Learning Centre News... 

Learning Centre One

How have we come to the end of the year already? What a fantastic year it has been watching the preps grow, learn and flourish into respectful individuals. We have really loved watching them transform into the beautiful little people that they are. The prep team thanks you for your continued support over the year and entrusting us to teach and provide a rich learning experience for your child’s first year of school. We hope that you all have a holy, happy and safe Christmas as we look forward to seeing you all in the new year! 

In Literacy, the students have been exploring the art of letter writing, learning how to structure their letters for different audiences. They've been practicing the key elements of a well-written letter, including a greeting, body, and closing. To bring their skills to life, the students wrote heartfelt letters to Santa, sharing their Christmas wishes and expressing their hopes for the holiday season. It’s been a fun and creative way for them to apply their learning while also getting into the festive spirit!

Throughout their Maths lessons, students have been exploring the concept of money and its role in purchasing goods and services. They have learned about the different Australian currency notes and coins, as well as their respective values. In addition, students have examined the purpose of money and how it is used in everyday transactions.

During Religion , the students have been focusing on the season of Advent, preparing for the coming of Christ. The Preps have been learning about Advent wreaths and the significance of each candle, exploring how they symbolise hope, peace, joy, and love. Through this, the students have discovered that Advent is a special time for us to be present and open to receiving the gift of Jesus.

Colour Run

What a fantastic turnout for the Colour Run! It was a fun-filled afternoon for everyone who took part. The students had a blast watching the teachers get slimed and running the course, dodging vibrant bursts of coloured powder along the way. We can’t wait for the next Colour Run—it’s sure to be even bigger and brighter!

Inquiry Expo

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the parents and guardians who attended and participated in the Inquiry Expo. It was a wonderful opportunity for students to showcase their creations and share the insights they've gained through their Inquiry learning. We truly appreciate everyone who took the time to join us and explore the students' impressive work, which explored life in the past and how it compares to life today. Your support made the event even more special for the students. 

Some friendly reminders:

• Tuesday 17th December - End Term 1pm
• Tuesday 28th January - Staff first day back
• Thursday 30th January - Meet and Greets
• Friday 31st January - Students first day of Term 1 

Prep Team - Amanda, Dasanthi, Donna, Kelsey, 

Kiah, Natasha, Rachael, Sarena, Teagan and Tina 

Learning Centre Two

Wishing all of our wonderful families a safe and blessed Christmas and a relaxing New Year. Thank you for all of your support throughout 2024! It has been busy, productive and loads of fun working with your children. We wish our Year 6 students all the very best of luck as they move on to new beginnings and we look forward to seeing our Year 5s back next year as the leaders of the school.

We celebrated the primary school journey of our Year 6 students on Friday evening. It was a fitting end for these wonderful children who are full of promise - we will miss you all!

INQUIRY EXPO

This morning we invited families to the Learning Centre for our Geography Inquiry Expo. The students presented their brochures, QR codes and websites about their chosen country and spoke expertly about their research.

RELIGION

In Religion lessons, the students have been discussing the many titles used in the Bible when referring to Jesus:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Immanuel (Emmanuel)

CHRISTMAS NATIVITY DAY

Some of our students came to school dressed up for the Christmas nativity. A great effort by these creative kids.

COLOUR RUN

Last Friday, the 5/6 students participated in a Colour Run fundraiser woth the rest of the school. They had a blast running around the course while being sprayed with coloured powder and water from the fire truck's hose.

END OF YEAR AWARDS

Congratulations to the following senior students who received an award at our final assembly last week.

Congratulations again to Antonio who received the Sacraments of Reconciliation and also his First Eucharist earlier this Semester.

FAREWELL AND GOOD LUCK

We are all very sad to say goodbye to our good friend and wonderful teacher, Zach. We wish him all the very best as he joins Emmanuel College, they are very lucky to have Zach on their team!

IMPORTANT DATES

• Monday 16th December - Year 6 Adventure Park Day

• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term for Preps to Year 5 at 1 pm

  2025 dates

• Thursday 30th January - Meet and Greets
• Friday 31st January - First Day of School 2025

Year 5/6 Team:  Ann, Anna, Ben, Chelsea, Cheryl, Danielle, Kristina, Krystin, Selena, Scott and Zach.

Learning Centre Three

We can’t believe it is almost the end of the school year! We have had so much fun in Year 1/2 and have learnt, explored, seen and heard some pretty interesting things together.

During literacy, we read ‘Where the Forest Meets the Sea’, practised our expression when reading, and then wrote our own narratives. We read ‘Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh’ this week and we had to persuade our audience to either let him drive the sleigh or not drive it. 

In Maths, we revisited strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems and then designed our own calendars. We were able to practice placing and reading events on these calendars. 

During Inquiry, students have been very busy finishing up their projects for the expo! The students were excited and a little nervous to be showcasing their finished projects from this Term to their families. But they all should be very proud of the effort that they put into the whole project this Term and then their presentation. We saw some amazing videos, dioramas, posters and slideshows, presenting the students' chosen topic and then them explaining how it has changed over time. 

In Religion, we explored The Visitation story, this was when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. We put ourselves in their shoes to envision how they may have felt during their visit and then discussed words that described both Mary and Elizabeth.

Colour Run Fun

What an amazing time we all had on Friday! After some initial nerves were run out everyone had an incredible time, running, sliding and jumping through the course and seeing who could get wet the most and end up with the most colour. We are thankful for the addition of the CFA sprinkler, we certainly had a lot of fun running through that part of the course. How funny was it to see Imogen getting slimed?

Congratulations to 1/2 Blue on raising the most money and winning a hot chip lunch. 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Bianca for joining our team in Term 3 and wish her all the best as she takes on a new opportunity in Ballarat. 

All of the teachers and learning support staff would like to take this moment to say thank you to all of our students and families for everything that they have done this year. The effort that they have put into each and every day, the fun times and laughter that we have had throughout the year. 

Year 1/2 Team - Bianca, Gabby, Gillian, Imogen, Janeen, Jamie, Jordan, Marion, Mary, Shalome, Tina and Sue.

Important dates:

• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term 1 pm finish

   

  2025 dates

• Thursday 30th January - Meet and Greets
• Friday 31st January - First Day of School 2025

Learning Centre Four

Wow what a way to end the year. We have had so much going on over the last few weeks, but we have finally made it to the end of the year. The students have had such a busy week with presenting at their learning expo showcasing their Australian History projects, poetry and Indigital projects, whole school carols and nativity, assembly and fun Christmas activities. 

Learning Expo

For the past few weeks all year levels have all been working hard on their inquiry projects whether it was geography, making old toys using recycled materials or Australian history. On the 12th of December parents were invited to see what their child had created and presented and we saw loads of parents' smiles light up when they saw their children's wonderful work and effort. If you ask your children about their topic we are sure that they will tell you loads.

Colour Run

On the 6th of December, the colour run was an excellent day as it had,a slip n slide and a fire truck spraying water from a massive hose with a very colourful day with colourful children. The OLSC colour run was so much fun, we ran around the sports field, outside of the school in the open area, there were firemen spraying us with water and a water tunnel. It was quite a colourful experience.

Kavya: The OLSC school wide colour Fun run was really fun because in the church block there was a really special water thing that was Massive! We even had a sliding place where theres water and you slide underneath and the main part is the people putting colours on everyone!

Nativity 

This year 3/4 yellow were selected to be the Nativity class by the specialist teachers, the students were very eager to present nativity that John had created. They practiced almost everyday and everyone had a role from  the Angles, Mary, Joseph, Inn Keepers, Shepherds to the sheep, camels and of course the donkey. The students' performance highlighted the message to follow the star that leads us to the birth of Jesus. Well done and congratulations to all involved. 

3/4 Highlights

Wow what a year 2024 has been in year ¾, we started off way back in term 1, learning about local laws and government. We also learnt about the difference between rules, expectations and laws. We ended the term with stations of the cross and presentations about local services in the Werribee area. 

In term 2 all the 3/4 students explored different areas of science and conducted many experiments from making jelly, expanding gummy bears, fireworks in a jar, explored the planets in the solar systems, run away pepper, magic milk, push and pull and many more amazing things. Students in 3/4 yellow started their Indigital projects and researched about the Grassland earless dragon. They created their mind maps and 2d drawing. Some of the year 3 students made their first Reconciliation which was a lovely experience.  Towards the end of term some of the year 4 students received their first communion, and through religion we learnt about the different parts of the Mass. 

Then there was term 3 which was by far the busiest and best term of the year, the remaining year 4 students who were made their first communion. We explored geography and focused on Australian States, the students created their own travel brooches and became travel guides for the Asia Pacific area. They all became experts at reading maps and giving grid references. Then there was camp. We all loved attending Melbourne’s Urban camp, where we visited so many of the major landmarks of Melbourne from the Shrine of Remembrance, The MCG, Eureka Sky deck, Old Melbourne Gaol and Flinders Street station. We all became experts at catching trains. 

Bhagath- Camp was very fun. We went to lots of different places, my favourite place was the Skydeck  and we also got to sleep in cabins.

Reuben- I really enjoyed camp this year, it was really enjoyable, exciting, adventurous and best yet, fun! I especially enjoyed camp with my friends. Kudos to the chef for the delicious food.

After camp we came back for Book week, we all loved dressing up as different book characters and explored so many different book week books. The students all enjoyed the craft activities around the different books. And we ended the term with swimming and what a time we had. 

Last term we all went swimming with our classes at Kingswim and it  benefited students  with both swimming and social skills. A highlight from swimming was our walks and one thing most students looked forward to was seeing The Murdered Watermelons which were two watermelons that had been smashed into pieces by someone passing by. Students loved it so much that they even named them, Bob and Jerry. Everyday students and teachers would try to investigate what had happened to the watermelons. 

Then there was term 4 where we all enjoyed learning about the Australian Aboriginal past and the arrival of the First Fleet. The students' final projects were amazing and highlighted how much they had all learnt. The students in 3/4 yellow entered the world of Minecraft and created their own world to show their understanding of the Grassland earless dragon. Some of the students were luck enough to attend the fighting extinction school showcase day at the Melbourne Zoo which was a great day out. We also had a fantastic multicultural day where the students all looked fantastic in their traditional costumes and great musical incursion. The students really enjoyed learning some Italian words and dancing. All the 3/4 students enjoyed our excursion to the Melbourne museum. We all were able to explore different artefacts from Australia’s past and present, as well as dinosaur bones and a massive whale. 

So that’s a wrap on a massive year with lots of new and exciting adventures and learnings experienced by all. 

Farewell and Good Luck

We take this opportunity to say goodbye to Adam. We wish him the best for his future. 

Everyone in the 3/4 team would like to wish you all a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year. We hope you have a relaxing and joyful holidays and look forward to seeing you all in 2025. 

IMPORTANT DATES

• Tuesday 17th December - End of Term 1 pm finish

   

  2025 dates

• Thursday 30th January - Meet and Greets
• Friday 31st January - First Day of School 2025

Year 3/4 Team: Adam, Alison, Amelia, Anastasia, Beth, Elizabeth, Emma, Hayley, Helen, Jannine, John, Josh and Milla.