Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families

Today being the last day of term we celebrated with a Crazy Socks and Crazy Hair Day with a touch of green and gold! What a fun and colourful way to finish the term together. Students arrived proudly showing off their creative hairstyles and vibrant socks, bringing plenty of smiles and laughter to our school. It was wonderful to see everyone embracing the spirit of the day and celebrating with their own flair! 

The buzz was electric when playtime finished and it was 12.00pm and time for the Soccer! The children cheered very loudly and made posters while some chose a quieter option.

Thank you to our students, families and staff for helping make the day such a memorable and enjoyable end to the term.  Thank you to all our families who brought in a gold coin donation to go towards helping provide wonderful fun activities at our OLA Fete on Saturday 7 November.

Fete Reminder: If you are having a holiday tidy up, please don’t forget to donate your pre-loved toys, books and clothes for the OLA Fete - These items can be stored in Exodus Hall.

SVDP Winter Appeal

A heartfelt thank you to our students and families for their generous support of the Winter Appeal. Through your donations to St Vincent de Paul Society, we have helped provide much needed assistance to people in our community during the colder months. 

Your kindness, compassion, and commitment to helping others truly reflects our school values. Together we are making a difference. 

Thank you to Michael our Social Justice Leader for coordinating this appeal on the ground here at OLA and thank you to his wonderful helpers Bailey and Brody. We loved being able to hand our Winter Appeal items to Tony French from our parish. Thank you to Tony and his SVDP Conference here in Highett and Cheltenham for the special and heartfelt work that they do. Thank you to all for your generosity!

Term 2

It is so hard to believe that today is the last day of Term 2 - we are half way through the school year! This is our final newsletter for Term 2 and it gives us the opportunity to reflect upon what a truly remarkable term we have had, with just so much to celebrate at OLA. Reading the Student Self Reflections in the Semester 1 Reports it becomes obvious that the students have loved opportunities like:

• An amazing unit of learning focussed on our world and all its creations
• Grade 4 Sacrament of First Eucharist
• ANZAC Day Ceremony
• Class Assemblies and having our parents come along to support us
• Reading time and novel studies
• Learning about the Spanish language and culture 
• Students leading School Tours
• Whole School Masses and Mini Vinnies Commissioning Mass
• Peaceful Kids and Peaceful Classrooms
• Preps in Pyjamas and Grade 1/2 Prayer Services
• Amazing excursions & incursions
• Mother's Day Breakfast and Mother's Day Stall
• Classroom Helpers
• OLA House Team Athletics Carnival at Duncan McKinnon Reserve Athletics Track
• Grade 5s meeting their potential Prep Buddies for 2026 at Prep Interviews
• Junior Mayor experience at City of Kingston for our School Captains
• Grade 5/6 Camp at Camp Weekaway in Benloch
• FIRE Carriers leading National Reconciliation Week activities & acknowledgement
• iSea iCare excursions
• Working Bees
• Running Club, OLA House Team Cross Country + District & Division CC
• District Girls Soccer and the win! 
• Grade 5/6 Lightning Premiership Winter Interschool Sport competitions
• Collecting items for the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal
• Grade 5/6 Wakakirri Rehearsals

We cannot thank you our parents enough for their commitment to these events and the investment you make in your child’s journey at OLA. Your presence and your positive support signals the value you place on your child’s learning and their school. 

Reports and Learning Conversations

Thank you to our wonderful staff who worked so diligently to prepare the Semester One student reports. Your child's student report is now available from the nForma Parent Portal. Please refer to the nForma notice regarding access. 

What a way to finish our week, term and semester partnering with our families in Learning Conversations. It was wonderful to see teachers sharing successes and areas for children and families. The conversations focussed of goals, successes and where to next. We had some very proud students, teachers and parents. 

We loved seeing your children's sharing their successes and their goals. It was great that we could all sit at the table together and to recognise the important role families play. 

Our aim is to establish and maintain collaborative relationships between parents, teachers and students, regarding the student’s academic achievement, learning and wellbeing.

Lamont Book Fair

We loved having the Lamont Book Fair in Brigid Hall for the week from Monday 22 June - Friday 26 June. Lamont Books brought a selection of the best books they could find into the Book Fair with the aim to bring joy and excitement about books and reading. On top of that, every book sold raised funds for our OLA Library and we are excited to share that we raised $711.60. Thank you to all our families for your support and thank you Miss Turner for organising this wonderful opportunity. We hope the children enjoy reading their books over the holidays.

Save the Date - OLA Art Show

We are delighted to announce that our 2026 Art Show will be held on Thursday 8 October from 6:30pm - 8:00pm.

This year's theme is 'Flourish', a concept that will connect across all special areas of our community life, such as, botanicals, nature, family, friends, faith, culture, learning and our environment.

The Art Show is always a highlight of the school calendar, providing an opportunity to celebrate the creativity, imagination and artistic talents of every student. Families will have the chance to view a stunning collection of artworks created throughout the year and experience our school transformed into a vibrant gallery space. Further details will be shared next term. 

Volunteers

If there are any parents who would be keen to help with mounting and labelling the children’s artwork on cover paper in Term 3 please email our Art Teacher Sam Hudson shudson@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au 

Working Bee #2

We are so grateful to the many families who have already joined us for our Working Bees so far this year and thank you to those who have rescheduled their Working Bee date if they were not able to make their rostered one.  We also have had some cash donations which has contributed towards the purchase of tools and equipment as well as the top up of mulch. 

