Our Lady Of Grace School

From the Principal - Josette Charles

Dear Parents and Caregivers

As we charge full steam ahead towards the end of Semester One, it is timely to take a look at our reporting processes at OLOG. Throughout each academic year, we have many opportunities to report both formally and informally to you as parents about your child’s progress. Late in Term 1, families were invited to participate in Learning Conversations. These are opportunities to hear about your child’s learning progress and learning goals. Shortly, you will receive your child’s a Semester One Report, on Tuesday, 5th July. Along with these formal opportunities for reporting on progress, we always welcome parents and teachers to be in contact with each other in a spirit of partnership, to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding your child’s education. Many of our teachers regularly set time aside to meet and discuss your child’s learning.

Learning Potential, a website published by the Australian Government, provides some excellent information for parents about school reports. It details that report cards are a great tool to help parents understand how your child is going at school, and importantly they can be used to start a conversation with your child about their learning. Here are some tips to help you analyse and discuss the upcoming reports with your child:

Stay positive - when reading your child’s report card, try to emphasise the positive. Praise your child for their improvement and achievements - and try to be specific with your praise. For example, “I’m really pleased with your progress in Science. I can see you have been working hard.”
Focus on effort, not grades - try not to focus too much on the grades your child receives. When children are too focussed on their marks, they can develop a ‘grade orientation’ rather than a ‘learning orientation’ - and can become less likely to enjoy learning and to challenge themselves. Recognise your child’s hard work even if it is not reflected in their marks. The teacher’s comments can often tell you more about the effort your child is making at school than the results. For example, “Your teacher says you have really been concentrating in Mathematics this term. I am proud of you.”
Every child is different - Try not to compare your child’s report to that of an older sibling or friends. Your child is unique and shines in their own areas. Boost your child’s self-esteem by concentrating on the things they have excelled in, where they have tried the hardest and where they have shown the most improvement.
Talk about it - it is a good opportunity to use your child’s report to talk to your child about how they are feeling about school. Ask your child what they think about school, their subjects or learning areas, and their report card. If your child raises any concerns, offer your support to help plan to address them. For instance, if your child wants to improve their mathematical skills and understandings, you can help them to set realistic weekly goals, like setting aside 10 minutes a day to focus on revision and practise.
Valuable learning tool - your child’s report is a great indicator of academic areas your child is excelling at and where they can improve. If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s report or their progress, or if there are any areas where your child needs some support, contact your child’s teacher - they can tell you what they can do at school to support your child’s learning and how you can help at home.

Over the weekend, I had the privilege of reading student reports (the Leadership Team shares the responsibility). Whilst it is a big task, it is something I thoroughly enjoy doing. I am always proud of student achievement and progress, big or small and take delight in being able to talk with your child about their learning. Our teachers have provided quality learning and a superb job in capturing their mid-year progress.

Staff News

Farwell to Helen Haddow. Next Thursday staff and students will have the opportunity to farewell Helen Haddow at the whole school Assembly. Helen has been a passionate music educator at OLOG over the last twenty-two years. She has worked with many students developing successful piano skills and understandings. Students from OLOG have continued to grow their success in piano even as they moved to their secondary pathway and even to university. The impact upon the students has been quite profound provided by Helen’s amazing skills. Helen also provided music to OLOG playgroup and donated music equipment for all children to learn music.

We farewell Helen and thank her for her wonderful work with so many students and families at OLOG. We wish her all the best for her retirement.

Welcome to Philippa Ball, Enrolment and Marketing Coordinator. Philippa will join OLOG and the OLOG Admin Team at the end of the term and brings a wealth of experience in both enrolment and marketing. Philippa has been working in schools and recently at St Ignatius College. We welcome Philippa to OLOG.

Pyjama Day

Our annual Pyjama Day was a huge success as well as supporting Hutt Street Centre with money raised. Our work with Hutt Street is to provide meals for many people who need this support.

Year 5 Camp

Yesterday our Year 5 students travelled to Mylor for their well anticipated Camp. There has been great excitement and planning for their Camp which was to have happened earlier in the term. The Mylor Camp will provide the students with many adventures’ and outdoor activities. We wish them all a successful camp and no doubt will be back on Friday with many great stories of their experience and activities.

Peace and Blessings
Josette Charles
Principal

From the APRIM/Leader of Learning - Debbie Scuteri

Sacrament of Confirmation

The following children have been preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation over the last
few weeks and celebrated this Sacrament at Our Lady of Victories Church last night.

Amali Condo
Owen Cox
Florence Hawthorn
Eamon McConnell
Sophie McConnell
Darcy Thur
Georgie Thur

Campbell Hawthorn, Ben Theingri and Lucy Ryan will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday 3/7 at the 10.30am Mass at Our Lady of Victories Church.

Confirmation is one of the three Sacraments of initiation into the Catholic faith.

It confers the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord upon the recipient.

Please keep these children in your thoughts and prayers.

Year 6 Mass

Today the Year 6’s celebrated The Feast of Sacred Heart Mass with Father John.

This is a time for us to remember that God’s love for us is so great that God gave us Jesus, God’s only Son. May we reflect on Jesus’ great love in our own lives and bring others to his loving heart.

World Meeting of Families

The World Meeting of families is an international gathering initiated by Pope John Paul 11 in 1994. The 10^th World Meeting of Families will be held in Rome from 22-26 June 2022.

The theme for this gathering is Family Love: Vocation and Way to Holiness. The hope in this theme is to highlight family love as a vocation and a way to holiness, and to understand and share the profound meaning of family relationships in daily life. This is one of the ways we celebrate Being Church Together.

Today the eldest child at school has been given a booklet called Say a Little Prayer which was given as a gift to each family by the Catholic Education Office.

Children who are the eldest in Year 5 will receive their booklet when they arrive back from Camp.

Pyjamas Day

Last Friday we had the annual Pyjamas Day. It was such a fantastic day, the children were very excited to come to school in their pyjamas. The teachers joined in the spirit of the day by wearing Bluey Pyjamas, which the children thought was amazing. OLOG raised $870, which will be donated to Hutt St Centre for the Homeless. This will provide nearly 500 meals for people in need.