Acting Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

What an action packed fortnight! It has been so wonderful to get back to ‘normal’ this year and have so many fantastic opportunities for our students to participate in. Highlights over the last two weeks have included: 

• Grade 6 Bike Education
• Prep 2023 school tours
• St Patrick’s Day
• Catholic Education Week Mass for Schools
• The collection of our portable classrooms
• Grade 5/6 Beach Program
• Harmony Day
• Kingston Division Swimming
• FIRE Carrier commissioning ceremony
• Grade 6 GRIP Leadership Conference
• Grade 3 Reconciliation Parent/Child Workshop
• Casual Clothes Day fete fundraiser
• Ride 2 School Day

PHEW! It is wonderful to have so many special celebrations of learning and life at OLA. 

St Patrick's Day

On Thursday 17th March we took a train to St Patrick's Cathedral & represented OLA for the 2022 St Patrick's Day Mass. This was one of the celebrations for Catholic Education Week.

We were lucky enough to be chosen to meet some Government officials who we were then introduced to at the Cathedral entrance. Brad Rowswell MP is the Member for Sandringham & he told us how he is an ex-St Bede's student. We also met Senator Raff Ciccone who sat with us in the Cathedral.

We were fortunate to escort Brad Rowswell to his seat & then have our photo taken on the steps of the altar. It was interesting chatting with these officials & hearing their stories as they were both School Captains at Primary School.

Considering it was our first time at a Cathedral it was an amazing experience seeing all the beautiful stained glass windows & artwork. It was a beautiful service led by Archbishop Comensoli & many other Bishops and priests. We were able to get a photo with the Archbishop who was really friendly.

After the service we had lunch then walked to Parliament House where we took some photos on the famous steps. It was a privilege to attend this service and represent OLA. We loved seeing St Patrick's Cathedral for the first time.

Darcey & Ollie

Grade 6 School Captains

Kingston Division Swimming Competition

A huge congratulations to Xander M, Jensen H and Matthew R who represented OLA at the Kingston Division Swimming Competition on Monday 21 March. It is wonderful to see our students giving their best and taking pride in their achievements. 

We wish Matthew all the best as he competes in three events at next week’s Regional Swimming Competition.

Grade 5 and 6 Beach Program

Our Grade 5 and 6 students were so fortunate with the sunny weather for their first day of the Beach Program. The students had a fabulous time learning new skills and demonstrating cooperation. We look forward to our next session on Tuesday 29 March. 

For our beach program we went to Hampton beach. We set our bags down on a small hill and started with our activities (after putting on our bathers.)

One of our rotations was beach safety. We were shown the dangerous things at the beach. The harmful things were the following: Objects or rocks, sea urchins, jellyfish and so on. 

After the lesson on safety next was how to help a harmed person. The main part was CPR and mouth breathing.  For CPR we were taught where we needed to compress and how to do it. For breathing we were taught how to breathe into the mouth.

Next up was boarding and boogie boarding. We all had a turn on paddling out and turning on a board. For boogie boarding we learnt how to rescue someone with a boogie board.

We also did a race on the sand where we had to grab these cut hoses until there was 1 winner. Lastly we were taught how to rescue someone using various objects (helmets, noodles, etr.)

We had a great day and we are looking forward to the carnival next week!

By Will & Mason 

Grade 6 GRIP Leadership Conference

Our Grade 6 students and teachers headed off to the GRIP Leadership Conference on Thursday. ‘GRIP’ stands for:

• GENEROSITY: Willingness to use what you have been given (time and resources) on behalf of those you seek to influence.
• RESPONSIBILITY: We all have a responsibility to develop what we have and help others to live well.
• INTEGRITY: A commitment to truth and honesty in dealings.
• PEOPLE: Every human being is of great significance, and has a purpose to fulfil.

The students learned about 'Stepping Up to Leadership' by serving others, taking initiative, exemplifying OLA school values & having a purpose.

