Principal's Message

Dear OLA Families,

Last week at OLA we enjoyed one of the most anticipated moments of the school year - the Grade 5/6 Camp at Camp Weekaway in Benloch (near Lancefield).  Being inland in the centre of Victoria in the middle of Winter saw us all rugged up in our winter woolies. The Principal had to work extra hard not to fall in the dam whilst canoeing this year!! We are super proud of each and every Grade 5 and Grade 6 student.  

Camp Weekaway combines a range of indoor and outdoor activities, creating a unique program which encourages campers to push their limits while in a safe and enjoyable environment.  The children enjoyed a large variety of both land and water based activities, such as: Canoeing, Low Ropes Course, Initiative Course, Flying Fox, Archery, Mountain Biking, Orienteering, Go-Go Ball, a night walk, Maze…  The highlight of the experience was seeing each child challenge themselves individually as well as working together as a team.  Many friendships were deepened and lots of laughs were enjoyed.  

A big thank you to the staff for setting the happy and fun tone to camp and for being away from your own beds and families for three days.  Thank you to the many families for showing your gratitude to staff in person after the camp, sending a box of chocolates along for the staff to enjoy or sending a lovely email like this one…

“I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and all the staff that went to camp last week. I know there is a huge amount of work involved in organising the camp and it requires the commitment of many staff members, to leave their own families, so that our children have this wonderful opportunity. It is greatly appreciated! My child had an amazing time.”

Prep Enrolment Interviews

The last two weeks have seen many new and current families coming to meet with Caitlan, Josy and myself for the Prep 2023 interviews.  These important meetings have been vital in helping our new Preps for next year get excited about starting primary school. It has been such a special experience and we are delighted to welcome so many wonderful families into our amazing school community. We remain indebted to our current families who continue to spread the great word about our school, as this was referenced by nearly every single new family we met with this week. It has been a joy to see the children share what they are looking forward to and to see first hand how curious and keen they are to learn. We will continue with these interviews next week and into Term 3.

Building Project

We have taken great joy in seeing our building project continue to evolve over the last couple of weeks and we cannot wait for the roofing to be installed that was craned in on Wednesday morning. We are also looking forward to creating more space in the playground for our students by planting trees, extending gardens and astro turf and adding shade sails, tables, chairs and a stage for class and whole school gatherings.  We can also imagine a few lunchtime performances coming our way too.  This is part of Stage 3 of our Master Plan and we are so grateful for the Victorian Government Capital Funding Grant of 2 million dollars to make this possible.

Working Bee

We are so grateful to the many families who joined us for our second Working Bee for the year and to those who could not come who called to reschedule their Working Bee assistance.  We also had some cash donations which contributed towards the purchase of tools and equipment as well as the top up of mulch. The school really did look amazing and it was a joy to see the pride in the faces of our hard workers.  These days are extra special as families get to be involved, meet new families and play a part in taking care of the buildings, grounds and gardens around our school.  We were also delighted to have many parishioners helping to make our Parish extra neat and tidy at the same time.  

Please note the next two Working Bee dates are:

Term 3 Saturday 30 July 10.00am-12.00pm 

Term 4  Saturday 19 November 10.00am-12.00pm 

(Please note change of date in Term 4 to beautify the school the week before our Parish Fete)

Reports

Today you will receive a written report about your child’s learning in Semester One. Students will have their growth plotted against the Victorian Curriculum Achievement standards, along with a General Comment from their classroom teacher and a self evaluation. As all student reports are accessed via our online reporting package, families will receive an email today regarding accessing their child/ren's reports.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

OLA’s 2022 Term 2 Parent/Teacher Interviews will be held on Thursday 23 June 1:30-8pm. We are looking forward to holding these interviews face to face in Brigid Hall.

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 again. 

The aim of these interviews is to chat about student growth, progress and achievement throughout Semester One. Prep-Grade 6 teachers will be using the following dot points as a guide to structure the meeting:

• How is your child going?
• Class teacher to share relevant assessment information 
• Class teacher to comment on learning goals 
• General Discussion -  interests and strengths, including social/emotional wellbeing
• What are your hopes/goals for your child for the remainder of the year?
• What can you do at home to help support your child?

If you have a Parent Support Group (PSG) Meeting booked in for your child, you are invited to make an additional Parent/Teacher Interview if you have more to discuss with the class teacher. If you feel that you were/are able to cover enough in the PSG meeting, you do not need to make an additional meeting. 

Please see the instructions below to book your appointment:

1. Visit www.schoolinterviews.com.au 

2. Enter the event code - pwtx4

3. Enter your details

4. Select your child’s teacher

5. Select a date and time for each child

The booking site will close on Wednesday 22 June at 9am, to allow time to finalise scheduling.

The teachers are looking forward to this opportunity to partner with you to best support your child/ren at OLA. 

Lamont Book Fair

We are excited to have the Lamont Book Fair onsite the week of Monday 20 June - Friday 24 June. The Book Fair will be set up in Brigid Hall.

Lamont Book Fairs started in 2013. They are a Victorian owned family business. OLA families will be able to purchase books at the Parent Teacher Interviews. The Book Fair will also be open before and after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that week.

You can pay by EFTPOS or cash, as well as through an online portal.

Lamont Books will bring a selection of the best books they can find into the Book Fair and aim to bring joy and excitement about books and reading. On top of that, every Book Fair raises funds for our OLA Library at the same time!

Prep Assembly

What an amazing way to end our week last Friday, with the most beautiful assembly performed for our community by our Preps. We were treated to hear the students’ learning about the different weather and seasons and even a song! The confidence and reading from our youngest members of the school was wonderful to witness, and there were many proud teachers and parents in the audience. We can all certainly see why our Prep students absolutely love coming to school each day. We thank Mrs Milinski, Mrs Hudson and Mrs Lee (who came in especially on her day off) for setting such a wonderful tone in these classrooms. Well done Preps! 

Fete

How exciting coming together last night with so many parent volunteers for our OLA Fete.  We thank Claire Melican and Mel Power for their energy and leadership of this exciting event.  We had conversations about the different stalls and the many jobs to be done to bring this day together.  Please ensure you SAVE THE DATE in your calendars - Saturday 26 November.  It will be a great day out and a great chance to celebrate and come together as a community.  If you would like to get involved in this great event please let one of the team know here at OLA and we will pass your name onto Claire and Mel.  

If you can help we are currently looking for a team of 4 or 6 helpers to take a lead with the Devonshire Tea Stall which has seen over 900 scones sold in the past and it is one of those stalls that is loved by our community. These scones have been ordered from Coles in the past and have been picked up early on the morning of the fete having been freshly baked.  We also would love a volunteer or two to organise the Lucky Dip Stall.  This requires our volunteers to purchase and wrap these treats for children with different interests and for different ages.  This too brings a spark of joy to our children on the day and it's a well loved stall.

Winter Lightning Premiership

It should come as no surprise that the freezing, wintery conditions did not dampen the spirits and enthusiasm of our Grade 5/6 students today. The students were outstanding and once again represented the school superbly at this carnival.  We thank the parents who have supported the students weekly with this program, our coaches and staff. 

Congratulations Neve 

School Sport Victoria (SSV) is pleased to confirm that Neve H has been selected in Team Vic 12 Years & Under Girls Hockey team to represent SSV at the School Sport 12 & Under Hockey Championships from 21 August – 26 August 2022 in Lyneham, ACT.

We congratulate Neve on this wonderful achievement and we are so proud she is representing the state and also OLA Cheltenham!

Congratulations to Matthew 

A big congratulations to Matthew R who competed in the Regional Cross Country Competition this week finishing second in the 11 Years age group. We wish Matthew all the best as he goes on to compete at the State level in July!

We look forward to...

Next week we look forward to wearing crazy socks and crazy hair with our uniforms on the last day of term, Friday 24 June.  This is a special Fete fundraiser where we ask families to make a gold coin donation towards our OLA Fete whilst dressing up with crazy socks and crazy hair for the day.  This will be a fun way to end our term.

Thank you all for helping to make OLA the best school in Cheltenham.

Enjoy the weekend.

Richard Jacques

Principal