12 - 10th November, 2023 - Term 4, Week 6

Principal's News

Dear Families,

I hope that all families enjoyed our recent five-day break – hopefully it gave our students a chance to recharge at this busy time of year as we move towards Christmas. I know I am finding it more and more difficult to get out of bed as the weeks go on! Teachers spent Monday writing the end of year student reports and then on Wednesday, we joined the staff at Sacred Heart School to take part in our second Structured Literacy day. This was very engaging and gave us a clearer look at how the curriculum will develop as we move forward into our second year of the program. We are already seeing development in our student’s knowledge of reading and writing in the short time we have been taking part, which is the result we want. We look forward to seeing where future learning will take us. 

Today at assembly, we commemorated Remembrance Day. With the 11^th of November falling on a Saturday this year, we felt it was important to recognise the day at school. Our students listened very respectfully and reverently as the School Leaders led them through the ceremony, and it was great to see many of our students wearing a poppy on their chest. At OLSH, thankfully, most of us are unaffected by war, but we feel that it is still really important to remember those who fought and died in all wars, not only for Australia, but in all countries around the world. This year especially, we remember those who are suffering the horrors of war in the Middle East and pray that this conflict will end soon.

Next Week is Mission Week at OLSH and a flyer went home yesterday outlining the week’s events. We have a focus on Missions each year in November, particularly on Catholic organisation Caritas, who raise money and empower others to bring themselves out of poverty through various programs and initiatives. During Mission Week at OLSH, we connect our actions to those of Jesus, who demonstrated care for others, no matter how poor or downtrodden. Throughout the week we will be raising money by wearing crazy socks on Wednesday (for a gold coin donation), and by holding some fun activities for students to participate in on Friday (loose change). On Thursday, we will hold our Mission Mass, to which all families are welcome to attend. Our students always take their fundraising seriously and do a great job of putting others at the forefront of their minds.

The class structures and teachers for 2024 will be announced in next week’s newsletter. The structures have already been shared with our School Advisory Council. As you can appreciate, working this out each year takes quite a lot of time and effort as we endeavour to make the best decisions we can to maximise the learning and wellbeing of our students. Decisions are based on ever-changing elements, including student numbers and learning needs, and once the classroom structures and teachers are conveyed to the school community, no changes will be made to these. We are very fortunate and thankful that at OLSH, we have wonderful teachers in all year levels who care for your children and we are certain that they will have a fantastic year in 2024!

Our End of Year Concert is coming up very quickly and the students continue to practice their acts with lots of enthusiasm! On the night of the concert, our Major Raffle will be drawn and the School Leaders for 2024 announced. Our Grade Five students are focusing on the task of applying for this role as part of their class work this week. We have had quite a few of our raffle books returned already, but would like to see as many tickets sold as possible! Please give this your best shot, as the prizes are fantastic and the raffle is a great money raiser for the school. Donations for our hampers and the Giving Tree are also coming in, showing the generosity of our families. We thank you all for your contributions so far.

Enjoy the weekend!

Narelle Gallagher

REMEMBRANCE DAY SOLDIER

Our unnamed soldier is finally completed with many thanks to all of those who contributed to his amazing appearance! These include:

• the Grade Four class of 2022 and Mrs Phelan
• Carolyn and Steven Clementson who made the wooden, sturdy back in order for him to stand freely

Our soldier will now make a twice yearly appearance at the Merbein community ANZAC Day ceremony as well as Remembrance Day. 

OLSH School Calendar

Religious Education News

Mission Week: Next week will be our Mission Week. It will run from Monday November 13th - Friday November 17th. A time table went home yesterday outlining the week. Some things to remember are:

Wednesday, November 15th - Crazy Sock Day - children can wear crazy socks to school for a gold coin donation.

Thursday, November 16th - Mission Mass at 9:30am. Please come and join our Mass.

Friday, November 17th - Mission Talk - some visitors from St. Joseph’s College will visit our school and talk to us about their charity work and volunteering for the soup kitchen.

Mission Activities - From lunchtime onwards the children can participate in a range of activities to raise money for Caritas Australia.  

Sacrament of Reconciliation: The children making their Sacrament of Reconciliation are: Jacinta Wagner, Isaac Lohmeyer, Morgan Dowling and Violet Dimasi. Please keep these children in your prayers. This will be held on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023.

Grade Six Graduation: The Grade Six Graduation Mass will be held on Thursday, December 7th at 9:15am. Please feel free to attend the Mass and farewell our Grade Six class from 2023. 