On Thursday the 24th of March, the year sixes had an interactive leadership conference held by the GRIP team. At the conference we learnt about leadership tactics and qualities. When we arrived we found a booklet that we worked on during the lessons. A few of the activities were based around the acronym STEP, which stands for: serve others, take initiative, exemplify school values and to serve our purpose. We referred back to this throughout the day, increasing our knowledge by playing fun games and activities related to the topic. A few of our students went up on the stage to represent OLA. Tabitha was one of the lucky students to go up on stage and represent our school by telling everyone about our school fundraisers and ideas. It was a great experience and we will use these skills at OLA as year six leaders. 

By Tabitha, Kara, Mia

Grade 6 Bike Ed

Our Grade 6 students have participated in Bike Ed sessions over the past couple of weeks. This important program culminated into a ‘Big Ride’ this week to Kingston Heath Reserve and back. We are so proud of the students and their increased skills and enthusiasm over these sessions. We thank our wonderful (and super fit!) teachers and parents who assisted throughout the program, and on the Big Ride this week. 

Through parts of last week and the week before, us grade sixes have participated in the Bike Ed Program. During this program we had a lot of fun learning about bike safety and how to ride properly in different situations. Originally our lessons were one hour for a few days the first week.  We did different drills on how to use our brakes properly, how to ride in groups and how to complete sharp turns safely. 

A few drills we used in learning how to brake is learning when to use our left and right brakes and how to use our emergency brake. When we rode in our class groups we had to pass messages down the line directed from our leader about turns, obstacles and any safety hazards ahead. 

The second week on Tuesday we had our Year Six Big Bike Ride, where we rode to Kingston Heath Reserve (DFO park/50 Acres). We crossed Warrigal Road in order to follow Farm Road to the park.  When we arrived we were split into class groups where we completed a series of fun activities like playing in the playground, riding a tour of the park, eating lunch and playing ball games. 

It was a great experience for all of us, and we are grateful for all the people like the teachers and parent helpers that helped make it happen.

By Catherine and Charlize 5/6MB

Celebration of Learning

I continue to enjoy the students coming to celebrate their learning with me each week. It is wonderful to see the effort and growth for these children, as well as the clear pride on their faces at their own accomplishments. 

These past weeks we have had Prep students sharing their news, Prep students sharing their outdoor Mathematics lesson, Gade 3 and 4 students sharing their Canva designs and recounts, and Grade 3 students sharing their spelling work. 

Building Update

Action stations at OLA this past weekend as we farewell our portable classrooms! So many great memories in them and more to be made at their new home in Broadmeadows. We look forward to developing this space with more synthetic grass space and shade sails, an outdoor stage, tables and chairs and landscaping. 

The hoarding and fencing has arrived today and students will start to see this going up on Monday. Next week's focus will be on electrical and mechanical works, with the following work being the beginning of the demolition phase. 

Thank You - Kerry Boeing

I take this opportunity to let our community know that Kerry Boeing, one of our Learning Support Officers (LSO) of 10 years, has resigned from our staff. Kerry has loved working at OLA and will appreciate all the lifelong friendships, fun, assortment of jobs and interesting opportunities along the way. We thank Kerry for all of her hard work over the past decade and wish her all the best as she embarks on this next stage of her life.

School Tours

It has been a pleasure to continue welcoming families this past fortnight for our School Tours.  We were so proud to showcase our school and special thanks to our School Captains who so proudly and capably spoke about the school that they love. If you or your friends missed this tour we invite you to register and join us on the upcoming tours which are advertised on our new kindergarten flyers. Enrollments are open and we ask that siblings coming to OLA in 2023 enrol now.

2022 School Photo Day

Our School Photo Day is coming up on Monday 4 April. All students will have their individual and class photo taken on the day. There is also an opportunity for family/sibling photos if you would like to take up that option. 

Please view the attachment for ordering instructions. 

Caitlan Taig

Acting Principal