Week 2

Dear Parents and Carers,

We seem to have a bit of COVID floating around the school at the moment with a number of families being impacted. We ask that if someone in your household is positive that you continue to show extra caution. If your child/children are displaying symptoms, please err on the side of caution and keep them home.

We continued the process of promoting the school as a great learning community by holding the first of our ‘Come and Try Prep’ sessions aimed at prospective Prep students for 2024. The first of these was Tuesday this week, where our young visitors joined Mrs. Cumming and the preps for an hour. They had a great time exploring the classroom, having the story of The Speedy Sloth read to them and creating their own sloth. It was also very nice to see one of the parents attending completing an enrolment form after the session because her child enjoyed the experience so much.

We will have two more of these sessions on Wednesday 10th and Tuesday 16th May again both from 9.00-10.00 am. If you know anybody with children who would be starting Prep next year please reach out and encourage them to come along to one of the sessions. Any of our current families who have a child starting school next year are encouraged to sign-up for a session and of course, make sure they have completed the enrolment form for next year as well. RSVPs can be made via the school office by phoning 9439 7824 or emailing us using the address school@olhceltham.catholic.edu.au

We had a wonderful day on Monday this week with our whole school SWELL day. The students were involved in a range of activities in multi-age groups across the day with the intent of building links and relationships between students of all levels with each other and with teachers they may not normally engage with. As I moved around the school during the day there seemed to be a buzz of excitement about the type of activities they were doing and the senior students were great at getting in and helping the juniors.

We kicked off the Eltham District Inter School Sport Winter season with our Football, Netball, Korfball and Bat Tennis teams playing against the students from Eltham North Primary. While matches were very tough it was great to see all our year 4 to 6 students out there having a go and being supported by some of our volunteer year 3’s as well. One of the benefits of being in a smaller school is that students get a few years of weekly sport where students at the bigger schools only get one year. We are also in the middle of Cross Country season and will be sending home information to the families of students who made the team next week about the Eltham District Carnival held on Wednesday 17th May at Eltham lower Park.

In other sports news we received a delivery of sports equipment this week that was part of our participation in the Sporting Schools Grant program. We submitted a plan to have a focus on Lacrosse and Netball during PE in the first term, and received a grant to support the initiative which we used to purchase equipment for these sports. The year 6 sport leaders had a great time unpacking the equipment and we look forward to putting it to great use.

With the lovely unpredictable Autumn weather upon us we took the opportunity on Tuesday to get the recess time Garden Club underway. We started by attacking a few weed infested veggie beds getting them ready for some winter planting. I would love to have a couple of knowledgeable or enthusiastic parents or grandparents come along and join in.

A reminder that on Monday the 8th May we will have the Eucharist Parent Faith Formation Night at the SFX church at 7 pm. All families of the Year 5 students making their First Communion this year are expected to attend to formally begin the journey towards receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Dad’s this section is for you (Mum’s please don’t read this section.) The PFOL will be holding our annual Mother's Day Stall on Friday May 12th, so please remember to send along a little money in a safe envelope for your children to buy a special gift for their mums. We will then have a Mother's Day Celebration at the Monday morning assembly on Monday May 15th, families welcome.

As always, please take a moment to read about all the other exciting things happening at OLHC in the different areas of this newsletter.

Regards,

Mark

Find and connect with us

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ourladyhelpofchristianseltham/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OurLadyHelpElth

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourladyhelpofchristians/

Please refer to our School google calendar for events throughout the year.

Links

Absentee Notice, please email school@olhceltham.catholic.edu.au
COVID Safe Plan
Enrolment Form Link
Please click here for link to Asthma plan and/or Anaphylaxis plan and allergy form.
CDFpay link
Lunch Orders My Mum and I
Bicycle Paths
Parish Bulletin/Parish Website

OSHClub contact - 0432 212 815 ourladyhelpofchristians@oshclub.com.au

Come and try Prep