29 - 19th September, 2025 - Term 3, Week 9

Deputy Principal's News

As we draw a close to Term Three, it’s been a short but very busy term. We’ve enjoyed the Athletics Carnival, Disco, Sustainability Day, NAIDOC celebrations, the Prep/One/Two Sleepover, Father’s Day Breakfast, Book Week, the start of electives, and more!

Looking ahead, Term Four is set to be just as busy:

• Thursday, 9^th October: Grades Three to Six will attend the St Joseph’s College performance of Alice in Wonderland Jr. This will be a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a high-quality live performance, with the added bonus of seeing many past students on stage. A SIMON form was sent on Tuesday. Please ensure the $5.00 bus contribution is paid by Tuesday, 7 October. The performance itself is free.
• Friday, 10^th  October: Grades Five and Six will participate in Summer Sports at the Mildura Sporting Precinct.
• Friday, 24^th October: Grandparents Day
• Week 2: Grades Five and Six will head off to camp in Adelaide.
• Week 3: Grades Three and Four will enjoy their camp experience.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Prep/One/Two Sleepover! A huge thank you to the teachers for their organisation, to the parents who helped with supervision and cooking, and of course to the students, who not only had a wonderful time but also showed excellent behaviour throughout the night. Events like this wouldn’t be possible without such fantastic support from our school community.

It was a great finish to the term, with the social highlight being the disco! Thank you to all the staff who helped organise the night, especially Mrs Lohmeyer and our student leaders.

Today we wrapped up with Footy Colours Day, with Grade Six and Mr Breewel leading the students in some fun activities on the oval.

I hope everyone enjoys a restful break and comes back refreshed, ready for Term Four!

Adam Lawrence

OLSH Disco

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 24

Next

Footy Colours Day

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 11

Next

Sustainability Day at OLSH

On Tuesday the whole school participated in Sustainability Day. Activities were focused around student's knowledge of which bin items at school belong in, and why this is important to get right. Students participated in a waste relay and waste audit of classroom bins, as well as making recycled paper and seed bombs from paper collected from our classrooms. They also made their own bee and insect hotels using recycled and natural items. Recycling, composting and reducing our waste at school is an important way our school community works towards contributing to caring for our environment.

Links:

Enrolments at OLSH:

OLSH Calendar:

Religious Education News

Sacrament of Reconciliation (Year 2 & Above)

A registration form has been sent home to children in Grade Two wishing to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Please complete this form and return to the Parish Office with money by October 14th 2025. 

Below are the details of the parent information night and the celebration of the sacrament. Please contact the parish office if you are unable to attend this meeting.  

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

Grandparents Day

Our annual Grandparents Day will be celebrated on Friday October 24th. Please make sure all Grandparents are aware of the day. This is a great celebration and gives us time to reflect on the important role grandparents play in our lives. 

Jesus' grandparents are St. Anne and St. Joachim. Their unconditional love and support were a constant presence in the life of Jesus and remind us of our own grandparents. Further information will be available closer to the date. 

Grandparent's & Special Friends Morning

Alice in Wonderland - Grades 3 to 6 Excursion

Phil Kettle - Clancy of the Outback - A Musical Adventure

Join us way out in Woop Woop for a staged reading of Clancy of the Outback - A Musical Adventure, a brand-new adaptation of the beloved book series by Phil Kettle and Bob Andersen. After a successful industry reading in Melbourne, Marshall & Marrows, in partnership with Salty Theatre, are bringing Mildura locals an exclusive sneak preview of this developing work.

This family-friendly musical adventure tells a universal story of home, acceptance and identity through a uniquely Aussie lens. 1200 kilometres from his old home, 12-year-old Clancy is thrown into the unpredictability of country life with his Mum and the bright, colourful inhabitants of The Overflow. From a pesky paddock bomb to a baby kangaroo, a fearsome flood to a feral frenzy, Clancy will have to deal with all of the outback’s challenges to find his place in the world.

Composer, Co-director and Mildura-born Earl Marrows shares, “With ‘jokes for the parents’, toe-tapping tunes and rich spectacle, we hope everyone can find something to latch onto; big-hearted characters, strong emotions and a whole lot of fun.”

The reading will feature Grammy-nominated and ARIA winner Steven Gates (Tripod) and Green Room Award-nominated Ursula Searle (MTC’s Fun Home), with more talent to be announced soon! Snacks and drinks will be provided on the night, with kids of all ages welcome to attend.

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

Student of the Week

Happy Birthday

We wish the following students a Happy Birthday:

Month of September:

• 4th - Ivy S - 10 yrs
• 5th - Zali G - 8 yrs
• 6th - Thomas C - 11 yrs
• 13th - Evie C - 9 yrs
• 15th - Elki G - 9 yrs
• 16th - Logan T - 6 yrs
• 17th - Wyatt F - 11 yrs
• 17th - Zahleya G - 10 yrs
• 22nd - Oscar H - 10 yrs
• 23rd - Holly C - 12 yrs
• 24th - Ledger B - 8 yrs
• 28th - Chelsea A - 9 yrs

OLSH Canteen

Orders need to be completed by 9.15am every Friday.

Prep News

Thank you to all parents and families for your support, hard work and effort during Term 3. Make sure you enjoy a break these holidays, ready for another busy term.

