Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

It is so hard to believe that we are coming up to the last week of Term 2 - half way through the school year! The end of term is always a great opportunity to reflect and celebrate the highlights of the term that has been. Reading the Student Self Reflections in the Semester 1 Reports it becomes obvious that the students have loved opportunities like:

• OLA Community Pantry - 'Take what you need. Give what you can.'
• Students leading School Tours
• Grade 3 Sacrament of Reconciliation
• Whole School Masses and Mini Vinnies Commissioning Mass
• Peaceful Kids and Peaceful Classrooms
• Preps in Pyjamas and Grade 1/2 Prayer Services
• Instrumental and Vocal Music Concerts in our new Community Hub
• OLA Community Hub's win at Learning Environments Australasia Design Awards 
• 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 2025 at Prep Interviews
• Junior Mayor experience at City of Kingston for our School Captains and the win!
• Grade 5/6 Camp at Camp Weekaway 
• FIRE Carriers leading National Reconciliation Week activities & acknowledgement
• iSea iCare excursions
• Working Bees
• Running Club, OLA House Team Cross Country + District & Division CC
• Swimming / District Girls Soccer / Bike Ed
• Grade 5/6 Lightening Premiership Winter Interschool Sport competitions
• Reading time and novel studies
• Learning a new language and culture through Indonesian
• Collecting items for the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

In Term 3 we look forward to the Olympics, Milo's Birthday Party in Prep, OLA Winter Cocktail Party, Great, Good, Gold, Grand People and Special Friends Day, Prep's 100 Day Celebration, Australian Mathematics Competition, First Eucharist, Feast of the Assumption, Wakakirri, Book Week, Father's Day, OLA Art Show, Confirmation, Have A Ball Day and Prep Prayer Services. Lots to be excited about and a good time to begin planning ahead for these events especially with the holidays fast approaching.

OLA Art Show

Following the double success of our 2023 OLA Art Show, 'Courage to Create' and OLA Production, 'Mission H2O' we have worked together to come up with a solution to celebrating these special occasions in alternate years. This will certainly help to spread the workload and energies across the arts. We will have our OLA Art Show this year in 2024 and our next OLA Production will be in 2025.

Save the Date

OLA's Art Show 2024, 'A World Full of Art' will be opened on Thursday 12 September, 6.30-8.00pm. This Art Show will celebrate amazing artworks from around the world and the art will be created in both Visual Art and Indonesian classes. The children can’t wait to show off their creativity.

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 

Future Grade 5/6 Camps

We have some exciting news...! We have a change to our Camp experience at OLA.

For several years our Grade 5/6 students have attended the same outdoor adventure Camp for both years at Camp Weekaway in Benloch (Central Victoria). We have worked with our OLA School Advisory Council over the last couple of years and listened to and explored many possibilities. We have not taken on the Canberra or city camp experience ideas due to expense, staffing and proximity but we have worked hard to secure a spot on the coast. We have opted to compliment our countryside adventure camp experience with a coastal adventure camp experience and we are excited to announce we have secured an early summer date for this to happen in 2025. We are heading to Camp Wyuna at Queenscliff from 17 February to 19 February, 2025. 

Reports

A huge shout out to our teachers for their excellent work in this all important area of assessment and reporting. Thank you for collaborating and moderating and thank you for celebrating the children's talents, passions and interests as well as identifying where to next for each child.  

This afternoon you will receive an email directly to your email account, including a link to access your child/ren's Semester One 2024 report. This email will be sent from no-reply@nforma.com.au. Please check your junk/spam folder if you do not receive anything by later this evening. You will be allocated a temporary password by NForma for your initial log in and are encouraged to select a new password for future access to the NForma Parent Portal. Please note one tip from families last year was to type in the temporary password, rather than copying and pasting. If you are having any issues accessing the report, please contact the school office on 9584 9488 or email Josy at jreeder@olacheltenham.catholic.edu.au

Learning Conversations

Our Learning Conversations will be held face to face in Brigid Hall on Wednesday 26 June 3.40-5.00pm and Thursday 27 June 1.40-7.00pm. A friendly reminder that these interviews are strictly 10 minutes only (5 minutes with the parent/carer/s and teacher/s and the last 5 minutes with the child joining). In order to be respectful to all, teachers will be adhering to these time limits and will remind you when the interview is coming to a close. We will also introduce a timer on the screen and an alert every 10 minutes.  If you feel that you still need to further discuss anything, please make an alternative time to meet. 

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

Please book your appointment:

• Visit www.schoolinterviews.com.au 
• Enter the event code - k4j4p
• Enter your details
• Select your child’s teacher
• Select a date and time for each child

Lamont Book Fair

We are excited to have the Lamont Book Fair onsite the week of Monday 24 June - Friday 28 June. The Book Fair will be set up in Brigid Hall. Lamont Book Fairs started in 2013. They are a Victorian owned family business. OLA families will be able to purchase books at the Learning Conversations. The Book Fair will also be open before and after school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that week.

You can pay by EFTPOS or cash, as well as through an online portal.

Lamont Books will bring a selection of the best books they can find into the Book Fair and aim to bring joy and excitement about books and reading. On top of that, every Book sold raises funds for our OLA Library at the same time!

