OLOG eNewsletter Term 1 Week 8

Dear Parents and Caregivers, 

We often use the question 'How was your day?' when we first see our children at the end of the school day. The response we receive is likely to be either, "Good or bad. It was fine. It was OK”.

Parenting expert and author Dr Justin Coulson recommends that parents skip the "How was your day" question and try a different approach by using these ten questions to engage your child in a meaningful conversation about their experiences at school.

TEN QUESTIONS TO REPLACE 'HOW WAS YOUR DAY?'

1. What was the best thing that happened today?
2. Did anything happen today that made you laugh?
3. Tell me one thing that you learned today.
4. What challenged you today?
5. What was the most interesting thing your teacher said today?
6. Who did you play with today? What did you play?
7. What did you eat for lunch today?
8. What is one thing you did today that was helpful?
9. When did you feel most proud of yourself today?
10. What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

The full ABC article can be accessed via this link: ABC News How was your day?
 

Learning Conversations

I hope these questions help you to gain more insight into the time your child spends with us here at OLOG each and every day.Over the next two weeks teachers will be holding Learning Conversations (formerly known to many as parent teacher interviews). The Learning Conversations are a valuable opportunity for parents, your child and teachers to work together in the best interest of learning and academic progression and personal development. If you haven’t yet booked your interview time, I encourage you to do so. Interview bookings has been shared with all parents through Audiri.
 

Harmony Week 2024

Today OLOG celebrated Harmony Day, Everyone Belongs. Harmony Week, celebrated from March 18- March 24,is about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values.

A splash of orange was very visible at OLOG as orange is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week. Traditionally, orange signifies social communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect. Today students engaged in a variety of Harmony Week activities.|

After School Routines at Pick Up 

The Front Gate area: Agnes Street is a drive through and pick up for children. Please have your family name displayed on your front windscreen for staff to direct children to your car.

Children being collected from the drive through area on Agnes Street are to:

Wait inside the supervised area behind the white line
Students are not to wait for parents at the bike gate.
Bike gate is for students access and leaving the school grounds with bikes
Students are to wait and not go off and play until being collected by the parent/caregiver at the drive through
We ask parents not to wait on the opposite of the school and call students through the traffic. We have been alerted to a couple of near misses with children being called to the opposite side of the road through traffic.

We ask your assistance with abiding by school rules at pick up after school.

Please also be mindful of speed and road rules when accessing our school from the surrounding residential streets. 

We urge you to keep the safety of our families paramount when you are in our school and surrounding areas by following all road rules.

Sports Day

On Friday we will gather for our well anticipated Sports day. Children are excited about their participation and have engaged with many preparations helping them in their participation and excitement towards the day.

Children are asked to wear a plain T-shirt representing their House:

Siena- Green

MacKillop- Yellow

Dominic- Blue

Aza- Red

Sports Day begins at 8:50am and finishes at 1:00pm.  Please ensure that children are presented to their teacher. Children are to be collected at the end of Sports Day from their teacher.

Thank you to all parents for supporting and donating to the cake stall at Sports Day. The amazing array of cakes and treats has always been a huge success coordinated by the P&F and class reps.

Coffee Van Deja Brewing will also be present at Sports Day.

Holy Week

We invite all of our families to join us for our Holy Week Celebrations in Week 10. From Monday to Thursday we will be presenting the story of Holy Week. This week is a time of reflection and observance for Catholics worldwide, commemorating the final week of Jesus’s life on Earth, his crucifixion and resurrection. Our classes will lead us through Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Good Friday at 9amon the basketball court. We invite all of our families to join us in remembering this important week in our faith. 

Peace and Blessings

Josette Charles
Principal

Fifth Week of Lent

We are in the fifth week of Lent, the week before the week of holiness unfolds.

This is a time to remember that the spirit of Lent is all about renewal; renewing ourselves, our world, our relationships, creation and the environment. Over these 40 days, the season of Lent (which means “renewal”) invites us to take on more deeply this spirit of renewal. Lent from this perspective, is more than “giving up” things.
 

Year 5/6 Mass

Yesterday the Year 5/6’s celebrated Mass in Church with the theme of Lent and Prayer.

In this season of Lent we were reminded that by our sin we turn away from God; but prayer will help bring us back to him.

Holy Week Liturgies and The Resurrection

During Week 9, classes will re-create Holy Week with liturgies on the basketball court at 9:15am.

Palm Sunday: Monday 25th March- Reception

The Washing of the Feet and Last Supper: Tuesday 26th March- Year 1/2AM

The Garden of Gethsemane: Wednesday 27th March- Year 1/2MT

Stations of the Cross: Thursday 28th March- Year 3/4

The Resurrection: Wednesday 3rd April (Week 10)- Year 5/6

Parents are welcome to attend.
 

Simple Living Day

To continue our focus on Lent and supporting those in need, students will participate in Simple Living Day on Wednesday 27th March.

The children will receive a bread roll and plain rice for lunch to empathise with those less fortunate than ourselves.

We are asking for donations which will go towards Project Compassion.

Donations can be made through QKR.

We also encourage the children to bring a simple recess of a piece of fruit and plain crackers.

We will also have 1hr of ‘simple living’ in the classroom and will refrain from using ICT in that time.
 

Visible Wellbeing

In June, 2023 the Commonwealth Education Minister, Jason Clare announced that all schools in Australia would receive a one-off wellbeing ‘boost’ funding to support students’ mental health and wellbeing. 

OLOG has received Boost Funding which is supporting the implementation of Visible WellBeing Program facilitated by Professor Lea Waters.