Reading- Please remember to keep reading. Extra books will be sent home today to read over the holidays. Please encourage your child to read during the next two weeks. Reading could be a magazine or a book from home.

Show and Tell - A new list for Term 4 was sent home on Monday.

Words - Please continue to practice word lists in word books.

Art folios- Please make sure these are emptied and retuned to school ready for more work to be sent home in Term 4.

STEM- On Wednesday we completed another STEM activity. Students needed to help the Gingerbread Man escape from the the fox. Students had to design and build a boat that was waterproof and could float the Gingerbread man to safety. Thanks to everyone for sending in so many boxes to use! Students had a great time.

For the first two weeks of Term 4 (6th-17th October), I will be away on long service leave. Students will have Mrs Lawrence during this time.

Grade 1 News

Congratulations to all our Grade One students on a fantastic term of learning and growing together. We wrapped up the week by watching The Lorax after enjoying the book in class. This linked beautifully with our Sustainability Day, where students created posters and explored the importance of trees for humans, animals, and the environment.

A big thank you to our students for their wonderful efforts this term, and to the parents who helped out on Activity Day last Friday. The students behaved beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed the different activities we did.

We are so proud of the effort, enthusiasm, and teamwork shown by everyone this term. Wishing all our families a safe and happy holiday break, we look forward to seeing you refreshed and ready for an exciting Term 4!

Grade 2 News

I can't believe it is already the last week of Term Three- it has been short but packed full of lots of exciting events!

Last Friday our Prep, Grade One and Two students had an exciting day out and a fun-filled sleepover! We started at Back Court, where Sammy and his team led us through fun games and basketball drills. After that, we enjoyed a delicious pizza and pasta lunch at Pizza Café. Then it was off to Park for Play for some time on the playground. Back at school, we had afternoon tea followed by creative activities like playdough, beads, Lego and board games. After a tasty dinner of sausages, bread and fruit, the Preps went home, while the Grade Ones and Twos stayed for a movie night with popcorn, watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The next morning, we had breakfast and headed home – tired but full of happy memories!

Please see below for some photos of our special day and night!

Last night our students had a ball dancing their socks off at the disco. It was great to see how excited all our students were and how much fun they had with their friends.

I hope everyone enjoyed our footy themed assembly, I thought the Grade Twos all spoke well and sang the song enthusiastically! All the students also really enjoyed the footy activities run by our Grade Six students.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holidays and I look forward to seeing all my students back in Term Four!

Lisa 

Activity Day

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 11

Next

Activity Day

Grade 3 News

We've had another busy week in Grade 3! On Tuesday the students participated in Sustainability Day activities, which they all thoroughly enjoyed. There were some impressive dance moves at the Disco last night, and the classroom is looking colourful today with everyone's Footy Colours!

In Literacy, students worked in groups to produce a persuasive argument as to why people should come to live in Merbein. We have been learning about working collaboratively in Social Stencil lessons, so this was an excellent task for students to demonstrate what they learnt; and they all worked wonderfully together! Their posters have some very convincing arguments, from the wonderful community sporting groups our community has, to the natural features such as the river and local parks. 

Miss Courtney will be back at the start of next term- it has been a pleasure teaching the class full time while she has been on leave!

Grade 4 News

This term may have only been nine weeks long, but it’s been a busy and productive one—we’ve managed to achieve everything we set out to do!

This week, a group of students from our current Grade Four and Grade Five classes, who contributed to the Merbein Pots mural project last year, were recognised with an interview in the Sunraysia Daily and a special photo opportunity. A big thank you to Hannah Mills for coordinating this experience. At this stage we are unsure as to when we will be in the paper!

A friendly reminder that camp payments and medical forms are due back at school by Tuesday, 7th October. Please ensure these are returned on time so preparations can run smoothly.

We have now enjoyed viewing all students’ research projects on their chosen African countries. Each presentation was both informative and engaging, with some students even showcasing impressive moving graphics in their slideshows—well done to everyone for your creativity and hard work!

Wishing all families a safe and relaxing holiday break.
We look forward to seeing you back in two weeks, refreshed and ready for Term Four!

Julie

Grade 5 News

Grade Five have finished the term strong, producing some excellent writing and completing their projects. See below for their finished products.

A note was sent home yesterday with a list of items to bring on camp.

Just a reminder that the $5.00 for the Alice in Wonderland Jr. performance is due on the first Tuesday of next term.

I hope everyone has a wonderful break and returns refreshed for a very busy final term!

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 10

Next

Grade 6 News

It’s hard to believe we’ve reached the end of Term Three! It has been an incredibly busy term, with events nearly every week and plenty of learning along the way.

On Tuesday, students took part in Sustainability Day, learning practical ways to care for our environment, with a strong focus on sorting rubbish correctly. Working in mixed year level groups gave students the chance to collaborate with peers they don’t usually work with. Despite the rainy weather, it was a great day of learning.

On Wednesday and Thursday, students enjoyed watching the first movie of The Hobbit after finishing the novel in class. The rest of the trilogy is available on Stan for anyone keen to continue the story over the holidays!

Today was Footy Colours Day, with our Grade Six students leading the school in fun football activities. A fantastic way to finish the term!

A camp note will be sent home this week with packing details, giving families time to prepare over the break.

I hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved two week holiday and returns ready for an exciting and jam-packed Term Four - the final stretch of primary school for our Grade Sixes! 

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.