Child Safety

We are being extra vigilant with bringing children out to the yard on time at 3:15pm at the end of the school day. We ask that children only leave their teacher once the bell has rung at 3:15pm. We have also reminded the children that when they do head off that the children connect with their teacher and it is understood who is being collected by parent/carers, who is heading home on foot or by bike/scooter, who is joining After Care in the Undercover Area and who needs to make their way to the gate for collection at the ‘Hug and Drop’ zone. If children and families are remaining onsite for a chat or catch up after the 3:15pm school bell, children must be supervised at all times by their parents/carers. We need to tighten this up and we thank you for your support with this. This connection at the end of the day is so important and child safety focussed. Please also note that children must not be kept back in the school building after 3:15pm for any reason unless organised with parents and the Leadership Team.

2025 & 2026 Enrolments Welcome

Please note our new School Tour Dates from now until the end of the year. If these dates do not work for you please call the office to arrange a time that suits you and your family.

It has been so lovely to meet with each Prep child for 2025 - we thank all families for joining us at OLA and for helping your child make the best transition possible.

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...

• Volunteer spotlight
• OLA Fete Socials
• Volunteers needed for raffle and entertainment
• 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

We look forward to...

Next week we look forward to wearing crazy socks and crazy hair with our uniforms on the last day of term, Friday 28 June.  This is a special Fete fundraiser where we ask families to make a gold coin donation towards our OLA Fete whilst dressing up with crazy socks and crazy hair for the day.  This will be a fun way to end our term.

P&F Invitation

Have you purchased your tickets to OLA’s Winter Mixer?

With 5 weeks to go, we have 72 tickets sold so far. Help us get to 100 to truly make this event a memorable experience and a successful P&F fundraiser and social event in 2024.

Get your tickets before the 14th June to go in the draw to win a bottle of wine on the night to kick start your celebrations.

Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1201930

 Featuring Mack Moses

 Drinks at Stacey’s Bar

 Catering by The Tradesman Cafe

 All funds raised will go towards achieving our goals on the P&F Wishlist for 2024

Calendar

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

Please save and share the date...

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

Monday 29 July - 8.45-10.45am

The start time can be when your Great, Good, Gold, Grand People and Special Friends arrive with your child.

Pupil Free Days for 2024

• Monday 15 July Spiritual Development/Faith Formation
• Monday 7 October Respectful Relationships 
• Monday 4 November Assessment & Reporting
• Friday 6 December 2025 Planning and Preparation 

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

Parent/Teacher Interviews on Thursday 27 June

OLA Fete on Friday 22 November

Last day of school Tuesday 17 December

Condolences

Prayers and Thoughts

On behalf of all in the OLA community we send our love, prayers and support to the Crawford family (Niamh 5/6MG, Joe 5/6SP and Charlotte 3/4FO). Alysha's mother Margaret passed away last week. 

We also send our love, prayers and support to the Gleeson family (Bailey 3/4FO). Monique's mother Mary passed away a couple of weeks ago. 

May you speak of your Mothers, Mother inlaws and Grandmas often and may you all keep their spirit alive in all you say and do.

Congratulations

Lightning Premiership

It should come as no surprise that the freezing, wintery conditions did not dampen the spirits and enthusiasm of our Grade 5/6 students last Friday. The students were outstanding and once again represented the school superbly at the Winter Interschool Sport Lightning Premiership competitions.  We thank the parents who have supported the students weekly with this program, our coaches and staff. 

Premier's Reading Challenge

721 Books Already Read!

⭐Star readers for the last fortnight in each level⭐

Prep: Maisie W (PCH) & Odin (PEJ)

Junior: Mihinula W (1ET), Maree M & Damian V (2MV)

Middle: Matteo M (3/4TR) & Sophia K (3/4TR)

Senior: Peter K (5/6NC)

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is open and OLA is excited to be participating for another year. We are encouraging as many students as possible to participate across our school. The VPRC is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by the 6th of September, 2024. Children from Prep to Grade 2 are required to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers, while students from Grade 3 to 6 are challenged to read 15 books. Please be mindful that the selection of books should be made up of books listed on the set book list, as well as reader’s choice. 

If you have any questions about participating or signing up please get in touch Miss Turner. Happy Reading!

Amazing Displays

Congratulations to 5/6MG on their wonderful work displayed celebrating their learning about the Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories. This work is up on display in the 5/6 area with clear Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. 

A little bet with the Principal!

Not only did we have Dusty celebrated last weekend for 300 games but we also saw the follow through of a little bet between the Principal and Michael in 3/4FO! "If the Tigers win Mr Jacques you need to say over the PA 'I love the Tigers!'" And... "Michael if the Hawks win you need to say, 'The Hawks are better than the Tigers!!'"

Baby News!

Georgie Louise arrived on the 19 June at 1.43pm weighing 3.98kg. She has been feeding and sleeping well. Lily (3/4GO) is very excited about being a big sister! Congrats to Ally and big sister Lily - enjoy this precious time.

Thank you to our wonderful parent community for their continued support. Wishing everyone a restful weekend - 1 week to go! 

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone the most wonderful holiday. We hope all who are able to take a break are able to recharge their batteries and return to us in Term 3 ready for another exciting term. Take care and stay safe these holidays. We look forward to being all together back at school on Tuesday 15 July.

Richard Jacques

Principal