We are looking forward to welcoming families to the Term 3 OLA Working Bee on 

Saturday 25 July, 10.00am-12.00pm 

We especially welcome the following families who are rostered on:

OLA Fete

Thank you to our OLA Fete Committee for their dedicated and amazing support of this great event. Please check out our OLA Fete page of the Newsletter to see if you can help in any way...

• Could the company you work for make a donation for our raffle?
• Marquees – Can you cover us? 
• Calling on business donations
• School holiday clean out? Don’t forget to donate your pre-loved toys, books and clothes - Please take them to Exodus Hall.

Annual Report to the School Community

We are proud to share our 2025 Annual Report to the School Community (ARSC). 

The purpose of the ARSC is to inform parents and the wider school community of the school's successes, activities, and achievements throughout the year, and to meet legislative and regulatory requirements under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) (ETR Act), the Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017, Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth) and the Australian Education Regulations 2023 (Cth). We not only share this document in the newsletter, but we also upload the report on our website, print a handful of paper copies and make them available at the front office and share it with our School Advisory Council.Through this process, Principals also attest to their school’s compliance with the minimum standards and requirements for school registration.

Child Safe Standard 5

11 months 11 standards...

As a school we will highlight one Child Safe Standard each month. 

For June it is Child Safe Standard 5.

‘Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.’ As Catholic educators, we have a moral, mission-driven and legal responsibility to uphold and actively promote the wellbeing and safety of every student entrusted in our care. Our commitment to the protection of children and young people is grounded in fairness, inclusion, and respect for diversity, ensuring every child is treated with dignity and care. Our Catholic communities strive to create welcoming and inclusive environments where diversity is honoured, equity is embedded, and the unique needs of every child and young person are respected.

Prep 2028 Sibling Applications

Believe it or not, we are already planning for Prep 2028! We have received strong interest from new families wishing to join the OLA community, and we are beginning to look ahead to future enrolments. If you have a younger child who is eligible to commence Prep in 2028, we kindly ask that you submit a sibling application as soon as possible (please log onto our website to complete). This will assist us in understanding the number of sibling places required and help us determine how many new families we may be able to welcome into our wonderful school community.

School Fee Payments

As we approach the midpoint of the school year, we ask all families to review their school fee accounts and ensure payments are occurring regularly. As a general guide, families should have paid approximately 50% of their annual school fees by this stage of the year. If you have any questions regarding your account, or require support, please be in contact with the school office or myself. 

Calendar

Please open the ‘Key Dates and Events’ tab in this newsletter for important dates or access the OLA Calendar here. 

School Term Dates - 2026

Term 3, 2026

Tuesday 14 July - Friday 18 September (10 weeks)

Term 4, 2026

Tuesday 6 October - Tuesday 15 Dec (11 weeks)

Pupil Free Days for 2026

• Monday 13 July Vision For Instruction - WalkThrus - Cold Calling, Think Pair Share, Show Me Boards etc and the Disability Learning Modules
• Monday 5 October Vision For Instruction continued
• Monday 2 November Assessment & Reporting
• Friday 4 December 2027 Planning and Preparation 

Please note on the following dates school finish early at 1pm:

OLA Fete on Friday 6 November

Last day of school Tuesday 15 December

Please save and share the date...

Great, Good, Gold, Grand People and Special Friends Day

Monday 27 July - 8.45-10.45am

The start time can be when your Great, Good, Gold, Grand People and Special Friends arrive with your child. If it's easier our special visitors can take a seat in the Church ready for us to come across or they can go through to the classrooms and start the day there.

Congratulations

State Representatives

How proud are we of Cleo K and Zoe from Grade 6!! They have made the state girls soccer team and will represent Victoria in October in NSW. Only 11 girls plus 4 reserves are selected state wide! Wow!! We are in awe of how hard you two have trained to achieve this great honour. Congratulations from all at OLA. It’s like having two of our very own Matilda players!!

Run Club

Running Club on Fridays is the best way to start the day! It is always fun to walk, jog or run a few laps with friends. Thank you to our staff members involved for turning up to help make this happen.

Zippy & Mickey

Congratulations to our Preps for looking after their pet stick insects this term. The Preps have written a letter explaining how to take care of their beloved stick insects and Mrs Hogan in the front office and Mrs Montebruno are taking one home each to continue to look after them and keep them company. The kids had beautiful tips on how to do it properly!

Performances

We love seeing children from all different grades creating stages all over the school yard and putting on little performances. I think we will see some of these performances in our OLA Talent Shows which will be auditioned in each year level for the best to be showcased at our OLA Fete on Saturday 7 November.

Principal Awards

We all love to receive a visit from extra proud students sharing their best work. Well done to these students for their outstanding writing. We also had some strong advocates for our environment visit us too! They had some wonderful ideas about taking care of our school grounds, buildings and each other. We love your energy and love for OLA.

Over the break, we hope that you are all able to have some rest and recharge, after what has been an incredible term of learning - it is no wonder we are all feeling ready for a break!  

Thank you to the staff for another amazing term at OLA, to the students for their hard work and determination and to our parents for their trust and partnership. How is it the end of June? The year is flying past. For those families who are off and away on holidays, have the most wonderful time and see you in Term 3. 

Richard Jacques

Principal