7 - 6th October, 2023 - Term 4, Week 1

Principal's News

Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term Four! I hope all families enjoyed the break from school and are looking forward to a busy, but successful last term of the year. Every year we comment on how quickly the school year seems to fly by and this one has been no different. We look forward to a great term of learning together!

This morning our assembly incorporated a liturgy celebrating the Rosary. October is a special month in our calendar to celebrate Mary, mother of Jesus, and when we pray the Rosary, we pray to Mary. It has been the tradition at OLSH for many years for members of our parish to make Rosary Beads for our students and our Preps received theirs today, along with any new students and staff. While praying the Rosary is a traditional practise probably not done by many people these days, it is important that our students learn about it as part of their Catholic faith. Thank you to Mr. Breewel for organising the liturgy.

It is now time for all students to wear their Summer uniform. This includes the wearing of hats at recess and lunch times and as per our policy, students without hats will need to stay in the shade of the shelter shed if they don't have a hat on. At this time of the school year, particularly with our older students, we often see children pushing the boundaries by wearing items that are not part of the uniform, or telling us that mum or dad are not going to buy them new shoes or jumpers because it's almost the end of the year. Unfortunately, this is not an excuse for being out of uniform. When families enrol at the school, they do so with an awareness of the uniform expectations and an understanding that these will be enforced. We appreciate your support with this. Our uniform includes appropriate hair styles. Below is the section from the Information Handbook outlining these points. Please also note the advice regarding head lice.

Sunsmart / Hats

OLSH is a Sun Smart school.  The school has a “no hat, no play” policy.  Children are to wear the appropriate hats (wide-brim or bucket hat, all available from Lowes in Centro) from the beginning of Term Four until the end of Term One. Sunscreen is also provided in each classroom. Children who do not have a hat in the designated months are to remain under the shelter shed throughout play times.

Hairstyles, Jewellery & Nail polish

Children’s hair is to be worn in a neat and tidy style and not ‘hanging’ over their faces. Long hair should be tied up to reduce the chances of head lice. This rule applies to both girls and boys. Hair is not to be unnaturally coloured.  Any accessory in the students’ hair is to be limited to small clips, scrunchies, headbands and ribbons in school colours. Except for a watch or small crucifix necklace, jewellery is not considered part of the OLSH uniform and is not to be worn.  However, if your child has pierced ears, plain studs or sleepers only are allowed. No other “body piercing” adornments are permitted.  Nail polish is not to be worn.

Our Grandparents and Special Friends morning is coming up fast and we are looking forward to welcoming these special visitors into our school for a morning of fun together! A note went home last term to families and will need to be returned as soon as possible, indicating numbers. As we had quite a large number of students away sick in the last week of term, many families may not have received this note. This has been sent home again and reminders have also been sent out electronically to families. We look forward to sharing some special time with our grandparents on this day. 

In a few weeks our new Prep students for 2024 will be visiting us for their first transition day. They will have several opportunities to visit the school before the end of the year, which will help them settle in and become familiar with the school environment. We have also been working on our classroom structures for next year and are getting close to finalising these. We hope to announce structures and classroom teachers towards the end of the term.

Last term our senior volleyballers were successful in their matches as part of the District Sports and will now go on to compete in the next round of games. This will take place next Wednesday and permissions for this will need to be completed on PAM if your child is part of the team. Information about the day is also included on PAM.

If you were at the assembly this morning, you would have seen the various uniform items that were for sale for a gold coin donation, including lots of school jumpers! We clean out the lost property several times per term and are always amazed at the amount of items in there. One way to make sure that your child can find their lost items more easily is to label them – simple but effective! Most of the items I washed during the holidays had no name on them, making it hard to return it to the rightful owner. Hopefully some families got a bargain this morning. Students were also selling some vegetables grown in the school garden, which Mrs. Courtney has been overseeing, as well as some eggs from our chooks. In the coming weeks we hope to have more produce to sell.

Thank you to all families who have finalised their 2023 school fee accounts. All fees should be paid in full by the end of October, unless otherwise arranged with the school. Please make an appointment as a matter of urgency if you are having any difficulties with payment. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Narelle Gallagher

Religious Education News

Sacrament of First Eucharist: Those children making their First Eucharist later this month should now have completed and handed in the first 4 lessons. Remember the children also need to have attended 3 masses before the sacrament. 

The Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated on the weekend of October 20th - 22nd 2023. Please keep the following children in your prayers: Zali Breewel, Ava Barnes, Isaac Longeri, Ember Baylin, Fletcher Pollock, Michele Dichera, Maggie & Alice Parker.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day: Our annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day Mass and celebrations will be held on Friday, October 20th, 2023. All Grandparents are invited to attend. The reply slips need to be returned to the school by Friday, October 13th. 

The day will begin with a mass in the Church then Grandparents and Special Friends will be invited back to OLSH to participate in some activities before enjoying a morning tea. We look forward to seeing all our wonderful grandparents.

Sports News

Congratulations: To Eamon Breewel who will represent OLSH at the Regional Athletics Day on Monday October 9th 2023 in Bendigo. Eamon will race in the 200m after coming second in the Mini Olympics in the same event. Good luck, Eamon.

Volleyball: Congratulations to the OLSH Volleyball teams who have won through to the next round. We have two teams competing on Wednesday October 11th at the Mildura Sporting Precinct. We wish our Volleyballers all the best. 

Student of the Week

Congratulations to the following students:

Happy Birthday

We wish the following students a Happy Birthday:

• Pippa Page - 2nd October - 7 yrs

• Rubee Smith - 4th October - 6 yrs

• Zali Breewel - 6th October - 10 yrs

• Ryder Goldsmith - 7th October - 11 yrs

• William Finlayson - 12th October - 12 yrs

• Serenity-Rose Legin - 12th October - 12 yrs

• Phoenix McGowan - 12th October - 11 yrs

Junior News

Prep News

Welcome back to Term Four. Thank you to everyone for all your hard work last term. I really appreciated all the effort and time you put into helping your child with their learning. I am looking forward to a great last term together!

Reading- Well done to all students who continued to read over the holidays. Please make sure you are reading each night.

Hats- Hats are now required at school. Please make sure all students have their school hat - no hat, no play.

Show and Tell- Week 2’s Show and Tell is : ‘Free Choice’.

Words- Please continue to practice your words each night. Please go back over completed lists to help students remember the words.

Grade One/Two News

Welcome back to all of our students! It was lovely to see everyone back and a bit healthier after a bad run of colds and flus at the end of Term Three. We have jumped straight into our learning and have begun some new topics in different subjects.

RE

Our new focus this Term is 'Celebrations'. We began by looking at all of the different celebrations we have and will then put them into different categories. Of course the main celebration we will focus on this Term is Christmas! Our students also learnt some more about the Rosary with Mr. Breewel this week in anticipation of our Rosary Liturgy today.

Maths

Both grades are learning about fractions in Maths. In Grade Two, we have learnt about fractions of a whole as well as fractions of groups of objects. In Grade One, we have focused on identifying halves and quarters. 

Science

Our new topic for Science is Materials and their different purposes. Today we looked at different materials and how they can change. 

Geography

In Geography, students will be learning about locations in Australia and where it is in the world.

Writing

In Writing, we have been revising sentence types as well as combining sentences by adding a conjunction. 

Middle News

Grade Three / Four:

Welcome back to another term! I just want to say a big thank you to Tana Lawrence for stepping in and taking over while I have been away on Long Service Leave. It was much appreciated. My husband and I were very privileged to see some amazing places our beautiful country has to offer! We are very lucky indeed! Back to reality now however, with yet another action-packed term ahead of us.

Plans are now well and truly underway with the Grades Three and Four Camp. We are looking forward to participating in the Wild Side activities, going out for dinner and just being together. Please refer to previous notes and the note that was sent home today for more information or contact us if you need to.

Next week Grade 3/4P will be finally doing something with the tins that were brought in earlier in the year! However, we are three tins short! If you have any suitable clean empty tins with the label removed, could they please be brought into the classroom. Thank you 😊

Senior News

Grade Five News

Grade 5 students have made a great start to Term 4. We started the week reflecting on our achievements last term and choosing a word that will help remind us of our goals in Term 4. In Literacy we are learning how to write explanations by completing science experiments and making careful observations. In Maths we're looking at different strategies to solve division problems and in Religion we have started our new unit about Solidarity. 

Next week we will share some of our new learning at the school assembly. Please join us if you can.

Grade Six News

Welcome back everyone! It has been a busy start to Term Four already.

• In Mathematics, we have been learning about mixed numerals and improper fractions. This has been a tricky concept, but I'm proud of how hard the students have been working to strengthen their understanding.
• In Science, we have started our new Chemical Science unit 'Matter Matters'. This week students' considered properties and how they are used to classify matter. They then considered the specific properties and behaviour of the three states of matter - solids, liquids and gases. 
• In Literacy, we have focused on expanding simple sentences to create longer and more detailed sentences using conjunctions. Students are continuing to improve their writing and have written some detailed holiday recounts. 
• We have started a new unit on help-seeking in Respectful Relationships. Students are learning about the importance of understanding help-seeking avenues and having confidence to seek help from an appropriate source when needed. We have also signed up to the The Carlton Respects: Road to Respect program. The program is aimed at Grade Five and Six students and seeks to challenge pre-existing gender stereotypes and strengthen positive, equal and respectful relations among young men and women. 
• Just a reminder a note went home yesterday about our visit from the school nurse. We look forward to seeing Denise Pragt on Monday, as she answers any questions and wraps up our unit on Puberty and Personal Development. 

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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.

Merbein Arts Group Stall

Our Merbein Arts Group Members will have a stall site at the Boutique/Farmers Market at Mildura’s riverfront this coming Saturday 7^th Oct 2023, from 8.00 am. 

Items are from $5 – ie: coasters – in footy colours, trivets from $15 to many other items, prices from $30 upwards to over $100.

Funds raised will help keep our group running.  We have hosted a visit from the Merbein Senior Citizens who loved making a mosaic plaque to take home and soon to embark on a project with the Merbein Pre-School. 

We have beautified the planter-pots in Merbein with native flora mosaics and completed a “Poppy Theme” Panel for front wall of the Merbein RSL.  A great contribution to our Merbein.