Principal's Message

Principal's Report

Dear Families & Carers,

Welcome to another exciting edition of our school newsletter. We are noticing that the students are becoming very tired at this point of the year and with the change in weather, some very tired bodies will be coming home at the end of each day.

On Monday we were treated to our House Colours Sports Day, hosted by our amazing House Captains. All students participated in an hour of sport and fun, competing for the shield! Congratulations to all teams for the team spirit in our school. Delany House were the winners on this occasion. Thank you to all parents who were able to come along and cheer our students on. 

Staffing Announcements

Mr. Greg Young has advised us that he has made the decision to retire from his position at Our Lady's Primary School. Greg has been away on leave since the end of Term 2 and has been continually in our thoughts and prayers since then. Greg has been a teacher at Our Lady's since 2011 for which we are very blessed to have known him for this time. We thank Mr. Young for his time and dedication throughout his time at our school. Greg has decided to bid us farewell from afar - we will continue to keep Mr. Young in our prayers as he settles into retirement. 

Mrs. Clare Kirby is also finishing up her time at Our Lady's Primary School. Clare has been working in the Foundation classroom alongside Mrs. Dayman since 2021. This year, Clare has stepped up brilliantly into the role of sports teacher alongside her one day in the Foundation classroom. Clare is best known for being passionate with everything she puts her mind to...it doesn't matter what it is, but if you give a job to Clare, she will complete this to the very best of her ability. We wish Clare all the very best with her future endeavours. 

During our Mass today we will farewell the following staff members on behalf of our community; Mrs. Fran Dayman, Mrs. Clare Kirby, Mrs. Rosie Pane & Mr. Greg Young. For staff members who were unable to attend our Mass, a gift from the community will be sent to acknowledge their time with us. 

Bizarre Bazaar

Thank you to all the parents and carers who sent in very generous donations to the Grade 5/6G Bizarre Bazaar, held on Friday. Once we have an official tally, we will communicate all funds raised. 

On behalf of our community, I would like to thank the amazing students (and staff) who worked together to make this event possible. Our children had an amazing time at the disco and many traditional songs were among the favourites. 

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 classes can work together to have the best attendance in the school! Here is our latest tally board...

Week 10

1st: 1/2NH

2nd: 3/4WY & 5/6G

3rd: Foundation

4th: 1/2BH

5th: 4/5G

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

Class Dojo Raffle

This week, our School Wide Behaviour Blitz was 'Self Umpiring.' Congratulations to Claudia (Grade 3/4) for the win!

Also, congratulations are in order for our Student of the Week! These awards were presented at Assembly on Monday:

Foundation: Bailey

Grade 1/2BH: Teagan

Grade 1/2NH: Anika (absent)

Grade 3/4WY: Jacob

Grade 4/5G: Alexis

Grade 5/6G: Robbie

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 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.

In closing, I have attached a few 'memories from the past' as we prepare to farewell our Grade 6 leaders from Our Lady's. Please don't forget we have a very special Graduation for these students next week! This group of students is like no other I have taught in my many years of education. I wish this tremendous group well in all future endeavours. See if you can work out who is who! (Please note - at the time of publishing we did not have all photos available. If you haven't sent your child's photo in please do so we can honour them in our Grade 6 Graduation.)

Blessings,

Cassie Lynch