/2 - Mrs. Elizabeth Grant

Grade 2/3 - Mrs. Rebekka Sinclair

Grade 3/4 - Mrs. Cathie Walsh (4 days) & Miss Alesiani

Grade 5/6 - Mrs. Kate Hutchinson

Grade 5/6 - Mrs. Lynda Griffin

Specialists

Art: Mel Harper

Auslan: Lucia Alesiani

Music: Brigid Malcolm

Sport: Unconfirmed

Leadership

Senior Leader Teaching & Learning: Josh Naish

Senior Leader Learner Diversity: Michelle D'Antonio

Senior Leader Catholic Identity: Brigid Malcolm

Student Support

Intervention: Josh Naish

Mental Health & Wellbeing: Michelle D'Antonio

Speech Pathology: Kate Reid (1 day a week)

Library: Rosie Pane

Administration

Office Administration: Julie McMonigle (4 days)

Now that we have our structure & classroom teachers complete, staff will begin working on class lists. If you have any specific requests, please contact me directly. Whilst we work hard on ensuring we cater for all students, requests may not always be possible.

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 6

1st: 3/4WY

2nd: Foundation & 1/2NH

3rd: 5/6G

4th: 1/2BH

5th: 4/5G

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

2024 Grade 6 Tops

To all our 2024 Grade 6 parents, please make sure you jump online and order your child a Grade 6 top for next year. You have until this Friday the 10th of November to order. A letter went home to all families last week explaining how to place this important order.

SIMON EVERYWHERE

This term, in preparation for 2024, we will be rolling out a new feature to our families that is an extension of our internal SIMON system. As a staff we use a program called SIMON to communicate between staff, mark attendance and generate reports. We will be utilising the parent extension platform 'Simon Everywhere' to notify family of first aid incidents, provide permission for excursions and notify us of an absence. Parents will also then have access to our electronic calendar at school. We are doing this to streamline our communication platforms. Stay tuned for more information!

Little Angler Kit - Message from the Government

We want more kids to catch a new hobby - fishing - because it’s a healthy and active pastime that gets them into the great outdoors and experiencing nature with friends and family.

To make that happen the State Government committed $1.5m to provide 60,000 Little Angler Kits to Grade Five primary school students. 

Today, our Grade 5 students are coming home with their fishing kits which includes a rod & reel combo, travel case, tackle kit and instructional booklet. Enjoy!

Class Dojo Raffle

Last week, our School Wide Behaviour Blitz was 'Catching Kindness.' Without an Assembly this week, we have drawn our virtual raffle today.

Congratulations Millie! What a well deserving winner!Millie was 'caught' doing something kind last week  in the yard and nominated by a staff member. Well done Millie!

This week, we aimed to catch some good sports in the yard. Without an Assembly again this week, we decided to hold a virtual raffle. Congratulations Sonny from 1/2BH. A staff member caught you being a good sport in the yard.

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 both 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