Assistant Principals' Message
Sacraments at Our Lady's Assumption
This weekend at OLA, we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation. All families are invited to join us for this special celebration. Any children who would like to be a part of the choir are welcome to join Mrs McAuliffe in the choir loft. See mass times below.
Confirmation
Sacrament of Confirmation Mass
6G – Saturday 19 May 6.00pm
6M – Sunday 20 May 9.30am
The Sacrament of Eucharist is also fast approaching. Please check the dates below.
First Eucharist
Commitment Mass
Saturday 26 May 6.00pm or Sunday 27 May 9.30am
Retreat Day
Wednesday 30 May
Parent – Child Workshop
Wednesday 30 May 6.00pm
Sacrament of Eucharist Mass
4G – Saturday 9 June 4.00pm
4M – Saturday 16 June 4.00pm
Please keep the candidates in your prayers as they prepare for this special event in their lives.
ICAS Testing Dates
We have had an overwhelming response to ICAS Testing for 2018. Listed below are the test dates for ICAS subjects.
- Science - Tuesday 29 May
- Spelling - Wednesday 13 June
- Writing - Thursday 14 June
- English - Tuesday 31 July
- Mathematics - Tuesday 14 August
Literacy and Numeracy Support at OLA
Every child at OLA is entitled to the opportunity to receive the best education by being given opportunities to gain proficient literacy and numeracy skills. We offer the following support programs that are effective, implemented with commitment and positively received by staff, students and parents. Such programs have proven to be successful because of the explicit teaching, strong pedagogy and sound research. This term, we have increased our Teacher / Educational Teacher support times across all year groups to benefit the students' learning.
Extension and Challenge Programs at OLA
A new and very exciting extension program is about to take off at OLA which will cater for students in Years 2 - 6.
The 'STRETCH’ PROGRAM will be provided to students in Years 2 & 3.
The REACH’ PROGRAM (Reasoning Endeavour Analysing Challenging Higher Order Thinking)
will be provided to students in Years 4 - 6.
Students identified as eligible for inclusion into the programs will be considered according to Diagnostic Testing (AGAT). Parents whose children are selected for the programs will be notified by Ms Belinda Mitchell in the coming weeks. We anticipate the extension programs to commence in Week 6 of this term.
Vel Erskine
Assistant Principal
Learning Sprints
Agile Schools is an initiative that looks at targeting students’ needs in a direct and explicit manner. The approach encompasses ‘Learning Sprints’ where teachers use their data to identify students’ needs and areas for further development. This includes both support and extension.
Learning Sprints require teachers to identify a boulder (large umbrella idea), pebble (more refined sub-idea) and sand (explicit teaching points). An example of this is:
Boulder – English
Pebble – Writing
Sand – Use capital letters and full stops correctly in sentences.
The initiative will accommodate a range of students. Some sprints may only be designed for one student, others may be for a small group of six students and, at times, sprints may be used for a whole class focus. They can also be made up of explicit teaching strategies which connects with the explicit teaching focus we have had at OLA over the last three years – it is not replacing explicit teaching it's supporting it. As staff become more confident with learning sprints, then project based and inquiry based learning will be added into the sprints.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments with 'Learning Sprints' and in the future 'Inquiry Based Learning'.
Rebecca Smith
Assistant Principal