4 - 23rd February, 2024 - Term 1, Week 4

Principal's News

Dear Families,

It was great to see almost all of our families attend Parent/Teacher interviews this week! We hope that by chatting with your child’s teacher, you had the opportunity to share some important information with them about your child. The first interviews of the year are always more about how the year has started, rather than about academic progress, as we are only in the initial stages of learning. In July, parents will again have a chance to meet with teachers to discuss how your child is tracking academically, however any concerns that teachers have, or adjustments being made for a student will be communicated to parents before this time. We hope you found the interviews to be valuable!

The Grade Three to Six swimming programme begins next week, February 26^th to March 1^st. All permissions must be completed before students are allowed to participate. The swimming programme focuses on awareness around water and also how to save yourself if in trouble when swimming, rather than teaching students to swim. As you can appreciate, learning to swim takes more than a week and we recommend that parents pursue lessons outside of the school environment. Please check Seesaw and the permissions note for the items required for swimming. Aside from the usual gear needed for swimming, bringing a pair of thongs or slip-on shoes is a good idea, as shoes and socks are very difficult to put on quickly when you are wet! Our Prep to Grade Two students will complete swimming later in the year.

The Grade Sixes are very happy to now be wearing their new school shirts! These arrived earlier in the week and Grade Six have been talking about how it is a privilege to have their own item of uniform which sets them apart from the rest of the school. We hope that they all continue to wear these shirts with pride throughout the rest of the year. A reminder that sports shirts are still to be worn on Mondays and Fridays.

In our newsletter over the coming weeks we are introducing our School and Student Leaders. The students have written some brief information about themselves. We hope that by doing this, you can see what their hopes are for the year and how they’d like to involve themselves in school life. We will also place this on our Facebook page for friends of the school to read.

Grades Five and Six students will receive some information about their camp today, which will take place towards the end of May in Roses Gap. This will include information about payment (the cost has been made known on school fee statements already) and an idea of the itinerary. Staff who will be attending will be finalised shortly. Obviously by this time, the Grade Six students will have a new teacher, with Miss Ford leaving us before the camp takes place.

Just a reminder that when the bell goes after school, all students must move quickly to the shelter at the front of the school to sit down. When parents walk in to collect their children, we ask that you move away from the shelter area and out of the gates quickly so that supervising staff can see who is still to be collected.  We appreciate your cooperation with this, as the after school pick-up can be hectic!

Enjoy the cooler weekend weather!

Narelle Gallagher

OLSH School Calendar

Enhancing Catholic School Identity (ECSI) Survey

Information was emailed out to parents last week.

Religious Education News

Sacrament of Confirmation (Grade 3 and above): Children in Grade 3 and above who have been baptised, have the opportunity to continue their sacramental journey by making their Confirmation. Below are the dates of Confirmation and parents need to contact the parish office to register their child. 

Parent Information Meeting: 27th March 7pm, Sacred Heart Church.

The  celebration dates are as follows: Friday 17th May, Saturday 18th May and Sunday 19th May.

Project Compassion: Now that Lent is upon and we are focusing on the needs of others, we are all reminded to donate money to the Project Compassion boxes. There are boxes in all the classrooms or you can donate money to the box in your home that went home last week. The money raised during this project helps many people around the world in desperate need of clean water, fresh food or medical assistance. 

Boxes will need to be returned to school during the last week of the term. 

Altar Servers Guild: The parish is founding an Altar Servers Guild to provide practical training and ongoing formation to Guild members. The Guild will meet weekly during school terms. If you are interested in joining the Guild and becoming an altar server visit: 

www.sunraysiacatholic.org/altar-servers or call the parish office on 5021 2872.

ANOINTING MASSES

• 28th February, 2pm, Mildura
• 14th March, 5:30pm, Red Cliffs
• 21st March, 9.30am, Merbein

Learning and Teaching

This week, staff and students have been hard at work completing the DIBELS testing. This testing is designed to track students' reading and sound knowledge developed throughout their journey at OLSH. Students will undergo this testing three times a year in every grade, and these timed tests provide us with important information about their progress. It is a great set of tests that complements the PAT set of tests we conduct each year, which tracks students' understanding of what they have read.

