Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

Thank you all for an amazing term. 

It is so hard to believe that we are coming up to the last week of Term 2 - half way through the school year! The end of term is always a great opportunity to reflect and celebrate the highlights of the term that has been. Reading the Student Self Reflections in the Semester 1 Reports it becomes obvious that the students have loved opportunities like:

• Students in Grade 5 and Grade 6 leading School Tours
• Whole School Mass and Mini Vinnies Commissioning Mass
• Peaceful Kids 
• Excusions to the Zoo and the Gould League Sustainability & Education Centre
• Sharing learning with parents on the Parent Guided Learning Walk
• Mother's Day Breakfast and Mother's Day Stall
• Classroom helpers
• OLA House Team Athletics Carnival at Duncan McKinnon Reserve Athletics Track
• Opening of the newly renovated Community Hub and 70th anniversary celebrations
• Grade 5s meeting their potential Prep Buddies for 2024
• Junior Mayor experience at City of Kingstong for our School Captains
• Chess lessons each week for P-2
• Technology support in class for Grade 1/2 students with Tserlin
• Wheelchair and Blind Sports Incursion for Grades 3-6
• Grade 5/6 Camp at Camp Weekaway & Mrs O'Meara falling in the dam!
• SRC children asking the children in their class about ideas for the Master Plan
• FIRE Carriers and iSea iCare Excusions
• District Cross Country and District Girls Soccer
• Collecting items for the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

New Master Plan

Our students, staff and parents have been at the table giving their voice to our next Master Plan for OLA. There have been so many great ideas shared. Thank you to the team at Smith & Tracey Architects for leading such a great process. It was great to be able to dream about the future of OLA in 1 year, 5 years and 10 years. Some of the ideas have been captured on the display board in the front office area.  If you have any extra ideas about what we could prioritise and make happen to support the learning and wellbeing of the children at OLA for both internal and external spaces, please share your ideas with Richard and Caitlan. The team at Smith and Tracey will now go away with the ideas and come back to us with some intial thinking and plans.  We will set up a second meeting with parents, staff and students to feedback ideas.

Term 3 Working Bee

We are looking forward to welcoming families to the Term 3 OLA Working Bee on Saturday 29 July from 10.00am-12.00pm.  

We especially welcome the following families who are rostered on:

Please bring along your tools such as wheelbarrows, blowers/blowervacs, whipper snippers, rakes, shovels, brooms, hedge trimmers, secateurs and other gardening tools.  Our main aim is to spread soft fall on the playground, sweep up pathways, weed and trim garden beds and help make the school feel and look great.

Semester 1 2023 Student Reports

This afternoon you will receive an email directly to your email account, including a link to access your child/ren's Semester One 2023 report. This email will be sent from no-reply@nforma.com.au. Please check your junk/spam folder if you do not receive anything by later this evening. You will be allocated a temporary password by NForma for your initial log in and are encouraged to select a new password for future access to the NForma Parent Portal. If you are having any issues accessing the report, please contact the school office on 9584 9488

(Please note one tip from families last year was to type in the temporary password, rather than copying and pasting).

Parent Teacher Interviews

OLA’s 2023 Term 2 Parent/Teacher Interviews will be held on Tuesday 20 June 1:40-7pm and Thursday 22 June 3:40-5pm.

These interviews will be held face to face in Brigid Hall. If a family is unable to attend onsite, please email your child's classroom teacher and we can arrange an online Google Meet option. Please let us know by Monday 19 June if you need to take up the online option, allowing us time to set this up.

A friendly reminder that these interviews are strictly 10 minutes only. In order to be respectful to all, teachers will be adhering to these time limits and will remind you when the interview is coming to a close. If you feel that you still need to further discuss anything, please make an alternative time to meet.

Prep-Grade Six teachers will be using the following dot points as a guide to structure the meeting:        

• The class teacher will check in with how your child is going
• Class teacher to share relevant assessment information 
• Class teacher to comment on learning goals (including Personalised Learning Plans [PLPs] as applicable)
• General Discussion -  interests and strengths, including social/emotional wellbeing
• What are your hopes/goals for your child for the remainder of the year? Time will be taken to cocreate a goal for Term Three.
• What you can do at home to help support your child

Please see the instructions on Operoo to book an appointment. The teachers are looking forward to this opportunity to partner with you to best support your child/ren. 

Enrolment Applications 2024

It is great to still have the enrolment applications coming in.  We are busy making offers and look forward to meeting with each new and current family for 2024 in the coming weeks. We thank everyone who has attended our school tours and for considering OLA as an educational setting for their child and for them as a family. Please know that all enquiries regarding enrolments are always welcome. Please contact the school office on 9584 9488 if you would like to arrange a school tour.

Kinder Visits

We have had the pleasure of hosting the adorable Minnows Kinder children at our school!

They embarked on a school adventure, gathering in our brand-new library for a story, touring our Prep Classrooms, and discovering our playground! We would like to share a heartfelt message from them: "Thank you very much for inviting us over for story time and the tour of the classrooms. The yard would have been our favourite!! The children enjoyed their time at OLA."

1/2KM Update

We are delighted to be able to update you and share part of the story in securing a teacher for 1/2KM in Term 3 and Term 4. As we informed you previously we have contracted Yueni Yang until Friday 28 July (which is the end of Week 3). This will assist with handover to the new teacher and supporting the children in transitioning from one teacher to another.

We congratulate and welcome Ms Jamee Montebruno who will teach the children of 1/2KM for four days per week starting Week 4, Monday 31 August. At this stage we are not in a position to confirm the teacher for the fifth day.

We are excited that Jamee will be planning with the 1/2 Team for Term 3 this Monday 19 June and she will also meet the children. Jamee will join 1/2KM on Wednesdays and Thursdays at OLA in Weeks 1-3 of Term 3. Jamee writes...

Hello to everyone at OLA! My name is Jamee Montebruno and I am thrilled to be joining your OLA community next term.  I have been teaching for over 13 years and have a passion for nurturing a love for learning. I have an incredible husband, Tyren, the most precious daughters Lacey (9) and Phoebe (6) and a beautiful old dog baby, Misha. Away from work I love spending time with my family. I also enjoy going for walks, playing board games, coffee dates and being involved in our local soccer club.  I can't wait to pop in on Monday to meet your children in 1/2KM and to plan with the teachers. Please come and say hi if you see me around, I look forward to getting to know you all. Jamee Montebruno

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 next 2 weeks...

Celebrations

Alice in Grade 5

One of our shining stars in Grade 5 has been successfully landed a role in Seussical! 

Congratulations Alice! May you love every bit of being on stage. 

Tickets can be purchased at seussicalmusical.com.au

Matthew in Grade 6

Matthew represented OLA at the Regional Cross Country Competition today. A huge achievement to place first and now head off to the State Championships! Well done!

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone the most wonderful holiday. We hope all who are able to take a break are able to recharge their batteries and return to us in Term 3 ready for another exciting term. Take care and stay safe these holidays. We look forward to being all together back at school on Tuesday 11 July.

Richard Jacques

Principal