Major Raffle

Tickets are coming in, which is great to see and there are quite a few families taking a second or third book.  We really appreciate your support!

RAFFLE BOOKS ARE DUE BACK ON FRIDAY 24TH NOVEMBER. 

Christmas Raffle Hampers

DONATIONS ARE DUE FRIDAY 24TH NOVEMBER. 

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):

Book Club

The last Book Club for the year has been sent home today. This may be a good chance to purchase some stocking fillers!!Please note that orders must be placed on line through the LOOP system and the cut off date will be the 17th of November at 9:am.

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 22^nd November              9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)

Monday 4^th December                        9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)

Tuesday 5^th December                          9.00 – 3.25pm (Play lunch & lunch will be required)

*We are also holding our Prep Tea on the evening of Wednesday, November 22^nd. Information about this has been sent out  to the relevant families.

Happy Birthday

We wish the following students a Happy Birthday:

• Violet Dimasi - 14th November - 8yrs

• Matilda Field - 14th December - 11yrs

• Levi Davis - 17th November - 9yrs

• Logan Jolley - 19th November - 12yrs

Prep News

Only 5 weeks to go! We have lots of activities happening before the end of the year. Please make sure you read the newsletter carefully and take notice of the events that are coming up.

Mission Week: Information went out on SeeSaw yesterday about Mission Week next week. Please have a read of this so you know what is coming up. 

Students will need crazy socks on Wednesday (gold coin doination) and loose change (gold and silver coins) on Friday to spend on the Mission Day activities. Please have this money in a named purse or ziplock bag on Friday. Students can hand this to me on Friday morning (or earlier in the week) so that we can keep it safe before the stalls are open.  We will talk about the different activities and how this all works next week in class.

Concert Costume- A note was sent home yesterday regarding costumes.

Students will need a black top with black shorts or skirt. Students must have shoes they can dance in easily-no slides or thongs. The black top will have a picture pinned on it at school. I would like these (clothes only) at school by the 23^rd of November. Please make sure they have names on them.

Show and Tell- Week 7’s Show and Tell topic is ‘Something that has stripes.’

Thank you to everyone who has sent in donations for the Christmas Raffle hampers and Wishing Tree gifts. A list of what needs to be donated for the hamper can be found in this newsletter.  Please send these in before the 24th of November (hamper) and the 8th of December (Wishing Tree gifts). 

Grade 1 & 2 News

Mission Week: Information went out yesterday about Mission Week next week. Please have a read of this so you know what is coming up. 

Students will need crazy socks on Wednesday (gold coin danation) and loose change (gold and silver coins) on Friday to spend on the Mission Day activities. Please have this money in a named purse or ziplock bag on Friday. Students can hand this to theri teacher on Friday morning (or earlier in the week) so that we can keep it safe before the stalls are open.  Activities for Grade 1 & 2 are:

• Grade 1/2 L - Lolly Jar
• Grade 1/2 R - Pick a stick

Grade 3 & 4 News

Hi everyone,

It was lovely to have a few days to catch our breath before the busyness of the festive year is upon us. I hope that some of you backed a winner!

• Next week is MISSION WEEK. Please refer to the RE section of the newsletter for details.

Grade 3/4P will be hosting the LUCKY NUMBER. Buy a number for $2.00 for your chance to win $50. The remaining $50 will go towards our Mission Fundraiser.

Grade 3/4L will be doing a 'money slide'.

On Wednesday, students are asked to bring a gold coin donation to school so they can participate in our Crazy Sock Day. The crazier the socks are, the better!

On Friday, students will need loose change so they can participate in each classes Mission Activity.

Christmas Concert:

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. We need these for our Chrismas art diorama activity on Tuesday. Also, if students wish to bring other bits and pieces from home to add to their diorama, they are more than welcome!

Julie and Adam 😊

Grade Five News

Yesterday we spent some more time with the 2024 Prep students. It has been lovely to see the Grade 5 students getting to know all of the Prep students and showing them around the playground. The next visit will be Wednesday 22nd November. On this day students will find out who their buddy for 2024 is and we will spend some more time getting to know each other. 

In our Religion lessons we have been learning about solidarity and how we can work alongside the most vulnerable to help make a better world for all. On Friday 17th November the whole school will work together to raise money for Caritas Australia who have many local and international charity projects. Grade 5 students will be running the sponge throw activity and also selling zooper doopers. Students are invited to bring their bathers and a towel and take a turn at having wet sponges thrown at them for a gold coin donation. We hope to raise lots of money to help Caritas continue their important work. 

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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. 
  

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.