What's Happening in Specialist Classes this Term

🎵 Music News - Term 1 🎵

We are excited to kick off a new year of music at OLPS with some fantastic news and opportunities!

First, we are thrilled to welcome Mr. Rance Lazarus to the music team. Mr. Lazarus will be teaching Years 2 and 3, and we are looking forward to having him share his incredible talents and passion for music with our students. Please join us in giving him a warm OLPS welcome!

This year, we are excited to announce that music sessions will now run weekly for all year levels. This means even more opportunities for our students to grow their skills, creativity, and love for music!

Preps, Year 1s, and Year 2s will engage with a new music program that introduces them to the four key areas of the music curriculum: aural skills, performing on instruments, composition, and making connections in music. Keep an eye on Seesaw for lots of performance posts throughout the year!

Each year level will have its own exciting focus in music:

Year 3s will learn to play the recorder.
Year 4s will develop their skills on the ukulele.
Year 5s will focus on rhythms and composition.
Year 6s will build on their talents by developing their skills in a band setting.

Finally, we’re excited to announce that choir auditions will be open to students in Years 4, 5, and 6 this term. More details, including audition dates and times, will be shared in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

We can’t wait for another amazing term of music at OLPS! 🎵

Physical Education Term 1

Welcome back to another fantastic year of Physical Education at Our Lady's Primary School! This term is set to be full of exciting activities designed to improve your child's fitness, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Here's a quick overview of what we have in store:

Cooperative Games Mini Lesson: We begin the term by focusing on teamwork, communication, resilience, and cooperation through a series of mini lessons centered around cooperative games. These activities not only encourage physical activity but also help students develop essential social skills, which are key to becoming well-rounded individuals.

Athletics Unit - Countdown to School Athletics Day: After the cooperative games, students will jump into the world of Athletics. Prep to Year 2 students will learn the basics of running, jumping, and throwing, laying the groundwork for future athletic success. For Year 3 to Year 6 students, this unit offers a chance to build on their previous skills, push their limits, and work towards personal growth.

This Athletics unit will lead up to the highly anticipated End of Term School Athletics Day, where students will have the chance to showcase their talents in a fun, friendly competition. It promises to be an exciting way for them to celebrate the skills they’ve developed throughout the term!

Theme for the Term - KIND:

This term, our overarching theme is ‘KIND.’ We believe that kindness is a core value that helps create a positive and inclusive environment where all students feel supported and included. In PE, kindness fosters teamwork, good sportsmanship, and respect, encouraging students to work together, encourage one another, and celebrate both individual and group achievements. By focusing on kindness, students develop important social skills such as empathy, communication, and conflict resolution, while also improving their physical abilities. This approach not only makes PE more enjoyable but also helps students build lasting friendships and confidence in themselves and others.

We’re excited for the learning journey ahead and can't wait to see each student's growth, progress, and accomplishments. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to get in touch. Let’s work together to make this term active, fun, and respectful for everyone!

Anthony Whitty & Jade Herd

Physical Education Staff

Art Term 1 2025

In term 1, the students will enjoy creating a range of art activities that will develop their art skills and knowledge.The students will be introduced to multiple creative artists to help them enhance the quality of their work. OLPS’s little artists will be encouraged to use their imagination and knowledge of the world around them to create realistic and expressive artworks.

The Prep students will develop their colouring in skills by creating artworks inspired by the Australian animals.
The Year 1 and 2 students will showcase their drawing skills by creating art pieces of city landscapes.
The Year 3 and 4 students will use their knowledge of abstract 2D shapes to create Australian natural landscape artworks.
The Year 5 and 6 artists will create detailed and vibrant artworks inspired by the Australian artist Alber Namatjira’s paintings.

We are looking forward to seeing all the amazing artworks you will create this year.

STEM Term 1

Prep

In Term 1, the Prep students will have the opportunity to learn about coding by following and representing a sequence of steps and decisions needed to solve simple problems. They will also learn how to debug (identify and fix) errors in an algorithm or program.

Year 1

In Term 1, the Year one students will have the opportunity to develop sequential algorithms to move objects from one place to another using coding blocks. They will learn to use loops to more easily communicate instructions by looking at the repeated patterns.

Year 2

In Term 1, the Year two students will have the opportunity to develop their understanding of algorithms and debugging. They will encounter pre-written code that contains mistakes. Students will need to step through the existing code to identify errors.

Year 3

In Term 1, the Year three students will have the opportunity to practise their sequencing and debugging skills in maze puzzles. They will also get to practise reading and editing code to fix puzzles with simple algorithms, loops and nested loops.

Year 4

In Term 1, the Year four students will have the opportunity to create and animate sprites (characters and objects) and make them interactive using events. They will write programs and learn about the two concepts at the heart of Sprite Lab: sprites and behaviours.

Year 5

In Term 1, the Year five students will have the opportunity to learn about coding using a program named Scratch. This program will enable students to develop computer-programming skills using sequences, loops, events, conditionals, functions and variables to create a story, animation or game.

Year 6

In Term 1, the Year six students will have the opportunity to learn about the Sphero Bolt robot. This initiative allows users to create custom programs, explore robotics, and engage in STEM education in a fun and interactive way.

Library - Term 1 2025

Prep - Year 3

Before and after school borrowing and reading time!!

Students are welcome to borrow and read books before and after school. Families are encouraged to join and share this special time with their children. Mrs Ryan and Mrs Watt look forward to seeing you in the library throughout the term!!!

Library Opening Hours:

Before school: 8:30 - 8:40am

After school: 3:20 - 3:40pm

Photos from before and after school library time in 2024!!

Library Program

Reading and borrowing focus

A variety of literature will be shared with students to foster a love for reading.

• Prep & Year 1: Encouraged to borrow books of interest.

• Year 2 & Year 3: Focus on selecting “just right” books and books of interest.

Library bags are required for borrowing and are available for purchase from the school office for $15.

Students will have the opportunity to read independently and share books with their peers. Borrowed books also provide a great opportunity for families to enjoy reading together at home. We aim to develop a lifelong love of literature—reading for both learning and pleasure!

Learning Focus

Prep - Year 2: Explore the Junior Library.

• Prep: Nursery rhymes, acting, and recitation.

• Year 1 & 2: Rhyming picture books and exploring the rhyming nature in stories.

Year 3: Explore the Senior Library.

Exposure to various fictional genres and deeper engagement with books.

Timetable

Prep to Year 3 classes have a weekly library session, scheduled on two different days over a fortnightly Week A & Week B timetable.

• Your child’s library days will be found in the Classroom Learning Overview on Compass when posted

Years 4-6 will have a library borrowing time where they are able to borrow and return books from the library. This will be on the Learning Overview sent via Compass.

• Please assist your child in returning books on time so they are ready to borrow again!

1B photos

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Birthdays

Congratulations and best wishes to those who celebrated their birthday over the holidays and this week.

Adelina 2D

Ayla 5A

Leo 4D

Orville Prep B

Hanna 4D

Leah 5C

Santa 5C

Elijah 2B

Clara 5A

Jeremiah 4B

Jaiden 4D

Saish 2A

Mrs Carolyn Watt

Miss Mary Peirse-O'Byrne