Starting on the 13th of March, students in Grades Three and Five will take part in NAPLAN. Below is an information brochure for parents and carers. If you have any concerns or questions about NAPLAN, please speak to your child's teacher.

Adam Lawrence

NAPLAN BROCHURE

OLSH Swimming Lessons - NEXT WEEK

Grade 3 to 6 students will require the following items packed in a separate bag daily next week.

• Towel
• Swimwear
• Thongs (to walk to and from the pool)
• Goggles / Swimcaps (optional).

School Photos - Tuesday 19th March

Our Schools Photos are fast approaching.  We will be sending home the envelopes to families as soon as they arrive.

OLSH Easter Raffle

Our annual Easter Raffle went home this afternoon with the students.  As always we rely on the generous donation of Easter eggs and treats from our school families to make the raffle successful. There will be a basket in the
foyer of the office where families can drop their donations into over the next few weeks. The more donations we receive, the more prizes we have to give away! 

Tickets are due back: Monday, 25th March

Raffle is drawn on the last day of Term 1.

OLSH School Leaders Profiles

Lexi Paley - School Captain

Hi, my name is Lexi and I will be one of your 2024 School Captains.  I am very excited to lead some fun events this year.  I hope I can make this year a good one and if you need to talk to someone or need help I'll always be an option.

Violet Goldsmith - Student Leader

Hello, my name is Violet Goldsmith.  I am in Grade 4 and a student leader for 2024.  I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and I am the youngest in our famly. I love painting and crafting.  I also love animals, everything from lizards to birds, cats, dogs and horses.  I would love new students to join our school because it is amazing!

Updated Information from CDC Buslines

Victorian Conveyance:

This year the Victorian conveyance passes are GREEN with BLACK writing. Please note we are still waiting on the passes to arrive; students will not receive their pass for another couple of weeks.

Important note: There is a change with Victorian conveyance as conveyance passes are ONLY for travel between HOME AND SCHOOL ONLY, on school days, between 7.00am to 10.00am and 2.30pm to 5.00pm. This is stated on the back of the conveyance cards.

 NSW Conveyance:

Students will no longer be provided with passes however, please ensure students who reside in NSW  and utilise the bus service to/from school have completed an application for free travel online https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-a-school-travel-pass

Please return your 2023 conveyance pass prior to receiving your 2024 conveyance pass. 

 The fee for a replacement pass is $10.00. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us: 

• Phone (03) 5023 0274
• Address 8 - 10 Bathurst Court, Mildura, VIC 3500 / PO Box 752, Mildura, VIC 3502
• cdcvictoria.com.au

Enrolment at OLSH

The link below will take you to our website where you are able to fill out the online enrolment form.  To finalise the application you will need to upload your child's Birth Certificate and Immunisation Record. 

If you have any questions please call the school or email admin@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au

Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser

This year OLSH Merbein will once again be taking part in the Banjo’s Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser. For every order made, Banjo’s Mildura will donate 20% of all sales back to OLSH Merbein.  We are yet to decide on what we put the funds towards this year. Banjo’s Hot Cross Buns are delicious and great toasted or fresh with a cuppa so we hope that all families will support this drive! 

How it will work:

• Collect your orders/money and keep a record on the form below - this will be for your records                (we will be sending these forms home on Monday)

• Log on to CDF Pay and complete your order by the following date:  Wednesday, 20th March

• All orders will be delivered to the school for collection on Tuesday, 26th March at 3.20pm on wards.

SchoolTV

Wellbeing Barometer Survey: 2024

We encourage you to take a few moments to complete a survey for each of your children. This will help us determine the nature and extent of your concerns and how best to support families in the months ahead. Responses remain anonymous and will only be reported on an aggregated basis. You are asked to base your responses on observations made in the last 12 months.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.  Select the link below to your special report:

Happy Birthday

We wish the following students a Happy Birthday:

• Ekam Benipal - 26th February - 10 yrs

• Elijah Keith - 28th February - 11 yrs

• Ned Collin Wood - 1st March - 9 yrs

Student of the Week

Prep News

Parent/Teacher Interviews- Thank you to everyone who came along this week to discuss your child’s learning.

Prep Rest Day- The next and last Prep Rest day is Wednesday the 29th Feb. 

