Principal Message

Be Kind, Be safe, Be respectful, Be responsible, Be resilient, Be ready

Dear Parents and Carers,

We congratulate Jamee Jones on her recent appointment as a Learning Adjustment Advisor to the Catholic Education Office in Warragul. We are so proud of her and will miss her greatly. Jamee has been such an asset to the school in so many ways. Thank you, Jamee for your dedication to all of us at OLSS, the sharing of your many skills and talents, being a role model to other teachers, working so well with parents, your sense of humour, and most of all your friendship. We wish you every blessing as you take on this new role and know how lucky the office is to have you.

On Tuesday morning students will have the opportunity to spend some time with their 2025 class and meet their new teacher. This is one part of our school transition program. 

CLASSROOM TEACHERS for 2025

Foundation-Natalie Owens (M, T) and Maddy Taylor (W, Th, F)

Junior F- Karen Faulwetter

Junior S-Melissa Steiner

Middle I- Andrew Inglis

Middle B-Lisa Bennett (W, Th, F) and TBC (M, T) (new teacher to be employed)

Senior T- Jacinda Tillotson

Senior D- Jill Mulcahy (M,T) and Bree Daniels (W, Th, F) 

What are you like on the recall of childhood memories? Well, Australian T.V. host, author and poet, Clive James, has a wonderful recall; he has put down 12 verses of memories. Here are the first couple:

“When we were kids we fought in the mock battles with Ned Kelly cap-guns and we opened the cold bottle of Shelley’s lemonade with a scout’s belt buckle. 

We cracked the passionfruit and sipped the honeysuckle.

When we were kids we lit the thundercracker under the fruit tin and we sucked the all day sucker.

We opened the shoe box to watch the silkworms spinning cocoons of Cirrus with oriental  cunning.

When we were kids we were sun-burned to a frazzle. The beach was a griddle, you could hear us spit and sizzle.

We slept face down when our backs came out in blisters. Teachers were famous for throwing black board dusters.”

When you come to the end of the poem, you have a strong impression that childhood for Clive James was a time for building pleasant and happy memories. But not all childhoods are pleasant and happy as is instanced in “Children of the Stolen Generations” and the “British Child Migrants”. There is no doubt that the experiences, feelings and thoughts from childhood affect all of us; these experiences, feelings and thoughts can be transferred into adult life.

In his book, “The Strong Family”, Charles Swindall has this encouraging thought to offer parents when he writes: “Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory bank of our children.” At first, this might not seem to be a statement that engenders a feeling of encouragement but once the negative thoughts are out of the way, it becomes obvious that parents have, as it were, a blank sheet onto which they can write a list of positive deposits on behalf of their children. 

Amazingly, throughout his poem Clive James never mentions any “big-ticket” memories such as an expensive gift or an overseas holiday. All his memories were of the simple things of life and the opportunities that he was given that allowed him to enjoy them. There was a mixture of mischief, adventure and being in touch with nature that influenced the bulk of his memories.

Of course, our children’s memories cannot to be the same as ours, for times have changes and the mischief, adventure and being in touch with nature won’t be the same for our children as they were for us. However, they should still be made available as we take advantage of the opportunities of today. There is a saying that “What a child doesn’t receive, he can seldom later give”. Perhaps this saying is suggesting that the effects of lots of physical and emotional love, besides providing security, will provide many positive deposits and some positive returns for parents.

“When we were kids we climbed peppercorns and willows. We startled stingrays when we waded in the shallows. We mined the sand dunes in search of buried treasure. And all this news pleased our parents beyond measure.” Clive James.

Keep Smiling

Cathy