Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

Welcome to Term 3 at OLA! What a happy and fun start it has been to the term. It has been lovely to see the joy on the children's faces as they all met up back at school after the holidays. The playground and classrooms have been buzzing. Thank you all for helping to create such a calm and happy start to Term 3. It has been lovely to hear about the many and varied holiday breaks our students, parents and staff enjoyed. While some skied the snow slopes, some jetted off to warmer climates and some enjoyed a 'stay-cation', enjoying some quiet days at home. It was so good to visit all the classrooms last week, catching up with the students and seeing how excited they were to be back at school. We have certainly hit the ground running and we are straight back into our teaching and learning program. 

Routine is key when returning to school, so we remind all families to ensure the students are in their classrooms by 8.40am. Please also remember that gates to the playground are open at 8.30am and staff are then on yard duty to supervise and ensure that all are safe.

Welcome

Over the last term and at the start of this term we have welcomed four new families to our community.  Ella in 3/4GO, Zoe in 5/6SP, Arleia in 1JM, Eaden and Teresa in 3/4TR.

Term 3

This term we are looking forward to the Olympics, 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. There is lots to be excited about.

OLA Fete

Last night we had a huge turn out from our Stall Holder volunteers for our OLA Fete Meeting where we had an update on Fete preparations. Thank you to our OLA Fete Committee for their dedicated and amazing support of this great event. Please check out our OLA Fete tab in this Newsletter and let us know if you can help in any way...

• Taking the time to reach out to companies and small businesses to sponsor or make donations to our Fete
• Can you make jams or preserves for our Fete?
• Do you or a sporting club that you belong to have a Marquee that we could borrow for the Fete so that we can reduce hiring costs?
• Are you able to bag up some mixed lolly bags or make cup cakes or larger cakes/slices for our Cake Stall closer to the time?
• Save some money by purchasing Early Bird Wrist Bands for the Rides
• Don’t forget to donate your pre-loved toys, books and clothes

Fete Sponsors

A request from our OLA Fete Sponsorship Team:

On behalf of the 2024 OLA Fete Committee, we are reaching out to seek expressions of interest for a corporate sponsor for our upcoming fete in November. Do you work for, or know someone who works for an organisation that would like to partner with the school and parish to make this year's fete an even bigger success? If so, please let Antonella and Liz know via email: biv_is@hotmail.com or liz.grace.dawson@gmail.com

On offer is digital exposure across our social media pages, links on the school website, physical billboard presence, and flyers that will be displayed in local shop fronts and distributed to local kindergartens and community groups.

Alternatively, if your business is in a position to donate goods or services for things like our raffle, silent auction, these would be warmly welcomed.

Cocktail Party

OLA’s Winter Mixer Cocktail Party for OLA Parents and Friends is this Saturday 27 July at 7pm in Brigid Hall. We have sold over 100 tickets for this great community event and we look forward to seeing many of you there. 

Working Bee Postponed

We are so grateful to the many families who have already joined us for an OLA Working Bee. These days are extra special as families get to be involved in the life of the school, meet new families and play a part in taking care of the buildings, grounds and gardens around our school.  We are also delighted to have many parishioners helping to make our Parish extra neat and tidy.  

Please note that this weekend's Working Bee has been postponed to the Term 4 Working Bee so we hope the families rostered on are able to pencil this new date in their diaries. For families who are not able to make one before the end of the year then you are welcome to make a donation by contacting Sharan or Gab in our Front Office.

Please note the next Working Bee is:

• Term 4  Saturday 9 November 10.00am-12.00pm (Please note this date is scheduled to beautify the school before our OLA Fete)

First Eucharist Preparations

We continue to keep our Grade 4 children in our prayers and thoughts as they prepare to make their First Holy Communion on 11 August at the 9am and 11am Masses.  Thank you to the families who attended and participated in the Parent and Child Workshop last week.  We also thank Fr Alan for leading the faith formation of our families - your input is very much appreciated.  We also thank Michela, Tess, Gen and Fintan for their thoughtful preparation and organisation of the evening.  Our OLA children together with parishioners from surrounding schools also met for the First Eucharist Reflection Day on Monday this week. A very special time.

About Real Life

Thank you to all who attended the Grade 5/6 About Real Life Sexuality Program online on Monday evening. Sue Pain facilitated conversations between parents and children on a wide range of topics. Thank you to Sue Pain from About Real Life for being so supportive and clear in her conversations with us.  These parent and child workshops are so important as we partner together to educate the whole child. Shelby has shared more information on the Wellbeing page of this newsletter. Grade 1-4 families please come along to your session in the coming weeks.