Reading- Please make sure you are listening to/reading each night.

Sunraysia Daily will be once again producing the feature “Welcome to Preps 2024” which will be published on Saturday, March 9, 2024. Look out for a photo of our students in the paper!

Over the past 2 weeks we have starting learning how to write sentences. At the moment we are creating the sentence together and students are copying these into their books.

Writing Photos

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Grade 1 News

Well done to everyone for an amazing assembly performance! I am so proud of the hard work and effort that everyone put in over the last few weeks.

Spelling- A reminder that new spelling words are given to the students on Monday, and they will complete their test each Friday. All students have had a great start to the year and have done well to complete their spelling at home.

Library- Monday is our library day, don’t forget library bags!

Science- This week in Science we learnt about animal habitats and students were interested to learn about barnacles that live on the back of sea turtles!

Mathematics- We are starting to reintroduce addition this week. Students have done well to use the “count on” strategy.

Show and Tell- This has been completed as we only do one round a term. Next term's roster will be sent out Week 1 of Term 2. 

Grade 2 News

 The students had a great week this week and have really repsonded well to our new routines. Thanks to everyone who came to either an SSG or PT interview over the last few weeks. It was lovely to touch base with you about how your child has settled into the new school year. 

Literacy

This week we have focused on the -nk and -ng digraphs in spelling. Well done to all the students who have been practising their words at home. 

 Science

In Science, we have been learning about how living things grow and change. Today we planted some beans and will monitor their growth over the next few weeks. 

 Art

This week we made some silver fish and last week we painted sparkly seahorses. The seahorses are on display in the MPR if you would like to see them. The students did a wonderful job!

Assembly

It is the Grade Two Assembly next week (week 5). Reading parts and a song to practise will go home on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Lisa

Grade 3 & 4 News

Thank you to everyone who came along this week to discuss your child. Although it is only early days, these meetings are very benificial to teachers, as you as parents often share information that assist us in getting to know your child better and how we can best cater to their learning needs.

We are now really getting into the swing of Structured Literacy and it has been noted that many students have already made noticeable gains. This has been especially evident in some students handwriting.

Next week will be a very distrupted week with our swimming program taking place. 3/4 L will be going swimming from 11.30am to 12.15pm and 3/4 P will go from 12.15pm to 1.00pm. We encourage all students to wear their bathers underneath their uniform in the mornings. Reminders to bring a towel, goggles (optional), thongs or slides and a water proof bag/plastic bag to put wet 'stuff' in. Sunscreen will be supplied but if your child prefers to use sunscreen from home, please pack it.

Grade Five News

• This week we have worked hard on a variety of tasks including reading and writing to learn about the ways animals adapt to survive. In the gallery you will read some students paragraph writing where they share some special adaptations.
• In Art we started some work on printmaking by looking at the different types of prints that could be made with fruit and vegetables. We haven't quite finished these pieces of art but you will see the beginning stages in the gallery. 
• Thank you to all the parents who were able to come and meet with me over the past two weeks. I am looking forward to working with you to achieve your child's learning goals. 
• Our class starts swimming lessons nice and early on Monday morning. I suggest the children wear their bathers under their uniform to school and pack a change of clothes to put on after the lessons. Don’t forget to pack a towel, change of underwear, goggles, sunscreen, thongs and a bag to put wet clothes in. Please ensure everything is named so we can return any lost items to the right person.
  

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Grade Six News

• Swimming is coming up next week. Don’t forget to bring along bathers, towel, change of underwear, goggles, thongs and a bag to put wet clothes in. Please ensure everything is named so we can return any lost items to the right person. 
• Students have been completing the ECSI (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) survey this week. This data will show the view of our catholic school in the students' eyes and will help us understand what they want to see more of going forward. 
• Thank you for meeting with me over the past couple of weeks. It has been very valuable for me to hear your thoughts and I look forward to continuing working together. 
• Just a reminder that although no formal home learning has been set, it is an expectation that students continue to read daily. I also have been encouraging students to practise their times tables at home as much as they can. This is something that is super valuable in Grade Six and will help when it comes to learning more difficult concepts in Mathematics.

St Joseph's College, Mildura 2024 Open Evening

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). Our first meeting for the year is on March 5th.

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.