9 - 20th October, 2023 - Term 4, Week 3
Principal's News
Dear Families,
There was a great deal of excitement as we welcomed our Grandparents and Special Friends today for mass and activities with their grandchildren! After a lovely mass, our visitors gathered with their grandchildren in the very full classrooms to complete activities and to spend some quality time together. Our grandparents then enjoyed a lovely morning tea and a chance to chat with others. OLSH began celebrating Grandparents and Special Friends Day in 2012 and we have only missed two of these events during covid. Each year, the excitement of the students to have their grandparents at school remains high and their smiles highlight the importance of such occasions. Let’s hope we are celebrating this day long into the future! We hope all of our Grandparents and Special Friends had a nice morning.
Next Wednesday we will welcome our 2024 Preps to the school for their first transition session. I’m sure there will be some nervous but excited little people (as well as their parents!) heading in the gates, but it won’t take long before these students are part of our school! Over the coming weeks, there will be several other transition days and on one of these, our current Grade Five students will learn who their buddy will be in Grade Six. The Grade Five class have already begun work on what it means to be a good buddy and how they can support the new Preps as they transition from kinder to school life. We look forward to seeing how our new students settle in!
Our Major Raffle is run each year in Term Four and is drawn on the evening of the School Concert. This year, thanks to some generous donations, we have some wonderful prizes up for grabs! We especiall thank the Portaro and O'Shea families for their contribution. Raffle books will go home today and our hope is that all families will be able to sell at least one book to help raise money for our school. Every year we also ask each family to donate one item for our hamper prizes and more informationcan be found in the newsletter today. We always find that our families are very generous when it comes to filling the hampers and we look forward to once again putting together a good number of hamper prizes.
On Sunday, a small group of students from OLSH will be taking part in the sacrament of First Eucharist. Ava, Ember, Zali, Michele, Isaac, Maggie, Alice and Fletcher will receive the sacrament at the 10.30am parish mass on Sunday. We wish them all the best on this next step of their faith journey.
A reminder that the balance of the year's School Fees is due at the end of October. We still have quite a few fees outstanding and once again, encourage families to make a time to meet with the school if you are having difficulty with payment.
I hope you all enjoy the beautiful spring weather this weekend!
Narelle Gallagher
Email:
- Narelle Gallagher: principal@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
- Office staff: admin@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
Office hours: 8.00am to 4.00pm - Monday to Thursday 8.00am to 3.45m - Friday
Teachers: 8.45am to 4.00pm - Monday to Friday
OLSH School Calendar
Religious Education News
Sacrament of First Eucharist: The Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated this weekend. Please keep the following children in your prayers: Maggie & Alice Parker will make their sacrament on Friday night.
Zali Breewel, Ava Barnes, Isaac Longeri, Ember Baylin, Fletcher Pollock, Michele Dichera who will make their sacrament on Sunday.
Grandparents Day: Thank you to everyone who was involved in our Grandparents Day today. Thank you to all the Grandparents and special friends who could make it. Everyone had an enjoyable day.
Sacrament of Reconciliation: Children in Grade Two have an opportunity to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Wednesday November 22nd. Please contact the parish office for further information. All forms and payments need to be made to the parish office on 11th Street.
The children making their sacrament are: Jacinta Wagner and Violet Dimasi. Please keep these children in your prayers.
Grandparent's Day at OLSH
Major Raffle
Raffle books have been sent home to every family today and we hope you will all get busy selling tickets!! The draw will coincide with our End of Year Concert on Thursday, 30th November.
As you can see below we have been able to once again provide fantastic prizes thanks to our wonderful sponsors.
The best way to show our appreciation to the sponsors is by selling the tickets. We expect that every family sells at least one whole book (20 tickets). More books are available from the office if you would like to sell more.
Christmas Raffle Hampers
For our Christmas Raffle we are asking for donations of groceries to put together a number of Christmas Hampers. Each grade has been allocated a different selection to ensure we have a good variety. There will be a basket in each classroom to place the donated items in. The following is a list of food suggestions to donate which will be put together to make up the hampers for each class (no home brand products, thank you):
| Grade Prep | Bon Bons, Shortbread, Plum Puddings, Serviettes, Decorations, Plastic Plates, Christmas Wrap, etc. |
| Grade 1 / 2 L | Cereal, Dried Fruit, Muesli Bars, Foil, Gladwrap, Lunch Bags, Freezer Bags, Jelly, Lollies, etc. |
| Grade 1 / 2 R | Soft Drinks, Long Life Milk, Fruit Juices, Cordial, Fruit Boxes, Topping, etc. |
| Grade 3 / 4 L | Pasta, Rice, Flour, Coffee, Teabags, Milo, Cake Mixes, Sugar, etc. |
| Grade 3 / 4 P | Potato Chips, Dry Biscuits, Sweet Biscuits, Popcorn, Cup of Noodles, Pretzels, etc. |
| Grade 5 | Pudding Mixes, Ice-Cream Cones, Long Life Custard, Desserts, Coconut, Custard Powder, etc. |
| Grade 6 | Canned foods e.g.: Fruits, Tomatoes, Corn, Soups, Spaghetti, Baked Beans, Tuna, Beetroot, Sauces, etc. |
NSW Conveyance
Sustainability News
Chicken Sitting - Summer Holidays
We are getting prepared for the summer holidays and seeking a nice holiday home for our five friendly, laying school chickens. We will provide the food and you will have plenty of delicious eggs to eat over the holiday period.
Could you please let the school know if you are interested in helping us for the holidays.
Thank you kindly,
Sustainability Team
2024 Prep Transition Program
Wednesday 25th October 9.00 – 11.30am (Play lunch will be required)
Thursday 9th November 9.00 – 1.30pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)
*Wednesday 22nd November 9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)
Monday 4th December 9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)
Tuesday 5th December 9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)
*We are also planning to have a Prep Tea on the evening of Wednesday, November 22nd. More information about this will be sent out at a later date.
Prep News
We had a wonderful day today celebrating our Grandparents and Special Friends. We hope they had a great time, too.
Show and Tell- Week 4’s Show and Tell is : ‘Free Choice’.
Students will have a visit from the school nurse, Denise Pragt on Wednesday 25th October.
On Wednesday the 25th of October the 2024 Preps will be having their first Transition Day. Current Prep students will be working in the Library with Mrs Lawrence. On this day there will be no morning reading and students will need to take their bags straight to the library and go out to play. We will change readers during the day. We will talk more about this in class on Monday and Tuesday.
This week in Prep we completed some work about our Grandparents which was on display in the MPR. We also made pictures using 2D shapes.
Grade 1 & 2 News
Thank you to everyone who came to our Grandparents and Special Friends Day this morning. The students really enjoyed the activities and we hope our special visitors were able to go home with some bookmarks and calendars to use.
This week in Literacy we have been trying to use higher level vocabulary in our writing by changing words such as 'good' and 'big' into something more interesting and descriptive. We also learnt the grammatical rule of doubling the last consonant when adding 'ing' (when the word ends with a short vowel then consonant, for example: run - running) .
In Maths, the Grade Twos have been learning about one thousand and labelling missing numbers on numberlines.
In Art this week, the Grade Twos made some figurines out of clay. They were very excited to be able to take these home yesterday. Please see the photos below.
We have begun practising our dance for the end of year concert. The students are enjoying learning the moves!
If you have any questions you can email us at:
Prep: Rebecca Appledore - rappledore@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
1/2 L: Grace Laity- glaity@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
1/2 R: Lisa Ryan- lryan@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
Friday - 1/2 R contact: Emma Garraway - ewood@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
Grade 3 & 4 News
We have had a very busy week testing. Unfortunately, not everyone was at school on various days and these tests will need to be made up next week.
On Monday we had our final online Inform and Empower Digital Safety and Wellbeing lesson. These lessons have been great to be part of this year, as hundreds of other schools throughout the country are also involved. Our focus for this session was keeping online information private, being alert and aware online and navigating unsafe interactions. Please have a chat to your children about what they have learnt from being a part of these lessons.
Next Friday we have 3/4P’s assembly! We’d love to see you there!
Have a great weekend everyone.
Julie and Adam 😊
Inform and Empower!
Grade 3/4L completing the heat transfer experiment.
The heat transfer experiment to explore which materials conduct heat and which ones insulate heat.
If you have any questions you can email us at:
- 3/4 L: Adam Lawrence – alawrenc@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
- 3/4 P: Julie Phelan – jphelan@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
Grade Five News
This week started with some dancing! Mrs Lawrence has choreographed a fun and exciting dance for us to share with you at the end of year concert and all students are putting so much effort into learning the steps. It is fantastic to see them all working together and encouraging each other.
We participated in the Term 4 Inform and Empower live and learnt how to think critically about everything we see online. Students now know some of the red flags that could indicate a scam. In our final Empower and Inform Kahoot, Theon topped the leaderboard and is now on the 2023 hall of fame. It was an exciting moment for us all!
In Literacy we planned, drafted, revised and published a multi paragraph text about David Attenborough. Students put into practice all they have learned about sentence types, paragraphs and language to create wonderfully informative paragraphs. I have included some student's writing in the gallery.
Throughout the year students have worked together to care for the school’s chickens and vegetable garden. This week we harvested zucchini, spring onions, silverbeet and carrots and turned them into a zucchini slice and spring onion dip. It was lovely to share this aspect of productive gardening and enjoy cooking and eating together. Many of the students are eager to continue some weekly cooking using produce from our school patch.
Grade Six News
- We completed our last Inform and Empower live incursion with Marty and Laura this week. This lesson focused on critical thinking, consuming content online and navigating unsafe interactions. Students learnt how important it is to think critically about everything we see online. A parent tip sheet was sent out in last week's newsletter.
- In Mathematics this week we have been learning how to interpret percentages as hundredths of one and relating percentages to common and decimal fractions. Another tricky concept which students are working hard on understanding.
- In Science this week, students were introduced to a property of liquid called viscosity, through an engaging video of a very familiar liquid – tomato sauce. They then designed and conducted an experiment to test and compare the viscosity of a number of household liquids.
- This week in Respectful Relationships students practised help-seeking conversations by role playing different scenarios. Like any other skill, help-seeking is something we can get better at with practice.
If you have any questions you can email us at:
- 5: Cheryl-Anne Courtney - ccourtney@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
- 6: Danielle Ford- dford@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
General News
School Advisory Council Members:
Thel O’Shea, Hannah Mills, Grant Finlayson, Amy Cupper, Sandra Hammet, Lana Borchard, Adam Lawrence (Staff Rep) & Narelle Gallagher (Principal)
SIMON Everywhere App
This can be downloaded from either the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. The app has been updated earlier this year and an email was sent out to parents. If you are having issues with logging in, can you please contact Mia in the office.
Student Medical Profile
Medical Profile: Please make sure that the school has been notified of any changes that have been made to your child’s Medical Profile on PAM and to also include this on the pink Parental Authority and Consent Form each year.
IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PARENT TO MAKE OLSH AWARE OF ANY CHANGES.
Parent Notified Absence
If your child is unwell and will be absent from school, you are able to complete a Parent Notified Absence (PNA) on the SIMON Everywhere App or Parent Access Module (PAM) which will automatically notify the teacher and a text message will not be sent.
Newsletters
These are distributed every Friday on SIMON Everywhere and the OLSH Website. Please contact us if at any time you have any queries or require any further explanation about events, dates etc. Any items for the newsletter are asked to be handed in at the office by 9.00am on Friday.
Attendance & Sign in
A reminder to parents that the school needs to be notified of a student absence by 10 am on the day. This can be done by calling the school office or by using SIMON Everywhere or sending an email to admin@olsmerbein.catholic.edu.au.
Second Hand Uniform
Please contact the school if you require any second hand uniform.