With the support of the funding it has enabled our commitment to improving staff and student wellbeing across the school. Our staff recently began the journey of Visible Wellbeing training in Term 1.  

The Visible Wellbeing approach aims to provide both students and staff with a psychological toolkit that allows them to lead flourishing lives where they are able to feel and function at their best.  We discussed the current state of mental health and stress for young people, and learned about using the illbeing-wellbeing spectrum to self-inquire about our current state of mental health, and explored ways that other schools support their communities to boost their wellbeing. 

We are also planning to invite parents in joining in our wellbeing journey to a planned parent sessions throughout the year.

Year 1/2 Visible Wellbeing:

The Year 1/2’s have been learning about character strengths.

The identified their top 5 character strengths, drew a picture of themselves and labelled their top 5 strengths. 

Project Compassion

If you have been filling your small Project Compassion boxes, they can be given to the Front Office or myself in Week 9. Thank you in advance for any contributions that you can make however small they may be.

Below is a snippet from the fifth Week of Project Compassion and the work that they undertake.

The work of Caritas Australia is only possible with the dedication, passion and tenacity of our local partners who implement the programs. They are the heroes on the ground, working tirelessly behind-the-scenes every day to create a better future for their communities.

Caritas Australia partners with the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) to support communities living in urban slums in the Philippines. FCJ runs a number of programs that include house renovating, food processing, basic literacy skills, urban gardening, upcycling and income generating activities. They also have a clinic visited weekly by a doctor and community nurse.

Caritas Australia partners with Caritas Samoa to assist communities to have increased access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene to ensure human health and well-being by providing water tanks and sanitation facilities.Caritas Australia partners with the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi through the A+ program. Since 2016, the A+ program has helped 7,397 families across Malawi improve their food security, access to basic water and sanitation, boost women’s income generation and strengthen child protection. 

Joy and blessings,

Debbie Scuteri
APRIM/Leader of Learning

Our Lady of Grace provides a safe environment for all while valuing the partnership between school and home.

Thank you to those families who have established 2024 payment plans or noted intention to pay up front.

If you have not yet indicated your payment method or established your plan kindly do so this week.

Reminder to families wishing to access an up front payment discount, accounts must be paid in full by 31st March.

Families with accounts not paid in full must have entered into a payment plan arrangement 

PAYMENT PLAN APPLICATION

For families wishing to access our low income fees, online applications for School Card are open now. Please click HERE to access.

If you wish to discuss your fees or payment plan arrangements don’t hesitate to contact Kerri in Finance on 8177 9100 or finance@olog.catholic.edu.au  

This year, Our Lady of Grace School is once again entering the Premiers Reading Challenge. The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a literacy engagement program that was introduced by the Premier in 2004 to encourage students to read more books and enjoy reading and improve children’s literacy levels.

The Challenge requires students to read 12 books between the beginning of the school year and the 6th of September (Term 3, Week 7) and fill out the Reading Record. All students from Our Lady of Grace School are strongly encouraged to participate. They can borrow books from both our school library and public libraries which strongly support the Challenge.

Students from Reception-Year 6 will be required to read 8 books from the Premier’s Reading Challenge booklist at an appropriate literacy level. All books that are a part of the Premiers Reading List have been marked with fluoro stickers signalling appropriate literacy levels, Red for Reception – Year 2, Green for Years 3 – 5 and Yellow for Year 6 - 9. They may read 4 books of their own choice at a similar standard to the books on the list.

More information for parents and families regarding the challenge can be found at; https://premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/parents-families/

Once the Challenge has been concluded, awards will be given to all the children who participated and completed the challenge. Awards are determined by how many years the child has completed the challenge, rather than the year level the child is in.

We hope that you support your children through this exciting challenge. Happy reading!

Informing the school of absences

If your child is not going to be at school due to illness, or will be late due to an appointment, it is imperative that you inform the school by:

• Phoning the 24 hour student absentee phone number: 8177 9191 before 8.55am; or
• Completing the absentee form in the Audiri app; or
• By emailing the class teacher or olog@olog.catholic.edu.au

Advance Notice of Absence / absence of more than five (5) days

For advance notice of your child’s absence, please complete the Application for Exemption from School Enrolment/Attendance Form, which is available from the Front Office.

Unexplained absence

If a child is not present and the school has not received an absentee call or email by 9:30am, the office will contact parents (generally via text) to ascertain the student’s whereabouts.

If your child is late

If your child arrives after 8:55am, they will need to enter through the Front Office and be signed in manually by a parents/caregiver via the IPAD (Passtab), then go to the classroom. If this process is not followed and the student has been marked as absent, an automated text message will be generated.

Early Departure

Should any child need to leave the school grounds during school hours e.g. dental/doctor appointment, parental permission must be given. All students must be signed out at the Front Office by their parent/caregiver before leaving the school.

Hi everyone,

Can you believe it’s already Week 8 of the term? Where has the time gone!

In OSHC, we have been doing lots of different craft activities recently, including making paper flowers, painting, creating bracelets and crowns. Everyone has been loving creating different Hama bead designs as well! Everyone’s creativity is in full swing at the moment!

Coming up, we have plenty activities planned for Easter, and will be continuing our craft experiences, as they are so popular.

A reminder to families, please check your bookings and book ahead of time wherever possible – this ensures we can have the right number of staff at OSHC and that our quality of care is upheld.

Please also bring back any forms you’ve been given as soon as possible, I will be following up with families about that this week.

Have a great Easter everyone, and enjoy the break!

Amy

Activities coming up: