25 - 15th August, 2025 - Term 3, Week 4

Principal's News

Dear Families,

It was great to see some of our students embracing the idea of Brain Food this week! For those children who don’t eat a lot of breakfast, Brain Food is an opportunity to top themselves up until recess, when they can have their regular snack. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, Brain Food must be brought into class in a small container, and should be a healthy snack, such as fruit or vegetables, and no more than what fits in the small container, as there is limited time to eat. My example from last week did not show up in the newsletter, so I will attempt to put this in again! A reminder that Brain Food is optional and you can discuss with your child whether they feel they need this.

Our Book Week parade and activities were a fun part of the week, with all students (and staff!) making a great effort to get into the spirit! Even the weather couldn’t dampen our parade and the students looked great as they showed off their outfits. The classroom activities gave the students an opportunity to read some of the winning Book Week books, which we now have in our library. I’m sure the students will be borrowing these soon!

If you have been in the school yard recently, you may have noticed some construction going on near the mound and decking. We are in the process of putting up two shade sails, which will create some much-needed shelter from the sun during summer but still let the sunshine through onto the deck in winter. The sails will fit in nicely with the sails that are already in the playground and we look forward to seeing the finished product!

We have had quite a lot of illnesses this week, for both students and staff. If your child is feeling unwell, please don’t send them to school. As you can imagine, germs spread quickly in the school environment! A reminder to families that students should be kept home for 48 hours after they experience gastro-type illnesses. Hopefully the weather will warm up soon and give us a reprieve from the bugs that are going around.

Swimming Week for our juniors takes place next week, so don’t forget to pack the essentials each day. Reminders have been sent out. If you have not filled in permission on PAM and completed the medical information, your child will not be allowed to take part in the program. This will be a busy week for our juniors but I’m sure they are very excited!

Have a great weekend!

Narelle Gallagher

Links:

Enrolments at OLSH:

OLSH Calendar:

Religious Education News

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Year 2 & Above)

There will be an opportunity for children in Grade Two or above to make their Sacrament of Reconciliation. Below are the details of the parent information night and the celebration of the sacrament. Please contact the parish office for further details if you are interested in making the sacrament. 

• Parent Information Session - Wednesday October 15th
• Celebration of Sacrament - Wednesday November 26th

Fathers Day BBQ/Celebrations: A reminder to all Dads that we will be celebrating Father's Day on Friday September 5th 2025. 

Jospeh was the father of Jesus and was always there to guide and support Jesus. He worked hard and provided for his family. Like Joseph, our fathers play an important role within our families. So lets make sure we gather on September 5th and celebrate these important men in our lives.   

Athletics Day - Volunteers

URGENT ATTENTION!!!

We need volunteers to help with our Athletics Day. Please read the information below and if you are able to assist in any way and fill out the form (link below).  Please contact the school either by phone: 50 252 258 or be email to Michael Breewel: mbreewel@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions.

Athletics Day

On Tuesday August 26th 2025, all OLSH children will participate in the annual Athletics Day. This will take place at the Mildura Little Athletics Track on 11th Street. 

All children will need to be dropped off at the track by 8:45am and collected from the track by 3:25pm. There will be NO BUSES being used, therefore it will be the responsibility of each family to ensure their child/ren are dropped off and collected from the above address. 

Children will need to be dressed in their full PE uniform and can wear items that display their house colours (Green or Yellow). They will need to bring a drink bottle (filled with water), hat, snacks and lunch if your child does not have a sausage in bread. 

There will be a sausage sizzle available for students only on the day.  Each child will be given two sausages in bread. Students are welcome to bring along additional food if they would like. 

If any families are available to assist on the day with roles such as running events, cooking and serving the BBQ, etc. please contact the school or Michael Breewel at mbreewel@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au to complete the necessary paperwork. 

All children will move around the different events in their age groups. Below is a guide to the times (remember this is a guide only, times may change):

• 9:00 - 9:35 - Sprints and Finals
• 9:40-10:00 - Distance Run
• 10:05 - 11:15 - Events
• 11:20 - 11:40 - RECESS
• 11:45 - 1:25 - Events Cont. 
• 1:30 - 2:00 - LUNCH
• 2:00 - 3:00 - Relays/Novelties/Presentation/Clean Up 
  

We look forward to another successful Athletics day!

There will be a coffee van at our Athletics Day for parents only.

Mini Olympics

Children will be selected to represent OLSH at the Mini Olympics on Tuesday September 2nd. Those selected will be based on results from our Athletics Day and meet the standards set out by Athletics Victoria. More information will follow after our Athletics Day.

Father's Day Breakfast

Orders are to be completed by Monday, 1st September

Student Leader News

Recycle Bottles & Cans

The Student Leaders have organized an account for donated bottles and cans. If you have refundable bottles and cans, you can recycle them at any CDS container refund depots in Mildura and scan the barcode below. This will donate the money directly to the Student Leaders to go towards new equipment for the students!

Thank you, OLSH Student Leaders

Happy Birthday

We wish the following students a Happy Birthday:

Month of August:

• 1st - Patrick C - 6 yrs
• 1st - Wynter D - 6 yrs
• 4th - Knox A - 7 yrs
• 5th - River H- 9 yrs
• 8th - Ilario M - 8 yrs
• 9th - Isabelle H - 8 yrs
• 14th - Michele D - 12 yrs
• 16th - Sonny P - 11 yrs
• 22nd - Romeo D - 8 yrs
• 23rd - Pandora H - 7 yrs
• 24th - Julius M - 8 yrs
• 25th - Libby Giddings - 12 yrs
• 26th - Adriano C - 7 yrs
• 26th - Isabel M - 8 yrs
• 27th - Aston M - 11 yrs

OLSH Canteen

Orders need to be completed by 9.15am every Friday.

Prep News

Show and Tell- Week 5’s topic is ‘Something that has gold on it’.

Swimming- Next week we will be completing swimming lessons each day. Please make sure you are prepared each day. A flyer has been sent home tonight with reminders. This will be an exhausting week for students! Please make sure everything is labeled.

Grade 1 News

Swimming- Next week we will be completing swimming lessons each day. Please make sure you are prepared each day. A flyer has been sent home tonight with reminders. This will be an exhausting week for students! Please make sure everything is labeled.

Grade 2 News

 The students have all enjoyed celebrating Book Week this week! Each day we have explored one of the short-listed books and completed some craft and writing activities related to each one. The highlight of the week was our dress-up day and it was lovely to see the students excited to show-off their favourite characters.

Swimming- Next week we will be completing swimming lessons each day. Please make sure you are prepared each day. A flyer has been sent home tonight with reminders. This will be an exhausting week for students! Please make sure everything is labeled.

Grade 3 News

There was lots of excitement across the school with the celebration of Book Week on Tuesday. It was great to see the effort parents and children put into their costumes and we apprecaite it very much. The students enjoyed learning about some of the 2025 shortlisted books, and their enthusiasm added to the fun of the week.

On Wednesday, we joined the Grade Four students to participate in the Term Three Impower and Inform incursion. Students learned about cyberbullying and discussed strategies for navigating uncomfortable situations. You might like to ask your child what it means to be an upstander and what they would do if they needed help. A parent information sheet is attached to this newsletter.

In Maths we are exploring number patterns and solving problems. This has been tricky for many students. One way you can help at home is to give your child a sequence of numbers and ask them to work out the pattern and the next two numbers ie 1, 2, 4, 8 (numbers are doubling) or 6, 16, 26, 36.

Many of our paper mâché donuts are almost finished and will soon be coming home. We have all enjoyed the process of creating them, and it’s been wonderful to see the students’ creativity in the designs and decorations they’ve chosen.

Mrs Lohmeyer will be teaching the class for the next four weeks while I am on leave. She can be contacted via Seesaw or email slohmeyer@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Cheryl-Anne 

Grade 4 News

We had a great day on Tuesday celebrating Book Week and dressing up in our favourite book characters. Well done to everyone for making such a wonderful effort with their costumes!

On Wednesday we took part in Term Three’s Inform and Empower online Cyber Safety and Digital Well-being lessons. A parent information flyer was attached to last week’s newsletter and I have attached it again this week in case you missed it!

Coming up:

• A note regarding the Grade Three and Four Camp will be sent home in week six. The camp will take place in week three of Term Four (Tuesday 21st October-Wednesday 22nd October, 2025).
• OLSH Athletics Day is on Tuesday 26th August. Parents are asked to drop their children off at the Aero Ovals in the morning and pick them up. Please refer to the newsletter for further details.

Julie

Grade 5 News

It has been a busy week in Grade Five! Students have been working hard on their research projects about countries in Europe and North America, while also developing their note-taking skills.

Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes for Book Week—check out the photo below!

Next Friday is our assembly, and students have been practising enthusiastically to get their act ready. We can’t wait to share it with you!

Grade 6 News

It was amazing to see all the wonderful Book Week costumes on Tuesday! Everyone put in so much effort and the whole class looked fantastic. Students loved spending the day enjoying Book Week activities inspired by the shortlisted books.

This week, students have been busy working on their Asia country projects. On Wednesday, I introduced them to Canva, and they are now creating travel brochures for their chosen country. The designs are already looking fantastic!

We also had our Term Three Inform and Empower session, which focused on cyberbullying and how students can speak up if they see something inappropriate online. It was an informative session, and the students took a lot away from it.

In addition, we participated in our Girls MESH group and Boys Respect lessons. The boys are working through the Carlton Respects program, where AFL players share important lessons about respect. This week’s topic was gender stereotypes, sparking some brilliant classroom conversations.

Reminders:

• Athletics Day – Tuesday, 26th August. Students are to be dropped off and picked up from the Aero Ovals.

• Father’s Day Breakfast – Thursday, 5th September.

Have a great weekend! 

Breanna 

General News

School Advisory Council Members:

Thel O’Shea, Hannah Mills, Courtney Portaro, Sandra Hammet, Lana Borchard, Sara McClelland, Jennifer Wilson, Jordan Wade, Adam Lawrence (Staff Rep) & Narelle Gallagher (Principal). 

Change of details:

Please contact the office if you have had a change of details. Phone: 50252258 or Email: admin@olshmerbein.catholic.edu.au

Bell Times

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.