OLA Art Show

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 

Learning Conversations

At the end of last term we hosted our first Learning Conversations where children, teachers and parents came together to focus on each student’s academic achievement, learning and wellbeing. We appreciated time with both the parents and the children present.

Lamont Book Fair

Thank you all for supporting our Lamont Book Fair at the end of last term. Every Book sold raised funds for our OLA Library. Our total sales amount was $1,821, which means our commission in cash at 20% is $364.20. We are so grateful for this injection together with what Scholastic Books contributes towards updating our Library resources.

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.

2025 Plans

We politely ask all families to notify the school should your child/children not be returning to OLA in 2025.  We have had a number of enquiries in recent weeks across various levels. Having an accurate indication of our enrolment numbers ensures we are able to plan accordingly for the following school year and access appropriate funding i.e. staffing and resourcing. We thank you for your cooperation.

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...

Pupil Free Days for 2024

• 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:

OLA Fete on Friday 22 November

Last day of school Tuesday 17 December

Congratulations

Preps Assembly

We are so proud of our Preps and all they have achieved in their first semester of school. What a delight it was to have them stand in front of the whole school and their families for their year level assembly at the end of last term. Big congrats to the Preps, their teachers and families for giving these children such a wonderful start to their time in primary school.

Netball Superstars - Doing OLA proud! 

Three of our netballers are shining and we are so proud of them playing Representative Netball for Kingston and District Netball Association. It’s wonderful to see them developing their skills and becoming such great players. Congratulations to these netball players and to all students at OLA involved in Netball.

Milo's Birthday Party in Prep

Our Prep children had such a fun day celebrating Milo’s Birthday Surprise Party during the week. The two classes spent time making party hats, placemats and labels for their treats. The treats were brought in by each child to celebrate a letter of the alphabet, for example, R for Rice, S for Snakes and P for Popcorn!! The Preps then danced, played musical statues, enjoyed a treasure hunt and sang Happy Birthday.  Thank you to our families for their extra help in making this a special memory to add to their Prep’s first year at school.

Wonders of our Solar System Expo

What a great celebration of learning in Grade 3/4. The support from our parents and parishioners was amazing - a huge turn out. Congratulations to the children and teachers - very impressive.

iSea iCare Team

Congratulations to our iSea iCare Leaders, Ben, Alice, Ty and Isabelle on educating our OLA and wider community on taking care of our environment. We appreciate all of your intiiatives and your presentation at assembly.

Crazy Hair and Crazy Sock Day

Thank you to all our families for making a gold coin donation to our OLA Fete Crazy Hair and Crazy Sock Day. Such a fun way to end our term!

Junior Mayor

Bella has already had a busy schedule of Mayoral duties and below are some photos of Bella’s Junior Council Debating meeting last Monday where she got to facilitate the meeting and run proceedings on the topic of 'Should dogs be allowed off leash in parks'.

Bella was also provided with her Junior Mayor pendant to where to informal events, with the robe/chains being worn to the more official events. We love your confidence Bella - the Councillors and Council are super impressed with their new Junior Mayor.

Happy 90th Birthday Sr Margaret 

Sr Margaret has been connected to our Parish at OLA for at least 26 years, first beginning as a classroom teacher to 90 students in what we now know as the Library. She has been a Brigidine Sister for 70 years on the 1 September this year. Sr Margaret continues to attend weekday and weekend Masses at OLA and she loves our OLA students. Sr Margaret also visits our classrooms when we are sharing our history and our faith. We wish you a very happy birthday Sr Margaret and may you enjoy all the extra love that comes your way on this special zero birthday. 

Engagement News!

Congratulations to Miss Jones, our Prep EJ classroom teacher and her fiancee Adam on their engagement. Over the holidays Adam surprised Eliza with a proposal and ring at a beautiful winery on the Monrington Peninsula. All at OLA send their best wishes to you both. Thank you to our Prep families for the gorgeous presentation of flowers and gifts to Eliza during the week.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

We cant wait to celebrate our grand, great, good people in our lives at Grandparents and Special Friends Day on Monday 29 July, 8:45am-10:45am. We cant wait to meet all the Nannas, Nonnas, Grandpas, Grandmas, Gramps, Pops and special people on Monday morning. If your child doesnt have a specail someone being able to join us on the day they will be included by the other families in their room.

Let the Olympics begin!

How wonderful to have the Opening of the Olympics happening this weekend and to have our junior students dress up with the Olympic colours today. Bring on the swimming and all the other sports. Good luck to all our Australian athletes!

Enjoy the weekend.

Richard Jacques

Principal