11 - 3rd November, 2023 - Term 4, Week 5
Principal's News
Dear Families,
We are at the end of Week Five, with only six weeks left of school for our students! In that six weeks, there is a lot to fit in – transitions days, Mission Week, the school concert, orientation day, reports, and Graduation, to name a few activities. As we move towards Christmas, students begin to grow tired (and so do adults!) but it is important for all to stay focused until the end of the year and to keep working hard. The upcoming break will hopefully be a good chance for families to reset and be back at school next Thursday ready to power through! We hope you all enjoy the days off.
Each year we hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) to wrap up the year and to elect new members to the School Advisory Council. This meeting has always been open to all members of the school community as an opportunity for families to show their support and interest in our school operations. Meetings usually go for around 30 minutes, with reports from the Principal and Chairperson read out. We are yet to decide the date of the AGM but will advise the school community as soon as this is settled. If you are interested in becoming a member of the School Advisory Council, you can nominate prior to the meeting and then a vote will be held at the AGM. Keep an eye out for the nomination slip, which will go home in the coming week, along with some information about the role.
As we have done in the past few years, OLSH is setting up our Giving Tree in the library for donations of gifts for local families in need. This is a great way to help out St Vincent de Paul with their toy drive and brings alive Jesus’ message of giving to others without the expectation of receiving anything in return. In previous years we have had an amazing response to the Giving Tree and we’d love to see the bottom of the tree surrounded in presents again! A gift tag was sent home on Wednesday to place on your gift. We thank you in advance for your contribution! St. Vincent de Paul will be collecting the gifts from our Giving Tree on December 8th.
As per the fee commitment form completed at the beginning of the year, school fees are now due to be paid in full. We thank those families who have attended to this or who have contacted the office to discuss fee payment plans. Families who have not paid their fees will be contacted shortly. We would appreciate it if the office could be contacted immediately if any family is having difficulties paying.
Next Saturday 11th November, is Remembrance Day. As we won’t be at school on this day, we will commemorate the day at our assembly on Friday 10th. This will be a short service to show our appreciation and respect for those who have fought, and continue to fight, in all wars for our country. Please feel welcome to join us.
Tickets in our Major Raffle (drawn at the school concert on November 30th) are selling like hotcakes! Thank you to those who have already returned their books and have taken another – it is much appreciated! We have some great cash prizes this year which will be very handy around Christmas time, so get in quick to have a chance to win! Hamper items can also be sent in at any time now, and these will be put together to make some excellent extra prizes in our raffle. The hampers will not only include food items, but also various vouchers from shops like Bunnings and Lowes. Hamper items can be placed in the tubs in classrooms.
Our Grade Three/Four classes attended the St. Joseph’s College production of “Matilda” today at the Mercy theatre, and by all accounts, absolutely loved it! The students are currently reading the book in class, so this performance was a great consolidation of their learning. One of our ex-OLSH students, Aleisha Hoyle, played one of the main roles of Miss Trunchbull and did an amazing job!
I hope you all enjoy the extra-long weekend and we will see everyone back at school next Thursday!
Narelle Gallagher
Email:
- Narelle Gallagher: principal@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
- Office staff: admin@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday & Thursday - 8.00 am to 4.00 pm Tuesday & Friday - 8.00 am to 3.45 pm
Teachers: 8.45am to 4.00pm - Monday to Friday
OLSH School Calendar
Religious Education News
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, Isaac Lohmeyer, Morgan Dowling and Violet Dimasi. Please keep these children in your prayers.
Mission Week: Will be held from Monday November 13th - Friday November 17th. During this time we will be raising money for those in need. The week will also include the Mission Mass.
Grade Six Graduation: The Grade Six Graduation Mass will be held on Thursday December 7th at 9:15am.
Major Raffle
Ticket sales for the raffle are going well! 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 different items to bring 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. |
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
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.
Student of the Week
| Awarded to: | For: |
| Grade Prep: Oliver Lohmeyer | His amazing retell when acting out the Christmas story during religion. |
| Grade 1 / 2 L: Alexis Finlayson | Working hard in Maths and understanding the use of tally marks. |
| Grade 1 / 2 R: Anastasia Cory | Always being engaged during whole class learning and contributing interesting ideas. |
| Grade 3 / 4 L: Phoenix McGowan | Has great improvement in his handwriting. |
| Grade 3 / 4 P: Aston McGowan | The enthusiasim he demonstrates towards all learning areas. |
| Grade 5: Ryder Goldsmith | A fantastic effort in writing and showing confidence when speaking in a large group. |
| Grade 6: Chloe Dodson | Demonstrating care, empathy and consideration for her peers. Well Done? |
Prep News
Enjoy your long weekend!
Show and Tell: No show and tell during Week 6.
On Thursday, the 9th of November, the 2024 Preps will be having their second 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.
Grade 1 & 2 News
Another week has flown by! The students have worked hard all week and I am sure they are ready for a break over the long weekend.
End of Year Concert
Grade 1/2R: As I am sure you child has told you, we have been busy practising our dance for our end of year Christmas Concert. I have purchased a t-shirt for each child that we will decorate at school. This will then be part of their costume for the concert. The dance we are performing is set to the song 'Green, Green Grass' by George Ezra. Therefore, some students will have a blue t-shirt and paint some clouds etc. on it and some will have green t-shirts with grass, flowers etc. painted on them. Students can wear black shorts, bike pants or leggings with the t-shirt and can wear matching ribbons or tinsel in their hair. Students can wear runners to perform in, no thongs or slip on shoes please. Students will be able to keep their t-shirts after the concert but I am not sure how the paint will go after being washed. Also, the smallest size I was able to get was size 8 so some t-shirts will be a little over-sized on some students. I roughly matched sizes to their school t-shirts and jumpers. If you have any questions please let me know.
1/2L: This year the theme is “nature” and we will be dancing to the song “Aint No Mountain High Enough". The dress code for our class will be a Christmas top with black bottoms (skirt, leggings, shorts etc) If you don’t own a xmas top, kmart has some for $4.50 or the students can wear a red or green top. Accessories such as tinsel in hair is more than welcome.
Science
This week in Science, we investigated how different materials mix together and thought about whether these materials could be separated again. We mixed flour, salt and cream of tartare then we added food colouring to water and lastly, oil. The final product was playdough, which many of the students guessed!
RE
Week 7 is Mission Week, so please start collecting up your gold and silver coins as we will be running a variety of stalls during the week to raise money for Caritas.
We hope everyone has some time to rest and recover over the long weekend.
Lisa and Grace
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
On Thursday we travelled into the Mercy Theatre/St Joes to be part of the audience for ‘Matilda’. The performance was fantastic and the very talented St Joes students certainly were amazing on stage! One of our past students, Alisha Hoyle, outdid herself in her role as The Trunchbull! Our students could really resonate with the story line as we have been reading this book this year in class.
Grade 3/4P are required to wear the following clothing items for our upcoming Christmas Concert:
- Denim bottoms (jeans, shorts, skirt)
- Check shirt
- Footwear – runners or boots
Could students in 3/4P please bring to school a shoebox(or something similar) ASAP.
Julie and Adam 😊
We were an enthusiastic audience at the Mercy Theatre yesterday when we watched Matilda the Musical!
Best fun ever!
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 has been very productive. We are reading and writing a multi paragraph text about Maria Mitchell, a scientist from the mid 1800s. I am very impressed with all the students efforts in writing this week. They are showing good understanding of the structure of paragraphs and are including lots of detail in each paragraph.
In Maths we are reading, writing, comparing and ordering 6 and 7 digit numbers.
In Religion we're learning about the contributions from others and how they continue to build the mission of the Church. We all enjoyed finding out more about different saints and how they lived their lives inspired by Jesus.
Today Mrs Gallagher visited our room to talk about the 2024 Student Leader positions. We will be using some of our class time next week to write our letters. It's a very exciting time!
Grade Six News
- Hoping you all enjoyed a relaxing long weekend! It's nice to see everyone back and refreshed to finish the second half of a busy Term Four!
- Next week is our Mission Week. Our class will run 'The Crazy Joker' mission activity on Friday. Students are encouraged to bring along some loose change to enjoy some activities during lunch time, to help raise money for Mission Week.
- This week we commemorated Remembrance Day with a small service at Assembly. We have also been learning about the importance of Remembrance Day in class this week. Check out some of our Poppy Artwork below.
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.
