School started last week with much more certainty and an optimistic eye on the future than we had at the start of Term 2.  All classes have begun their learning with great enthusiasm and are working to achieve their goals.  We welcome the following students who have started at OLV this term:

Reception Blue:  Eden Agars, Asher Barry, Toben Beard, Edie Brand, Oscar Burchall, Eloise  Castle, Georgia Cox, Jalen Hawley-Cleaver, Mason Huart, Jaxon Hunt, Sebastian Maberley, Matilda McCallum, Olivia McCallum, William Muller, Mariah Ryan, Sana Safi, Michael Smith, Ollie Tsiboukis, Charlotte Zahirski, Jack Zahirski

Year 2:  Madelyn Clark

Year 4:  Ivy Gray, Tilley Marlow

This week we also welcomed our new Growing into Reception cohort:  Teya Behrendt, Vincent Bergineti, Georgia Bladin, Jett Cooper, Austin Dunk, Logan Dyda, Oscar Elsayed, Abigail Hill, Archer Johnstone, Zachary Cosby, Angus Marlow, Kyiah McLeish, Otis Messeiller, Jett Messer-Plant, Armani Moffatt, George Muller, Hunter Oest,  Lewis Oliveira, Marley Schell,  Brodie Smith, Harper Sniedze, Lillie Thornton, Noah White

We hope the experience for these children and their families will be one full of joy and great accomplishments.

Welcome to OLV

Patrick Fitzgerald:  Patrick has been appointed Acting APRIM at OLV for 12 months whilst Bianca is on maternity leave.  Patrick is an experienced educator.  His substantive position is class teacher at Whitefriars.  Patrick has settled into OLV and has been busy meeting the new students and taking several classes.

Tiana Borrello:  Tiana has been appointed class teacher of the new Reception class.  Tiana has been a relief teacher here at OLV and she has had previous experience taking Reception classes.  She and her class have made a great start at OLV – there have been no tears from Tiana or the new Receptions!

I wish both Patrick & Tiana all the best as we welcome them to our community.

South Australia has been very well placed and very lucky during the course of the last couple of weeks with restrictions lifted in a lot of areas around COVID -19 practices. For our school this is great as it means we can again participate in such things as sporting competitions, go on excursions and host whole school events moving forward as explained in last week’s Newsletter.

It does not mean we are over this in South Australia and that we can simply go back to all our old ways and habits.  Given the patterns overseas and interstate, there is a high risk of a “second wave” outbreak in South Australia.  Improved hygiene practices have become a way of life now and while social distancing is something that children can’t easily adhere to, as adults we all must continue to be proactive in this way.

Classrooms:  Parents are not to enter the classroom.

Please adhere to the following:

Assembly:  These will recommence, and parents can attend by invitation only.  This will be limited to 45 parents.

Masses in the Church:  Because this is a church and not part of the school, different rules apply.  Given the physical dimension of the Church we can only have 150 students / adults present.  At this stage our St Dominic’s Day & Feast of the Assumption masses will be attend by half the school.  Please see details below.

Liturgies:  As these are held in the Veritas Centre, we are able to all students attend plus 45 parents.

These guidelines and restrictions are in place to allow these events to occur safely and with the health and well-being of all in mind. Your understanding and cooperation has been greatly appreciated with the rules that have been put in place by the SA Health, Catholic Education Office or the Archdiocese of Adelaide to allow these celebrations to occur. Should you have any questions about new guidelines please contact the school for more information.

Liturgical Celebrations Dates

St Dominic’s Feast Day - Tuesday August 4th at 9.30am  -  classes attending - 6 Red, R/1 Purple, 3 Blue  & R/1 Red (buddy classes)

Feast of St Mary Mackillop - Monday August 10th at 2.40 pm  - Whole school + 45 parents

Feast of the Assumption - Tuesday August 18th at 9.30am - classes attending - 4/5 Blue,  R/1 Yellow,  2 Red & Rec Blue + parishioners (Holy Day of Obligation)

Our student data shows we are at, above or well above in all means for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.  This is a reflection of the skills, dedication and commitment that all staff and families put in to ensure every child can achieve at their best.

Our focus at Our Lady of the Visitation School is on the individual progress of every child, in every class, in partnership with every family.  Our results from a variety of testing we do on our children shows we are ensuring more children are progressing beyond what is expected. To ensure our children are making the desired progress with their learning, all students (excepting our new Receptions) will participate in Literacy & Numeracy testing in Weeks 3 & 4.  These tests are normally conducted in Term 4 to provide the growth the students have made in 12 months of learning.  We have decided with the disruption to learning caused by COVID-19, late Term 1 and early Term 2, that we do these tests earlier to focus on the students learning priorities for the remainder of 2020.

These tests focus on supporting teachers to gather evidence to establish where students are in their long-term learning, identify the best next steps for action, decide on appropriate evidence-based interventions, monitor what progress their students are making over time, and evaluate the effectiveness of their own teaching decisions and approaches.

At OLV, we are being proactive to ensure that the coronavirus will not impact on students learning.

All classes have decided on their Class Representatives for Semester 2.  Congratulations to the following students, who will be presented to the school community at our next Assembly:

We have decided to maintain our Semester 1 SRC’s as well, as due to COVID restrictions they met infrequently and we held no activities.

Attendance at Assembly:  at this stage parents attending will be limited to 45 (given the dimensions of the Veritas Centre).  This will be by invitation only.  In the week preceding the Assembly I will discuss with the class leading the Assembly who will be invited.  There will be a sign in sheet for parents who attend.

Just a reminder to keep reading and adding to your list of books for this year’s PRC.  Each student has a reading record sheet, to record their 12 books. 8 books must be from the PRC booklist and 4 can be free choice.  A list of titles are available in the library or from the website at www.prc.sa.edu.au. Completed reading challenge sheets need to be handed to your child’s class teacher once the challenge has been completed.

We are once again hoping to have 100% participation from all of our students.

All schools are required to collect information about the numbers of students that they provide adjustments to under the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) and Disability Standards of Education. This data is used as the basis for national funding.

The NCCD involves the collection of;

• the number of students receiving adjustments to enable them to participate in education on the same basis as other students
• the level of adjustment provided to students
• student’s type of disability if known

Under the model the definition of disability is broad and includes learning difficulties, health and mental health conditions.

If your child is identified for inclusion in the Collection, the required information will be included in this year’s data collection.

If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact either Sandra Naismith or Frank DeTullio.

Further information can be found at: http://www.education.gov.au/nationally-consistent-collection-data-school-students-disability.

SENIOR UNIT

4/5 Blue & 6 Red

This term the students in Year 4/5 & 6 have begun exploring the life and works of the famous painter Pablo Picasso.

Students from Reception and Year One are learning Solfege – a system of learning pitched notes that transfers to both playing instruments and to singing. Year Two and Year Three have further developed their skills in this area and are perfecting their short tunes on the xylophones.